After being new to the Nashville area, I applied for a job on careerbuilder.com for a company called Stallion Inc. The ad was vague, but sounded like a good idea. I was called in for an initial interview, where I met with Stephen Sherieko, and during which I found out surprisingly little about what Stallion did. The interview went well, and I was asked to come in the following day for a second interview with one of Stallion's "top account executives".
The following day I showed up at 9:00am, my scheduled time, and was then informed that the interview was to last until about 5:00pm. I had several other interviews scheduled that day with several other companies, that I had to reschedule while I was in the car with my interviewer. It would have been nice for some advance notice.
I spent the day with two very nice and outgoing young women, but the whole thing seemed orchestrated. Firstly, I was told that my function on this day was to watch what my interviewer was doing, keep the customer busy while she was on the phone or filling out paperwork, and ask general questions pertaining to the job.
However, on the way to the territory, none of my questions were answered by my interviewer. She danced and skirted around them, and told me that all of my questions would be answered at lunch.
So at lunch I was told about how in a years time I could be the owner of my own company and making six figures plus. But the questions I had about my specific day to day functions at Stallion were not fully explained, and I was told that if I was offered the job, they would all be explained at my final interview whith the owner, Whitney Myrick.
We spent the entire day going from business to business setting business owners up with BellSouth products that they were apparently paying for but not receiving. This was not sales, I was told, since 90% of the businesses we see are already BellSouth customers.
We didn't return to Stallion at 5:00pm like I was told. We finally got back at around 6:30pm, where I filled out a survey about my day, and met with Whitney where I was offered the job. The promise of six figures is hard to turn down, but I told her that I would have to talk it over with my fiance.
She became visibly upset and told me that if I didn't want to better myself by taking this "winning lottery ticket", there were 100 other people who would jump at an oppertunity like this. So against my better judgment I accepted the job on the spot, without speaking to my fiance first.
The following day I was introduced to "atmosphere", a morning gathering of all office personnel, where loud music is played, people are praised for their outstanding job in the field the day before, and an inspiring story is told to motivate the staff, and afford them something to think about in the field that day.
As it turns out I was assigned to the team that my interviewer was the leader of, and on my first real day of training, I was to go out with her again. This, however, did not happen. I went out with another account executive, who looked as if he slept in his suit, and was suffering from a severe hangover.
The day went just as the one before it, only with one exception. When one is selling BellSouth products, after all of the paperwork is filled out, a third party verification call (TPV) needs to be placed. This is done to protect the customer as well as the rep. So I don't add 40 new telephone lines to the customers account after I leave, the order is placed with BellSouth while I am standing with the customer, and the customer is required, by law, to verify his identity and the order to the person on the phone.
We had walked into a bar to speak with the owner, who wasen't there, but ended up speaking with one of the bar's customers. This man was visibly drunk, and at one point left to go smoke a joint. The rep, whom I will call Adam, went with him and left me there in the bar.
When they finally returned, 30 minutes later, Adam had agreed to buy this man a beer if he signed up for a business line at his brothers house. This is in itself illegal, but was done nonetheless. After the customer signed the paperwork, Adam bought him a bud light, and we left the bar without making the federally required TPV call.
When we returned to Adam's car, he wanted me to pretend to be the customer when he placed the TPV call, so he could collect the $100 or so commission for the application. I asked Adam if this was legal, and he told me that since the man was drunk, it was. Since I was on my first day of training I believed him, and acted like the customer when Adam placed the TPV call.
Later I found out that I could have been fined and jailed for this.
My time progressed with Stallion, and after four weeks I still had not received a paycheck. When I asked Whitney about this, she said she would look into it, and after further investigation, she told me I would have to wait another week.
In that week, I went on a business trip to southern Tennessee. Since I had not been paid for five weeks, money was tight, and when I asked about compensation for gas or a per diem, I was told that if I wanted to progress in this business, a certain degree of personal sacrifice was expected of me. And that I would be compensated on my paycheck, which I was, in the amount of $25. Bringing my entire paycheck, for my first three weeks of work with Stallion, to $112.43.
When I asked about my low paycheck, I was reminded again about the amount of sacrifice that was required of me. At this meeting I was also informed that I was asking too many negative questions, and that she felt everyone would be better served if I stopped bringing this "negative energy" into the office.
My fiance and I have a three-year-old son, and by the first day of my sixth week with Stallion, I had only received $112.43, which included the $25 bonus I received for going out of town. We had been in Nashville for seven weeks, and our savings was pretty much spent, and I was in the wrong for asking for the money that I was owed. I was told to "consider the big picture, " and in time things would work themselves out, and if I had any sort of faith in the system, I would progress and things would get better.
The system is a monster all of its own.in the morning atomsphere, I referred to earlier, part of that time is spent learning how sell BellSouth products to people who don't really need them. Rebuttals play a major role in this, as focus is taken off of the customers total bill, and placed on individual parts of that bill.
We are tought how to sell unlimited long distance which would raise, in one case, a customers bill $165, when that customer is only using 12 minutes a month of long distance. Which means that customer is paying $13.75 a minute for long distance. We are praised and encouraged to do this.
In the evening, after you return from the field, there is an evening atmosphere, where theories are tought. These theories are nothing short of a mild form of brain washing. They are a tool we can use in the field to get more customers to purchase BellSouth products they don't really need, and in most cases don't really want.
That's not to say, there are some customers who truely benefit from our interaction with each other. Occasionally, I will run into a customer who will actually receive a lower bill after all of the changes take place, but these customers are very few and far between.
Perhaps the most disturbing portion of atmosphere, either morning or evening, is learning the hierarchy of Cydcor. Cydcor is the parent company of Stallion Inc., as well as many, many other offices across the country. Cydcor is whats known as a "lister", for a company called DS-Max.
It works like this. DS-Max finds the client, in my case BellSouth. BellSouth is DS-Max's client. Cydcor is hired by DS-Max to list the BellSouth products to all of cydcor's children, in my case Stallion Inc. Stallion hires me, a sub-contractor, to go out and sell a BellSouth product. I receive a commission for each BellSouth product I sell. Stallion's owner, Whitney, receives a commission, Stallion itself gets a cut, and Cydcor takes the rest.
I was never told about this set up by anyone person at Stallion. I had to do the research myself online, which if you can use google, is no hard feat.
In any case, in atmosphere, we are told about Cydcor VP's and how they picked themselves up by their boot-straps, just as I am doing, and are now buying houses for each other. What makes this whole thing so strange is it carries itself with the aire of a cult, as we are told to not ask questions, and put blind trust into these people whom I have never met, and whom I wouldn't know if I were kicking them.
Negative questions are never tolerated. The turn-over rate, for Stallion at least, is very, very high. Which makes it difficult for the team leaders to get promoted because if their team doesn't meet a weekly quota, they have failed as leaders. Regardless of the fact that their team that had 9 members last week, only has 4 members this week. Retention is also very difficult.
All in all, working for Stallion or Cydcor, which are interchangable terms, is one or two steps above stealing form the collection plate at church. I would rather earn money by stealing from the blind disabled vet on the corner than by working for Cydcor.
Archimedes
Nashville, Tennessee
U.S.A.
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