- 2,674
- 31
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
I am trying to kick this contracting gig I have and head down to Dubai and work for this company there called Du. Want to see what the life is like in this profession. But I am a network engineer in the making though.
Working at Wireless companys, Verzion AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile
- 360
- 116
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
I currently work for verizon so I can shed some light on this. I will cover alot so its a long read.
pros- First off I dont want to seem like a show off but im pretty good at sales have been doing it for over ten years and is all I know how to do. In 2008 I ranked top ten in the southwest region making 85k that year. Followed by 80k in 2009 and a huge drop to 65k in 2010. Im projecting to make 70k this year. I work at a seasonal store meaning I get a lot of retirees in my area that leave in the summer months so our store is a ghost town during this time till sept. Its an easy job if you make it easy. Do your work and close whats in front of you and gain business leads. I never worked only 40 hrs a week always almost 50hrs or so. Your quota is based on the amount of contract revenue you bring in and new lines of service as well as data sales and accessories. You master all those fields and you can make over 60k guaranteed.
cons- I never expected to be a sales rep for almost 4 years. I got the job to get in the marketing dept which I was promised but that derailed after vzw had to make room for alltel employees after the buyout so I missed out. I pursued a management position but saw that there were assistant managers making less than I was, doing more work and have been hoping for a store manager job for over 8 years. I cant do that. And at the same time seeing assistant managers getting store manager positions and they didnt deserve it. Its corporate BS.
Your quotas can fluctuate month after month year after year. One month is really low and you bank and other months its so unobtainable. This year I have seen more unobtainable quotas. I currently sell more phones now than I did in 2008. Almost double actually and there are over triple the amount of sales reps now than there was in 2008 in my store. So I am doing more work with less pay. I wont get in detail on how quotas work but one bad week can derail your whole check. Even one day can, so calling in sick destroys your chances of a good check, even taking vacation does to even though they adjust your quota but if your tracking more than the daily expected average vacation kills your check.
The problem with verizon is that they expect high increases year after year and while they do have increases the expected number is just too high for us to handle. and im talking about new lines. Renewal customers come in all day but there were days when I could get 10 new lines in a day and now a good day would be 3. Its changed alot and this reflects the large decrease in pay.
all in all you can make money. They tell you the expected amount is 45k but thats if you suck at the job. 5 out of 9 of my coworkers will make 45k or less btw which shows how hard they work, these guys are the type that dont do OT or push for leads or even sales in front of them.
I currently am on my two weeks notice ironically. Im going to explore more options and get a career type job which this is not unless you want to play the rat race for a long time. I am sad and happy at the same time about leaving but its just time to move on but vzw is a good company all in all.
pros- First off I dont want to seem like a show off but im pretty good at sales have been doing it for over ten years and is all I know how to do. In 2008 I ranked top ten in the southwest region making 85k that year. Followed by 80k in 2009 and a huge drop to 65k in 2010. Im projecting to make 70k this year. I work at a seasonal store meaning I get a lot of retirees in my area that leave in the summer months so our store is a ghost town during this time till sept. Its an easy job if you make it easy. Do your work and close whats in front of you and gain business leads. I never worked only 40 hrs a week always almost 50hrs or so. Your quota is based on the amount of contract revenue you bring in and new lines of service as well as data sales and accessories. You master all those fields and you can make over 60k guaranteed.
cons- I never expected to be a sales rep for almost 4 years. I got the job to get in the marketing dept which I was promised but that derailed after vzw had to make room for alltel employees after the buyout so I missed out. I pursued a management position but saw that there were assistant managers making less than I was, doing more work and have been hoping for a store manager job for over 8 years. I cant do that. And at the same time seeing assistant managers getting store manager positions and they didnt deserve it. Its corporate BS.
Your quotas can fluctuate month after month year after year. One month is really low and you bank and other months its so unobtainable. This year I have seen more unobtainable quotas. I currently sell more phones now than I did in 2008. Almost double actually and there are over triple the amount of sales reps now than there was in 2008 in my store. So I am doing more work with less pay. I wont get in detail on how quotas work but one bad week can derail your whole check. Even one day can, so calling in sick destroys your chances of a good check, even taking vacation does to even though they adjust your quota but if your tracking more than the daily expected average vacation kills your check.
