Something is not right - Sales Development Representative (SDR) Personio Employee Review

2.0
Jan 22, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The office is nice, a lot of young people who create a good atmosphere. There is a laid back atmosphere in the way that grabbing coffee or sitting chatting to a friend is not frowned upon. Barista station snacks and drinks available, board games and bean bags. Fun is one of their core values which is very clear. The benefits are ok, a good base salary but the targets are harder to reach.

Cons

Throughout the teams there is dissatisfaction, fear of not reaching targets. Although I had a good experience with my team lead personally, I noticed a trend with them calling sdr the toughest role, only to leave it at that and offer no actual support. If most new joiners are failing the sales certification that you 'need' to pass, something is not right. I'd say it's the lack of actual sales training during the onboarding. In order to get the numbers up, the team leads tried different strategies. All of which had to be executed by the sdr team, who is already stressed about their target and the pressure of doing x calls and x emails daily. Succeeding with your targets as an sdr at Personio has a lot to do with luck, and underperforming and not reaching your targets can happen even as you work very hard. There is a competetive market with many other vendors, and a sloppy way of handling potential customers. There is something off in their suggested sales process. For example; As an sdr, your job is to create an opportunity for the ae to sell the product. If you manage to find a company who is indeed interested in moving forward, the ae will ask during their first meeting "so what's your budget and timeline here?" And if that is not clear or early stages still, the ae will not accept the opp. (You will not reach target). Not only are P losing a potential customer by saying "ok we will not do a demo now but will send you a video, get back to us please,.” There is a glitch in who is actually doing the sales here. The sdr job is to find a potential opp, the ae will close the deal, not all customers will have a clear picture initially. Me as an sdr am not allowed to answer their product questions, and the ae will not take another meeting. That should be part of the sales process, but instead these accounts get 'not accepted'. The competitors seem to offer demos early on, they take care of their potential(!) customers, and work together within the teams. Personios way of working makes no sense and puts even more pressure on the sdr.

avatar
Personio Response
3y
Hello, thank you for taking the time to write this feedback for us! We’re glad that you appreciated the atmosphere and spending time with your teammates. That said, we are sorry to hear that the rest of your experience was less than stellar, especially because we place a high priority on creating a supportive and successful culture for each Personio. We have heard some of this feedback lately and are already working to implement new and different trainings, both for our leaders and for Personios throughout the Sales team. Leadership is also continually working to improve the strategy and planning for the product and the team. Thank you again for reaching out with this feedback! We have passed each point to leadership and the Sales team people partners, and appreciate this opportunity to continue to improve. If you would like to speak in more detail about this feedback, we’d like to hear it! Please feel free to reach out to me at cassandra.hoermann@personio.de.

Explore other reviews about Personio

5.0
Oct 14, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

My coworkers are wonderful, I feel energized coming to work everyday

Cons

The company has had a lot of churn at Director+ levels, not a clear vision across the company

1.0
Oct 30, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart collaborative colleagues at the lower IC levels.

Cons

Personio is a dying company. The over-complexity of the company's technical systems is comical. Every attempt to simplify seems to lead to more complexity as things get half migrated and left to rot. Engineering leadership seems clueless and unable to present a clear plan-of-action to get things on track. Principal engineers force engineering time to be spent on silly projects that don't move the needle long-term. There is an overall aversion to taking the time to learn deeply about systems being used. Personio feels like a combination of all of the negatives of both a startup and a mature tech company, with none of the positives. The tech is half assed and duct taped together, but still somehow everything moves at a glacial pace. There is a mass shared delusion at the company that an IPO is in reach. No investor is going to buy this company's junk shares on the open market.

14
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All