Pros
Genuinely good product and solutions for clients. If you understand how to sell business intelligence, data and analytics services to your target audience, then you will close deals and that might be enough to keep you afloat. Most of the research & analytics team are intelligent, helpful and will support you on client calls.
Cons
Lack of leadership. This isn't a place where the senior executives lead by good example or understands business strategy. It is outdated sales management, which they may try to pass on as "old school", but what it really means is that it is ineffective in today's business world. There is very little self-awareness or introspection from senior executives as to why their employees leave and choose to go work elsewhere. Expect micromanagement. Because senior executives don't understand how to lead, the response is to report on how many calls you've made each day, how many product demos, how many proposals and constant updates on submitting your daily/weekly activity. 95% of your monthly meetings with your manager will be about providing updates about your sales activity. From observation, some of the sales managers take a more passive aggressive communication style and some are more verbally abusive. Neither of which are particularly constructive. Don't expect coaching, nurturing or career development. You're hired to come into the office and do your job. There are some online training modules you can do in your own time. There is no icing on the cake. Despite being a business intelligence and market research firm, the senior executives know little to nothing about their target customers or what the market trends are. Senior management spend most of their time making PowerPoint slides with revenue results and talking about what deals were closed. The answer to making more revenue is to make more calls, complete more product demos and win more deals. The business is product-focused, not client-focused. The belief is that because they've invested in developing their product, it should just sell easily. But the reality is that some competitors, who may be less product-focused, have better relationships with the clients. Competitors invest in developing, nurturing and defending those relationships. At the end of the day, people buy from people they trust. Marketing team also does not generate very good leads, which is a real shame. I think if they knew how to generate the right content through to the right target audience, there would be a lot more quality leads. Workplace culture is really poor and I don't think senior management care. There might be the occasional after work drinks but it isn't a place where they respect their employees. Even when the top sales staff leave the company, there isn't any note sent around the office about it. No mention of their contributions or farewell lunch to wish them well. It is always discrete and you might not even find out until several weeks later.