The problem with verizon is that they expect high increases year after year and while they do have increases the expected number is just too high for us to handle. and im talking about new lines. Renewal customers come in all day but there were days when I could get 10 new lines in a day and now a good day would be 3. Its changed alot and this reflects the large decrease in pay.
all in all you can make money. They tell you the expected amount is 45k but thats if you suck at the job. 5 out of 9 of my coworkers will make 45k or less btw which shows how hard they work, these guys are the type that dont do OT or push for leads or even sales in front of them.
I currently am on my two weeks notice ironically. Im going to explore more options and get a career type job which this is not unless you want to play the rat race for a long time. I am sad and happy at the same time about leaving but its just time to move on but vzw is a good company all in all.
- 360
- 116
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
I currently work for verizon so I can shed some light on this. I will cover alot so its a long read.
pros- First off I dont want to seem like a show off but im pretty good at sales have been doing it for over ten years and is all I know how to do. In 2008 I ranked top ten in the southwest region making 85k that year. Followed by 80k in 2009 and a huge drop to 65k in 2010. Im projecting to make 70k this year. I work at a seasonal store meaning I get a lot of retirees in my area that leave in the summer months so our store is a ghost town during this time till sept. Its an easy job if you make it easy. Do your work and close whats in front of you and gain business leads. I never worked only 40 hrs a week always almost 50hrs or so. Your quota is based on the amount of contract revenue you bring in and new lines of service as well as data sales and accessories. You master all those fields and you can make over 60k guaranteed.
cons- I never expected to be a sales rep for almost 4 years. I got the job to get in the marketing dept which I was promised but that derailed after vzw had to make room for alltel employees after the buyout so I missed out. I pursued a management position but saw that there were assistant managers making less than I was, doing more work and have been hoping for a store manager job for over 8 years. I cant do that. And at the same time seeing assistant managers getting store manager positions and they didnt deserve it. Its corporate BS.
Your quotas can fluctuate month after month year after year. One month is really low and you bank and other months its so unobtainable. This year I have seen more unobtainable quotas. I currently sell more phones now than I did in 2008. Almost double actually and there are over triple the amount of sales reps now than there was in 2008 in my store. So I am doing more work with less pay. I wont get in detail on how quotas work but one bad week can derail your whole check. Even one day can, so calling in sick destroys your chances of a good check, even taking vacation does to even though they adjust your quota but if your tracking more than the daily expected average vacation kills your check.
The problem with verizon is that they expect high increases year after year and while they do have increases the expected number is just too high for us to handle. and im talking about new lines. Renewal customers come in all day but there were days when I could get 10 new lines in a day and now a good day would be 3. Its changed alot and this reflects the large decrease in pay.
all in all you can make money. They tell you the expected amount is 45k but thats if you suck at the job. 5 out of 9 of my coworkers will make 45k or less btw which shows how hard they work, these guys are the type that dont do OT or push for leads or even sales in front of them.
I currently am on my two weeks notice ironically. Im going to explore more options and get a career type job which this is not unless you want to play the rat race for a long time. I am sad and happy at the same time about leaving but its just time to move on but vzw is a good company all in all.
pros- First off I dont want to seem like a show off but im pretty good at sales have been doing it for over ten years and is all I know how to do. In 2008 I ranked top ten in the southwest region making 85k that year. Followed by 80k in 2009 and a huge drop to 65k in 2010. Im projecting to make 70k this year. I work at a seasonal store meaning I get a lot of retirees in my area that leave in the summer months so our store is a ghost town during this time till sept. Its an easy job if you make it easy. Do your work and close whats in front of you and gain business leads. I never worked only 40 hrs a week always almost 50hrs or so. Your quota is based on the amount of contract revenue you bring in and new lines of service as well as data sales and accessories. You master all those fields and you can make over 60k guaranteed.
cons- I never expected to be a sales rep for almost 4 years. I got the job to get in the marketing dept which I was promised but that derailed after vzw had to make room for alltel employees after the buyout so I missed out. I pursued a management position but saw that there were assistant managers making less than I was, doing more work and have been hoping for a store manager job for over 8 years. I cant do that. And at the same time seeing assistant managers getting store manager positions and they didnt deserve it. Its corporate BS.
Your quotas can fluctuate month after month year after year. One month is really low and you bank and other months its so unobtainable. This year I have seen more unobtainable quotas. I currently sell more phones now than I did in 2008. Almost double actually and there are over triple the amount of sales reps now than there was in 2008 in my store. So I am doing more work with less pay. I wont get in detail on how quotas work but one bad week can derail your whole check. Even one day can, so calling in sick destroys your chances of a good check, even taking vacation does to even though they adjust your quota but if your tracking more than the daily expected average vacation kills your check.
