Weave reviews

I've worked in Sales my entire career, with a few companies, in different industries... I've never dealt with the levels of nepotism and favoritism that I experienced Weave. Nothing even close. When I was interviewing to work at Weave, Sales leadership told me that Weave was a "Meritocracy" and that those who succeed and advance, will do so based off of effort, work ethic, and results... which is what any sales professional likes to hear. However, the reality of their culture was a much different story. Succeeding in the sales department at Weave was much more about who you knew, and who you were friends with, rather than how talented or how hard you worked. I don't want to get into the internal sales structure of the company, but like most software companies that are comparable to Weave, there's 3 main sources of sales revenue... Inbound leads, outbound leads, and event leads. There's also leads that come from partners, however, they don't generate close to the same revenue as the other 3. Now here's why I left, and why I'm leaving a 2 star rating instead of 5. It was clear from my first month that inbound leads, top SDR's, and being sent to the best events, we're how the top Account Executives were getting to the top and staying on top. Unfortunately, it was also clear in that first month that those opportunities we're not being awarded by any real metric, but rather being given to a certain group AE's simply because they were part of the "cool club." In the beginning I thought maybe it was just a coincidence, but then a pattern emerged, and after talking with other AE's who were not part of this favored group, it became painfully clear. It didn't matter how talented you were, or how hard you worked, at the end of day the top opportunities that translated into numbers we're going to be given to the same handful of people. The AE's who leadership went to college with, or have been lifelong friends with. AE's who fit the bill of "buying in" to the culture, which really meant being outspoken at meetings, and always professing your love of working at Weave, especially on social media. Attending every outside-the-office event, (which for anyone who has kids knows, a Tuesday at 8pm isn't always doable.) It almost became comical in how consistent the hierarchy was. You see, sales management will tell you that lead distribution is based off results, off numbers, which they were. What they won't tell you is how the resources to achieve those results are going to be allocated at managements discretion, which always came down to being part of that "cool club" more than it did ones ability or work ethic. Here's some context to show what I mean. In my first 6 months, I was assigned 5 different SDR's, all of which were brand new with little to no sales experience. That basically rendered my outbound volume to nonexistent. In that same 6 month time frame, I was given 5 inbound leads. And in those 6 months, I was sent to a total of 6 events with the majority of them being small events, maybe 20-40 people, that in total produced around 6-8 deals being closed. Now if those opportunities would have been consistent across the board, I wouldn't be writing this. If fact I'd probably still be at Weave. I would of continued to keep my head down, "earn my stripes" and do what was asked of me. But It wasn't consistent. In fact it was very far from consistent. I watched as other AE's who started months after me, and whose close ratio and sales stats were far below how I was preforming, be sent to A+ events, where they would close more deals in one event, then I had in all of my events over a 6 month period combined. I watched as brand new AE's that had only been at Weave for a month, close multiple deals from inbound calls. Inbound leads that I was told would only come with time and hard work. I watched as other AE's who had been doing little to nothing as far as selling, be assigned top producing SDR's to help get them out of their "slump." With every one of these AE's, there was a common denominator... they had friends. They were best friends with one of the Team Leads. They played college football with leadership. They're family with someone at Weave. Whatever is was, there was always something. And the more this continued to happened, the more I spoke with other AE's who were in the same position as me and shared the same frustrations. It became pretty clear that this was happening to reps on every team, in every region, in every vertical. The systemic nepotism that was ingrained in the sales department was so egregious and beyond anything that I had ever experienced. I saw talented sales reps who had proven themselves for years with different companies, and who had huge amounts of success before coming to Weave, looking to leave the company simply because it was clear that it didn't matter what you knew, it all came down to who you knew. I left my previous company because I was told that AE's at Weave were making "x" amount of dollars, and doing it in an environment with tons of room for growth and advancement. What I wasn't told is that the criteria to make that type of money, and to see that type of growth and advancement, was only reserved for a select few. And unfortunately no matter how hard I worked or how talented of a sales rep I may be, I would never be able to check that box. My advice to management would be this... Obviously the nepotism has to be addressed. And if you think this is the case of one disgruntled former employee, you're wrong. I am still close friends with many Account Executives who are still at Weave, and from what they're telling me on a weekly basis, it sounds like things have only gotten worse. And again, I'm not this bitter, angry former employee. I loved everything else about Weave. To this day, if someone asks me about the company, I tell them that it's one of the greatest companies I've ever worked for, outside of sales. If they're looking at applying for Dev, Marketing, etc. I tell them that if they get the job, they're joining a company with amazing executives, amazing people, and an amazing culture. However, when it comes to the current structure of the sales department, you'll have a bunch of reps at the top, who are all best friends, and all get along, and are all that cookie-cutter type of employee, but you're also going to lose a lot of great talent. You're going to lose free thinkers, people who think outside the box, and who will instill creativity and ways to evolve as a company. You lose employees, who were committed, hardworking, and loyal, yet who were never part of the "cool club" and because of that, will never be able to break through the superficial glass ceiling that is reserved for people who came to Weave with a friend there to leave their foot in the door for them. Weave is an amazing company, but if there isn't a shift in how opportunity is allocated to the sales reps, your sales department will continue to have a high turnover, and you're going to let a lot of people who can make a great impact walk out the door.