When I was hired several years ago as a Business Consultant I couldn't wait to join the "tribe". Every year since then, the company has become less organized, more eradic with their directives and demanded more and more from their sales force while compensating them less and less.
The lack of organization of a company of this size, stature and age is beyond me. It's the norm to wait days even weeks to receive the tools needed to do our jobs effectively. We don't receive adequate amounts of products to support our sell in and rarely have advance notice of monthly promotions. Entire departments are sometimes run by just a few people leaving almost 80-90 Business Consultants to wait extended periods of time before getting tasks and issues completed and resolved. The sales force is always the last to know when important changes are put in place.
Eradic Management best describes the current newbies. There are far too many "leaders" in upper management implementing a fear based strategy that has done nothing but halt business growth potential. No one works more effectively under such direction, FYI. It only creates a very negative, hostile working environment and de-motivates your sales team. The Business Consultants are the face of Dermalogica, we are the ones interacting daily with loyal clients and perspective new ones. How do you think a beaten down sales person reflects this upon others? It's certainly not easy to hide. Positive reinforcement is tried and true-motivate your sales force with a different approach and reap the benefits.
Unrealistic expectations...this is a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!! The current job description of a Dermalogica Business Consultant is too long to list here. Every task and activity is measured in a cookie cutter system that unfairly compares each territory as if they are identical. Metrics don't mean success. They are just numbers. Create realistic sales goals that reflect the current economic climate, market issues, and allow the sales team to actually make a decent living, not requiring a bonus to make ends meet. FYI, the base salary is extremely low compared with most other competitors.
Adminitrative overload-Reports...the amount of time wasted on the endless reports handed down is unbelievable! We are constantly creating and re-creating different reports that all basically provide the SAME INFORMATION! Utilize the CRM and internal reporting systems more effectively and let the sales team do what they do best...SELL. Reports are sometimes emailed out at 3 or 4 pm and expected DUE back by the same day at 5 pm. This is unacceptable.
Marketing-this is an area that needs an overhaul ASAP if they want to stay competitive. We need more current professional products yesterday. The competition is after us and it's not easy to just open a Dermalogica account anymore. We need to keep up better with medical trends, natural based lines and be willing to change.
National Account activities-the growing amount of BC support within Ulta specifically is a waste of time. We are not provided with tools needed to create a successful "event" in such stores. We are made to stand around and act as retail associates with little to no control over how this actually effects our territory and again, not compensated enough for the time. Saturdays are now being required without even a full month's notice now and when we are hired to work Mon-Fri this is so disrespectful to our personal time. Most people have plans made well in advance with families, kids and personal activities for their valuable weekend time...it is beyond unfair to continue to force us to give this up all while not receiving comp time in return. Dermalogica needs to take a different approach here and make Ulta properly staff their stores and pay their staff fairly. We were not hired to work part time in Ulta as retail sales people.
I honestly believe Dermalogica has so much potential to be the company every qualified sales skin care enthusiast wants to work for. If the value was put back into quality vs. quantity, nurturing the existing business better and respecting the employees, they could see the amazing growth they are trying so very hard to achieve. I'm just not sure how many of us are willing to wait for that to happen. The turnover has been huge and there's a reason for it.
