Pros
Most of your experience will depend on your manager and your team. I lucked out on both and had a manager and team that were really great to work with. The training is intense, but I think it adequately prepares you for the job. It honestly was one of the better training programs that I have come across in corporate sales. You are selling a product that has no competition. People involved in real estate NEED this product. People in the CRE space do not like CoStar, but they need it which ultimately makes it an easier sell. I always felt like I was well compensated for what I sold. Each comp plan has its quirks, but if you are smart you can figure out what you need to do to maximize it. There are definitely pros to CoStar. I am not someone who just craps all over something. There are benefits to working there, but at the same time I feel like the cons outweigh the pros.
Cons
The account manager job is really like four jobs in one. I have worked for four pretty substantial tech companies and I have never seen a role that incorporates more tasks into one. If someone in your book of business has a billing issue, you are coordinating it. You are responsible for all renewal conversations. You are responsible for training your clients on all of the features of CoStar. This is all on top of trying to bring in new accounts. You always feel like you are drowning. Each day you'll walk in and open up your email with client complaints all over your email while trying to prepare for a massive prospect presentation later that day. These are issues that in my career I have only experienced at CoStar. The is a sense that big brother is watching you at CoStar. This comes from the top with Andy. I'm not here to say that the guy isn't talented and driven. Of course he is to have done what he has done with the company. He is; however, extremely insecure and paranoid. All hands calls are basically a shrine to Andy. You have to block off basically your entire day for them and Andy basically talks about how great he is for hours at a time. If you have a prospect that can only meet at that time, too bad. Like I said earlier, I have worked for multiple large companies and I have never seen a CEO act like he acted. There is also a sense of hero worship around him throughout the org which makes sense because if you don't worship the ground he walks on, you'll probably look for the first chance to leave. To the big brother is watching you point, they record all outgoing calls. They say it is for coaching purposes....yeah right. The problem is if you are in the field and want to prospect you have to use your cell. At one point I had hit quota 5 months straight and was performing really well. I am not saying that I am above coaching, but I am obviously doing something right. In some time between appointments, I made some prospecting calls from a parking lot on my cell, set a couple of appointments, only to get reprimanded because I was not recording my calls. It honestly made me livid. I could tell my manager thought it was ridiculous, but what could she do? This stuff all comes from the top.