Decent company, stay away from inside sales! - Inside Sales Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Sep 6, 2023
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Company creates good curriculum. Kind and collaborative coworkers.

Cons

Most of this job should and could be automated. Very high volume of customers (you will be responsible for several thousand accounts) and high level of stress. Management is not transparent about salary/ sales goals. Half of salary is paid out as an annual bonus if you meet your sales goal. Sales goals were given several months into sales year and are unrealistically high. If you meet your goal, they will significantly increase your target goal the following year. During hiring, they stated payout would begin if you meet 80% of your goal. Using their sales compensation calculator, meeting 80% of your goal entitles you to an additional payout of $6… the majority of the team is not projected to meet goal this year.

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Cengage Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I am sorry to hear that your experience is not consistent with most in the Inside Sales organization. This past year, we reduced the average number of accounts an Inside Sales Account Executive covers by 30% and at the same time increased base compensation and bonus for most roles. Each year, we conduct an engagement survey to get feedback from our teams and each year shows that Inside Sales is one of the most highly engaged and successful teams in Sales and across Cengage Group. If there is more we can do to improve your experience, I encourage you to speak with your manager. Edwin Robles, SVP and GM of US Higher Ed & Canada

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
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Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

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