After 6 years of providing tech support and customer service at an expert level in the electronic payment industry, I was ready to make the transition into outside sales of Point Of Sale service.in my former position, I interacted with ISO's (independant sales organizations/reps) all of the time and knew that outside sales could be very lucrative in this industry.
I was contacted via monster.com by Transtech who sold me on the premise that they provide 2-6 highly qualified leads per day within a 25 mile radius. I was advised that this distance could be increased or decreased at my request. I was reassured of my probability of success in Tele-Training class conducted 08/09/07. The moderator told all of the attendees that the company invests $75 per lead and spent $4 million to generate leads in 2006.
With my level of industry knowledge, ambition and 2-6 highly qualified leads per day I couldnt fail right? Wrong. I worked for this company for three days.in those 3 days, I went on 12 appointments and burned a tank of gas attending these bogus appointments.in all but two of the appointments, the owner was either not there or previously told the appointment setter over the phone at Transtech specifically not to send a representative out to their location because they already have service and wasnt interested in switching. 2 business owners told me flat out that before they could say anything else after the initial phone rejection, the appointment setter would bring someone else to the phone asking the business owner to verify their business address.
Also, the appointments that they arranged for me made no logistical sense. For instance, on day two, my first appointment was on Roswell Rd in Sandy Springs, GA (owner was present but wasnt interested). Appointment number 2 was in downtown Atlanta (owner wasnt there and wasnt scheduled to be there), appointment number 3 was back on Roswell Rd in Sandy Springs where I initially drove from! (owner was there but told the appointment setter not to send anyone by).
I advised my Team Leader of the obstacles I encountered and asked to be given all of my appointments for the day and to decrease the traveling radius to within 10 miles of my home zip code so that I could plan my day accordingly and save time, gas and money. The Team Leader advised me to stick with the program because the company has been in business since 1990 and has over 100,000 customers blah, blah, blah...
Day three was an exact repeat of day one. My very last appointment was at a junkyard in a bad neighborhood behind the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta. After taking three steps out of my car, I was chased by the business owner's Rockweiler and narrowly escaped having a chunk chewed out of my behind. To provide insult to injury, the business owner was one of the 2 merchants that I previously mentioned who said that he told the appointment setter not to send anyone out and before he could say anything else, someone else came to the phone asking for his address.
This is the conclusion that I came to in regards to Transtech's so called highly qualified leads. Transtech probably does invest $75 per lead and did pay $4 million in lead generation. However I can't help but wonder if they pay a $75 commission to their appointment setters for every lead that they obtain and those appointment setters are in turn "slamming" merchants in order to get the $75 commission.
Whether that's the case or not, all I know is that I am out of work. I assumed a risk, which in life you have to do in order to progress, and I feel like I was taken advantage of. Sales is not for everyone, but it is for me! My problem was that I chose to work for Transtech without researching the company enough and their unethical business practices had a direct impact on me. My purpose is to encourage anyone reading this message to not make the same mistake of placing your trust in this company like I did.
0 comments