You're Here For a Good Time, Not a Long Time
Pros
• Amazing teammates and peers, supportive culture, no internal competition as you “own” your territory. • Compensation higher than industry average: very good base salary ($120k), fair car allowance, plus quarterly profit sharing. • Benefits package. • On a corporate level, the company is really focused on employee well-being. • Work-life balance, flexibility: PTO approval is not an issue, and you have control over your schedule. • The nature of the job itself is not hard: you drive 4-5 days a week, visiting 6-8 dealers/day and keep your phone on the rest of the time.
Cons
• With the turnover they have, it basically became a temporary contract job. You will go on PIP and will be gone in a year or two. Just like everyone before and after you. • The product. It’s just not competitive on the West Coast, unfortunately. Like at all. Credit Acceptance is big in the South and certain States in the Midwest/East Coast, but in the West -- it’s a super niche lender: the dealer checks are simply too low, and the bank fees are too high compared to what competitors are offering. Plus, the technology and software you have to train the dealers on is very glitchy and outdated. You will be selling a subpar program. Hence, your commission is next to nothing ($500/mo.), base salary is basically what you’ll be making for as long as you last here. • Upper management (CEO, CSO, VPs) are nice people who truly care, but they’re disconnected from the field. They truly believe their product is the best and everyone wants it, you just have to sell it right. Credit Acceptance is very picky about what dealers you can sign. They want you to enroll 1-2 accounts/mo. which is not hard at all if only they wouldn’t be so selective. It’s like a girl rejecting every guy, waiting for Prince Charming… They preach changes, but all the major projects get postponed quarter after quarter, even very basic things take half a year here. • Expectations are absolutely unrealistic because they’re the same companywide, with no adjustment to local market conditions. DOS has full authority on how they can manage you and run their districts so despite the corporate really investing in employee morale, the chain of command is broken, and your experience with this company will 99% depend on who your DOS is, they can easily make or break it. Credit Acceptance always struggled with turnover, but on the West Coast it’s just horrendous. There are barely any reps in the entire California and Pacific NW who’ve been here longer than 2 years. If you’re fine with a base for a year or two – it’s a good opportunity, if you want a long-term career and expect to make way more with commission – keep looking. • Micromanagement. Again, it all depends on your DOS, but the trend during my time was that you would be micromanaged more and more. I’d assume it’s even worse now. This job can be so fun and fulfilling if handled right, but your boss monitoring your calendar and activities, reading all your CRM notes, etc. is just preventing you from focusing on the actual productive sales. You have to spend hours after you get home from a full day of driving in the field to document all the stuff and then sit on pointless back-to-back zoom calls every other morning getting grilled on every minor detail.