Where to Begin. Well my offer letter and sales plan differed quite substantially with respect to my variable compensation. They will dangle ~$85k as the variable at plan, don't believe it. That number is hugely "bonus" driven and not your actual variable compensation. I believe they were not up front about this as do several other people i know who have left the sales organization(and these are people who were successful).
I am going to break this down into 3 areas: Culture, Process, Product
Culture: This was fostered by a a leadership team with tons of experience with liquidity event(most of whom are not there). The culture is not one that is focused on doing the best for the customer or employees but rather one that is designed to maximize the valuation of a company preparing for its liquidity event. Earth to PS, you had yours. It is time to build a sustainable culture where customers in particular are treated fairly and not as cash registers. Also, please admit when something is not working and try to improve it. The new leadership team is making no effort to fix the problems relative to culture.
Process: Similar to culture the process of the firm is designed to squeeze the most out of customers in sometimes dishonest ways. The T&C's requiring a link to go to the website is a perfect example. Put them on your quotes please. Its a small thing but is emblematic of the process here. In the sales function best practices are never shared. A handful of the same reps make Presidents club every year. Everyone else flounders. How about building a sales learning process where people can learn from the superstars?
Product: A way too expensive nice to have that is incredibly unreliable. The openness of some of the products also makes the switch to the product from traditional ways of doing things very challenging. And the company really does not want to invest in customers to make them successful when they have challenges. Oh and don't ever ask for a discount you won't get one, "we have no competition" is the answer. Given the macro environment particularly in areas other than Biopharma, good luck with selling one with that attitude. Marketing is a disaster. They think they have this brand that somehow has $100M worth of customer relationships(read the Bio-Techne May 2015 10Q page 7). That is baloney. They don't have $1M worth of customer relationships. Marketing couldn't help fill your funnel if you put a gun to their heads. Nice people, just awful at any meaningful demand generation. Cute instrument names though . . .
I could never recommend this company and if I could give it 0 out of 5 stars I would. You have been warned.
