Sales - Anonymous employee Vitamix Employee Review

Be ready....going to attempt to make this real thorough so as to be beneficial for it. The company is making a lot of changes and transitions and experiencing rapid growth in hiring sales people, mainly in that you are all commission and pay your own travel expenses, so it costs them nothing to have you out there. (All commission.) In the process, as opposed to the past, they are oversaturating the marketplace, and sales averages have gone down dramatically for the individual sales person, on a daily basis. Thus, a few years back, most every rep could go out and sell quite a bit. But now, since they are getting everywhere all the time, the urgency for folks to purchases has been greatly diminished, thus lower daily sales, but you, as a sales person are still responsible to pay for hotels, meals, etc. (BTW, in my tenure working at Vitamix, almost always at Costco, talked to dozens of traveling Costco demonstrators and Vitamix is literally the ONLY company that I knew of that did not pay hotel and per diems for those reps. And most give guaranteed daily minimums.) Of course you agree to that up front, which is all good...but you realize when Vitamix is the only company not doing that...you begin to realize your benefits are bottom of the barrel. Because there is also no health insurance, etc. They use a third party to pay you, which takes your taxes out and pays you on a W-2, but allows customary benefits to be avoided. They tell you up front, but you need to be prepared for long hours. Insanely long hours. As in, you just put in 88 hours in seven days. One trick to this is they will tell you, say, you have 17 days of work for the month, and lets say it is split between two shows. However, you will minimum be working 19 days, just getting ready for those shows, likely traveling for at least one of them, doing admin to close up the show, and of course, they don't count set up for the show as a 'work' day, which usually takes several hours the night before you begin your show. So when doing the math of it, keep in mind you need to add an extra day of unpaid, getting no commission work to whatever the show length is. They will likely tell you you will not need to work more than 11 to 12 days in a row, with 7 to ten days off inbetween. I have never had that experience yet. One day after I was told that, I was sent away from home for 19 days. (Again, 20, because of set up and tear down.) Often you will be scheduled 11 days in a row say, then have 3 or 4 off, with another long stint. So getting rested inbetween, catching up on life, bills, etc, gets kinda crimped in. You do a ton of work...and it gets tricky to keep up with life. Which leads me to a point: for most folks, this job works much better if you are single, don't have kids you need to see regularly, or, if you work as a team with your husband or wife or partner, or, you do a team format where it gives you a bit of time off, (one partner works one day, one another, one opens the day, you both work 'prime time,' one closes the day. If you have a partner, you split everything 50/50, and some of the teams I know do sell a bit more, but it is not double. Or even close to that. More like, 40% more, at most. So your income needs could not be too high to sustain that. It is cool to occasionally, say, have 5 days off in a row. And that may mean everything for some people. But if you work this job 14 to 20 show days (not addtional set up days, etc) as Vitamix ideally will schedule you, you will work WAY more hours than a typical 40 hour a week job. Last I heard, they said the average sales rep makes 65k a year for most of the country, (and we will get to that in a minute) but keep in mind, you are working a lot of hours for that. You may need to do the math considering your situation, because you may be able to outearn that working much less hours at two jobs instead of the one with Vitamix. And that money has to pay for your hotels, etc, mind you. One key to this job, you need to know, is knowing WHERE you live. For instance, in produce growing states like Florida and California with higher average incomes, they average more sales a day of Vitamix machines than the midwest. And it makes a big difference in your income. Places like Southern Florida are so populated, you can often avoid the paying for a hotel as often because of population proximity and plenty of venues to work, Southern Ca, etc. But in other parts of the country, you may need to travel a lot. And you need to be careful. If you live, say, an hour from where you are doing your work, that is a two hour daily commute, on top of what can be a 13 hour day a lot of times...pretty intense. As far as training goes, they usually send you away for a week, pay you around ten to twelve dollars and hour for a week with plenty of hours...but then you are responsible for around half of your hotel. Depending where you train, that may drain your training income. There are many good trainers, but many who they use to fill in...so there is no guarantee you get a good, thorough training...and you'll end up a bit unsure, to say the least. Corporate is not great at getting you a the materials you need before hand either. I remember getting my training book, which was so great to get...well after finishing training. They are just overwhelmed and not on the ball as a team. Maybe they will be. I just have not seen it yet. And since you are all commission..they have no financial incentive to hurry...and I think that has held them back. Currently, they switched to new computer stuff, and everything is whack. Normally, I would say it is whack in general. (Not trying to beat up on corporate employees, who I am sure care, but I think it has a lot of broken systems.) Paychecks are all messed up, (and were before hand, be prepared for them to often have to fix your pay) they are not quick to get stuff to you at times that you really need, and I think the teamwork culture is lacking. I am not sure if it is because they are overwhelmed, but can only work 40 hours a week, but you are busy working more than double that, and it will likely frustrate you as you can only be left to wonder, "Does anyone care." Eventually they send you to two different types of training, which used to be regional, but may be up in Cleveland at this point. They cover hotel and most meals, but not