The problem with verizon is that they expect high increases year after year and while they do have increases the expected number is just too high for us to handle. and im talking about new lines. Renewal customers come in all day but there were days when I could get 10 new lines in a day and now a good day would be 3. Its changed alot and this reflects the large decrease in pay.
all in all you can make money. They tell you the expected amount is 45k but thats if you suck at the job. 5 out of 9 of my coworkers will make 45k or less btw which shows how hard they work, these guys are the type that dont do OT or push for leads or even sales in front of them.
I currently am on my two weeks notice ironically. Im going to explore more options and get a career type job which this is not unless you want to play the rat race for a long time. I am sad and happy at the same time about leaving but its just time to move on but vzw is a good company all in all.
- 1,635
- 47
- Joined
- May 31, 2007
Here's a couple of things to consider:
1.) You're gonna be in sales. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS BUT THE SALE. And not just the sale, but the sale (upsell the plan), AND the phone (upsell the phone), AND the accessories (29.99 for some earbuds?). If you don't make the sales, or your numbers drop, you're GONE.
2.) EVERYBODY HAS BAD CREDIT. AT&T used to ask for deposits of $300 - $500 from people with bad credit. When Nextel was around I saw one @ $750.00. T-Mobile used to have this special option you could use for someone with a short credit history that would drop their $300 deposit to $150. People will bring in their grandmothers, their friends and of course their children to get that mythical no deposit status. Subsequently you're gonna hear sob stories from the whole spectrum, young, old everybody. Everything from divorce to identity theft and the most popular one of all time MEDICAL BILLS, but never "Yeah, I just made bad decisions with my money.".
3.) You're gonna have to stop yourself from profiling people when they walk through the door.
Young white people - Lots of mommy/daddy money. They get what they want. Price is no object. (NOT TRUE)
Young black people - No money, straight to Boost Mobile prepay all day baby! (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday white people - You should have money. (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday black people - You want the NEWEST one? I'll be demo-ing this one for nothing... (NOT TRUE)
Old people - What's up Cricket? (NOT TRUE)
There's a LOT more too, you can find yourself quite the racist/sexist/ageist given the right circumstances. Be careful.
4.) You may discover that you're working with sociopaths. Or that you're displaying sociopathic tendencies. When your driven by the bottom line in an industry that straddles the fence of wants vs needs you'll see a lot of people taking the opportunity to manipulate the customers. A pregnant woman came in and said that she didn't really want a cell phone but since her job had her working late and her husband was concerned about an emergency. I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to save for two more weeks, pay for the deposit and sign a contract with one of the majors. Not willing to let a sale walk out the door, my manager swept in and sold her a prepaid package from the most garbag-ist prepaid company that in my opinion was worse than having nothing. The towers were so overworked that from 9PM to 1AM it was useless. I wish I was exaggerating but this was back in 01 when people used to have to wait till 9 to get free minutes. My man sold it to her and didn't even break a sweat, sold that joint and was like "Ahhhh, good sale, what's for lunch?" Heartless. After that I just couldn't stomach the biz anymore.
5.) Remember that commissions are nice but if you don't sell, you don't get that money.
6.) Comissions are nice but chargebacks (when people cancel their phones before the companies cut the check for the sale, I don't remember but I think it's 60 or 90 days) are a BEAST.
and
7.) I haven't been in sales for awhile now but when I was back in the day, Verizon gave it's sales force the most flexibility wen it came to making sales. You were allowed to use some of your personal profit from each sale to "sweeten" the deal for a customer. Like you could drop $10.00 off a phone or a dollar off an accessory but that came DIRECTLY out of your pay from those things. (Not sure if they still do this or not.)
*Cliffs
If you don't sell well, you're gonna get fired. Cellphones require a credit check and people have bad credit. Don't be a racist. Many of the best salespeople are ruthless and heartless. Commissions and chargebacks means your paychecks can be very different from week to week, and Verizon used to be the best place to work for salespeople.
1.) You're gonna be in sales. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS BUT THE SALE. And not just the sale, but the sale (upsell the plan), AND the phone (upsell the phone), AND the accessories (29.99 for some earbuds?). If you don't make the sales, or your numbers drop, you're GONE.
2.) EVERYBODY HAS BAD CREDIT. AT&T used to ask for deposits of $300 - $500 from people with bad credit. When Nextel was around I saw one @ $750.00. T-Mobile used to have this special option you could use for someone with a short credit history that would drop their $300 deposit to $150. People will bring in their grandmothers, their friends and of course their children to get that mythical no deposit status. Subsequently you're gonna hear sob stories from the whole spectrum, young, old everybody. Everything from divorce to identity theft and the most popular one of all time MEDICAL BILLS, but never "Yeah, I just made bad decisions with my money.".
