Pros
- They hire a lot of working musicians and are willing to work with your schedule for gigs and tours. - The employee discount is great, something like cost plus a small percent. This can mean anywhere from 15% to 70% off. - There are some benefits, like health care for full timers. - There is a lot to learn and a lot of on line training is available. - My manager was a first rate, unflappable, patient individual. - With a couple of exceptions, the staff were a dedicated group of characters, mostly musicians. - At least at my store, management constantly kept the staff informed of how store performance was going. - The company has extensive E-learning courses on various products and sales methods. - Customers are the most interesting bunch of folks you will ever meet. - You will always keep learning new stuff. - In theory, you can make a fair amount of money. The way you do this is by selling high end gear, especially professional sound systems. The trick is getting to that point..
Cons
- Compensation is initially miserable for sales staff, sales people earn the larger of absolute minimum wage or your commission. People who are paid commission are said to have “faded”. - Salespersons have to do 2 things if they want to keep their jobs: 1. You have to sell enough stuff so that the commission is greater than your minimum wage. 2. You have to meet your target for selling extended warranties. Sales employees are responsible for sending contacting customers weekly. They are also expected to maintain client lists, complete training modules on new products, stock shelves, clean each area daily, read all information sent out through the mail system and answer phones. All of these activities take you away from selling to customers, and make it harder to make commission. - Many activities such as E-learning would best be done at home, away from the store. I have worked on other jobs that offered a small bonus for E-leaning on your own time. - If you only have 90 days to “fade”, and you are on a reduced commission until complete certain training goals. SInce you have to spend work time taking the courses to become qualified, it is very hard to survive the cut unless you come into the job with a lot of selling skill and experience. - You will be competing for sales with all the other personnel.