Having worked for professional sales companies in the past, SolarCity has a lot to learn. They treat you poorly, have mid-level management SALES management with no prior sales or management experience that lie about their credentials (the internet is an amazing thing), demand long hours & expect you to embellish the truth to customers just to make a sale. If you question the deal you are to offer a homeowner, you are told to "just make the sale", and "you're a salesperson right, then sell it". If you ask about being certified to sell solar, you are told that you don't need it because you don't sell solar. You are expected to start work at 8 a.m. doing emails, creating designs and presentations or starting your drive to a 2 hour away appointment. Your are expected to have at least 3 appointments a day, at 2 hours each appointment, starting at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. & 6 p.m. Many of your appointments are typically set by a team in Las Vegas who has no clue with regard to the region and drive times. Typical day: drive 2-3 or sometimes 4 hours for an appointment, next appointment is back near where you started your day (2-3-4 hours back) and then having to go another 2 hours away to the last appointment and then long drive home. Do the math, the time just doesn't add up. So you call & push appointments and end up getting home at 11-12 midnight only to have to do it all again the next day, 7 days a week. Meanwhile your boss screams at you (yes, screams) in between appointments regarding why you are not answering his calls and he has to leave a message and why you take so long to return the calls. It begins to wear on you and fast. You start to second guess your many, award winning years in sales and think perhaps McDonalds is looking better all the time. Its not the working hard part, or even the long hours, at first. Its the total lack of respect from your immediate supervisors, the being cussed out, the "never enough' mentality that makes you want to run away, and fast. You are penalized monetarily if your deal falls through due to any reason out of your control. Okay, I get that. You cannot pay for deals that don't materialize due to poor roof structure, for example. But that deal from last month gets DQ'd (disqualified) and it counts negatively towards your numbers this month. You are expected to do 10 deals. If 3 deals (for example) fall through from last month or 6 months ago- you are now required to do 13 deals this month. Get the idea? Sell 12 deals in a month, two over the ten and NO those 2 extra deals do not count towards the next month. Now I have never sandbagged a deal in my life- here, you are forced to in order to save your job. The top salesman in my office for many months running was put on a PIP (performance improvement plan) for 90 days during Christmas and couldn't recover. He was fired. This organization does not value its revenue drivers. Its very much a "do it or else" mentality. Top level management is so disconnected from what really happens in each office that it's scary. Don't take it from me, connect to any past or present sales people via LinkedIn and ask for the real truth. There is a reason they give sales folks cars to drive... the could never reimburse the astronomical miles you put on your car. I was so excited when I started with SolarCIty. I started to question my decision 3 days into the worst training ever. Two months later and I knew I messed up. I wanted to give it my best and really make a go of it. After 1 year, I was so over it and over sales. I needed time. I left the company and really sat and thought about my career path and what I wanted to do moving forward. I'm not alone. For every 1 of me that does a review, there are 5 more out there just glad they were fired or left and are so over it, they wont take they time. It's taken me 4 months to even want to write this review and relive the hell that was my life. And P.S. There is no career path here and earnings are not as described.
