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Expert Institute

Is this your company?

MICROMANAGEMENT AND TERRIBLE LEADERSHIP & CULTURE -- Worst place I have ever worked. - Director Sales Expert Institute Employee Review

1.0
May 10, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Fixed base salary higher than it should be for salespeople

Cons

- Micromanagement is about as bad as it can be across all channels at the company, especially for salespeople regardless of whether you are an SDR, SMB salesperson or Director. You will get treated like a first-time salesperson. Micromanagement comes from a place of insecurity-- this company is very insecure. - Work/life balance is horrible -- the company is in "reactive" sales, not proactive sales. It is like a retail environment -- attorneys know that we are open during the week and will put in requests to be contacted early in the morning and late in the day and salespeople have 5 minutes (literally) to call back the attorney or else the lead gets moved to someone else and you lose the sale. You are essentially going to call and harass attorneys every day to use our experts for cases, and when you get inbound leads in your territory you are expected to drop everything you are doing to contact them and sell them on an expert. The close ratio is low, even on the inbound leads because the service is so over-priced, and many times the attorneys will waste your time and never pay you therefore you won't get the sale. - Cold calling: you will make at least 50+ calls per day to the same 200-300 opportunities in your territory. Your calls are displayed in a weekly and daily report, if you don't make enough calls the day before, your manager will attack you regarding your "lack of effort". After 4 weeks you will realize why I mentioned micromanagement as my first bulletpoint. These attorneys will eventually tell you to take them off the list however you need to keep calling 50+ numbers per day. CULTURE - the culture at this company is absolutely toxic. From the first day of training and onwards, you will hear constant cursing, belittling of prospects whom we are trying to gain business from, and overall unprofessional speech day-in and day-out. It is quite clear that much of the leadership does not come from high-quality companies where this type of behavior would never be tolerated. Additionally, teams don't interact with each other, your own team will view you as competition and your leader won't ever leave you alone to do the job you were hired to do. - Selling to attorneys all over the country, many are rude and don't understand business concepts such as discount pricing, subscription models, etc . They also believe they already have all the experts they need, so when you start pitching them they will tune out and never use your services. Most behave like entitled children that never grew up. - Variable pay is way less than it should be, max earnings on $1 million in annual ACV is 55-65K. You will have to work nights and weekends just to make $150K. - DO NOT take this job until you see the comp plan -- they did not show me the variable comp plan until 6 weeks after I joined the company and this is standard for them. A fellow employee of mine interviewed last year with this company and when he asked to see the comp plan BEFORE joining, they stalled his application and he had to fight to get back into the interview process. They hide the comp plan because it is terrible for the amount of work you will have to do in order to convince an attorney to use these services. - You are not going through a enterprise-level selling process. You are cold e-mailing and cold calling attorneys at tiny firms and medium sized firms (any attorneys in your territory that use experts) and practically begging them to use your services-- which are completely commoditized. - Expert search service is overpriced by 100-300%. Some competitors don't even charge anything up front for expert search. You are asking attorneys to pay a massive premium to find the same experts they could get elsewhere. CEO-- Most, if not all, companies take the personality of their CEO. The CEO of this company is about as unprofessional a person as you can possibly meet. He writes notes in Salesforce disparaging our potential customers -- doesn't even think twice about the optics of doing such a thing. He also tells everyone that he has 4 houses and drives a Porsche. He is a completely unqualified and unreasonable person.

Explore other reviews about Expert Institute

5.0
Sep 29, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I recently wrapped up 13 years at Expert Institute, where I served as SVP of Marketing, and it was an incredible experience from start to finish. The company has grown and evolved tremendously over the years. The fundamentals of the business are extremely strong, and it’s still expanding with excellent positioning for future growth. Expert Institute is the market leader in its space, and that leadership is reflected in everything from its client relationships to its product innovation. The company is guided by exceptional stewardship. The executive team and CEO are deeply engaged in the day to day operations, consistently focused on growth and long term success. Their steady, competent, and supportive leadership fosters an environment where employees can thrive and make a meaningful impact. One of the most exciting aspects is how forward looking the company is, especially in its adoption of AI. The products and services are continually evolving, with innovative AI tools already in place and many more on the roadmap. That level of innovation kept the work dynamic and intellectually stimulating throughout my time there. The culture is ideal for ambitious people who are curious, eager to learn, and serious about their careers. You’re exposed to both business and technology in ways that accelerate growth. In short, Expert Institute is a fantastic place for those who want to challenge themselves, learn a great deal, and be part of a market leading company with visionary leadership that is fully committed to long term success.

Cons

Expert Institute is a serious, high-performance environment that demands ambition and drive. It’s fast-paced and constantly evolving, with new services and products frequently tested in the market. You’re expected to work hard, but the compensation reflects the effort. The company has matured beyond the startup stage, so it’s not chaotic or unstable, but it remains competitive and best suited for those who thrive in a dynamic, career-focused environment.

1.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you got bills to pay, this is probably the easiest job you can do. As big of a deal as they make about KPIs you could realistically still only do maybe half the number and they won’t get rid of you due to high turnover.

Cons

1. Factory in an Office Setting. Better off in a real factory to be honest 2. These can all be fully remote jobs, even during the training/onboarding phase. No need for 3 months till work from home. Or even an office at all. As long as you have 3 monitors you are good. All your feedback on training already comes through direct messages since the Research Op Manager doesn’t particularly like to offer feedback in person, even if they sit right behind you. 3. Poor Training. To ask or not to ask? Constantly over the course of my training I was told I wasn’t asking enough questions, even though I would ask anytime something I didn’t would arise. What they were really asking me is to ask questions for everything and anything, even if you think you know the answer. To me this is not a good way to train as it only leads to doubt about the work you have done and discourages actually trying to do the work on your own and requiring a crutch. 4. Training failed at creating a good compass on who was good or bad expert to send an attorney. Coworkers would say the expert is good, manager would say they need to be better. There is no consistency but you were expected to be consistent with the manager throughout training, of which is picky. 5. KPI set up. The KPI is very poorly set up. You have individuals who hit the 3 month KPI in 3 weeks, but then you have those struggling to hit it. The KPI is too unpredictable and can’t really apply in a setting with multiple different roles who may have higher or lower work on any given day.

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