vB Easy Archive - its been such a bad month, they lowered quota by 6 for sept/october

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its been such a bad month, they lowered quota by 6 for sept/october
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Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

and yet i probably wont hit the 80%. time for write up #2.

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

yet cingulars excuse will be "did you try to go to find businesses to try get them to use it? did you use ROCCS!@!? no? ok then. write up is valid"

Posted by: magicski

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfred_Neuman

and yet i probably wont hit the 80%. time for write up #2.

What sort of quota do you have in place? Is this a corporate Cingular store?

Posted by: ChocoDough

Ya it has been a really bad month for us as well. Our quota is 35 and as of today I am only at 15 I believe.

Of course we have 4 reps in the store, even though I really objected and said we only needed 3 max, along with the 2 managers. Four reps is too much for our store. Our monthly numbers aren't that high to justify 4, so we will probably have 2 or 3 reps who aren't going to make quota.

If I don't make quota, I don't know what I am going to do the end of next month, I really need that commission check to pay for rent and CCs and car payment.

I keep checking Verizon to see if/when any jobs might open up locally. Cingular does it again. We are the lowest paid in the industry, and they still kep making our goals higher and higher. They care not at all about the reps. When their conpletly stupif changes start affecting my ability to pay my rent and such, then it might be time to call it quits. I dunno.

Posted by: coinstar99

It seems to me that this is not just a local thing but a nationwide thing, I am not about to say anything like "Well you would think the company would make some changes" . I just don't get it, what are they gonna do when they gotta let 75% of their work force go because of their own silly rules?

Posted by: nskgti23

Quote:

Originally Posted by coinstar99

It seems to me that this is not just a local thing but a nationwide thing, I am not about to say anything like "Well you would think the company would make some changes" . I just don't get it, what are they gonna do when they gotta let 75% of their work force go because of their own silly rules?

Make more money?

On the other end of things, I've been at 140% for the last 2 months.

Posted by: CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by nskgti23

Make more money?

On the other end of things, I've been at 140% for the last 2 months.

You may want to stay away from employees Christmas parties this year, but I believe you’re correct!

Not trying to twist what you said, but, to me, it looks like Cingular is moving to a different sales model. They are using alternative methods to get new accounts (Best buy, Radio Shack, tire stores etc.). Furthermore I read articles that report that there are a growing number of customers that would rather get information from the net.

My personal thought on this is, by going to the internet they may get more accurate information and can in fact document it.

Posted by: noodles5666

I'm already at 125% of quota this month. Hit 100% on the 11th.

Posted by: ChocoDough

Following with this thread, it confirms what I have been saying for some time.

You cannot impose various quotas on a national or even regional level. Cingular is crazy to impose the same type of quotas that might be easily met in a major city, to a smaller rurial area.

They don't look at things logically. Granted my main quota is 35 new lines for a month, but I still have to maintain an $8 per opportunity on features, $30 in accessories, and atleast $30 of all new lines must be on a $59.99 rate plan or above. If they strictly used only new activations for that ratio it wouldn't be quite as bad. But every migration and upgrade are held into that equation. That really knocks your averages down.

I am a good sales rep, I always get people complimenting me on how friendly I am and how good of an experience it was to come into our store and deal with me. Matter of fact, our store is known to be the friendliest Cingular store in the whole county.

Obviously Cingular doesn't care about making the customer happy. They impose crazy quotas that in the end makes the company let go of employees. It doesn't matter to them that even though a rep might not make their insane quota, but that the customers they do service are very happy.

Posted by: SuxBeingU

This month has been far far better than last month. just a few away from what I did last month with 2 weeks to go. Will be a good monthe it looks like.

I have not sold a Cingular phone though all month either been all Nextel adn Verizon

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

i did good last month. i knew this month would blow.....and it does.

i mean evewry 3 hrs or so, a customer walks into our store to complain or pay bill. nothing more.

not even sell an accessorie.

Posted by: BrutusBuckeye47

Alfred i concur. This month has been crap. My STORE is only at 20 new lines with me getting 15 of them. Im not corporate, (obviously) but i feel your guys pain. we still get paid decently because we get dollar for dollar on feature six bucks per accessory and five dollars for a warranty.. its easy but this month is slow.. i was th eonly one here yesterday and successfully took a two hour nap. two hours without a breath in my store.

Posted by: -X-

Im with ya Brutus I've came close to hitting 2hrs.

Sales are down the drain, for me September is by far the worst month to date so far as Im sure Oct will be just as bad.

Posted by: ivwshane

After I quit and another employee quit that left one really good seller at my old store, he hit quota on the 9th!!! and he's already over 70!!!

