On their web-site, Apex advertises their Career Opportunities as "A Salesperson's dream! Preset Qualified Appointments!". They also state "We also provide easy access to a Team Coordinator at every presentation to help with questions, paperwork and finding a solution to earn the merchant's business".
During your interview, you are told that you need a reliable car and a cell phone. What they don't tell you is that you will also need a computer with high-speed internet access to mapquest the leads they give you and a working printer with plenty of supplies, as they expect you to print out nearly all the forms you'll require, including the merchant application/agreement, which is 17 pages long. It's also a good idea to have a cell phone plan with unlimited minutes, as, if my own experience is anything to go by, your team coordinator will put you on hold for 5-10 minutes almost every time you call - somewhat embarrassing if you're with a merchant.
However, the real reason I'm writing this report is because their "preset qualified appointments" are an absolute joke. I was told by my team leader that merchants often lie about appointments - you turn up and your contact isn't there and the receptionist/secretary lies and denies all knowledge of the appointment. While this is undoubtedly true in a few cases, I made several calls where the receptionist/secretary clearly knew nothing about the appointment and immediately pulled up Outlook to show me there was nothing booked.
Even worse were the appointments where the addresses were clearly incomplete, e.G. One merchant's address was given as School Rd #101- Google gave the correct address as 82* W Indian School Rd, Suite #101 - but the really bad ones were where the addresses were just plain wrong, period, such as three separate appointments where the "stores" I was looking for all turned out to be private houses, one where the current occupants told me the merchant I was seeking moved three years ago, one where the address I was looking for literally did not exist (no such street number) and the real doozie - an appointment at a store that went out of business more than six months ago!
My team leader's response to my informing him that someone at Apex wasn't doing their job properly was to tell me that he'd listened to the tapes and that all my appointments had been set and agreed! Since this was obviously complete BS and I was sick of wasting time and money chasing bogus leads, I quit.
My advice to anyone thinking of working for Apex is, if you're prepared to cold-call merchants and generate your own leads, you could, possibly, make some good money; if you rely on the crap leads Apex gives you, you'll probably starve!
0 comments