Great Place To Work! - Sales Development InsideSalesTeam.com Employee Review

I'm one of those people who scours and reads every single review on a product, restaurant, company before I make a decision on whether or not I want to move forward. I was also the person that went ahead and read Glassdoor reviews when I considered working for a company. Over time, you realize that many people write these reviews because they are disenfranchised and hade some sort of gripe with their experience. Look, that's fair. What you don't see are the employees that like where they work, who they work for, and who they work with but they aren't "champions" of the company singing their praises. It's the unsung performers that go to work, do their job, and are happy enough to stick around to see what's coming next. Basically, read reviews but take them with a grain of salt and a decent dose of skepticism. Yes, even the positive ones. As far as actual pros, the sprint schedule is awesome (breaks every hour and an hour and 15 minutes for lunch). You can leave early on Friday and start the weekend sooner. The people I work with are some of the best I've ever met. Just truly really good, entertaining, engaging, helpful folks. The culture is really "work hard, play harder" with ping pong, video games, darts, cornhole, company events that I wish we had more of..... Community involvement and volunteer stuff is really picking up (animal shelter, cancer walks, etc). It seems like they really want to go out and be active in the community. They do a lot to help cultivate the culture in different ways. For example, we just did a scavenger hunt to explore downtown Buffalo and get to hang out with people we usually wouldn't hang out with. If you look for it or ask for it, the help is there. Ask a coworker if you're stuck, there's a very good chance they are more than happy to assist. One of the most exciting things about working here is the growth. They are hiring people, taking on new clients, and just growing overall, it's been interesting to watch it happen.

At times it seems like they are putting more money into "looking good" than being good. The new office looks GREAT and I love the new location but the wooden "tank" and the expensive carpet cost WAY more than it should and seems like a waste. The sliding glass doors are a nice touch but a bit unnecessary. (Pro-tip, don't announce how much money you've thrown into the office in a company wide meeting and then turn around and tell us we can't get paid more) On that note, be mindful that this is a COMMISSION sales job. If you aren't familiar with sales and how commission works, ask a friend that has done it. You'll hear about our top performers in the interview, the white whales who made tons of money. Realize that it isn't the norm. Sure there's potential to make a good check and if you are at 100% to quota on your project, you'll be alright. Yes, you are going to make phone calls as a Sales Development Rep. it's part of the job. You are given the collateral and info to use, use it. There are definitely some opportunities for improvement with training once you are on the floor and with your team. Team Lead coaching is minimal, ongoing training and development is almost non existent, unless you push for it yourself or do your own research. We need Team Leads that are actually Team Leads, not glorified SDRs that are on the phone, trying to hit quota, and don't have the time to lead and train. Operationally, they could use some help. I feel they are a bit understaffed with sales enablement and support. There just aren't enough resources and manpower to maintain everything at peak efficiency. Right after training was probably the hardest, a lot of waiting around until you know what project you'll be on and once you find that out, you have to wait for credentials to actually get working. More often than not, new hires (and even SDRs switching projects) start off their "ramp up" month halfway in the month on their new project and are expected to hit that same ramp total (which would equate to the full month quota week over week) when we are prevented from being on the phone because there is nothing to do. It would be great if they figured out teams early in training so there is time to get the credentials is order to call on day one of the project start. I'm just being nit picky. Any growing company is going to have growing pains. Admittedly, I haven't been here an extremely long time but there has already been a ton of improvement and growth in the short time I've been there. Seeing things change is intriguing and exciting . With growth comes pain, but they are rolling with it and learning how to be better as a company. There aren't a TON of opportunities to advance but being a smaller company, that's not out of the norm.

The people here are simply amazing. Some of the best people I have ever worked with are here at this company. They were always lenient with schedules and what not. They have what they call a Sprint schedule. This is numerous 15 minutes breaks throughout the day. Technology is most definitely up to date and have some pretty cool tools at your disposal. They do some cool things to reward the top salespeople in the company. IST runs some pretty cool competitions and reward people with some cool prizes.

It's a sales environment. Sales environments are always tough. If you have never worked in one, expect alot of calling on the phone and emailing. They at least try to make it fun. Sales generally has a high turnover. This is also the case at IST. IST does a great job of rewarding it's top people. Don't forget to still reward the people who put in an effort every single day. I knew plenty of people at IST who maybe weren't the best at sales people but their effort was top notch. People with a top notch effort can really strengthen a team. I wouldn't overlook that aspect.