CDW Employee Reviews about "account managers"

Pros

For a large company, it's a pretty good one to work for. Management is usually competent and professional. The executives are transparent with the company's direction, goals, and pains. Benefits are average but healthcare costs are more than average. The company believes in advancing your career and finding new internal opportunities. They also believe in charitable causes and even have a charitable match program.

Cons

Work-from-home programs have been frowned upon by many departments/positions, but hopefully that changes post-COVID. I know healthcare costs are always rising, but my CDW healthcare cost is always more than my wife's has been at her employers. Account representative/account manager roles at CDW are very difficult. Base salary is extremely low and even goes down after your second year. The biggest issue though is there's barely any time for proactive selling, which is what we should be doing. Internal processes are extremely time-consuming and wrought with problems. It's basically 80% of your time is more like project management. It's a very transactional sales role. The first two years in the role are extremely difficult and hard to make a decent wage.

Pros

Good work home balance, wfh is available in more departments than even just 3 years ago. Great culture and environment As long as you don’t have to communicate with Sales

Cons

Account Manager belittle back office ops teams and management let’s it happen.

Pros

Lots of training to prepare you for a CDW full-time job Access to "higher ups" that you would not normally see as often if you were at a similar role in other companies Catered food frequently Culture (the people are awesome) It's paid

Cons

If you're in any office except Chicago, the internship will be brutal. Too many WebEx's that don't care whether youre there or not will drive you insane. The WebEx's got excessive with 3 or 4 a WEEK not enough exposure to different Account Managers unless you go looking for it Lack of structure in day-to-day tasks YOU HAVE TO PAY $10 A DAY FOR PARKING IN TAMPA

Pros

The training program is one of the best in the industry. Even with no background in IT hardware/software/services sales, CDW does an excellent job of preparing you to be successful and giving you the tools & resources to do so. The culture is also top notch. Almost everyone is extremely willing to help you be successful, and your engineering talent & Solution Architects will give you the blueprint to qualify opportunities as an Account Manager. If you land in the right patch, there is a genuine opportunity to make money. I was an Account Manager for 6 years and made six figures for the last 4 of the 6. That said, you do have to exercise patience and know that those first two years will be extremely challenging. Likely 45-55K total pay. But, if you can stick it out and prove yourself, you will get opportunities to be successful. There are constantly vendors in the office giving free lunches, swag, happy hours after work, and promoting vacations & prizes for being top sellers of a specific product. The vacations are amazing, and always extremely well put together. Speaking of, the vacation time and benefits are adequate. Nothing will wow you, but nothing will make you feel like you are being taken advantage of, either. Sales Managers tend to be extremely flexible, friendly, and willing to help you succeed if you demonstrate a desire to. I had 5 managers in 6 years, and only one borderline negative experience that did not last long. Overall, this is a fantastic place to begin your career if you have little to no sales experience. The first 2 years may make it challenging for anyone with experience or major life expenses (car, mortgage, kids, etc.), but if you are just graduating and looking for somewhere to work while living with parents or sharing an apartment with people, CDW should absolutely be near the top of your list.

Cons

As odd as this may sound, it is possible to be TOO successful at CDW. The best Account Managers are extremely well compensated, but because of that, it makes a move to any other position internally a pay cut. Some choose to do it for more stability in terms of a higher base salary, but it can be challenging psychologically to accept a total comp cut to move “up” in to leadership. You do move on to a different comp structure after your first 4 years as a sales rep, one that effectively makes you 100% commission. You’re still guaranteed a base salary, but you have to sell to cover it. For me, this wasn’t an issue given the business I had developed but for some, it pushes them out of the AM role. The competition is fierce. There are many VARs out there, and all of your large accounts will be doing business with many of them. This can lead to eroding profit margins that make it difficult for you to make money until you develop a relationship with the customer, which can take years. The Cloud services practice needs more of an investment in personnel, etc. Other VARs are lapping CDW in terms of Advanced Technology services offerings, especially in the Cloud space. Many of your major accounts will still look at CDW as a “box pusher”, even as it has evolved to a complete solutions provider. Battling that stigma can be challenging. Depending on the territory you are assigned to, the first 2 years can be very mentally draining. You will likely start working with smaller accounts, ones that have been called on for years that don’t do business with CDW. You will fail, ALOT. You will lose, ALOT. Knowing and accepting that going in will help you to look long term at the role.

Pros

Great culture and events. I enjoyed working with my team.

Cons

lots of turnover . Even tenure account managers end up leaving.

Pros

The training program they put you through initially is really comprehensive in getting you up to speed on the fundamentals of IT and all of the product segments that you'll be covering. I'm sure it could differ from team to team, but after training my manager always seemed to focus on our personal goals and development, and I never felt any pressure to simply hit numbers. There's a good sense of camaraderie between your team and the group you've gone through training with - although many of them went on to separate teams we still keep in touch years later. The pay probably won't be amazing for most your first year or two unless you hit some luck or really grind at it, but it's probably comparable to similar positions with other companies, except with a lot of added perks. Expect to be inundated with free food, contests, and branded freebies from all of the vendor partners. A lot of opportunity for lateral promotions or to specialize in/work for many of the vendors. The work itself can be a slog some days, but they really seem to do as much as possible to motivate their employees.

Cons

Expect to make tons of cold calls daily. Probably 80-100+ early on until you start gaining some traction and have to focus more time on actual customers. I never encountered any negativity, but you'll be leaving a lot of voicemails, hitting dead ends on leads, and chasing after elusive IT managers day after day. They provided you with a starter book of business, but you'll quickly have to start prospecting your own leads if you want to get anywhere. Your initial book might have a few diamonds in the rough, but they're mostly hand-me-downs from other account managers on your team because they got nowhere with them. Finding good customers can seem like a struggle sometimes depending on what your territory is. Some of the more successful account managers seemed to get their break by sharing an account with a more experienced team member - make connections and be eager to learn from them because the odds of getting in on the ground floor with a growing company seemed pretty slim.

Pros

-academy sales training is great -lots of food perks -opportunity to make vendor relationships

Cons

-terrible management -small business function needs work -lowest salary in the market....run. -overworked, long hours -account managers constantly changing