Datadog Customer Success Manager (CSM) reviews

Would be great to get better pay and a sabbatical benefit

-The CSM role is 100% a sales position. This is a Account Manager role wrapped in a CSM title, you are measured on expansion of revenue and products put on contract, nothing else is measured (not even churn) -KPIs have changed 3 times in the past few years, with the most recent changes leading to a high amount of churn amongst CSMs -KPIs are based on 2 elements (growth & product adoption): product adoption is straightforward. Growth is not, Datadog operates on a commit+overage model for most contracts. At any given time, a customer's spend could be 60% committed and 40% overage. Unfortunately, CSMs "growth" figure is based on the entirety of the previous month spend (committed + overages) -This creates a system by which 50% of your bonus income is based on a number that is often out of your control, and not an accurate representation of your efforts. -Senior leadership (Dir and up) also focus on churn, and drill down on churn risk accounts on a weekly basis. However, individual CSMs are not measured on churn and are not monetarily motivated to mitigate churn. This system creates a disparate environment of goals, and unclear expectations. -The Datadog product is among the most expensive (if not the most expensive) observability product out there. Between competitors and open source, the competition can easily undercut and pull customers away with significantly lower pricing. "Selling on value" is hard, and especially hard when customers are getting quotes for 30-40-50% less for essentially the same product -the Datadog billing model is frustrating, convoluted, and at times predatory. Pricing structures and SKU pricing change often, and are related to highly technical devops concepts that are hard to articulate. -Office policy is three days a week with little to no flexibility, if you're reading this thinking that after a couple of years they'll let you move, work remote, or just be in office less; look elsewhere. They understandably stick to their guns. At the end of the day, CSMs at Datadog do two jobs: CSM and Account Manager. There is likely better money to be made and made much easier elsewhere in either an Account Manager role, or a true CSM position.