Pros
The opportunities in retail to meet new people and develop great interactions is a great way to get into sales. Cell phone sales experience opens a lot of doors and with previous compensation it broadened your range of things to sell, which built more experience and approaches.
Cons
Russell Cellular claims many times to be extremely dedicated to "OVT". At the store level, we worked great together with what they call the three pillars: "Opportunity Value Team". Depending on where you were at and who you worked with, these were values of the local team. But the company has one problem: they're too out of touch with their reps. We are the ones who spend a lot of time and effort into building relationships with their customers, we are the ones that set the company image by creating good customer experiences, and ultimately the ones who work hard at increasing revenue. We're not cashiers, we are sales people. And so much of what we do every day is something that's not seen by corporate. There's no connect. The company was founded by sales people - the owner started as a Turkey farmer and through his impressive sales skills brought him to building multiple stores, and 23 years later, there's over 300 locations. The problem is that the company has grown to a point where they have distanced themselves too much. I've been through 5 comp changes since I started, and ultimately they all end up reducing pay. But I worked at a good store and we could pull numbers pretty easily. Too my knowledge, a rep has never been asked for input. I don't believe even top store managers have ever even met the owner, when they're working hard to build teams of sales reps,build stores up, and maximize with every sale. This is what we do. We don't get much recognition for it, but that's why I am choosing 2 stars. The people I work with every day are what have made me stay. The new compensation change that occured was designed for stores that were underperforming. It rewarded beating year over year sales numbers with extra commission. For reference, you start at $2 for an iPhone, But they reward you with opportunities to make more on every sale. The problem with the change was that a huge portion of the bonus focused on beating year over year. For the stores where people are well trained, do their jobs, and maximize every sale, beating already outstanding numbers from last year will be difficult. Some factors include some deals last year that brought swarms of people in - huge discounts off the latest phones. Verizon stockholders are predicting that it won't happen again due to the lack of success of the campaign. When those months hit, we will be working extra hard trying to beat unreasonable goals that could end up in hundreds of dollars less on our checks. The stores that maximize, do well, and set examples for all the other stores are getting hurt the most. I work in a moderate sized store in a small town. There's only so much you can maximize - a plateu. I know a lot of great sales reps that are already talking about leaving. It's great that the company is investing in struggling stores - which is a lot of them, but they showed an extreme lack of recognition to the ones who kept the place afloat.