Overall, this job is really tough and both the pay and benefits do not match the amount of work you put into it.
In my experience, I was ridiculously micro-manged because the boss always wanted to know where we were and what we were doing every moment of the day. I had to be at work at 8 am sharp and was not allowed to leave until we were finished recapping our day (every sales rep, the manager, and franchise owner) which typically did not end until 6 or 6:30 pm.
Also, the base pay is $30,000 and they give you a car/cell phone allowance of $300. This "allowance" does not change based on the economy (gas prices rising) or your territory. Therefore, if you gas up 3 x's a week to cover your territory, you're paying for it out of pocket... so really that $30,000 is probably closer to $28,000. And once you finally start making commission, you only get 10% of the margin dollars of the sale. I've heard other franchises offer more.... but it really doesn't move the needle much regardless.
And, yes you have to give out your personal cell phone number to customers. So, if your customer has a problem on a Saturday or Sunday morning.. or even at 9:00 at night when the customer service team is out.... they call YOU - with all their lovely complaints... so you really can end up working 24/7.. it's ridiculous.
You also do not get vacation time for a year. Once you finally are allotted vacation you get 1 week....and they also make you feel extremely guilty if you ever need a sick day. My franchise only offered health insurance - no dental or vision.... so that's another thing you pay out of pocket for.
All that, plus you work your ass off every. single. day.... Cold calling every single door to get leads and desperately hoping that you get to meet someone will will take an appointment with you so upper management doesn't chew you out. It's rough.
You never work with existing customers for upsell opportunities- only new customers via cold calling. So that makes this position much more difficult than other sales jobs.