account executive

software engineer

senior account executive

customer success manager

sales associate

Yelp

I started a career in sales with Yelp and stayed for a long time due my ability to adapt to the work-life balance at Yelp, and my ability to stay out of the office politics. During my time there, I saw many managers, directors, and high-performers come and go for various reasons, and the roll-out and highly-touted debut of many new territory formats, pricing structures, and ad models at Yelp. 

I could write a long essay of thoughts and takeaways of my time at Yelp, but I'll try to distill it to a few main points. 

First, Yelp's pay is sub-standard for the tech/internet space, but their benefits are comparatively much better than what you'll receive at most other companies. Healthcare, vision, dental, and gym reimbursement are excellent, maternity/paternity leave policy is AMAZING, 401k match is meh, stock programs are meh (possibly more on that later). Healthcare is one of those thing you don't appreciate until you really need it, and they totally have you covered on all fronts - you and dependents. That's one of the things Yelp does REALLY well.

Second, Yelp's pay is probably slightly lower than what you can make at other major software/tech/internet companies while being better than what you can make in many call-center operations, but the level of stress and the output demands are high. Because Yelp's client turnover is high and their pricepoints are low, expect to be micromanaged towards high output (dials, talktime, etc) with the hopes of high production and results. Individual commission are small, so you must "stack" tons of small deals in order to make good money. In order to make the deals, you will need to do a ton of work and make a ton of calls and figure out what works for you. Because you're selling ad subscriptions that many clients don't stay with very long, there's an incentive to command, confuse, or 'promise the moon' in order to the client to sign and put in their CC info - and then to cut and run, leaving the client to figure out what's next. The incentives to sell are so high that in the time I was in sales at Yelp, around 50% of the extreme sales overproducers were eventually terminated after management discovered some loophole, gimmick, promise, or untrue line they were using that outright violated the rules and left the company exposed. 

Third, as far as outlook on the company, I have two thoughts. 

First outlook point is is that Yelp has historically been slow to bring needed products and updates to market, and this has only changed (slightly) in the past 2 years. Anecdotally, around 2016 my sister-in-law told me "I like Yelp, but every time I visit it, the layout looks it hasn't been updated in four years." She was right. Around then, they started working on being more responsive and concerned with consumer-appeal, because there had been a slight flatlining in usage. One of their company values is "protect the source" - and that can mean protecting the product and site so closely that they are slow to implement change, and do it too slowly to catch market opportunities. This has effected their stock price and ability to innovate. Yelp was one of the last companies in the space to unveil a cost-per-click model (which clients had been arguing about for years) and they've only recently (in the last 2-3 years) started to be more attentive to consumers and salespeople, in rolling out tools to make them more effective. 

Last point on outlook is that despite whatever gains they make, Yelp is and will always be constrained within the limits of a business model that is, on the whole, unappealing to a high percentage of business owners. Yelp essentially publishes opinions about businesses -- There is nothing proprietary or unique about that business model except the user community, which is shrinking due to lots of competition from Google Local reviews, Facebook, Instagram, and the like. And within the market, positive reviews are awesome and can significantly lift a business' revenues - but restaurants and businesses earn that with a TON of "offline" hard work, knowledge, and sweat, while negative reviews are so upsetting to business owners, that if one overly-opinionated reviewer says some extremely negative comments (or allegations) about a business, it can turn the business owner completely against Yelp and can kill any deal they'd ever make to advertise. 

Yelp is constrained within a business model that is in many ways unnecessary and unappealing to most business owners. That fact alone makes it a tough sale for an employee/rep, and an even tough business to grow meaningfully. During my time at Yelp they were consistently trying to sell the business but could never find a deeply interested buyer. Yelp will probably always be the way they are because they've chosen a very difficult problem to solve, and there may not be enough opportunity in it for you to make the money you really want to. 

I'd like to preface this by saying that getting to work here was like getting to meet one of my heroes. My delay in realizing why this was a terrible idea probably contributed to my eventual state of disillusionment; I wanted to help, but that wasn't in the description. 

If your clients mean so little to you that you don't mind being utterly worthless to them after closing, this could be a great gig for you.

If you're primarily motivated by money and status/have an easy time being a sociopath, my sympathies friend, you'll probably love it.

