Pros
-Good location and city view -Employees fairly around the same age out of college -Philanthropy events -Experience gained for objection handling and cold call skills
Cons
-Sales tactics from the 80’s/90’s: MDE’s are glued to their desk 100% of the day. Pressure to keep your “dials” high with little rest period or time to source, which often gets done at home after hours. Militant micro-managing. Overall, the office culture in Chicago is centered around a work hard, play hard intensity that feels unsustainable and unprofessional. There is a visible reliance on stimulants just to keep up with the grueling pace and expectations. -5-day in-person work week: Monday through Friday 8AM-5PM, not your typical 9AM-5PM. In addition, employees often stay after hours past 6PM to hit their KPI’s. Expect to have 10 to 12-hour days. -Compensation: Incredibly low. The base pay is next to minimum wage. Commission is only paid out if your account fully closes and signs. -Product/Service: Companies spend an astronomical amount of money through PHMG to pay for hold music on their telephone, for inconsistent services. Visit “PHMG Unfair Contract Terms” on Facebook to learn more. As an MDE, you sell a lock-in 3-year contract for marketing music supposed to be changed monthly, however, because Account Management is primarily based in the UK, US-based clients may experience communication gaps and delays in music updates, or no updates at all. In an era where telephony AI and one-off solutions exist for a fraction of the cost, the current product needs to be reinvented and heavily innovated. -Upper Management: The leadership culture can feel exclusionary and heavily influenced by favoritism. Since the transition to being employee-owned, there appears to be a shift in focus toward short-term revenue over the long-term well-being of both the staff and the clientele. -Growth Oppurtunities: Very minimal. 90%+ of the office is made up of entry-level positions as an MDE/SDR. This isn’t the place if you want to grow your career in sales. Furthermore, you will not be able to “sit in” on a discovery or demo, and you will never present a discovery/demo yourself. Only your outside traveling sales rep does this, so you will gain no experience on leading a good discovery call. You will only be doing a scripted pitch with scripted questions, repetitively, and that is it.