100% commission cold-calling jobs

staindude

That title was a bit of a tongue-twister, sorry :rolleyes:

Friend of mine had an interview for what she said was a £7ph marketing job, only after she was offered the job she realised it was 100% commission and would involve knocking on doors to get people to sign up direct debits with a charity. Apparently in the interview, more emphasis was put on it being more of a management role but she'd have to do the knocking on doors stuff for a while before getting to this stage.

Anyone else done this kind of job and earnt well out of it? My friend quit before she even started as it'd have cost her at least £40 a week in travel.

CFC

Some people do make money out of it and end up in management roles. But all these kinds of work are very difficult and only a very few end up ascending the ladder. On the whole they are best avoided.

chocolatechipcookies

I had an interview with a company like this, but the way he was talking, I didn't know it was door to door knocking. DH told someone he worked with about it and she told him she worked for the same company for a day. She quit when someone chased her down the street with a baseball bat for knocking on his door trying to sell something.

I never went back for a second interview.

Sailor_Sam

20yrs ago i had a go at selling double glazing, cold canvassing knocking on doors. I did it for 18mths and made more than i had been getting, in an office previously. But it was a horrible job working 7 day weeks and long hours, we got commission only. Never again.

angellotz

hiya,

i did a commission only job for 7 months and earned pretty good money, but it's so stressful!! mine wasn't knocking on doors, it was over the phone selling a home phone service (cold calling). i must say, despite the money, it was a horrible horrible job, and not one I would ever go back to. countless people came and went during the time i was there, the company was very ruthless - sacking people even if they were 2% below target.

some people may enjoy it, but you do have to put up with a lot of abuse so need a thick skin.

therealdessie

Be vary wary also if they offer flexible hours - because those kinds of perks often don't last long: the moment someone else quits from being sick(/of the job) you'll be expected to cover...

A_fiend_for_life

staindude wrote: »

That title was a bit of a tongue-twister, sorry :rolleyes:

Friend of mine had an interview for what she said was a £7ph marketing job, only after she was offered the job she realised it was 100% commission and would involve knocking on doors to get people to sign up direct debits with a charity. Apparently in the interview, more emphasis was put on it being more of a management role but she'd have to do the knocking on doors stuff for a while before getting to this stage.

Anyone else done this kind of job and earnt well out of it? My friend quit before she even started as it'd have cost her at least £40 a week in travel.

Hi, I have done work for a charity when I was a student. Around four hours per weekday evening, and because it is a charity it is in their interest to be soft sell. Conversion is usually about 2 or 3% and each call should take about two or three minutes and if they are not interested you say thanks and walk away.
I would recommend it in your neighbourhood or within cycling distance especially at £7 an hour - thats equivalent to £10 an hour since said friend is not paying tax as a student.



Once I graduated and moved town though I did more charity work described as a 'Management role'. This description rings big alarm bells though. I have done one such role and it sounds like it is from a small discrete ad in the local paper.

Sounds like said friend will be in work at 10am, work from 12 till 9pm and finally leave office for home about 10 or 11pm. People I worked with looked like ghosts.

I wonder if you get a card with 4 or 5 different charities on it.
I wonder if when you get 5 direct debits in a day you get to 'ring the gong' and have big pep talks at the start and end of the day.

This kind of set up was fine for folk who had a strategy for getting through 12 - 13 hours and did not mind ending up looking like zombies. It was anything but soft sell from what I saw. I did it for a day only, on proper training and just did not turn up the next day.

staindude

Well it's not something I'd ever consider, I even thought it sounded horrible before she found out what it really was. The nearest thing I've done was kleeneze catalogues about 7 years ago, that doesn't even involve talking to anyone (unless they buy something of course) and I felt like I was intruding on people's homes. I always wonder how people do well out of it but then I know some people just sign up to get rid of you.

And I've never met a single one that's left me alone after the first "no thanks". :rolleyes:

hayley11

I applied for a job a few years ago and it was advertised as marketing/advertising and an immediate start, so I went along for an interview and they kept saying it was marketing/advertising and then they invited me back for an "induction day" so I went along and it turned out it was door to door selling. They were so sly about it, even on the way to the town we were selling in nobody mentioned door to door selling. Me and another girl had huge heels on and were furious when we found out what it was. Needless to say I told them they could stick it and went home!

I know why they do it though, they try to hook people in with the big talk about "fast track to management" and all that. I'd be very wary of companies that mislead you at the start, doesn't bode well for how they'll treat you in the future!!

staindude

Another thing I was wary about when she first told me was how impressed they sounded of her work history during the interview. Now I mean no offense to her at all since my CV isn't impressive either but I couldn't see how any decent job in marketing/management would be impressed with her previous work. After finding out what it was it made much more sense why they were talking her up.

EthanM

It's not a good sign that they have at least partially misled your friend about what the role actually was.
I have worked many times for commission only and I have to agree that most of these jobs are tough. If however you are the right sort of person they can be very lucrative and be a good stepping stone into more pleasant types of sales jobs.
If you are not the sort of person that handles rejection, people, targets and an unknown salary very well, then best steer clear.