Vitamin T is EXTREMELY metrics and numbers driven... as expected because it's a staffing agency, right? WRONG! Vitamin T tracks how many connects you make with contacts you call and how many orders you bring in per week. Most staffing companies care about your activity numbers. Though both of these are important metrics to track, realistically, the expectations are stupid. I don't have control over who answers the phone when I call... I can only control how many people I reach out to. I can call the same person 5 times and never get an answer, but I don't get credit for that because that's not what they're holding me accountable for. Again... STUPID. I get the cause and effect of it where one breeds the results of the other, but you should hold people accountable for metrics they actually can control. I also think it's stupid to track FTEs and not gross profit. Why are you so focused on how many hours and people are out working instead of being more worried about how much money they're bringing the company? Again... stupid. I got put on a performance plan for FOUR WEEKS because I wasn't hitting 50 connects and putting in 5 orders per week. Not only was the performance plan STUPID, but FOUR WEEKS? That's it? They should've just fired me then because it's not possible for any sales person in this organization to be able to hit certain metrics in such a short amount of time with no leadership or direction. To ask your manager to help introduce you to contacts and old connections they have in their network and to be told that there isn't any in a metro city is just absurd. What was my activity you ask? Well... EXTREMELY high since the expectations were extremely unrealistic. Yet, was I ever praised for making 500 calls in a week? Nope. Just condemned for NOT bringing in 5 orders and connecting with 50 people. Talk about undervalued. It's a revolving door around here for employees because of management expectations. I've never been in a company that held you accountable for metrics they weren't trying to help you reach.
And let's not forget some other cons:
Commission Structure is terrible, so if you're in a market that isn't doing well, you won't make any good money.
Clique-y. It's all about friendships and relationships. Management will look out for you if you're their friend, but if you have no working or personal relationship with the manager, you can forget about them trying to help you. Privileges and incentives are given to friends of managers, not everyone else, so you can bet that you'll be promoted if you and the manager go out every Friday over the person who is actually the TOP performer on the team.
Management will make up lies about you in WRITING and send them to HR.
Managers who are in management shouldn't be. A lot of them use their own biased in the job that not only leads to neglect of employees, but a lack of investment in their growth.
Company is more focused on the quantity of EVERYTHING than the quality.
You will have meetings everyday talking about the same things. Your manager will ask what orders are coming in for that DAY, and you better have an answer ready. And if you don't have any to mention, he/she won't provide any suggestions or interject themselves in the process to help you hit your goals.
Tenure is more important than ability, skills and production. If you're new and not producing, you'll be fired before the person who's been there for 5 years and hasn't produced. And they'll put the worst possible people in management and senior positions to train and then ask questions as to why the market isn't performing. Well... your management choice has a lot to do with that, Vitamin T.
Most of the managers and senior level folks in the company input things in the system for the sake of having a number calculated, but won't ACTUALLY have done the work.
I have friends who still work for Vitamin T who have so many complaints about the managers and the expectations. My advice... if you're in sales and looking to be successful, Vitamin T isn't the place. Trust me.