all, and you don't get paid at all despite being there for several days, and being required to wear uniforms, etc. They will tell you about their company culture, which, as with many other companies, comes across as not sincere. For instance, they will talk about 'family.' How they make all decisions based on 'is that what we would do to family." Granted, you understand to a degree what you get into before, but they don't talk about family before. if they had, I would have run. Because family does not allow employees who sell so everyone else to get paid to be the only ones who don't get benefits. How did that get determined as family. I would not imagine if family asks to get materials or supplies needed, that will even be ignored, discarded, or lost frequently. Maybe a dysfunctional family...but not the ideal they seem to be talking about. Everyone at the main place gets 100% of their healthcare premium paid for for instance...AND for their family! But salespeople: nothing. One can only assume that the sales force is the family that they don't care for, because they family theme, (again, just one instance) seems to not be consistent throughout. You also need to be at peace, before taking the position, with having Vitamix undermine your sales by their own volition. They are airing it out at QVC all the time, have reps covering the area all the time, etc, often with different better packages, so establishing trust and clarity with the customer in order for them to feel the urgency to buy today in an honest way gets VERY tricky. And confusing. VItamix has several great models, but often, they are the same, and different retailers call the same machine by different names at time. And thus, customers get confused. And vocal ones will say something in front of a crowd you are demonstrating for, such as, "Oh, I got a better deal by far on QVC" etc, and while there are honest counters you can do there, sometimes, there are not, and you gotta have the grit and the heart to fight through that. See, back in the day, there were hardly any Vitamix reps nationally. Around 50. The last few years, they are multiplying like crazy...over 600 I think now. Showing all different kinds of ones....but much of the market has not gotten more confused by that, actually. What is the better deal? Costco, QVC, Sam's Club, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Military Base, trade show, and even more. Back in the day, you would be the only rep in an area for months, people get word, they come and buy...and you are making $$. Now, reps are everywhere, everyday, they are making much less $$, and their are so many deals it gets confusing. And people usually want to know they are getting the deal when spending 400 to 600 bucks. That gets to where, they are telling you what average reps make. Turns out, they are telling them numbers over the last 4 years...and not now...which is far less do to the saturation taking place. At a Costco, I guarantee you the most common thing you will hear, even from employees of Costco, is this: "oh yeah, you all were just here the other week." If you are there all the time, you don't have to spend the 400 to 600 today...because you know they are coming back very soon. This means everything for your sales...and it is why average sales numbers have plummeted from the past. That you are banking on to make now by taking the job. That being said, again, if you are based in San Fran, Miami, etc...you will sell some machines. Many already have them, but there are tons of people and the price is not so big a problem. Gets tricky outside of places such as those though. I know of many reps who like traveling, are not married, and really dig what they do. (Not all, but a few.) You have to literally be the strongest of the strong, mentally, if you don't work in a team. If you don't have the nonstop energy, it gets hard to sell these machines. A lot of it is math: the average person who buys a machine has seen the presentation 3.5 times. So you try to do it as much as you can, and hope the numbers work your way. Another huge con is their return policy. If a machine is returned during your show, regardless of when it is purchased, that return fully goes against your commission. So, there have been a few runs of returns over time when, a new sales happens, and everyone returns their old one to get the new one on sale, and you can just eat it. Big time. Or, a manufacturing quirck happens, so people start returning them in droves...so sweat off of Vitamix's back...they will take it right out of your commission, even though you made no mistake in your presentation and work practices, you take huge risk in that regard. At a venue like Costco where they take returns like none other, I have had machines that people owned for 3 years returned at my show, and it goes against my commissions for the full amount. Another example of not exactly feeling like 'family.' I could write a lot more...but let me just finish with another real confusing part: it seems regional managers, assistant regional managers, and the main office are not always on the same page. And that can make things real tricky at times. Oh, and let me throw out one more thing: you will have to dial in to minimum weekly sales calls that rarely have a lot of effectiveness,and rarely, if ever, come with notes handed out afterwards even if there is some crazy detail, and that is beyond lame, and to me, disrespectful, because they would improve those things if we were on an hourly clock. I wanted 100% commission...understood that...but respect my time...don't abuse it and treat me like I am costing you zero. Honesty, i think the big plan and understanding seems to be, for most markets, that the reps technically cost them very little, go ahead and send them out, they take some time to figure out, "Hey, this is not half what they said it is" and then just rehire. Most reps I talked to got in it for a real career change, full hearted...but felt a bit misled by varying statements from varying people from the organization. For example, you will likely hear, "most cars can accommodate the gear for a show, etc." You need to make sure to have a van or a truck to get it all in, unless you wanna pay for a chiropractor in most cases to help you after your trips. It is a lot of big stuff. A lotta reps dont have those kinda rides, and trust me, their bodies pay for it.