Pros
Some freedom to work from home and set your own schedule. I pad Air and Work laptop supplied. Cell phone and Printer / Ink allowance for home office supplies. All together adds up to sub-standard base salary of $38K a year. Used to have good commissions (not now) and good clients. Cannot hold any of them anymore, as phone book advertising is dropping off, and their internet products are crap. Fulfillment issues, copy-writing issues, unrealistic sales quotas, inevitable fear of being fired for not hitting quota, not a long term position any more.
Cons
Basically, a yellow pages company that has tried (highly unsuccessfully, unfortunately for their clients and reps) to seque into the digital world, too little, too late, too inefficiently, with horrible results. As a star sales rep who won their presidents club trip in 2008 during my first full year working with the company in 2007 & 2008, I have been sad to see the decline. The management have always been out of touch, but now are just a bunch of fools, playing CYA, trying to hold onto their jobs as long as they can while the ship sinks. Complete mis-management by all the top management teams of the last 4 years (since founder Joe Walsh left) and inability to make the company change to follow the lip service they give, has lead to a company I expect to see sold or split up any time. Currently owned and being mis-managed by their investors. Soon to be gone I would bet. Cons Toxic work environment. Fear based corporate culture. Currently implementing even MORE micromanagement tools in the form of Salesforce CRM system. Don't walk RUN from this job!!! I have seen more toxic environments to work in, but not many. Money sucks. Even if you hit your quotas, blah blah blah, when it comes time for them to pay your bonuses, they always find a way to "disqualify a sale" missed a date, or some other wrinkle that allows you to be shafted for your bonuses. If I worked 70 -80 hours a week, and had no life whatever, I made $80 1 year, when Yellow Pages were still making people money. After that, it has been a $50k a year job, no matter how hard you work at it, or what you do. Corporate systems and fulfillment as well as corporate culture are so bad, all the good people have left or been fired. When I started in 2007 there were between 5000-6000 reps and managers in sales in the USA alone. Now down to less than 2000, and shrinking. Has always been a "revolving door" for sales reps, my entire 7.5 years. I was one of the toughest ones, to hang in for 7 years, 6 months. I learned a lot about consultative selling, good training at times. but an awful lot of corporate BS, being lied to, having the story changed every month, or less, etc. If you are a self starter (I am) smart, tech savvy, and care about your clients business (Ethical sales person) you will end up having a problem with this job, sooner or later. Most likely sooner. Consider this a starter level - entry level sales position. If you hit your numbers, you will be ok, and can have fun. Don't hit your numbers (which are highly unrealistic) you will be fired. DO NOT TAKE A DIGITAL ONLY "BDR" (business development rep) position. They can't produce the websites you are supposed to sell 6 of a month to make quota, and you DON'T GET PAID your commissions until the site goes live. Takes months, which most clients won't put up with so they cancel. Account Managers positions just had their commissions cut in half nationwide, and given twice as many accounts to handle, which is not physically possible. Overwhelmed and no support all the time. SEM and SEO are all BS and highly ineffective compared to dollars spent. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, so nothing gets done, and the clients suffer, then cancel. Yellow pages still work for some clients, and make some money. They have absolutely NO Handle on implementing actual digital solutions for their clients, sense of responsibility for their clients business, or any ethics whatsoever on a corporate level. As I said above, all the best people I have known in my 7.5 years there are already gone, the rest CYA'- ing and holding on for dear life until they get a better job, or get fired. Advice to Management Walk the walk don't just talk the talk. The managers I had who would actually go out and make a sale, help a new rep, and take care of clients business (supposed to be their job) are all gone, or retired, or have quit. Honestly, my gut is telling me the investors who are now in charge of the company are setting it up to sell off somehow, if they could ever find a buyer. Ride the train as long as you can, but you won't live long I'll bet.
