Terrible for a seasoned sales professional - Business Development Associate Staples Employee Review

1.0
Mar 10, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There is the chance to work out of your home office in csome territories.

Cons

I have worked in outside sales for 20+ years. I was hired along with 2 other seasoned sales people. My manager was 23 years old. He wanted to teach us how to make phone calls. We were given sales goals which were impossible to reach. My sales territory was 85% rural. We were never informed that we were competing with staples.com, Quill etc… or that corporate phone banks called customers in our territory and took our business away. We were never informed that we could not call on companies that order over a certain dollar amount. That was reserved for the account reps. The account reps in my office had counties, huge school districts and cities. They had no interest in working on other accounts. They were grandfathered in when Staples took over a local company. They hated Staples! They were so wealthy, that one guy owned race horses; one lady lived in Hawaii. I had two accounts that I cultivated each in access of 100,000 a month, which I never received the commission on, because I was not allowed to sell to them because they bought more than $5000 a month... That’s a nice thank you for a job well done. Needless to say, the three new hires left within 6 months. It was an extremely stressful place to work.

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5.0
Feb 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Was a good job to have

Cons

Not enough pay per hour.

1.0
Jul 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will acquire genuinely useful AR and account management skills including Oracle, MS Office, customer support, reporting, and general O2C fundamentals. These skills will help you in future roles and look good on a résumé. To be transparent: those skills will come in handy when you’re searching for a new job later — because based on team conditions, you’ll likely be looking again within a year.

Cons

The Escalation Specialist role was originally part of the Center of Excellence (COE) and fully remote. It is no longer remote. Management relies heavily on weekly “validation” scorecards to evaluate performance. These scorecards often feel subjective and based more on opinion than actual workload, metrics, or demonstrated knowledge. They do not accurately reflect your true performance or skill level. Recognition tends to go to the same small group of individuals (primarily within Vendor Management), even though the Specialists are responsible for the majority of the day‑to‑day work and issue resolution. This creates an uneven sense of visibility and appreciation across the team. You deserve better!

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