At least someone is taking advantage of the situation

Posted by: Alfred_Neuman

2 hrs of sleep? we went 5 hrs w/o ppl.

Posted by: drinkbrew

more than half of our 12 employees didn't make sams goals but if you have a good manager and he/she realizes that it wasn't you fault for example you took vacation, the whole store came no where close to quota, or what ever you have for a good reason they can keep you from getting a sams write up. but if everyone else in your store is amking it or coming close then you may be the week link.

Posted by: audiovoxx

i see it worse month after month... now with the payment station thats all we get, and customers get angry cause the station dose not give back change. i feel like were loosing alot at least back in the good old blue days i didnt have to worry so much about hitting quota now everyone is nervous about a write up.... try the ROCCS, try going after bussiness, close the sale...

Posted by: mashi

same here.. very slow this month. maybe hurriance ?

Posted by: coinstar99

Wow, some of that sounded very familar, ROCCS and business and all that. My question is what if we are doing all that, and more and we still can't hit quota, I haven't given up even though I have the last two days of the month off and there isn't any chance of coming in those two days. My real questions is, Is it all carriers that are noticing a decrease in sales ? Is it certain markets? Well back to the grind stone and keep plugging away at it, good luck to all who are going to come up short, and those that are close

Posted by: CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by coinstar99

Wow, some of that sounded very familar, ROCCS and business and all that. My question is what if we are doing all that, and more and we still can't hit quota, I haven't given up even though I have the last two days of the month off and there isn't any chance of coming in those two days. My real questions is, Is it all carriers that are noticing a decrease in sales ? Is it certain markets? Well back to the grind stone and keep plugging away at it, good luck to all who are going to come up short, and those that are close

You may want to look at this post.http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=734619

Posted by: ChocoDough

Well I just heard today that they raised our quota starting next month from 35 to 40 per rep.

Now before some of you high rollers talk about how low that is compared to some stores. Our store does on average 120 - 130 a month. They recently hired 2 more reps, we now have 4 reps.

Now do the math. 40 x 4 = 160. There is no way we are going to get even close to that. MAYBE December, but not on a regular basis.

I keep saying, that you CAN NOT haver national or even regional quotas. They should be per city / county or whatever. But you can't impose these type of quotas on less populated areas of the country.

I might send an email to my union rep tonight, but those guys are useless. CWA is the worst and useless organzation.

Posted by: Linkman

Quote:

Originally Posted by mashi

same here.. very slow this month. maybe hurriance ?

The hurricane's have had a HUGE effect on the economy. Consumer confidence was down by about 15% in September. What that means to you and me is that people are putting off buying stuff unless they absolutly need it. Hopefully, people will get it going in OCT.

My numbers haven't really been good for the first 4 days. How about the rest of you?

Oh and BTW you B2B guys will probaly see the effect of the slow down leter this month or in November. I say this with about 12 years of B2B experience. I would plan a vacation for November if possible

Posted by: makhay

I was power rnked number 9 in the district, yet, i didnt even meet quota which was 35, i hit 29... it sucks out there..

Posted by: ivwshane

I've said it before and I guess I need to say it again. Power rankings and ratios don't mean a thing if you aren't making money.

Who cares what your attach rate is if your commission checks are less than $1000 a month. Instead just focus on touching as many customers as possible and making as much money as possible. For instance, doing a ton of upgrades may hurt your attach ratio but having 40 acts, 100 features, 10 upgrades and $1000 in accessories doesn't make the same amount of money as having 35 acts, 100 features, 50 upgrades, $2000 in accessories.

You guys really need to start working smarter not harder.

Doing what I said above made my customers happier and my paycheck bigger.

Posted by: mashi

online retailer killed me.. i have a customer got the phone from me 2 days ago. but her friend got the same phone with 1 year plan from letstalk.com. the deal is better than ours. she just called and ask if she can get 1 year contact with same deal with letstalk.com. I think we should stop doing phone business. online retailer always kill our price.

Posted by: KaBaL666

its a nationwide thing. Remember last year around this time? Our store wasnt doing as well this time last year either. I guess Sept / Oct isnt good cell phone months. but i figured it would be better since they unleashed the 6102. But to no avail...

Posted by: Freakshow105

Quote:

Originally Posted by drinkbrew

more than half of our 12 employees didn't make sams goals but if you have a good manager and he/she realizes that it wasn't you fault for example you took vacation, the whole store came no where close to quota, or what ever you have for a good reason they can keep you from getting a sams write up. but if everyone else in your store is amking it or coming close then you may be the week link.

