Former Business Account Executive (SMB) shares advice for new applicants
Pros
Benefits are great. Free TV (all channels, including all premiums), internet, and telephone. Mileage allowance. Laptop and cell provided. Salary (around 35-40k) + commissions. "Leads" provided for you (there's a reason I put them in quotes, explained in cons section). Commissions are very good for a direct B2B field sales rep; ie: your OTE is around $100k, so if you do your job and meet your monthly quota 12 times in a year, expect to make 6 figures. Monthly incentive contests - decent prizes (~$100-300 value) You get to be out in your community meeting business owners and participating in networking events, etc. It's a great way to become more involved in your community and expand your local professional network. Your limited contact with local work colleagues will show that they are extremely professional and take their job seriously. So, should you take the job? Check my Cons section. Weigh the Pros/Cons out.
Cons
Leads aren't really leads. They are a street sheet of businesses that, for the most part, don't have Spectrum services, and possibly could have them. In effect, its just a list of businesses in a specific geographic area. There has been no qualification of these at all. In fact, they have most likely been visited on average 4 times in the past year. It's just a list. You'd have to do the work of qualification, etc. It's your job, but be prepared for the work. Don't get sold on the recruiter telling you, "they give you leads, you just have to close them". That's not entirely accurate. Be prepared for traditional B2B door-to-door selling. This is not rocket science, nor is it strategic (from the company's POV). They expect you to cold call on 30-50 businesses per day. And that's just the prospecting. You are also responsible for everything else, initial contact to installation of service; your commission check depends on it. Your responsibilities do not end once you make a sale. Even though other internal departments get involved and process the technical aspects of the sale, it is ultimately up to you that your customer doesn't fall through the (gaping) cracks in the post-sale process. Training is limited to initial hire. Much of it is corporate HR CYA stuff like don't sexually harass people and make sure you bend your knees when picking up heavy objects. As for the product training, you watch outdated videos about products no longer offered. As for sales training, it's traditional sales stuff: work hard, be nice, features & benefits, price, ask for sale, NEXT! Ongoing training is provided by your sales manager, and depending on who that is can vary wildly in effectiveness. Coaching from management is required weekly and is essentially: "are you on track to hit your numbers, what do you have in your pipeline, go out and talk to more people". This is very much a numbers game. From the sales perspective and the customer's perspective. There is no fancy value-based selling or anything -- You are selling a utility. I said it before, it's not rocket-science. It is a commodity. Businesses have to have phone and internet service. If you can show enough people that Spectrum is cheaper than the alternative, AT&T U-Verse in most cases, you should sell enough to meet quota. Marketing does not benefit the field sales reps at all, save for brand awareness. All official marketing funnels people to call the 800 number or go to the website. Even your local marketing rep will supply you with kitsch, knick-knacks, and collateral that points people to Spectrum ONLY. No personalization, no name or phone number on the crap. Just the brand. Nothing to help funnel interested parties to you as a individual rep. The only thing they give you for that are your business cards. Depending on your particular area you'd be selling in, Spectrum may have really high penetration numbers. Charter/TWC/BHN has been in that market for a while, and has had a strong sales team selling that market during that time. Meaning the majority of businesses that fall in a serviceable demographic already are Spectrum customers. (IE: you cold call on 10 ideal-target businesses and 8-10 of them already have Spectrum service) Make sure you ask the hiring manager about market penetration. If the number is high, anywhere over 50%, seriously reconsider taking the job. Because your job is infinitely harder, the higher the penetration numbers. On the other hand, if market penetration is still low, you may have a gold mine on your hands. You could stop by 10 ideal-target businesses and only 3-4 of them have Spectrum, meaning you could sell the rest. Wow! By working really hard and smart, you could make over $250,000 in that podunk part of your state that has nothing but factory towns and corn fields. (This actually happens! Really!) So, should you take the job? In my opinion, Yes! Absolutely, it is an amazing opportunity. Nowhere else, that I've seen, is it this easy to make over $100,000 in one-job-after-entry-level sales. You just have to be aware that there's a lot of crap to deal with on the way to making those big commission checks. But that's with any sales job. Do the work, and you'll make big bucks!! Happy cold-calling.