Here's the thing; I was a fly on the wall, naturally disappearing into the background, taking notes on everything I saw and heard, because I was hoping it would help me succeed. It didn't, but I'm sharing because I hope it'll help someone else:

-The majority of very successful people (who are called upon to speak almost daily for reasons surpassing understanding) achieve it by exhibiting a *lack* of empathy, however well-intentioned, and not because of it.

-You will, on a daily basis, be expected to plow ahead over a client whether the numbers make sense or not (and you're not expected to know whether they do, more to assume they do).

-You likely won't benefit from trying to learn how to make the data-driven argument, so your integrity might have to be hung up at the door. Making quantifiable evidence scalable and user-friendly just isn't a priority for this organization in any meaningful way.

-You're on an assembly line; it just looks like an office. Expectations will increase, useful training to reach them will not.

-Read all the books and do all the research you want (like I did); having facts isn't what matters to anyone except the clients, and again, you can rarely help them even if you eventually get a yes.

Finally, it was reiterated to me after reporting policy breaches on the phone, that this is a sales organization. Recognizing that poor client retention creates inefficiency and is a waste of everyone's time doesn't happen more than quarterly (when corporate hands down marching orders), and it was personally one of the more painful parts of the job to continue practicing ad infinitum what seemed like such an obviously flawed method of service. Rather than treating leads like gold, they're often spoken to and about like lying fools, in blatant disregard to one of the company values, contributing to my eventual disillusionment. Why would customers be loyal, especially when there's so little transparency and so little effort to improve it?

TL;DR: If you're thinking, "I love Yelp and I love helping people" you may want to reconsider, or be prepared to spend a lot of time not helping anyone, least of all yourself. I learned a lot here; I'd like to unlearn most of it.

I was excited to work for this company. I'm used to face-to-face sales but I figured the culture would fill the gaps for me. Here's my take. Training was like college. Actually, no. Maybe high school. Your managers in training are also training, so get ready for that if you're coming from a company where you were once a manager and realized they're off on their leadership skills. Two months in, you go to the vet org and people who trained you will treat you differently. My new manager completely went from being cool to being a micro managing a-hole. Targeted me when he wanted to make an example over things that were minuscule. I had a sit down with him MULTIPLE times as to why I seem like I have an attitude. (If you're not a bubbly person, expect people to ask you if you're okay every 30 minutes) They have this smile and dial mentality. I'm there to work, not to smile every ten seconds. If you're right out of college, this job is a good stepping stone but if you're someone like me who has been in hard sales working alongside older professionals, the day to day environment will get to you. There is a high turnover rate for a reason, you call businesses that have already been solicited for years before you got assigned and all that pent up resentment toward the company is dropped on you when you call, and you need to call them over and over as it pops up in your timeline. Your manager will barge your calls and tell you what to say in your headset, but if they barge you late and don't know how your tone was or the rapport you built, the pushy sales tactic will cost you the deal and they will tell you what YOU did wrong. (Why hire us if you don't let us be us on the phone?) I was promised I'd get a new territory after hitting quota two months in a row but my manager switched up what he said to me once I asked about it, made it seem like it was miscommunication but that was nonsense because I had confirmed it with him the moment he told me about it. Another thing, don't listen to that. The few friends I've made there explained their managers changed their territories and didn't need to hit quota. It seemed like me asking for help was a nuisance in comparison to another team member doing so. I found the job tedious, but if the day to day soliciting doesn't bother you and you're okay with sitting or being in one spot, kudos. Pay structure, hmmm. You only become commission eligible after hitting 30k, then you need to hit 12k for that month to actually get anything. at 12k, your commission is $150 and 100 after that. You get your commission checks every month, just know taxes on them rip you. Again... Collegiate level. Things work best if your territory is good, or your manager. If both suck, then you won't succeed and you will need to speak to your director about either switching teams or getting a new territory. This place is VERY MICRO MANAGED. If you're not used to having someone hovering over you from when you come in and when you leave, DON'T TAKE THIS JOB!!!

I didn't have the kind of personality to succeed in this role because I felt bad asking people to take time out of their day and listen to me. But it was an excellent introduction to sales.

They lay amazing groundwork, give you lots of encouragement and tons of opportunity for development. They'll accidentally teach you a lot about yourself and life generally. If you bring a good attitude, work hard and focus on the right things, you'll do well. They're nice people.