In the Blue World I would agree with you, but when 15 people in the Salt Lake City Market DID NOT GET put on SAM then you know you have a problem. It has been explained to us that it is automatic and that there is nothing I could do.

I am desperate, I was spending 4 hours a day calling businesses, sending out flyers etc and I have gotten a little return 2 months later, but the sam process does not care. This stuff does not happen overnight

Posted by: Freakshow105

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiovoxx

i see it worse month after month... now with the payment station thats all we get, and customers get angry cause the station dose not give back change. i feel like were loosing alot at least back in the good old blue days i didnt have to worry so much about hitting quota now everyone is nervous about a write up.... try the ROCCS, try going after bussiness, close the sale...

Is it me or can NO ONE figure out how to use the damn thing? And then they always touch the bottom corner of the screen that has the mouse logo on it!!! Either that or they can't figure out there is an espanol button on it

Posted by: Freakshow105

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaBaL666

its a nationwide thing. Remember last year around this time? Our store wasnt doing as well this time last year either. I guess Sept / Oct isnt good cell phone months. but i figured it would be better since they unleashed the 6102. But to no avail...

Well, I was still able to hit my quota! and able to give a free phone out and free activation fee 15% more minutes etc

Posted by: James Bond 007

The real reason why business is very slow is because people don't have any money. The high cost of fuel and gasoline prices has caused everything to become more expensive. Consumer confidence is really down. Most people are just living week to week and paycheck to paycheck. Most people have a very hard time making ends meet right now with this economy. Also, there are too many cell phone stores and dealers all around. The piece of the pie is getting smaller because of the enormous amount of cell stores everywhere. There is a lot of competition between all the stores combined and the volume of business is spread out to fewer customers purchasing cell phones and phone plans per store.

I know for myself that as a 4 year Cingular customer, I shopped around and also really grilled the Cingular sales rep before I made my decision to purchase from him and from his Cingular store. I have 2 Cingular stores in my area, but the sales reps are all idiots. They have NO CLUE about answering simple questions like whether or not a Cingular World phone can be used in another country with a Pre-Paid SIM chip. I had an experience where either my Cingular sales rep was lying to me or he just plain did not know what the answer to my question was. What happened was that the Cingular rep that sold me my Cingular world phone was telling me that my world phone would "definitely" work if I used it in Europe if I purchased a foreign Pre-Paid SIM chip where-ever I was located in Europe. I kept telling him that it needed to be "unlocked" to work and he kept telling me that it did NOT need to be unlocked to work with foreign SIM chips in Europe or in Asia. That's how stupid some of the Cingular sales reps are. I ended up still purchasing from this same Cingular sales rep, but I didn't purchase from him because of his product knowledge or because he answered all of my questions clearly and honestly. He didn't. He lied to me and he was just as uninformed with the questions that I asked him as some of the other Cingular sales reps who work at the other Cingular stores in my area. Even though the Cingular sales rep lied to me and even though he didn't answer any of my questions clearly and honestly, I still purchased from him. And I did not purchase from him because he was the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree or because he was knowledgeable or honest. He wasn't any of these things. He just wanted to tell me and give me BS to make a quick sale. The ONLY biggest reason why I purchased from this lying sack of Sh*t was because the other 2 Cingular stores that are located closer to my house in my town do not do the volume of business like the Cingular store where I purchased my phone at the Mall. Shopping mall Cingular stores do better business than the smaller Cingular stores that are not located in shopping malls. Most of the smaller Cingular stores are located in small plazas and a lot of these small plazas do not get the traffic that the big shopping malls get. The Cingular stores that are in the shopping malls have more volume and they sell more phones and they also have "fresher" stock on hand than the other Cingular stores that are not located in shopping malls. This is the ONLY reason why I purchased my world phone from the Cingular rep at the Mall.

ALSO, I wanted the BEST deal possible on a cell phone with my existing Cingular plan. Before I made my purchase, I also checked around with other cell phone providers and with online cell phone dealers. I discovered that it would cost me more money to purchase the same phone that Cingular provided if I purchased it from any of the online dealers. None of the other online dealers had any rebates on the phone that I wanted and they did not offer any accessories with the phone. So, I purchased it from Cingular instead with a 2 year contract and with a few accessories together with the rebates offered by Cingular. I saved over $98 by making this move. I think that this was smart.

