Their upfront investment in their sales people is like nothing I've ever been a part of-
Pros
I have 20-years in I/T...16-years with a large "blue" organization who for good reason, prided themselves on their sales training. After recently returning from Gartner's 5-week long Field Academy and spending weeks away from my family...I can say with confidence that an entirely new standard has been set with respect to sales training. Beyond products, the training leveraged best practices in value selling and the real-life leveraging of nearly all of our internal systems and resources. Every person walked into that training endeavor with relatively zero understanding of the enormity of Gartner's offerings, aside from a Magic Quadrant or Hype Cycle. Coming out, we not only had a clear understanding of our value, we had the ability to immediately own a territory, run our business, leverage our people and systems, and provide immediate value for our future clients. If it sounds like I drank the Kool-Aid, perhaps I did...but as many years a professional seller, I cannot envision a better company to have been selected to represent for the second half of my career. Class act - across the board.
Cons
Their training requires two weeks in Ft. Myers Florida, one week remote learning and ride-a-longs from your home office, then two weeks back in Ft. Myers. We were not permitted to go home on the weekends during those two 2-week spans. This made it difficult on many of us with families...especially the women with young children. The rationale here was not explained...therefore caused a certain amount of angst. We came to the assumption that this was intended to provide the opportunity to gather outside of the classroom and create bonds amongst ourselves - perhaps allowing us to create friendships and lean on each other when hitting the field. While this training regiment is mandatory, and clearly spelled out during the interview process, a simple professional explanation as to the rationale for not allowing us to return home on the weekends would have been appreciated. (Even if it was simply a cost-related travel decision) If in fact this was to create a bond, it probably worked, as some of the best memories took place over the weekends...and tears and man-hugs were-a-flowing as we prepared to depart after our graduation. That said, we were all experienced and successful sales professionals - explaining the purpose of the rules would have gone further than simply enforcing them.
