-Incredibly saturated market and while the product is good, what value add it has over competitors is remarkably difficult to demonstrate over the course of the sale without a lot of luck - this leads to very sales-technique focused approach that some would consider a bit slimy or shady. I think that's an overstatement but you do need to buy in fully to that to be successful
-Truly mismanaged training. Misguided in terms of content, delivery, and specificity (why are AEs, Sales Engineers and CSMs all on the same trainings?) Very little focus on the sales process which between the focus on POVs (proof of value - trials basically) and the (truly) archaic CRM actually necessitates a lot of training
-They're flexible in remote work but do not do a good job of fostering any sense of unity or culture for those remote teams - can be very mentally taxing with the activity levels you are expected to hit
-lack of transparency regarding inbound leads for accelerator team - clearly they receive them but seemingly they are doled out completely to the director or VP's discretion. Understandable to a point but when new reps are making 80+ calls a day and fighting to build pipe it can be discouraging to see that the more tenured rep who makes 5 calls a week (not exaggerating) has twice as many meetings booked
-Mentioned already but the CRM is absolute nightmare and makes it near impossible to efficiently prospect, get information that you need, and effectively manage the sales process
(NOTE: in fairness I think this will be fixed in the 2024 calendar year)
-tied into the above, the communication between sales functions follows a poorly designed structure which often leads to reps being assigned to calls that they don't have availability for (which should be the primary variable)
-There's somewhat of a disconnect between middle management and leadership on the accelerator team - the new VP was an outside hire who never sold darktrace while all the directors started as reps (and had success). This has led to a strange dynamic. The VP doesn't seem to know a ton about the product but is otherwise personable and intelligent (other reps would disagree with me but that's my opinion) - but is widely disliked by many reps who were around before he got there. This is in part due to the team being significantly reduced over the last year, largely through PIPs/terminations due to performance. From my viewpoint, it does seem like there were a lot of under-performers who were just free riders in the system prior to the new VP joining but I was not there. This has led to significant morale problems, which were already present given the workload. I wouldn't say that the middle managers outright dislike the VP but I do think there are contrasting preferences between them in their vision of how the team should operate
-the workload is very high. You need a significant amount of prospecting activity in order to generate a viable pipeline without inbound leads (which you won't get unless a director takes a shine to you) and darktrace's (earned or not) reputation for manipulative sales tactics doesn't do you any favors. On top of this there are no assigned territories and accounts can be taken from you by other reps very shortly after you get them. this adds another huge mental component to your workload as you also have to stay on top of what accounts are in your name (of often 200+) as well as all deals.
-The company has essentially decided that spending marketing dollars on the SMB segment is not economically viable and thus just throws inexperienced sales reps at it and sees if they sink or swim. That may seem fair to you, but you should what you're getting into
-Unclear communication of expectations during ramping period and very little training on what to do to be successful off the bat
-Almost zero training on selling through the channel, which is crazy given where the rest of cyber is in that regard,DT's long term goals for selling that way, and the fact that is probably the most reliably consistent method of generating pipeline
-Middle management had limited availability due to often being on other reps calls as back up.