My main gripe is that the sales approach is just pushy sales wrapped in some nice language about being helpful by growing their business. We're taught to pivot into selling people rather than doing full account management. It can feel like you're tricking people into buying something they aren't even prepared to consider and don't understand. The company seems fine with that approach because it makes them money. It feels wrong for a product you need to trust to try. AND makes your job as a sales person very confusing.

You HAVE to be money-motivated to do well in this job. They say you don't, but I'm not and still quit even though the money was really good.  If you feel pressure to pay off debt quickly, want to take a vacation, have something you want to save for or another bigger dream, it's a great place. If your needs are simple and you're easily satisfied, it might not be a good fit.

I learned a lot here. I learned how to take responsibility for myself, what my potential might be and what it's like to get out what you put in. I learned to ask for what I need.

When I left the job in the spring of 2019, we were expected to make 80 calls, pitch twice and close 1 transaction in order to have a successful day. It's doable and it's also a grind. 
Usually there's a quick meeting in the morning and one in the afternoon. Meetings here always have a point and managers don't like to waste time.

The culture can be super sales bro-y, laid back, like a family or feel cubicle-y. It depends on what office, director or team you have what the day to day feeling is. Overall, the company is inclusive and hires people who hold that value closely. Women are well represented (management included) but people of color are not (yet). But, it's welcoming and you can feel the culture shifting.

Management is awesome. I cannot say enough good things about them. They work hard to develop and keep people there and don't like to let anyone who's a good worker go. They also don't keep bad managers and have heard about a couple of people who were not suited to leadership being asked to step back down to a sales role.

Hardest part of the job was getting people to listen to you. Accounts are over-called and have been burned by other companies and sales people who don't deliver on promises. 

The best things are the training and management. You learn a lot about yourself and are encouraged all along to be your best. They taught me my value as an employee.

Yelp as a company is great, the initiatives they have to make the job fun and the perks are unlike any other company I have known. You get care packages on a quarterly bases. Monthly health/fitness stipend, caregiver and educational stipend which is great. 

Day to day, you are expected to make 80 dials, a lot of pressure from the directors onto the managers which then it trickles down to the reps. If you have a good manager, the job is bearable. Working with a team is great, everyone is quite supportive between reps on a team, met some great people and friends.

The downside is there is very little training for managers to deal with the mental aspect of the job. You deal with a lot of businesses owners who have tried the program and felt like they were lied to. The script is very fluffed to make it seem like the program is going to fulfill the business "need" which leads to the belief the program will work better than it actually does but it is a slow burning program that may work. Managers will tell you to continuously keep calling even after you are told no. Managers will also not approve "do not call" requests so you will eventually see the same accounts come through and have to call again. Very few managers actually care for progression, they took out the human aspect of the job and will push you to get numbers. Those that perform get rewarded with more accounts which allows for more opportunities to sell the program so do not be fooled by those top sellers, they have more opportunities exponentially. Those who are not performing are typically pushed out to another manager which a lot of times leads to the manager letting the AE fail out and be fired. 
Very very few managers that will actually do their jobs and send you accounts, they are supposed to listen in and help during a call but they're stretched thin depending on the team. 

Managers are promoted based on their numbers and if they can sell. Just because somone is good at their own job of selling does not mean they are ready to be leaders of teams themselves.  Sure they have to help "coach" someone but thats a whole lot easier to help 1 person rather than a whole team. They should definitely have new manager shadow managers before they get their own teams of new hires. You can be on a manager track and still be let go because of performance months later just because you got moved to the wrong team.

Overall, very very few managers who are actually truly amazing and make the job worth it. Unless you are liked by the manager or are a strong performer, you will struggle and end up being pushed out. Not an easy job but doable, just have to do it in a way where you feel like you are actually helping the business owner. 

This job is for a very specific type of person. If you can stomach constantly bothering people who are trying to run a business, or enjoy negotiating with those same business owners for a 20 minute conversation while ensuring you meet all expectations, sales and otherwise then Yelp might the place for you. I personally should have never taken this job. It was a terrible fit for me and caused a great deal of stress so much so that it started to manifest into physical pain. You’re trained to ignore business owners objections and go into every single one of the expected 80+ class a day with the mentality that you have to sell this person. Your managers might tell you otherwise but it’s bs. I have only been with the company for three almost four months now and I am desperately trying to escape. I’m even considering doing Lyft or Uber as a place holder that’s how bad it’s gotten for me. 

