CDW Reviews

Pros

Great People to work with
Lots of catered lunches
The internal systems are very easy to maneuver
Personally, I had an awesome manager who understand the difficulties of the job
Not micro managed at all
Never had anyone say anything about your effort numbers, just don't be the lowest

Cons

CDW cannot compete on price. All day long you talk to customers who can get the same product cheaper somewhere else and possibly even with free shipping. Also, in the AZ office, their is not a lot of room for advancement. They talk about senior AM and executive AM, but that is all crap. It is still a account manager. Their are AM's and Sales Managers and that is it. Long term, I just do not think that the potential is their. Also, they recognize that their is a lot of turnover. Their philosophy is to hire 20 people in hopes of 2 making it and selling a lot.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire less people. It has become to cluttered with less opportunity for the true good account managers that would make more money for both the company and themselves

Pros

Training was good when I started, I have been here about four years now and worked in sales previously, so had an idea of what to expect. Started in salles as most people do, worked hard and moved up. They don't promote people simply because they can't hack it where they are, but the pay is certainly fantastic if you work at it.

Cons

Commute to downtown is rough, a revolving door with the newer sales staff, feel they could do better recruiting and it would be a better environment, as with many of the negative reviews, seem to hear a lot of complaints about pay and at the root, you will find someone that either doesn't want to work for it or can't wrap their head around what base plus commission really means.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work, and put more effort in to recruitment, end the revolving door.

Pros

A Good place to gain IT knowledge.
The Potential to make good commissions.
There are good facilities available, comfortable environment.

Cons

Very, Very Very repetitive.
Lots and lots of cold calling.
Very meager base salary.
Most grueling training and qualification sessions.

Advice to Senior Management

While they are very pleasant to work with and they seem very knowledgeable, they need to offer more incentives to succeed.

Pros

Good income potential.
Highly customer service oriented company well positioned to help you beat the competition.

Cons

Has become large and all top down.

Advice to Senior Management

Maintain and continue the aspects that made CDW a great company.

Pros

-Great Sales Training
-Fun to work with the biggest technology companies in the world
-Lots of events/ incentives from vendors to CDW salesforce to promote their brands
-Incredible networking opportunities as you interact with countless reps and brand managers from the tech industry's leading manufacturers

Cons

-HR has decreased standards in hiring competent and qualified account managers.
-Very low starting pay, and management is making it harder to make money. The company is hiring sales reps at a record pace, and therefore flooding its territories with reps, leaving less for you to work.
-From new sales compensation plan, many reps are unable to hit their inflated goals and because of this, are receiving lessened or no commission

Advice to Senior Management

-Increase the base salary for Account Managers and give more talented salespeople/ more intelligent new college graduates a legitimate reason to work for and stay with CDW. Stop churning out reps and actually try and keep them for the long haul. The low base salary and new commission plan are insulting to the current salesforce and has caused decreased morale overall, especially when goals are so tough to hit.
-Stop hiring so many reps and give the ones you hired more opportunity to work good accounts.

Pros

Career growth oppurtunities are immense and I get to apply my knowledge of tool directly to work.

Cons

Being big organization goals are not always stationary

Advice to Senior Management

Goals shoul e more specific

Pros

Vendor perks, commissios, constant training

Cons

Stressful, unrealistic, sales goals, favoritism, no growth without BA

Advice to Senior Management

Clear a path of growth for everyone

Pros

Working downtown and in a nice area
Clean facilities
Some what comfy chairs

Cons

Low pay, bad management, calling a lot, poor communication between employees, snobby bosses and low pay. This is a stressful job and not worth 25k a year in my opinion but for others it might be.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees what you would want to be paid for the tasks that are required.

Pros

- the vast amounts of continued training and informational materials
- numerous resources to assist account managers
- extensive initial training
- vendor perks

Cons

- CDW epitomizes the faulty american culture - all work, no play
- CDW does not promote a healthy work life balance, in fact they discourage it
- feels like working in a frat/sorority house
- though the resources are plentiful, an account manager has to jump through way too many hoops to make any progress
- not nearly as laid back as they promote themselves to be
- extreme micromanagers in a subtle, backhanded kind of way
- very rarely congratulate you but very quick to tell you what you're accomplishing isn't good enough
- every time I go to someone with a problem they tell me to go to someone else, who tells me to go to someone else, etc. until i'm back where I started
- we are falsely encouraged to be "ourselves" as long as "ourselves" is exactly what the company wants us to be
- nearly impossible commission structure on top of laughable starting salary
- very little paid time off offered
- extreme favoritism
- success depends heavily on who you know rather than how good you actually are

Advice to Senior Management

- focus on truly promoting a healthy, enjoyable work/life balance
- increase the starting salary to stay competitive in the sales industry (i promise you what it's at as of 9/12/11 is not at all competitive)

- UPDATE: as of this month there is a new commission structure and you did not successfully pull the wool over anyone's eyes - the amount of money you claim to have fought for to put into the new structure is great on the surface but what you don't mention is that you initiated a pay cut to a large majority of account managers in order to throw more money at the absolute top tier and to newer account managers who will quickly grow their business beyond the lowest commission tier but will most likely never reach that absolute top tier - they will be stuck in the middle majority making less on the new & "improved" structure vs what they would've on the old structure...please revisit your compensation plans and make it more appealing for us to stay with CDW

Pros

Many opportunities for advancement, personal fulfillment. Great coworkers. Enough work that there is no time for petty office politics and boring water cooler chatter.

Cons

So much work to be done that it can be difficult to unplug. However, management is supportive of the times that I have asked for help.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to try and improve benefits, including professional development and learning opportunities. Change the bonus structure for the FSA role.