What I wish I had known before taking this job - Sales Representative Ethicon Employee Review

Compensation structure- THE FIRST YEAR IT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET PAID THE AT PLAN AMOUNT – NOT POSSIBLE. The second year you’ll feel like you were made whole, purely because you are getting paid money owed to year in year one (your Q4 commissions and 30% “How” money). I’ll try to summarize the 20 page document that is needed to figure out pay. First, what they don’t disclose in the employment contract is 30% of your commission is held and not paid out until March of the following year. If you leave before Dec 31, you forfeit the money. In addition, this compensation, called your “HOW”, is completely subjective and based on things that have no impact on your sales quota. These things include setting up a charity event for your peers, participating in extra curricular activities, agreeing to do something unreasonable in fear your manager won’t think you deserve your full compensation. Added to this, how much you actually get paid is determined by all of the regions managers getting together and fighting out what rep gets what pay. It’s all determined on a bell shaped curve, so not everyone can get the full pay, and even if you are well above quota, you might not get what you deserve. This has ZERO place in a sales job and makes for a lot of back stabbing, fakeness, doing things you have no interest in for all the wrong reasons. Did I mention marketing controls sales? Yes, marketing sets sales quotas and pretty much calls the shots. Huh? Advancement- In the interview you hear a ton about advancement. What is not mentioned is how this works. Quickly, lets say you are interested in being a sales manager. You are a sales rep for a number of years (7-10). The only way to move up is to take a job in marketing or sales training (and most require moving to Cincinnati or New Jersey) for 2 years. As a result, the company is filled with marketing and trainers who have no interest in those positions and are just counting down the days until they can move out. Sadly, this greatly affects the quality of both roles. New hires beware: your training will be sub par. Diversity- The company has lots of clubs for various people. They try to hire a wide range of employees, whether good fits or not. And although there is a lot of diversity on the outside, they really don’t embrace individualism. The company honestly just wants a group of robotic clones. They want you to say exactly the same thing, in the same order as they’ve instructed. I’m not talking about being compliant and only stating things as indicated, this is very different, but you’ll quickly recognize it after being in a number of meetings and interviews. For instance, regional management isn’t even allowed to structure their annual meetings as they see fit. They are confined to something called “meeting in a box” where they are sent videos, agendas, scripts as to exactly how and what is presented during the meetings. It’s down right insulting to the reps and managers and doesn’t promote a good exchange of dialog and learning. Basically, the company expects sales but has little respect for the sales force. The job- The job really isn’t sales, if you are a professional sales person. It’s customer service/account management. You can’t make much of a difference. Most is controlled by contracts. You’re there to answer questions, in service, try to get new products into the accounts, keep competitors away. Very little is needed by the hospital and doctors. I actually have a hard time believing most of these jobs are necessary. You’ll be searching for things to keep busy every day and for the full day.