Every customer (the smart ones) are always looking for a good deal. Remember this. Cingular store sales reps do NOT have control over customers who are shopping around for good deals. If I was ever to find a BETTER DEAL and a BETTER SERVICE PLAN and a BETTER COVERAGE AREA from another cell phone provider besides Cingular, I would go with the other provider. But this has not happened yet. I always look around for this every 1 or 2 years before I buy another Cingular phone and before I renew my contract with Cingular for another 1 or 2 years.

Cingular has ONLY 3 things going for them right now. First, they have some really good plans with the Rollover minutes. Other providers like Verizon and T-Mobile do NOT even come close to Cingular's rates, plans and minutes with the Rollover. The 2nd thing that's going for Cingular right now is the ability to purchase a cell phone with the rebates. Other online cell phone dealers charge much more for the same phones. And the 3rd thing going for Cingular right now is that they have an EXCELLENT coverage area across the United States. And they have EXCELLENT signal and reception in the entire coverage area. T-Mobile, Nextel and Sprint do NOT have a good coverage area. The ONLY other cell phone provider besides Cingular that has just as good a coverage area and reception is Verizon.
As for myself, I would not change over to Verizon just yet because their phones do not have GSM capabilities and I would not be able to use a Verizon cell phone to make calls from Europe or from anywhere else around the world if I travel overseas. And they do not offer Rollover minutes like Cingular does. I like the Rollover minutes. Rollover is a BIG selling point for Cingular. Other than these 3 things, Cingular has nothing else good to offer. Most of their Cingular reps need to attain more product knowledge as well as knowledge regarding what to tell a customer like me when I ask them a simple question like what to do to be able to use a world phone in Europe and in other parts of the world.

Overall, Cingular is descent, but they need to greatly improve on what their sales reps say to the customer about a cell phones capabilities and incapabilities, about the information that they give out to customers about the useage of foreign SIM chips in the Cingular world phones and about the different service plans that Cingular offers.
If all Cingular sales reps master these 3 things, I think that they will sell more phones.
Product knowledge and phone feature knowledge of each and every phone is very important. So, please don't tell the customer that a Cingular world phone can be used in a foreign country outside the United States with a different SIM chip and that it does NOT need to be "Unlocked" to be able to work in a foreign country. You are doing yourself a dis-service by saying this to a customer just to make a sale. You may be able to fool some customers, but not people like me.
Get yourselves some more cell phone product knowledge and some basic cell phone technical knowledge and don't lie to customers like me and you will meet your monthly quotas each month. Lie and deceive the customer and you will not be able to make your rent and car payments next month. Wake up people. Most Cingular cell phone customers/consumers have MUCH MORE KNOWLEDGE about the cell phone that they want to purchase and its functions and about the plan that they want and need than a lot of the Cingular store sales reps. Most consumers do their homework first (at least I do) and do a whole lot of research on a cell phone that they like, and on cell phone providers and on what type of deals that are available out there before they make a purchase desicion.
You people as Cingular store sales reps should do the same. That's the only way that you are all going to draw more customers in your stores and make more sales. Otherwise, you will not be able to pay your rent and your monthly car payments.

Posted by: jbzcar

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChocoDough

Ya it has been a really bad month for us as well. Our quota is 35 and as of today I am only at 15 I believe.

Of course we have 4 reps in the store, even though I really objected and said we only needed 3 max, along with the 2 managers. Four reps is too much for our store. Our monthly numbers aren't that high to justify 4, so we will probably have 2 or 3 reps who aren't going to make quota.

If I don't make quota, I don't know what I am going to do the end of next month, I really need that commission check to pay for rent and CCs and car payment.

I keep checking Verizon to see if/when any jobs might open up locally. Cingular does it again. We are the lowest paid in the industry, and they still kep making our goals higher and higher. They care not at all about the reps. When their conpletly stupif changes start affecting my ability to pay my rent and such, then it might be time to call it quits. I dunno.

You should never budget based on a variable commission.

Posted by: rabisdogis

I have 4 reps in my store as well (including myself). Our quotas are at 28 right now...we're expected to hit 88 adds this month. The other corp store (7 mins from us) is expected to hit 400 adds...I think the quota is at like 80. Myself and two other reps are seasoned with one new guy. Our manager is brand new to the company having had no previous wireless experience, computer experience, marketing experience...etc. You get the point. I think Cingular basically wants to get rid of all of their employees that are worth a s**t and hire people who are willing to work for minimum wage. I've got a great idea...why don't you guys (Cingular) start a prisoner release program? Maybe then, you'll get what you want!

Posted by: johngotti

We have a lot of outside variables like hurricanes and gas prices but lets not forget that September/October have never been blockbuster months in recent history... at least in the good ol GMR... November will bring us ramping back up and December.... well I hope I dont have to say anything there...