3.) You're gonna have to stop yourself from profiling people when they walk through the door.
Young white people - Lots of mommy/daddy money. They get what they want. Price is no object. (NOT TRUE)
Young black people - No money, straight to Boost Mobile prepay all day baby! (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday white people - You should have money. (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday black people - You want the NEWEST one? I'll be demo-ing this one for nothing... (NOT TRUE)
Old people - What's up Cricket? (NOT TRUE)
There's a LOT more too, you can find yourself quite the racist/sexist/ageist given the right circumstances. Be careful.
4.) You may discover that you're working with sociopaths. Or that you're displaying sociopathic tendencies. When your driven by the bottom line in an industry that straddles the fence of wants vs needs you'll see a lot of people taking the opportunity to manipulate the customers. A pregnant woman came in and said that she didn't really want a cell phone but since her job had her working late and her husband was concerned about an emergency. I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to save for two more weeks, pay for the deposit and sign a contract with one of the majors. Not willing to let a sale walk out the door, my manager swept in and sold her a prepaid package from the most garbag-ist prepaid company that in my opinion was worse than having nothing. The towers were so overworked that from 9PM to 1AM it was useless. I wish I was exaggerating but this was back in 01 when people used to have to wait till 9 to get free minutes. My man sold it to her and didn't even break a sweat, sold that joint and was like "Ahhhh, good sale, what's for lunch?" Heartless. After that I just couldn't stomach the biz anymore.
5.) Remember that commissions are nice but if you don't sell, you don't get that money.
6.) Comissions are nice but chargebacks (when people cancel their phones before the companies cut the check for the sale, I don't remember but I think it's 60 or 90 days) are a BEAST.
and
7.) I haven't been in sales for awhile now but when I was back in the day, Verizon gave it's sales force the most flexibility wen it came to making sales. You were allowed to use some of your personal profit from each sale to "sweeten" the deal for a customer. Like you could drop $10.00 off a phone or a dollar off an accessory but that came DIRECTLY out of your pay from those things. (Not sure if they still do this or not.)
*Cliffs
If you don't sell well, you're gonna get fired. Cellphones require a credit check and people have bad credit. Don't be a racist. Many of the best salespeople are ruthless and heartless. Commissions and chargebacks means your paychecks can be very different from week to week, and Verizon used to be the best place to work for salespeople.
- 1,635
- 47
- Joined
- May 31, 2007
Here's a couple of things to consider:
1.) You're gonna be in sales. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS BUT THE SALE. And not just the sale, but the sale (upsell the plan), AND the phone (upsell the phone), AND the accessories (29.99 for some earbuds?). If you don't make the sales, or your numbers drop, you're GONE.
2.) EVERYBODY HAS BAD CREDIT. AT&T used to ask for deposits of $300 - $500 from people with bad credit. When Nextel was around I saw one @ $750.00. T-Mobile used to have this special option you could use for someone with a short credit history that would drop their $300 deposit to $150. People will bring in their grandmothers, their friends and of course their children to get that mythical no deposit status. Subsequently you're gonna hear sob stories from the whole spectrum, young, old everybody. Everything from divorce to identity theft and the most popular one of all time MEDICAL BILLS, but never "Yeah, I just made bad decisions with my money.".
3.) You're gonna have to stop yourself from profiling people when they walk through the door.
Young white people - Lots of mommy/daddy money. They get what they want. Price is no object. (NOT TRUE)
Young black people - No money, straight to Boost Mobile prepay all day baby! (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday white people - You should have money. (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday black people - You want the NEWEST one? I'll be demo-ing this one for nothing... (NOT TRUE)
Old people - What's up Cricket? (NOT TRUE)
There's a LOT more too, you can find yourself quite the racist/sexist/ageist given the right circumstances. Be careful.
4.) You may discover that you're working with sociopaths. Or that you're displaying sociopathic tendencies. When your driven by the bottom line in an industry that straddles the fence of wants vs needs you'll see a lot of people taking the opportunity to manipulate the customers. A pregnant woman came in and said that she didn't really want a cell phone but since her job had her working late and her husband was concerned about an emergency. I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to save for two more weeks, pay for the deposit and sign a contract with one of the majors. Not willing to let a sale walk out the door, my manager swept in and sold her a prepaid package from the most garbag-ist prepaid company that in my opinion was worse than having nothing. The towers were so overworked that from 9PM to 1AM it was useless. I wish I was exaggerating but this was back in 01 when people used to have to wait till 9 to get free minutes. My man sold it to her and didn't even break a sweat, sold that joint and was like "Ahhhh, good sale, what's for lunch?" Heartless. After that I just couldn't stomach the biz anymore.
