I left CDW in sales in January after 6 years with the company. I spent the better part of 3 years fighting with management about resources like a ATAE that was added to my accounts and took a large % of my commission but did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to support me and drive business. I went to HR with these concerns just to be told there is nothing they can do even though these resources hadn’t made a sale in multiple years. After several years of complaining that these people got a free ride and were getting paid on my hard work, I decided to go somewhere that wanted to incentivize me better. This company is a total dumpster fire. I also heard the team I left has been losing major contracts since my departure. My former director was taking the side of my ATAE by the time I left because my accounts were of high enough value where they “needed an ATAE” and removing our ATAE would result in his title loss. I don’t wish ill-will on anyone, but this company is prepared to go to zero before admitting its mistakes and making changes. Chris Leahy needs to be removed and the rest of the executive team fired.
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To both current and former CDW Account Managers I say don't worry the sh-t storm of poor management will likely continue with the new hire to replace Norm Lillis. That person was brought in for the purpose to make a leaner organization. Good luck
Same story. I worked for an acquired company as an account manager. Brought very difficult to win, multi- million dollar per year services accounts to CDW that were subsequently lost due to clunky processes and internal politics. I mostly liked the CDW Accounts managers I partnered with, but they made their commissions on our deals by finding internal work-arounds while I met with the accounts. The sales leadership was the most uninformed and self important group of people that I have ever seen in my career. I finally ended up leaving and went to work selling services at a SaaS company. Completely different story over here, they enable us to win and take feedback seriously from the front lines. CDW almost seems to want to lose. They buy great running companies one after another and then systematically ruin them with miles of red tape and no humility. Good luck to you.
I left after October’s layoffs. The only rep on my team that got laid off was a 15yr vet and our sales manager asked the younger AM’s (such as myself) to “rank” t3 accounts we wanted from our laid off colleague. One account in particular caught my eye and had an upcoming 60k renewal. I ranked this account #1 and was rewarded by sales management- under one condition - the upcoming renewal would be given to a tenured AE who was back from paternal leave bcz “they have a big goal to catch up to.”
Resigned a few weeks later and took a new role at a competitor making a much better salary, title, and not surrounded by id--ts. No offense but a 35k base and sales managers that brag about not having a college degree does not make co-workers feel empowered or intelligent. Working at CDW made me feel ashamed and d-mb! Glad to now be PROUD of my work.
The AM model isn't a 1 size fits all solution. I came to CDW from an acquisition and a lot of our clients in security consulting were internally gained outside of a "sales team". We engage with clients all the time from annuity work, and grow the revenue stream organically by interacting with clients and identifying opportunities. Interjecting an Account Manager / people that get sales commission hurts our bottom line and makes #s look worse when they weren't there to land the sale. Also useless "Project Managers" as a separate middle-man to "manage" our projects when they have no idea what's going on. The consulting managers are the "PMs". Clients don't want to see random line items on their invoices for back office PMs that are just there to do invoices and do resource scheduling in Certinia. Baffling to me a company would acquire another in a totally different industry, restructure all the existing processes that have been working for acquired firm / said industry, and think they can just innovate and recreate the wheel of something that already works.
I’m reading that they need to trim the fat. Great. I agree. To many Co-Workers playing video games day after day, thinking they deserve the world for waking up in the morning.
Reward the AM for hooking some whales and remove the useless deadweight.
If you follow any of them on Steam or Discord they are literally playing games all day between calls. It’s disgusting.
“How the he-l some of these stale managers and directors keep their roles year after year is beyond me.”
It’s because they’re yes men (or women) - They do everything they’re told, agree with everything they’re told etc. That’s the sort of management this company wants. People that don’t and won’t question anything and simply follow orders.
Left last year as a corporate AM of 6 years and had one of the worst managers I’ve ever worked with at the time of leaving. Was my 4th in 4 years and each was worse than the last. 75% of the middle/hiring managers don’t do a thing and could be immediately replaced/trrminated with no effect on the teams #s.
Which division were you in? Former SMB AM here and I left after 12 years since quality of leadership over last 5 years has significantly declined beyond belief. No accountability at the mid-manager level for their incompetence and to be perfectly honest, complete lack of basic management skills. How the he-l some of these stale managers and directors keep their roles year after year is beyond me. Morale is dead. SMB alone is losing many high performing and tenured AM’s like myself to other VARs who actually give a fu-k about their sales teams and have competent executives running the show. Get a clue CDW, and maybe hold your “leaders” to a higher standard like you expect out of your sellers. Pretty simple concept.