Them

Do not even waste your time applying to these nitwits!!!!!!!!

If my memory serves me correctly, Empire seems to always be looking for a PM. There must be a reason why PM's don't stay there.

Jim in Bensenville, Illinois said: If my memory serves me correctly, Empire seems to always be looking for a PM. There must be a reason why PM's don't stay there.

Could be the fact as a new rep you get the worst leads no one else wants and/or you don't get enough leads. You have no control over the leads you get. They are definitely cherry picked.

You can drive 50-60 miles for one appt. with someone that has no possible way of affording what you're selling and has no clue about the cost of what they think they want. Gets old real quick.

I sold for Empire in the Raleigh/Durham region. I averaged over 40% close ratio and had the highest per sqft/yd $$$. So the money was good - usually around $1100 or $1200 a week. Carpet pricing we competed with Lowes/Home Depot very easily. Remember the sales rep could price the product how he wanted within a range that either paid him a minimum of $25.00 at the lowest acceptable price or 3% commission at the minimum commission price. Flooring was really high priced compared to other competitors but the commissions were higher as a result. Flooring products minimum at the time was 4% but I averaged around 7% on flooring.

I would sell for them today but the local branch manager was personality challenged. He wanted to rule his little kingdom by fear and intimidation which doesn't work for me. While he never attacked me until I quit it was the morning leads being faxed with the nasty gram cover letter every morning personally attacking an under performing sales rep who in hindsight should have never been hired as they couldn't close. Not everyone can close. It's life.

On the installation side - they needed a better control on who was doing the installations. Nothing like the sales rep being called because of installation problems.

The leads were really good or what anyone in home sales would call "warm leads".

On the pricing issue. I know some folks were overcharged by individual sales reps but we were told that if we overpriced and on the price sheets we always had a maximum we could charge; the customer would get a refund. We had one former used car sales guy who consistently overpriced and they fired him - it was trouble coming, it took too long and Chicago dictated the firing not the local Branch Manager.

That money was easy to make "if" you got decent leads (not all low income or long distance rural) and enough(not one or two or none a day) of them. Also, don't forget to subt. $150-200 for gas/week, wear and tear on your vehicle, no benefits, and no social security payment from the company as you are an indep. contractor who "has" to incorporate.

Then there are reductions for financing, "missed" measurements, and installer charges which lowered your gross sales price, your % commission level, and thereby your total comm.

Plus you need an advanced finance degree just to interpret how they actually figured your commisssion. Did you ever see the actual commission worksheet? Basically you have to take their word your commissions are figured properly.

Also, as you know, you had to be available from 9A-9P Mon.-Fri. and 9A-3P every Sat. Plus attend two early morning meetings/wk. Sometimes working until midnite to get your paperwork (which they kept increasing) straight and faxed in on time....

You have to sell high to make decent money, which I had no problem doing and my closing ratios were as good as yours, or better, until they started giving me leads no one could sell. Complaining got you nowhere, if not making matters worse.

My avg pricing was $45 for carpet and $16 for hard surface. One rep., who worked there for two yrs., put it rather succintly, "they want the ignorant selling to the ignorant."

Don't be too smart, or sell too much right away, you'll be viewed as a threat. Play dumb, don't ask questions, stay under their radar and you'll net around 35-40K a yr. assuming you don't have to buy a new vechicle if yours dies from the 400 lbs. of samples you have to keep in your trunk.