Pros
The managers for the outside sales reps are very helpful and will go to great lengths to assist you in closing deals. The bonus structure is very aggressive, so if you're making sales, then you'll be swimming in cash. Some leads are provided for you. The managers will work hard to train you in the art of exception handling. You can take as much time off as you want, you're independent so just tell them you can't work a day and you're free to do whatever you want.
Cons
Hard to sleep at night and be successful. Bad commission structure, mostly bad leads, in your hands if you want to succeed. No benefits or base salary. For more details, continue reading below. This is a long review, I'm sorry for the detail. The merchants you'll be visiting are inundated with calls from merchant processors like AppStar at least once daily. Most of them will be frustrated with your presence or not remotely interested in what you're offering. Before you've begun your pitch, you have to change their mind about your appointment. The only way to really make money with AppStar is to cold solicit to area businesses. I was instructed to meet with the businesses next door and across the street from all of my preset appointments. It's a numbers game. Essentially you'll be closing about 10% of your deals if you're decent, but that means you have to get in front of 10-15 merchants daily to really make money. At one point, AppStar agreed to preset 3 appointments each day for me but I started with 0-2 appointments, usually just 1. You must be ok with going in and getting shot down by hundreds of merchants per month in order to succeed at this job. The managers will always tell you that you can save the merchant money. This is true, but often only a few dollars a month. They want you to sell on the value of AppStar not the savings you'll offer. Unfortunately, the savings are the only thing the merchant really cares about. The managers/underwriters you work with will always use the tagline "get them in the best program in the country" and want you to present yourself as offering just that.... but it's a lie. They work just like other processors and will just drop the rate by what they deem enough to make the switch. So, for example, you might give one company who is already in a decent program a $.10 swipe fee and a .59% discount rate in order to create savings for a merchant. But for another who's currently paying way too much, AppStar will offer a $.25 swipe fee and a 1.59% rate while still showing savings to the merchant. Essentially, AppStar will give them the highest rate they think they will accept, NOT the best program in the country. I was a fairly successful rep during my time at AppStar, but I didn't make very much money. The reason is that I was unwilling to lie to merchants and get them into a bad deal. I always did what was best for them, not for me. I could have signed up more merchants but eventually sabotaged my own deals because I knew I wasn't getting merchants into better deals. Also, you are heavily incentivised to get the merchants to make bad decisions, not good ones. As an outside rep you'll be pushed to get merchants to sign up for leases on equipment as opposed to outright purchases. Your commission will be $100 on a sale ($300-$500 piece of equipment, depending on whatever price you decide to charge them, the option is yours. Anything over $500 dollars and you get 50% of the upcharge, below that it is $100 commission). Your commission on a lease is 10x the monthly cost of the lease (at a price that you set, so you can lease it to them for $19/month or 99/month. Meaning your take could be $190 or $990). Remember that in order to make the most money, you have to screw the customer over as much as possible.