Pros
Coca Cola is an iconic brand that outsells the competition by nearly every metric. Additionally, Coca Cola distributes other great brands such as Powerade, Body Armor, Monster Energy, etc. Benefits are very good and you get 3 weeks vacation first year.
Cons
Lots to list here.... Training- My onboarding process was terrible. 1 day of orientation. 1 day with a merchandiser. 1 day on a delivery truck. Then 2 weeks with a relief account manager (they cover routes when someone is sick or on vacation). There was no real plan or training schedule. Was just like “watch these people and pick up what you can”. Didn’t even know where I was going or what I was doing one day to the next. Plus I didn’t receive my own equipment until week 4, and then it didn’t work right and I didn’t have access to several programs I needed. Very difficult to do a new job under these circumstances. Other new hires are experiencing the same thing right now. You are not set up for success. Expectations- Was hired for Account Manager position on large store team. Was not told in the interview that my position was being eliminated in 4 months when they went to the new RTM model. Kind of a shocker to find out the position you just started is being eliminated. They should have been up front about this during the interview process. Also, I am expected to visit 24 accounts per day on average. I’m lucky to make it to 8-9. Everyone else is in the same boat. Yet at our sales meetings we are slammed for not getting everything done. But when we try to speak up and explain the workload is too much we are labeled complainers or excuse makers. Leadership- Fear based management style. Little to no positive reinforcement or recognition for hard work. Just consistently told we are not doing good enough yet we aren’t given the resources to do our job properly. Additionally, when we reach out for help, guidance or assistance it’s either forgotten about and there’s no response or follow up, or we are directed to someone else (because they are passing the buck), or we are belittled for not knowing what to do or how to handle a situation. Pay- I can only speak to the Sales Account Manager role. Pay is lower than other similar jobs in similar industries. About $45k base plus up to $9k bonus. However, most people only get about 50% of their bonus potential or less. Have year to meet anyone that’s got above 75% of their bonus. I have only been here 1 year but according to others raises are rare and if they do happen is very little. Like 1%. Kind of crazy considering my territory does over $10 Mil in sales annually but I’m making less than $50k? RTM- For those that don’t know, Route To Market is their new operating model implemented in March of 2019 (look at the review trend on here. Drops off a cliff in March of this year). Calling it a train wreck or dumpster fire would be a insult to train wrecks and dumpster fires everywhere. But seriously, it’s terrible. We are laughed at in the industry. Our competitors are taking share and capitalizing on the opportunities we leave behind. Long story short, they let go of a lot of salaried sales positions and hired hourly workers to fill in the gaps. The salaried sales people that were lucky enough to interview to keep their job (like myself) now have more responsibilities, more work, higher expectations, but no extra pay. The hourly workers are doing their best but they were thrust into a situation they were not properly trained and prepared for. Yet upper management refuses to acknowledge the system is failing. We are losing accounts and turnover is very high. Not a positive outlook going forward.