The training for the position is unnecessarily complicated.
Management doesn’t want reps “giving away the bank” but free shipping entices a lot of buyers. If you don’t upsell you get dinged. It has to be pushed every phone call but the calls also have to be quick. You are encouraged to come up with your own way of selling but it’s clear their magic isn’t being taught to their agents. Cold selling is very hard and they know it.
Their site is terrible and due to the flash they use the site would take forever to load and people would click the submit button too many times and hundreds of dollars worth of items would be added for anyone without high speed internet. Sometimes orders would be in the thousands. People would call pissed off the next day because we were closed and we were told to tell the people the order had already shipped, which was a lie, and that the order couldn’t be stopped (also a lie) and they would get their money back once the items were returned. We were required to “Save the sale” and would be put on a PIP plan for not saving accidental orders, people didn’t have the money to pay for. Management’s claim was that the site was easy to use and it’s their fault they kept clicking the submit button. I was also told that those people who cancel orders are liars and will spend that money elsewhere so why not at BioTrust.
The entire experience was as slimy as a used car dealership. The aggressive sales techniques created a boiler room environment. For a health and wellness company it was an insanely stressful job. I gained 50 pounds from the stress.
Tip to management:
Give your agents more options. The company can afford free shipping and if that gets a customer to buy one more bottle for $39-59, or a box of cookies, there is no reason it shouldn’t be offered as an option on every order, except internationally. Selling a subscription should always count as an upsell and satisfy selling requirements. Selling individual bottles is a poor plan. They should all only be sold in 90 day increments so the customer can get the full effect. Selling individual bottles is dumb, unless it’s a subscription plan. The complete plan should be 90 and then 1 of whatever every month thereafter. The protein powder prices are outrageous. Outsourcing to New Zealand is as common as it comes these days. That’s not enough justification for a small amount of powder to actually cost more than most baby formula which infinitely more complex and is made in an FDA approved factory with an FDA approved ingredient list. Your stuff is just way over priced.
The exchange option is a good one but it needs to very very clear. Customers must return the products period. That needs to be put on a piece of paper and included in the box. Customers should be encouraged to keep the box shipment came in just incase a return is needed.
The objective should be longevity and not just sales. BioTrust has some great products but how they treat their agents and the slightly scammy site they run just isn’t worth it. The customers also complained endlessly about the add ons and videos yet BioTrust refused to change the site. The attitude was that it was working so so what. Yeah well BioTrust isn’t doing nearly as well as it was so maybe it’s time for a change.
I really wanted to keep working at this place because I saw that I could make a difference but being constantly terrorized by the psychopath running my team who would regularly turn your feelings against you and use it as fuel for wrong doing was too much to put myself through everyday. That guy got fired but the damage was done. I never felt that was fair.
