SALES PROFESSIONALS BEWARE! (MUST READ)
Pros
If you have the financial means to support your household during the first 4-6 months of your employment without seeing significant income from Renewal by Andersen, and you are out of better options; a sales position here may just be the last resort "lifeline" you need to get you by during hard times, until you are able to obtain a more worthy sales position with a real company. If you can avoid taking this option altogether, you'll be better off. The sales really slow down in the winter months here, so hopefully you plan ahead financially for those months as well. Usually right before Thanksgiving, through Christmas and New Years and February they don't have much marketing budget. You should expect to spend a majority of your time meeting with "inquiries" which are essentially colder leads that have a slimmer chance of closing on the same day. If you plan to follow up or have a pipline, they don't allow it. They rehash the leads and when/if an inquiry reaches out to place their order, a secondary consultant is sent to take the order. This strange approach to customer relationships could be a hint as to why they have a 2.4 star yelp rating. I have never experienced this type of practice in any sales job I've had prior. Read below for some other hints about this company and how they approach their internal customers (the employees) there are many deeply concerning issues.
Cons
A majority of the sales representative reviews for this company are posted in waves (often all on the same day) by consultants who have been employed for under 1 year. These reviews are often mysteriously void of ANY "cons" and offer minimal insight otherwise. The reason for this is due to the reviews being coerced by sales managers to essentially force sales consultants who are at the end of their run with Renewal by Andersen (typically this stage is reached after about 9-10 months). They are asked to show they are a good "team player" and to "help the company" or something along those lines. Why they do it is rooted in a false hope that their loyalty will buy them time on the chopping block. Unfortunately, most will be chopped anyway and that's why they were asked to do a bogus review in the first place. Renewal by Andersen is a company with the mentality that you hire 5 to keep 1. So they want to make sure they get 3 or 4 "great reviews" right before the revolving door spins. They are very good at this tactic and it's unfortunate they feel the need to resort to it. Luckily I was never chopped, so my review is honest and not coerced. I came to Renewal with 27+ years of sales experience spanning multiple industries. I have been a top performer for every organization I've sold or managed for, including Renewal by Andersen and their illustrious "president's club". The presidents club is only achieved by a select few salespeople and is based on various performance metrics including but not limited to, close rate and net sales. I achieved this distinction within my first 9 months of selling at Renewal. I am a woman with no construction background who has never sold home improvement projects before and if it weren't for my extensive experience in sales prior to Renewal by Andersen, I do not believe i would have had much success. My managers had very little construction knowledge and could rarely assist me with questions. They also lacked sales aptitude, leadership and motivational skills to put it mildly. I was once given a sales award trophy by my manager and no sooner than the award being placed in my hands, issued a "verbal warning" for being 8 minutes late to the sales meeting. I had an emergency with one of my children and notified my manager prior to the meeting beginning. This is just one example of which I have MANY. Including being reprimand over the phone by my manager for selling a cash deal instead of financing it. Imagine that? Hard to believe but yes, I was scolded for SELLING. Only at RBA! Got to love it. The leadership team at this company is undoubtedly the least professional I've ever come accross in my entire sales career. Starting with the president and running down the ladder to the sales managers, there is a clear lack of experience and leadership ability which has lended itself to the lowest moral sales team I've ever been a part of. Granted, I decided this type of leadership group wouldn't be advantageous to my career and I resigned from the sales position after about a year to pursue a far better opportunity at the advice of several trusted people within my network; including the first manager I ever worked for when I was 18 years old and starting in sales. Yes we stay in touch! I have always been surrounded by true proffesionals until venturing into Renewal by Andersen. It's unfortunate that such people have spoiled such a unique sales opportunity for so many. Another fairly recent 1 star review touches on several other critical key points regarding the toxic culture, and is worth reading if you're still considering working here. When I was selling for Renewal, the compensation was equal to 10% of the contract valuation, but it's since been reduced to 8% due to the leadership apparently being unaware that the company needed to pay it's sales reps the IRS rate for their mileage. It remains unclear as to why the compensation percentage was reduced simply to introduce mileage pay. Again, RED FLAGS! Leadership is not transparent or competient. The current IRS mileage rate of 67 cents per mile but they cut pay from 10% to 8% to cover it and told everyone its better for them. Do the math and see if it's better. Let's say you drive 112 miles from your home to an appointment in the morning rush hour traffic to get to your first appointment of the day. You won't get the 67 cents per mile for this 112 mile drive (per the agreement). Let's say they then send you 5 miles away to your next appointment before you drive back home for the day. This means you will be able to claim only the 5 mile drive from your morning appointment to your second appointment of the day. That's $3.35. It doesn't take much math skills to see that getting 67 cents per mile for portions of your commutes will never annually equate to 2% of say $250,000. Do your homework on this place and don't believe the fake reviews. They will take advantage of you if you let them. All of their top performing sales reps absorbed a monster pay cut due to the pay reduction and many of them will probably seek new and more lucrative sales positions elsewhere. It's not uncommon to receive 10% (or more) commission as well as mileage reimbursement in the home improvement sales space. Renewal by Andersen will struggle to reach new heights due to their inability and unwillingness to attract and retain talented professionals.
