- Over-hyped recruiting : They do a very good job of selling you on joining the company, but the opportunity is no where near as good as it sounds. They manipulate statistics, such as their 90%+ retention ratio. It turns out, that retention ratio was for people who had been with the company 5+ years already. About 85% of people hired quit by the end of their first year.
- Sleezy salesmen: You are always "on the prowl" for new clients and are expected to stop people on the street to ask them about their clothing. Some people enjoy your service but the majority of people just see you as the suit salesman/woman who is ALWAYS trying to sell them something. You have to try and sell something EACH AND EVERY time you make contact with a prospect or client, which turns off a lot of people. You will come off as needy and it is hard to command respect among your clients and prospects because they never "need" what you're selling.
- Zero work/life balance: Expect to work a minimum of 7am to 7pm every day. This isn't so bad when you're a young buck right out of college, but when I saw managers and salespeople (who had been there for years) still working late hours, but still not making much money, I knew this opportunity wasn't going to be a long term career.
- Brainwashing: Tom James will make you believe that this is THE best opportunity out there, when that is far from the truth. They claim that "no one invests in their people like Tom James does." All you really get is a 2 week training program and then you start selling. Your manager will accompany you a few times per month to help you, but your manager still has to worry about selling for themselves since they still are responsible for their own book of business. There are other companies out there with better training programs and better commission structures in better industries.
- Income opportunity: There are some people who make a lot of money, but the majority don't make much. I've observed people who have been at TJ for years, but were still making around $40k. You work on full commission, but in your first 2 years, you have a monthly guarantee that acts as a "safety net." But that safety net decreases with each passing month. After two years, you're full commission. Each year, there's an opportunity to earn "Presidents Club" where you get a nice vacation paid for by the company. This is a big achievement in the company and it's hard to attain. But when you run the numbers, if you made Presidents Club at the minimum requirement, you still only made around $60,000 for that year.
- Commission Structure : With most companies, when you sell something you get "X" percent commission on that sale. With Tom James, your commission percentage depends on how much you sell for that month. If you had a bad month, you might only make 11% commission of your sales, but if you had a good month you might make 18% of your sales (btw: 18% is at the high end of the commission percentage which only the top people in the company make). When the month is over, your commission percentage is reset back to the lowest level and then you start all over
again.
- The product: You are selling luxury clothing. In a bad economy, this is the last thing people want to buy and the last thing they care about discussing.
- If you're a woman, expect to get hit on constantly by your clients and prospects (some might like this, but not me)
