Pros
- Great benefits, Cisco is a great employer - Great SEs, very switched on - Solid sales process and emphasis on value selling - Fantastic product when customers use it well and it can be implemented properly - Great lifework balance - If you are new to tech and sales, good place to learn your craft - AppDynamics is well respected in the market as a sales organisation (historically)
Cons
The APM glory days are done. AppDynamics is now 80% transitioned into Cisco and not much innovation for years now, all the focus on integration. Sales volume is OK but the competition is now ahead on many technical fronts. The segment as a whole is very tough - doesn't matter who you work for. Recently introduced a significant increase in comp plan with no further resources or real justification, all bets. Leaders in US are good people but just stand ins, the original execs left 3 years ago. Feels quite rudderless. Never hear from the GM and the CRO is new to sales. A lot of people getting promoted by default due to attrition. A very complex product to try and sell, a lot can go wrong in pre-sales process which causes a lot of frustration in the sales teams. Have gone 100% channel but the channel is very underdone and slow to get going. Most of it is just transactional, partners not driving many deals if any yet. Channel team good guys but seem to lack the right resources. Sales are still driving opportunity creation through to close. Locally we are celebrating a lot of mediocrity and enforcing the wrong message. A lot of participation awards and even cult-like behaviour. Many folks hit their numbers through freebies with Cisco, with very little follow through but management look the other way because it's retiring quota. Not many large complex deals being done anymore. Reps taking the easy route because direct selling poses so many challenges, including demand. Management want to get back to 'real' selling but won't provide what's needed to be successful, product is lagging & not enough excitement around it. Sales remuneration is below the market average now for SaaS. This is largely because of Cisco. They are struggling to compete with the huge OTEs being thrown around by startups and hyper growth organizations. Cisco doesn't understand this world and won't try and compete with it.
