Long Sales Cycle and unfavorable compensation plan:
I guess one would expect that it would take longer to sell software to government agencies compared to private organizations; but if you’re green or have never worked with government before, you may not think to ask. Granicus is not forthcoming about their long sales cycles prior to presenting you an offer letter. On average, it will take between 6 to 9 months to close a deal, and depending on the solution you sold, it can take between 3 to 12 months to deploy the product. Although Granicus may be getting better with deployment timelines, you’re still looking at 9 months to year 1/2 from the initial qualification conversation to the deployment complete stage. That is a long time!
Here’s the kicker- Sales people do NOT get paid their commission until the project is deployed and the client begins paying their monthly managed service fee-- which can take an additional 1 to 2 months after the system is deployed. Allow me to put this into perspective for you. I sold a large deal in the June 2013 and I still had NOT received any commission for the deal as of March 2014. I was 120% of quota, but took home less than my OTE. As of March of 2014 I had still not received all the commission I earned in 2013. Granicus owes each sales representative tons of money due to the long sales cycles and long deployment times. This places the sales rep in an uncomfortable situation. Sales reps loose all their owed commission is they leave Granicus, but the longer they say the higher the number gets. Sooner or later you’ll notice that Granicus owes you 50k. That’s a down payment on a house! What would you do? Would you stay and risk it increasing to 100k? Or would you go?
Dishonest and Ineffective Leadership:
The entire sales organization expressed their frustrations with compensation plan, so we hoped in Jan 2014 that management would make some drastic changes. Let’s be real. We are in sales for one reason and one reason only. To make money! Management presented a drastically improved compensation plan to the entire sales organization at the beginning of the year. I was thrilled as were many of my co-workers. Yet, just days later management informs us that they made a mistake, so instead of shaving off 6 months, we will only receive our commission 1-2 months sooner. Management is dishonest, weak, and overall a disappointing.
There are some managers that come in to the office late, leave early, and find any excuse to work from home, even when there are new hires to train. The team constantly complains about some of the manager's work ethic and negative approach to leadership. I have never seen such poor leadership skills. As a result, three sales reps late last year; and so far two left this year.
Unless you are green and are having a difficult time finding a job, I would not recommend accepting a job offer at Granicus. The offer will be on average 20% lower than tech industry standards and the leadership is poor.
