Preface: I have something I need to get off my chest, and a way to get all my thoughts in order before I take my next steps. That's what this post is meant to be, and that is all. I can not go into certain details, however if anyone actually makes it to the end of this and has questions I can try to offer answers to what I can. What specifics I might not be able to answer I will simply tell you what I can and how much I can.
I'm sitting in a hotel room and trying to count how many different hotels I have been in over the last 12 weeks. I have lost count of even the different towns and cities I have been in. I know that they are stretched over 5 different states.
I am a travelling salesman. Or I am supposed to be. The company I work for sends me from place to place, city to city, state to state, business to business in order to sell merchant processing solutions. We offer low *fixed rates on credit card processing in addition to other programs to benefit and help grow a small to medium sized business profit revenue. That's the idea anyhow.
And it sounds good on the surface. When I present to you how much you are currently spending with your existing service provider vs how much my company can *save you it all looks very good on paper. Even when I go through an in depth explanation of why I am able to save you XX number of dollars a month it makes sense... from a certain point of view. Then I ask you for a ton of personal information, a voided check, fill out a 14 page contract and lean on your pen for you while you sign away. And I am expected to get you to sign through nearly any means necessary. I can be your friend, a negotiator on your behalf with the higher ups, I can get a little firm, and I can even get to the point of badgering and harassing you. And if I can't get it done, I get someone on the phone who is supposed to be able to close you in my place.
And merchants don't want to talk to me about these services anyhow. The popular saying is that it's my job to turn shoppers into buyers. These people are not shoppers. In order to even get me through the door the call center will resort to all the things I mentioned above of my own and then even to downright fraudulent representation of what I am there to do and who I represent or even falsely setting appointments just to get an appointment on the books. I have walked through the door and have been expected to be a representative of a current processor or bank, a courier just dropping off papers, to a repair man just coming to do an upgrade to a machine.
Normally I am very good at diffusing situations, disarming personalities and calming things down. Typically even under the worse circumstances I can still end a meeting by being told "it's not you. You are very pleasant and I am sorry to waste your time." or "I like you, if I was going to buy it would be from you, but..."
On other occasions I have had merchants walk away from me, forcibly push me out of their establishments, throw things, been cursed at physically threatened, and even once had the police called while I was following established sales tactics of the company.
In addition to all of this, I can not be perfectly confident the company is providing the services that I am selling. There are an ever increasing number of reports on the internet, complaints filed, and posts saying that they are not. Many of them I can read and dismiss as poor salesman not fully explaining things, some could simply be clerical or accounting errors, and honestly, some just bitter rival companies or ex employees. But I have lost a greater number of sales than I have made because of the online reputation. And I have lost several simply because of the must badger into a signature today or it's gone methodology. However, if given time to think, people will not sign. That should be another red flag. If it is not good enough that a person should be able to consider it fully, then there is something amiss.
But everything about everything, from what I feel are unethical, immoral, and borderline illegal appointment setting and sales practices, to the wording and penalties, the hidden costs in the 14 page sales contract (which is very explicitly explained in *training to be just rammed through and not let the merchant read in entirety) is shady and counter to my ethical nature.
And I have continued doing this for nearly 12 weeks now. At first I was able to swallow it. After all, I really didn't understand it all myself. My *training to sell this product consisted of very little to almost zero on the actual product that I pitch. Rather it was nearly two full days of how to walk in, make a friend, call someone else and how to make a sale without even having a full explanation of what I was selling. I had two days of watching privately posted videos on youtube, some conference calls, and a guide of paperwork that I was supposed to carry with me at all times so that I can just fill mine out exactly to match. Originally I asked repeatedly to have the holes in my training filled in and those requests were either never answered or filled with empty promises of "we'll get that to you." And despite the lacks in my knowledge, I was deemed prepared to enter the field. After all, I didn't really need to know all the ins and outs, I simply needed to know how to make a friend, explain a certain pitch and get someone else on the phone, then write papers. I was in a desperate position, the potential pay could not be ignored, and so I did it. Desperate men do desperate things.
And I have paid for it. I have gone further in the whole financially. I have taken out a title loan on my car which is the only real possession I even had left after the unfortunate events of late last year. I did so because I felt I could make this job work. I HAD to make this work. By my calculations it has effectively, or in the end will effectively, cost me 3-4 thousand dollars more than I have made during this tenure. If I had been able to make XX number of sales per week I would have succeeded. But there were a great many things, some I have already explained here, that have prevented me from being successful. In some ways, I have stood against myself because I just couldn't conform. And part of me says I need to keep pressing because the possibility is there. But it's not. I wise man should know when to cut his loses.
And as I haven't been performing anyhow, I believe the company is turning my out anyhow. I have been reassigned to a new manager. They have stopped making appointments for me. I am told that my previous manager has been either dismissed or given the opportunity to return to the field. I don't know what all the truth is regarding that. But I know I am expected to get on another plane on Sunday, do another two weeks moving from different cities in another state, and I can't afford to go. I am currently minus 1300 dollars in my bank account with bills coming up and no ability to make that trip, cover costs or income pending. Unless I could make a ton of sales in one day.
My current average is a little less than one sale per week. It's not going to happen... again, wise man should know when to cut his loses.
