Pros
The training was excellant. It was a full month, and left us well prepared. The compensation can be quite good during the wet weather months, but then can dry up very quickly.
Cons
While we are considered full time employees, not independant contractors, consultants are charged for everything, starting with training. They call it paid training, however they are only giving you a draw, or advance. As training lasts a full month, you are already financially in the hole before you even sell your first deal. In addition you are charged for required items such as a cell phone and an aircard for internet use, a necessity. It doesn't stop there. You are required to attend weekly meetings/training sessions for no compensation. And they've even gone as far as pulling us out of the field for an 8 hour required course, not compensating us for it, and then actually charging us for the tuition. They also have a twisted way of determining failure or success. You can have a high closing rate, or sell high volume. But if your "ADL", Average Dollar per Lead, falls below a made up value you are called on the carpet. Worse yet, you are pulled off the street, required to come into the office for 2 weeks to make phone calls and be retrained. Recently the bonus program was changed. It was performance based, and paid through-out the year. Now to help motivate us, they've reduced the bonus, and will only pay out once a year. It is directly tied to the previously mentioned ADL. If the ADL drops to an unacceptable level, even for a short period, you will lose your bonus for the entire year. During the lean months, this becomes very difficult. This is just a way to eliminate bonuses, while putting the blame on the conultant for not performing. The real kicker, is this affects the top producers the most. Other ways they affect your pay is by reducing your commission for company mandated sales, if the customer uses financing, and for discounts. These can be significant. They will put a cap on sales, ( total dollar amount discounted), but the way the system is set-up, a single customer may have 4-5 contracts for a single job. Each component is contracted seperately. Meaning the sales caps can be multiplied 4-5 times. This can practically wipe out your commission. The other thing is their culture, something they preach. They consider themselves a "tribe". This sounded great at first. But over time it's quite obvious it is nothing more than a way to control people. You are told, when you have a decision to make, it is not what is best for me, but what is best for the tribe. You don't dare question anything. If you do you're singled out, and your loyalty to the tribe is put in question. None of the management team has more than 3 years experience with the company. I'm beginning to understand why. What was sold to me as an opportunity of a lifetime, has turned into a financial nightmare, and a huge dissapointment. If I was alone, I would keep it to myself. But many of us are in the same situation, and the "tribe" simply doesn't care.
