Upon reading the advertisement for the "closer" position I was given the option to fill out an application online to save some time during the interview process. I was directed to a website with the standard employment questions and some "why should we hire you over any other candidate" questions. I was then shot a link to complete an online assessment which contained math and reading comprehension questions, the whole process took about 45 minutes.
I called the job line after the assessment and I was pleased to find out that my results came back at a 93%. 93% of what...I couldn't tell you. But I guess this was a good number as I was immediately invited down for the interview that same morning. Upon arriving I was greeted by the receptionist and asked to have a seat while the hiring manager, we'll call him Byron, was notified I was there. It was at least a half hour before he saw me and we proceeded to an empty office to conduct the interview.
It turned out Byron had previously worked for one of the employers I had listed on my resume, thankfully in a different department so I was able to skate by on that one. After giving the usual rundown about who they were and where they came from it was time for the real interview. Byron says "We are a performance based company, just like the hiring process is performance based, so we're going to role play." (Yay! I love role plays! Can I be the salesman, and you be the customer?) He hands me a script and gives me the option of reviewing it before we get started. The Hound, being a master role-player (dungeons and dragons, nurse and patient, etc) decided to wing it. He asked that I spin around and face the wall, and after about 5 minutes of rebuttals and listening to his horrible fake country accent, I pulled his imaginary credit card and the interview was over. I was hired. Training to begin the following Monday.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed I was met Monday morning by a training class of about 12 people including myself, and a portly female instructor who was so cheery she could pass for Mrs. Claus. The class was a joke. Three days of pointless games and product knowledge that turned out to be irrelevant on the sales floor. By the end of class, two of us (your Hound included) were heading to the official Closer position, and the others were off to do a "Press 1 Campaign".
Oh! I forgot to tell you, that wonderful Craigslist Ad, that says $13.00 vs. Commission, yeah...turns out you really make $10.00 per hour until you write $500 in commissions within one week. No big deal considering that you get to set the amount yourself for what you want to sell the service for. You can sell it for $10 or you can sell it for $10,000 (that's the set up fee, after that it's a steady $99 per month). The only problem was that when I arrived to the floor, NO ONE THERE HAD MADE $500 IN COMMISSION FOR THE WEEK! These season sales veterans, these spin doctors who knew the in's and outs of the business couldn't even hit the $500 mark. (for real?) How could this be possible? One short word my friends, Craigslist. (Wait...maybe that's technically two words.)
Craigslist is where the business leads are generated from. So trying to a sell a $200 activation to Shakquetta who does weaves out of her mother's basement, just isn't going to happen. Do you know how many people put a Craigslist Ad up for their "business" just because they don't have a job? The salesmen are letting this thing go for $50, $25, even $10, and they get half of that in commission. That was all this JobHound needed to see.
All in all, I can't say the company is 100% bullsh*t. Fact is, they are a lot better off than a lot of other phone rooms here in Vegas and they have some good things going for them. They are a Google certified partner, have a grade A rating with the BBB, and over 20,000 active accounts. They just need to spend a little money on leads, and a little less time on pointless training.. I also have a hard time with working my tail off and making the owner a millionaire (remember, he gets $99 a month from the second month on), while I'm making myself a pennyaire, but if telemarketing is your gig give it shot, they're hiring. Every dog has his day, maybe today is yours.
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