Pros
Laid back office environment, Friendly coworkers willing to help and answer questions, great pay
Cons
If you are not from the building automation or HVAC industry, you will have an extremely difficult time in a sales position here. Trainings are limited to online modules that cover basic HVAC principles, not the actual product you will be selling. You may get to sit in on a training class held for end users, but this really just goes over how to use the system, not sell it. This is an extremely technical product, and the minimal training provided does not even begin to scrape the surface. This is also not a traditional sales position where you are prospecting and meeting with potential clients, presenting your product, and closing a deal. In reality, you are calling around to engineers/mechanical contractors begging to be added to the building specifications. If you get added, you then must engineer the BAS project based on the building blueprints, which takes hours or days depending on the size of the project. You will receive no training on how to estimate these projects, at most you may sit with a more experienced rep and watch them go through a project or two. Every project is unique, so you really need a ton of exposure to a variety of projects to be able to remotely know what you are doing, not watching someone go through a project once. You will be expected to guess your way through and rely on your coworkers to look over your estimates, when they have their own projects that they need to worry about. If your estimate ends up losing the company money on the project, you are responsible for paying the company back, so there is a lot riding on your estimate. Expect estimating projects to consume over half your week. Once you get an estimate put together, you then put a bid into a mechanical contractor who only cares about price. You'll then adjust your price to the bare minimum, in hopes that that they will use your number. Ultimately, this position really isn't sales - it's engineering and adjusting a price. There really is only true selling done if you are lucky to be in contact with the owner of the building, which is extremely rare. You will also be held to ridiculous metrics, that not even the most tenured of reps (20+ years of experience) are unable to meet. For 2016, the majority of reps did not meet their quotas. Automated Logic's reputation has also gone downhill over the past few years. The turnover is extremely high for both field employees and office employees. Prospects are aware of this, and do not trust the inexperienced workforce Automated Logic has to offer. If you truly have an interest in building automation systems or HVAC and want to get into a sales role, I would suggest being an estimator for a year, not jumping straight into a sales rep role. Or look at companies with a true sales training program, like Siemens or Trane.