5.) Remember that commissions are nice but if you don't sell, you don't get that money.
6.) Comissions are nice but chargebacks (when people cancel their phones before the companies cut the check for the sale, I don't remember but I think it's 60 or 90 days) are a BEAST.
and
7.) I haven't been in sales for awhile now but when I was back in the day, Verizon gave it's sales force the most flexibility wen it came to making sales. You were allowed to use some of your personal profit from each sale to "sweeten" the deal for a customer. Like you could drop $10.00 off a phone or a dollar off an accessory but that came DIRECTLY out of your pay from those things. (Not sure if they still do this or not.)
*Cliffs
If you don't sell well, you're gonna get fired. Cellphones require a credit check and people have bad credit. Don't be a racist. Many of the best salespeople are ruthless and heartless. Commissions and chargebacks means your paychecks can be very different from week to week, and Verizon used to be the best place to work for salespeople.
1.) You're gonna be in sales. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS BUT THE SALE. And not just the sale, but the sale (upsell the plan), AND the phone (upsell the phone), AND the accessories (29.99 for some earbuds?). If you don't make the sales, or your numbers drop, you're GONE.
2.) EVERYBODY HAS BAD CREDIT. AT&T used to ask for deposits of $300 - $500 from people with bad credit. When Nextel was around I saw one @ $750.00. T-Mobile used to have this special option you could use for someone with a short credit history that would drop their $300 deposit to $150. People will bring in their grandmothers, their friends and of course their children to get that mythical no deposit status. Subsequently you're gonna hear sob stories from the whole spectrum, young, old everybody. Everything from divorce to identity theft and the most popular one of all time MEDICAL BILLS, but never "Yeah, I just made bad decisions with my money.".
3.) You're gonna have to stop yourself from profiling people when they walk through the door.
Young white people - Lots of mommy/daddy money. They get what they want. Price is no object. (NOT TRUE)
Young black people - No money, straight to Boost Mobile prepay all day baby! (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday white people - You should have money. (NOT TRUE)
Regular everyday black people - You want the NEWEST one? I'll be demo-ing this one for nothing... (NOT TRUE)
Old people - What's up Cricket? (NOT TRUE)
There's a LOT more too, you can find yourself quite the racist/sexist/ageist given the right circumstances. Be careful.
4.) You may discover that you're working with sociopaths. Or that you're displaying sociopathic tendencies. When your driven by the bottom line in an industry that straddles the fence of wants vs needs you'll see a lot of people taking the opportunity to manipulate the customers. A pregnant woman came in and said that she didn't really want a cell phone but since her job had her working late and her husband was concerned about an emergency. I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to save for two more weeks, pay for the deposit and sign a contract with one of the majors. Not willing to let a sale walk out the door, my manager swept in and sold her a prepaid package from the most garbag-ist prepaid company that in my opinion was worse than having nothing. The towers were so overworked that from 9PM to 1AM it was useless. I wish I was exaggerating but this was back in 01 when people used to have to wait till 9 to get free minutes. My man sold it to her and didn't even break a sweat, sold that joint and was like "Ahhhh, good sale, what's for lunch?" Heartless. After that I just couldn't stomach the biz anymore.
5.) Remember that commissions are nice but if you don't sell, you don't get that money.
6.) Comissions are nice but chargebacks (when people cancel their phones before the companies cut the check for the sale, I don't remember but I think it's 60 or 90 days) are a BEAST.
and
7.) I haven't been in sales for awhile now but when I was back in the day, Verizon gave it's sales force the most flexibility wen it came to making sales. You were allowed to use some of your personal profit from each sale to "sweeten" the deal for a customer. Like you could drop $10.00 off a phone or a dollar off an accessory but that came DIRECTLY out of your pay from those things. (Not sure if they still do this or not.)
*Cliffs
If you don't sell well, you're gonna get fired. Cellphones require a credit check and people have bad credit. Don't be a racist. Many of the best salespeople are ruthless and heartless. Commissions and chargebacks means your paychecks can be very different from week to week, and Verizon used to be the best place to work for salespeople.
