Lamparter Marketing, LMG INC, NV INNOVATIONS
Scheme, Ploy, Multi-level marketing, Pyramid scheme

Be wary! All of you recent grads and/or dropouts who flock to a craigslist.org posting that promises: "Management Training/Entry Level Sales Position."

These ads PROMISE a multi-training program FREE for the right candidate. They PROMISE a decent salary (usually posted at or over 30K) even though they require no experience/education. Too good to be true, right?

What you wind up doing is spending 14 hours a day going door to door trying to sell homeowners/business owners things they don't want. You're LUCKY if you make 10 bucks a day.

There are plenty of reports for these companies already but I felt the need to add my two cents. I have not worked for either of these companies for the same reasons that everyone has posted, i. E:

A. Pure Commission. While this is not illegal or "bad, " they won't tell you this over the phone. They won't tell you this unless you repeatedly ask them (literally ask them 5 times in 15 seconds) and/or show up for the "second interview" which is...

B. Trailing a "top salesman" for a day. Which includes 8-10 hours of door to door type sales. Walking through whatever terrain happens to be around harassing business owners and/or homeowners which is illegal in some areas, getting hassled by the cops who wonder why you're loitering and/or soliciting. Door to door selling became obsolete when tupperware became available at Wal-Mart.

C. Be WARY of an office that was decorated on a 5 dollar budget. Both Lamparter and NV Innovations (both companies I interviewed at) had "offices" that consisted of a waiting area with a couple of metal chairs, plain walls, and a VERY simplistic secretary desk, and an "office" that was essentially a desk and two chairs. MAYBE a potted plant. It looked like a front in some 1950's mob movie.in my interview I was told I could be making over 100K in 6 months! 100,000 dollars in 6 months! I find it hard to believe that that's the case when they don't even bother to secure an office with more than two rooms and a pair of chairs.

During my interview I was constantly told "this is not a pyramid scheme" which is funny because I never asked or accused it of being such.in my experience if someone feels the need to tell you something you never asked multiple times. There's cause for worry.

I was told that I would be selling a service (It took about 20 minutes to find out what that was) and that after a few weeks I would have my own "team" of salesman. I would get a percentage of each sale I made (they wouldn't tell me what percentage that was) and when I had my own team I would get a percentage of THEIR sales too.

Hmmm... I make a percentage of selling someone something they don't want/need and then when I convince other people to do the same I get a percentage of their sales and so on and so forth...?

How is that NOT a pyramid scheme?

The ad I responded to on craigslist.org said all the right things too. "Excellant Benefits. Medical, Dental, 401K." When I inquired about the great benefits they looked at me like I was crazy. Medical? Dental? 401k? What are you talking about? SHOCKINGLY the benefits in the ad (which are enticing) were non-existant. There was no medical. No dental. No 401K available. They had no idea where I was even getting that from.

I was also asked how I felt about "loud music early in the morning." THAT set off alarms in my head. Be WARNED: There are a lot of companies that will do "cool" or "fun" things to try to increase morale and company loyalty. This is fine. This is good. Casual friday = Good. Happy Hour thursday = Good, Bingo night on wednesday = Good.

Loud, sexually explicit strip club type music (complete with all the 4 letter words your mom doesn't want to hear) at 9Am is NOT good. It is not professional. It is a ploy to make young, inexperienced, uneducated people think this is a "cool place to work."

One of the guys who interviewed me told me that this was a branch of Cydcorp which has a HUGE rap sheet of annoyed employees and customers.

Be WARY of anyone who uses the phrase: "Multi-level marketing." This is smart talk for "you make crap money and we essentially scam people."

I don't know if either of these companies are doing anything "illegal" persay BUT what I DO know is that they have no problem lying, decieving, and stretching the truth. I do know that their "management" training entails walking 9 miles a day trying to sell things to people that they don't want or need.

Ever tried to get into a supermarket and have someone walk up to you and say "excuse me sir, if I could just have one moment of your time"... That's what you're in for.

I DO know that I've been called back by both companies a few times in the last few months and each time I tell them I'm no longer interested. Each time I'm told they're going to contact me anyway. Each time I tell them not to bother. Each time I'm given a new person to get in contact with if I'm still interested. Hmmmm, in the span of 6 months there's been 4 different people calling me. Could that possibly mean that every few weeks someone realizes what a BS place this is to work?

Be WARY! If the turnover rate for employees in a company is THAT high then there's probably a reason for it.

Be WARNED people. IF you want a sales job then realize that that usually means sitting in a cubicle for 8-10 hours a day cold calling sales leads. It's boring but it's legit.

As I left my interview with NV Innovations I saw the "sales team" coming back into the office. First off this makes it obvious that your typical day is ALL outside the office. The "office" has a waiting room and a single "office" for the boss and that's it. You won't spend any time here. When I saw the "Sales team" coming back (it was about 6pm at this point) I had to laugh. All men in their mid 20's wearing cheap, flashy suits like used car salesman. All had spikey gelled hair and fake tans. None of them seemed happy. None of them seemed capable of speaking coherent, professional english.

These companies are scams, even if they're not technically illegal. They prey on uneducated college drop outs and naive recent grads. They promise the world but don't deliver a fraction. There are no benefits, no real training, and you work for commission only which (so I'm told) means if you're LUCKY you make about the weekly min. Wage.

I interviewed with both companies within a short period of time and I realized quickly what the deal was. Take heed to these warnings everyone.

If the ad seems to good to be true it almost ALWAYS is.

Company: Lamparter Marketing, LMG INC, NV INNOVATIONS
Country: USA
State: New York
City: Westchester County
Site: www.lmgny.com, www.nvinnovations.com

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