Collaborata

1,0

8 dic 2019

"sales"

Consiglia

Gradimento del CEO

Pronostico commerciale

Vantaggi

Unusual business concept. The chairman has some good client connections.

Svantaggi

It's a family-run start-up. They offer $0 base salary, high commission percentages and progressive escalators, “equity” in the company, and no benefits. They have been trying for several years to get VC funding which in theory would provide for some kind of base salary and actual equity but they seem far from getting a lead investor. The problem with this 100% commission gig is they don't pay any commissions until the client pays their invoice. In practice, months pass before a salesperson will earn anything. If you've ever sold custom projects, they can take a while to develop the larger more profitable deals. In the case of Collaborata, the sales cycle is even longer. You spend months trying to find and develop a custom research concept that has to be researched by a third-party research company... that has to agree to Collaborata's terms. When you pass that hurdle, then you have to find two or more companies that have: 1. identified the same or similar information gap, 2. have a flexible time frame to start the project AND receive the deliverables, and 3. money has been budgeted to "buy" into these unexpected projects. Assuming you find two or more companies with interest, they have to agree on the semi-custom scope, be willing to share the cost, willing to share insights, trust how their collaborators will use that information, and trust Collaborata won't sell the same project to a direct competitor. It's a very manual, opaque process with no technology to help with match-making or trust-building. Once a project is "funded", meaning invoices have been sent but the clients haven't paid, then the project kicks off. Depending on the complexity of the project, another 2-6 months will pass for the research to be done by the third-party research firm. Once it is delivered and assuming they are happy with the project, then another 30-60-90+ more days could pass for the client to pay, depending on invoice terms and payment delays. In practice, when it came time to submit commissions on projects that had launched, I was told they would not pay commissions "in advance" and it was a "risk" their start-up wasn't willing to take. What was worse, when the >>clients<< delayed their payments, the family declared that sales were only "earned" in the month when the client paid. The implication: at the end of the sales year, when clients were late on their payments, the commission escalators reset for the new sales year. That meant they would only pay at the lower commission rate instead of the higher rates in the months when the projects were actually sold and invoiced.

Risposta di Collaborata

Thanks for leaving a review about Collaborata, though we’re obviously sorry to hear about your less-than-stellar experience. We value all of our current and former employees and appreciate hearing from them – whether good and/or bad. Being a company that also asks for client reviews online, we recognize that an inherent challenge of such an open forum is not only the candor of the reviewers but also the truth within their posts. So, despite sensible guidelines, smart processes, and the spirit of openness and transparency that platforms such as Glassdoor foster, they are still at the mercy of honest reviewers. This particular review is less than honest; and, as a three-year-old company that’s working hard to serve our clients and to share in our success with our employees, responding to a review is critical even though it detracts from time otherwise spent on servicing our clients and growing our business. Nevertheless, we would be remiss not to respond – as all employers are vulnerable to less-than-honest reviews. So, briefly, with the goal of “setting the record straight,” let me respond to this post: 1. Collaborata has never had an intern tasked with direct sales nor have we had an “international sales manager,” which are the two positions this reviewer posted as holding. 2. All full-time positions are salary-based. For sales positions, compensation includes salary + commission. 3. All full-time positions come with health benefits (and stock options). 4. Collaborata is not attempting to raise outside funds. Our leadership team strongly believes in being “bootstrapped.” We also believe that all current and future employees should have real equity in the company. 4. Our commission structure, like that of most b2b organizations, is based on an escalator – which is in the sales team’s favor – i.e., the better the performance, the higher the commission rate. 5. Like most b2b organizations, sales become finalized upon a client signing a contract (vs. a verbal agreement). 6. Collaborata is not a family business (though culturally we want to feel like a family); we’re a C-corp that happens to include a father-son team at its helm.

Not worth it. Go someplace else. - Recensione dipendente - "Sales" presso Collaborata

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