So now that I have posted a wall of text, yet I know there are still many holes in it, I have got my thoughts in order and I am prepared now to resign. Venturing out into the job market... again. To those who have read this, thank you for letting me get this off my chest.
I'm sitting in a hotel room and trying to count how many different hotels I have been in over the last 12 weeks. I have lost count of even the different towns and cities I have been in. I know that they are stretched over 5 different states.
I am a travelling salesman. Or I am supposed to be. The company I work for sends me from place to place, city to city, state to state, business to business in order to sell merchant processing solutions. We offer low *fixed rates on credit card processing in addition to other programs to benefit and help grow a small to medium sized business profit revenue. That's the idea anyhow.
And it sounds good on the surface. When I present to you how much you are currently spending with your existing service provider vs how much my company can *save you it all looks very good on paper. Even when I go through an in depth explanation of why I am able to save you XX number of dollars a month it makes sense... from a certain point of view. Then I ask you for a ton of personal information, a voided check, fill out a 14 page contract and lean on your pen for you while you sign away. And I am expected to get you to sign through nearly any means necessary. I can be your friend, a negotiator on your behalf with the higher ups, I can get a little firm, and I can even get to the point of badgering and harassing you. And if I can't get it done, I get someone on the phone who is supposed to be able to close you in my place.
And merchants don't want to talk to me about these services anyhow. The popular saying is that it's my job to turn shoppers into buyers. These people are not shoppers. In order to even get me through the door the call center will resort to all the things I mentioned above of my own and then even to downright fraudulent representation of what I am there to do and who I represent or even falsely setting appointments just to get an appointment on the books. I have walked through the door and have been expected to be a representative of a current processor or bank, a courier just dropping off papers, to a repair man just coming to do an upgrade to a machine.
Normally I am very good at diffusing situations, disarming personalities and calming things down. Typically even under the worse circumstances I can still end a meeting by being told "it's not you. You are very pleasant and I am sorry to waste your time." or "I like you, if I was going to buy it would be from you, but..."
On other occasions I have had merchants walk away from me, forcibly push me out of their establishments, throw things, been cursed at physically threatened, and even once had the police called while I was following established sales tactics of the company.
In addition to all of this, I can not be perfectly confident the company is providing the services that I am selling. There are an ever increasing number of reports on the internet, complaints filed, and posts saying that they are not. Many of them I can read and dismiss as poor salesman not fully explaining things, some could simply be clerical or accounting errors, and honestly, some just bitter rival companies or ex employees. But I have lost a greater number of sales than I have made because of the online reputation. And I have lost several simply because of the must badger into a signature today or it's gone methodology. However, if given time to think, people will not sign. That should be another red flag. If it is not good enough that a person should be able to consider it fully, then there is something amiss.
But everything about everything, from what I feel are unethical, immoral, and borderline illegal appointment setting and sales practices, to the wording and penalties, the hidden costs in the 14 page sales contract (which is very explicitly explained in *training to be just rammed through and not let the merchant read in entirety) is shady and counter to my ethical nature.
And I have continued doing this for nearly 12 weeks now. At first I was able to swallow it. After all, I really didn't understand it all myself. My *training to sell this product consisted of very little to almost zero on the actual product that I pitch. Rather it was nearly two full days of how to walk in, make a friend, call someone else and how to make a sale without even having a full explanation of what I was selling. I had two days of watching privately posted videos on youtube, some conference calls, and a guide of paperwork that I was supposed to carry with me at all times so that I can just fill mine out exactly to match. Originally I asked repeatedly to have the holes in my training filled in and those requests were either never answered or filled with empty promises of "we'll get that to you." And despite the lacks in my knowledge, I was deemed prepared to enter the field. After all, I didn't really need to know all the ins and outs, I simply needed to know how to make a friend, explain a certain pitch and get someone else on the phone, then write papers. I was in a desperate position, the potential pay could not be ignored, and so I did it. Desperate men do desperate things.
And I have paid for it. I have gone further in the whole financially. I have taken out a title loan on my car which is the only real possession I even had left after the unfortunate events of late last year. I did so because I felt I could make this job work. I HAD to make this work. By my calculations it has effectively, or in the end will effectively, cost me 3-4 thousand dollars more than I have made during this tenure. If I had been able to make XX number of sales per week I would have succeeded. But there were a great many things, some I have already explained here, that have prevented me from being successful. In some ways, I have stood against myself because I just couldn't conform. And part of me says I need to keep pressing because the possibility is there. But it's not. I wise man should know when to cut his loses.
And as I haven't been performing anyhow, I believe the company is turning my out anyhow. I have been reassigned to a new manager. They have stopped making appointments for me. I am told that my previous manager has been either dismissed or given the opportunity to return to the field. I don't know what all the truth is regarding that. But I know I am expected to get on another plane on Sunday, do another two weeks moving from different cities in another state, and I can't afford to go. I am currently minus 1300 dollars in my bank account with bills coming up and no ability to make that trip, cover costs or income pending. Unless I could make a ton of sales in one day.
My current average is a little less than one sale per week. It's not going to happen... again, wise man should know when to cut his loses.
So now that I have posted a wall of text, yet I know there are still many holes in it, I have got my thoughts in order and I am prepared now to resign. Venturing out into the job market... again. To those who have read this, thank you for letting me get this off my chest.