There are some positives however. I actually enjoyed the company I worked for. Before deciding to move away from the company I was trying to move into their IT department so I can remain part of the team but contribute in a different way. That wasn’t possible so I out. Other pros include the free Yelp kitchen all employees have access to. Granted the options don’t change and you will get tired of them quickly. The benefits package is really nice. You don’t a dime for personal health, dental, and vision which is nice. The office is in the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, and I personally enjoyed being downtown. If you don’t however looks elsewhere. My manager was cool but that will obviously vary depending on who you get. 

Overall the only way I could recommend this job to anyone is if that person meets the following criteria:

1. Don’t mind pestering people everyday (You’re managers will tell you it’s super important that biz owners talk to you, but relevance is subjective)
2. Can sit in your butt for 9 hours a day making phone calls to people who don’t want to talk to you. 
3. Are patient with the process and themselves. (Especially if this is first sales job you’ve ever had)
4. Can stomach how nasty some of the people you call can be. I’ve been cursed out, called names, etc... 
5. You absolutely have to be good a talking to people. It’s literally all you do. 
6. Can leave work at work and not bring it home. I struggled with this one personally just due to the sheer amount of stress this job put me under.

If you can’t stay true to these I wouldn’t touch this job with a 10ft pole

I have been at Yelp for over 3 years. I have completed their Leadership Development Programs. I have had revenue months higher than many managers and still don’t see a future here. Yelp is a very “young” company. The managers are young, inexperienced in management, and lack basic soft skills. The reps on the floor often haven’t held other jobs in their lives. But the issue with Yelp is deeper than this. Let me dive in:

Yelp, originally, was a fantastic place to work. The opportunities were high, the culture was fun (but not overbearing), and the pressure and pace of work was manageable. When Yelped switches to non term contracts, or RASS, things changed drastically. Quotas stayed the same, but deal sizes were extremely smaller (1/8th of the maximum size of the old product deal size). This meant that all of a sudden you had to work harder to get less and hopefully reach a quota that many struggle to hit. To make matters worse, with the new program chargebacks increased company wide. This meant that if you did make a commission you can expect that money to be taken away because advertisers you signed up turned off their ads earlier than predicted. Overall, it’s a power play by Yelp to appear to have a larger market share of the local environment but also not pay out as well. At least this is the experience I and many others have observed. 

As mentioned, Yelp management lacks soft skills. I’ve watched managers tell representatives that unless they make 120 dials (double the old expectations) that they will not get promoted. I’ve watched management tell employees that their diseases or age will hold them back, or tell other managers this when they think they’re in safe spaces. I’ve watched coworkers dive into depression due to unrealistic expectations and crushing pressure brought on by micromanaging, overburdened and undertrained management. 

You also have a culture that is very forced. If you don’t attend after work happy hours you are looked down upon. If you aren’t out drinking until 4 am with coworkers you’re ostracized. If you’re not railing adderall or coke in the bathroom 4 times per day in the stalls you’re probably getting depressed. Yes, this actually happens more often than Yelp acknowledges. 

As far as pay- it’s well below industry standard. And once you get to the Senior level your salary stops rising but your quota doesn’t. You’re expected to produce more and work harder but don’t get correlating pay.

Yelp can be good. Right now it is not.

This was my first sales gig as they accept entry level candidates. The company itself seems awesome to work for, but the account executive role is NOT for everyone. Generally you start with a training team and manager. You’ll lose the majority of your team within 6 months and training managers are usually great people but bad managers since they are learning as well. You must hit your numbers and closing enough deals to support a decent lifestyle in my opinion is difficult from month to month. If you have a great territory you can earn nice commission, but during territory swaps you may get a very rural area and see a big drop in deals closed. Things I really didn’t like was the pressure management places on you if you miss your quota. It’s never because your territory is bad, but always somehow your fault. They’ll tell you that you changed the approach that was working for you or just read their script ( which is super corny). They’ll try to guilt trip you for using your pto if you aren’t at quota, and you’ll find yourself working off the clock to catch up. I have friends in sales so this doesn’t seem to be specific to Yelp, but these are things that taught me the role wasn’t for me. They will stress you to no end and randomly feed you words during your calls unless you are a superstar. Every team seems to have one to two of those. 
The base pay is low and the way up is to stick around long enough to progress through pay levels. If you are fresh out of college or live on a lower income then you can have happiness here. It is a good company. If you are looking to make money, give yourself six months- you’ll know if you have IT or not by then. 
As for the product- it’s simply too expensive for many of the businesses you will call. It will work well for some and not so well for others. Business owners will have heard stories or be fed up with your calls by the time you speak with them and for this reason most of them won’t hear you out. Unfortunately, as someone who has used online ads for years I can say no matter what they tell you, the cost per click makes competitors more attractive outside of the restaurant industry. You need to be aggressive to sell this product well and one call close. 

