This is a job, regardless of their statements that you're "independent". Yes, you get to open a business and have those benefits; but the magazines you build are THEIRS, not yours. Your pay comes as commission on ad sales, and you'll have to literally work your ___ off to get those. This model is not new, and, in the eyes of the business owners you'll pitch, is as suspicious as anything else touted as better than the competition. It's a classic One Call Close. Get them to signTODAY, or you lose. Your failings in getting sales will be attributed to an imperfect presentation and/or the nature of the market, so hey, 'just move on, find more leads'. Constant 'training' for the presentation, which means top publishers talking on the conf calls telling their 'secrets' for closing, and endless repetition of the Boss' video pitch. They don't tell you that closing takes very, very aggressive pricing, discounting, and even making side deals with some prospects to get them to sign. And once they buy, the customers will gripe about why the ad isn't pulling, it's so expensive, etc. Training is crammed into a day, with assurances that you'll get unlimited support at home/online/company site/videos, etc. Again, some is valuable, some is not. Getting help is repetitive info from different people, which is the best they can do. You'll get literally constant reminders of publisher XYZ that went to print in 8 days, he's a genius; "she's made $500K in sales this year so far, be like her" You'll hear many success stories of those that struggled, didn't give up and made it big, became section leaders, made a zillion$. You won't hear that MOST publishers struggle, most gripe among themselves about the systems and don't really 100% use the methods laid out in training. And that many quit because they can't take the pure, hard sales environment. They cannot play the role of relentless closer to get the deal, nor can they 'not take it personally'. Company close rate is established at 20%. I have had a 15 year sales career and mine was 2%.I was told 'you're so close, you're so close', just tweak it here, there, try this little phrase''. obviously, this isn't for me.
