A toxic sales org where the odds stacked against you - Account Executive HubSpot Employee Review

1.0
6 Jan 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good product, especially Marketing Hub Good benefits Fully remote

Cons

HEART is baloney. In the sales org there are extreme levels of micromanagement, from AE managers who don't know what they're doing. Many of HubSpot's sales managers were promoted internally because they performed well back when things were great and inbound leads alone would get you close to quota. Now that inbound leads have dried up and reps are struggling, the majority of managers have no idea what to do other than yell "make more calls!" or "we need more pipeline!" When you ask for advice, they'll offer no valuable insight, they'll just tell you to call your old leads you've already called 100 times. Or make you try to strong arm your prospects into signing on the spot (HubSpot sales managers love the used car salesman tactics). "Coaching" from your manager is often borderline bullying, offering no actionable advice and instead just picking you apart to make you feel worthless. Your ability to succeed is extremely dependent on the manager you get and the install capacity you get assigned. If you don't luck out on both of these, long term success will be extremely difficult. Your next best bet will be to suck up to your manager and try to become one of their favorites, because management here will absolutely give you preferential treatment with passing you leads & opportunities if you're one of their favorites. My team is a team of 8 reps. In 2023, one by one, 4 of my teammates were put on PIPs and ultimately fired. A fifth teammate was put on a PIP but got off it. That's to say, in a single calendar year, our manager PIP'd 62.5% of the team and fired 50% of the team... in one year! It's sales so naturally there will always be some of this, but you gotta ask yourself - is it normal to PIP 62.5% of a team and fire 50% of that team in one year? Do you want to work at a place that does that? Most of those reps were hardworkers and had done well in the past, but were quickly PIP'd after a bad month or two. Unless you're a star performer & management's darling rep, you'll work under constant stress & fear of being put on a PIP and fired. Most AEs here do, I know HubSpot has been a huge burden on my mental health compared to my previous sales jobs. The KPIs are unrealistic so if you want to succeed you'll be putting in plenty more than 40 hours/week.

Explore other reviews about HubSpot

5.0
30 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

HubSpot is a great product especially with all the addons

Cons

Need better training into each hub.

2.0
22 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The teams you work with are phenomenal. The knowledge combination between an internal customer facing teams, engineering product development teams, and Sales are unmatched.

Cons

Excessive use of PIPs to oust employees after multiple high revenue launches, with no explanation, actual documentation, or factual data. Reviews have been adjusted to allow for terminations post pre-approved leaves. Salaries are a joke. You are always in a cover yourself mode 24/7. Management reviews are consistently a 2 or 3 out of 5 no matter what. If a team decides you aren’t in the group, management will put you on a “unofficial” PIP without telling you, in order to surprise you at a later date. Even if they are unfounded. Beware of possibility of negative backlash post launches. They will feel the need to assign blame ( such as for timelines or issues related to bugs). Regardless of performance or level of involvement. This is an enormous company with many large paths for career advancement. But micro management is rampant, leaving little room for doing the daily expectations of your actual role. This degrades your opportunities for career advancement.

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