READ ME!! Here is the full REAL scoop

First this is a job where its more about experience & the stamp on the resume. They act like you can make all this crazy amount of money but I sold 23k last month and commission check was less than 5% of that.

(YSDP) THEY LOCK YOU IN TO SALE YOUR FIRST 30K WITH NO COMMISSION STARTING OFF- Heads up.

They will NOT explain anything to you in training about how the structure works...and the structure needs work!! I have seen some people literally get finessed to keep in "YSDP" when in reality they sold the product however, the business cancelled after a month for example.


This job can be stressful right off the bat. The managers are GREAT however, the leadership, upper management you CANNOT trust. They say one thing  but really mean something else. I suppose it depends on your director that you fall under. Terrible leadership from my end. You''ll get an email from one of the top guys every single day trying to motivate you, but yet he will walk by you or by your desk and never say a word lol.

Pay: Just going to be real, for you really to making "good" commission money you need to sale like 20k a month which is about 650$ after taxes. Com. checks are taxed 40%!! Chargebacks pretty much happen every month which can be draining, cutting into your commission check. The pay is low starting off.

Incentives: Sell 200k "here's a wireless headset" sick bro!! 
 
Atmosphere:   It's on point..kitchens stocked with food and free cofe in the lobby....they do a awesome job hiring great people who can literally become friends with and make connections outside of work and broader your networking circle. They got music playing all day which helps keep good energy. Also ping pong,game room, pool table and A KEG!! 

BEWARE: The people you will be calling HATE YELP AND WILL HATE YOU.... they dont even know you and theyll hate you because of Yelp ... the sales are SUPER aggressive.

Yelp is also very sneaky . They lost a lot of money from their top investors and took a week out of pay from us and did it so sneaky.

YOU CANNOT TRUST UPPER MANAGEMENT OR THE STRUCTURE 

Great people that work here tho ...awesome managers!!

Yelp is pretty cool.I would recommend it to someone if there was a job opening they were into.

Great free snacks. Not so great compared to other companies in the area, but definitely above average. 

Beer! I've never liked hanging out at an office after hours before. I do that somewhat regularly here.

Flexible Hours with the option to work from home when necessary.

Sweet health benefits and they're pretty generous with stock even for us lowly user ops workers.

Average good-ish time off/sick time

Overall company good about providing important updates

Unfortunately none of this is enough to make up for the crushing boredom that eventually sets in with moderating content. They tell you straight up when you start not to really expect this to go anywhere. It's kinda sad since we have a lot of talented, intelligent people on the team wasting their smarts. I can feel myself getting dumber from all the terrible punctuation and block paragraphs that I have to read all day long. Go on though, do it a year or two and then move along. It's a great job as one of your first out of college. You don't have to wear real clothes or show up at a specific time and that's all real real nice.

"Fun" environment for the most part. Though in our particular department there is a lot of forced fun that really gets irritating for a cynic like me. It's kinda silly since they actually advertise the position as being for introverts. It's a little tone deaf. Like the time they had us spin some Harry Potter sorting hat for assigned seats at lunch. Yep... actual adults arranged that forced mingling situation with a group full of introverts. They also recently instituted music on Friday afternoons and it is the worst. 

There are a lot of management things that make the job really stressful. But I think I mostly just get petty and mad because I am so so bored. 

You'll have fun for a while doing this job probably. But it really does show you a bad side of humanity. There are some awful opinions that I was not used to coming across. That can be tough. But it's nothing awful like if you were moderating beheadings content for that popular video upload website.

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