UniFirst Salaries, Bonuses and Benefits.

What are the average starting salaries, bonuses, benefits and travel requirements like at UniFirst?

What do you like best about working at UniFirst? Are there any great perks or special treats for employees?

Average starting salary is $650/week. The also offer a car allowance of $155/wk and a cell allowance of $50/month. Here is the catch. If you are in a market somewhere up the eastern coastline, you should be ok. If you are in a market where Cintas owns 90% of the business, then you will be pushed to hit quota and probably quit within 6 months.

I had a phone interview with a Manager. He kept on using the phrase aggressive. "I need an aggressive salesman". And he even commented about Cintas, saying they can beat Unifirst on price evertime out. I sensed this would be a stressful position. It seems like a job that wouldn't be really enjoyable.

evertime should be everytime

I have been a sales rep with Unifirst for 6 years. It's a great company to sell for, but, you have to be committed to put in the time prospecting. It's like any career, the more effort your put in, the greater your success. There is a good amount of prospecting. The company standard is around 80 cold call - phone calls per week , with one day per week just making dials. Our company gives every sales rep a Blackberry with loaded with prospects and call history. So your database is in the palm of your hands for every call.

With all this said, Unifirst is a $1Billion corporation that expects results of their sales force. In the first year expect a lot of training, you wont be selling in the first 8 Weeks. The sales quota is a lot lower too. But once your tenured (52 weeks) you are expected to get results.

Hope this helps.

My take on the Sales rep position at Unifirst is that it is a good and legit sales position. However, sorry to say, it is a doggy dog type of sales job. Meaning, you work your BUTT OFF and the company, like alot of other companies out there, just keep on taking and taking and taking back from their employees every year.

I've gotten to the point in life that I don't want to be in the rat race any longer unless it is something that is interesting and I truly believe in (or if the price is right or if the company cares about their people). Also, many times if you have a great mgr (and let's face it how many great ones are there) it can make a doggy dog type of job into a great one.

Other doggy dog type of sales jobs:

1.Yellowbook (actually this is really bad)
2.Coke (Account Mgr)
3.Alot of 100 percent commision paying jobs
4.Car
5.RJR Tobacco
6.Feel free to add to my list.

It's good and legit Unifirst, just not my cup of tea.

***I'm curious to know Ted what is a second year rep making at Unifirst (base plus commission)?***

By the way, you wrote a good and helpful piece about the company Ted.

Deansuraci,
I worked for Unifirst for 5 years. I enjoyed the job and really liked the company. Ted is right when he says they provide great training and tools. You are both right that it is hard work. While it doesn't sound like it would be a good fit for you, it is a great job for a lot of people. You compared it to Yellowbook and I will take issue with that, because one of my best friends that I worked with at UniFirst left to work for Yellowbook. She can tell you what a crap job that is, altough she was good at it and did well for them, they are awful to work for.

While I don't ever want to do 100% new account aquisition again, I would work for anyone I worked for at UniFirst again. They were honest, hard working, and always tried to do the right thing for the customer. I left to work for a competitor where I made twice as much, but they were awful people. They lied to their employees and customers, actually looked for ways to write their contracts to take advantage of their customers, and knowingly sent their sales reps out to sell programs that did not occur. (ProSura and Biosmart)

So, if you work for UniFirst you will work hard, as a sales rep make an average of 50,000, have great training and tools, be able to secure a good job in the future, and have fun while doing it. Not a rock star job, but solid company and solid experience.

deansuraci in Cornwall On Hudson, New York said: evertime should be everytime

Everytime is not a word. However there are two words you can use.
Example: Every time I go shopping I bring my purse.

They are NOT a 1 billion dollar company but are trying to be. You are selling a product that is highly competitive. They want you to average 100 dollars of sales per week for every year and you are reviewed weekly.
I worked and made in the 40's plus the company doesnt provide a car so yours will get beat up.

If you're looking into an outside sales rep position in this industry, try looking into Cintas. The compensation is higher, there are different sales divisions/positions that can tailor to your selling style (new business vs. growing current customers) and Cintas is a more successful company.

Average 1st year sales rep will make between 70-90k a year. You can only improve from that.

Car compensation is upwards of 400+/month with gas allowance. Insurance is covered by the company as well. Cell phone reimbursement is 50/month. The weekly quota for President's Club pace is $ 155+, but with the vast product line that Cintas carries, it's not as difficult.

You'll have to absolutely work hard, but you'll be better compensated with upward mobility.

Ted Stevens in Warren, Vermont said: I have been a sales rep with Unifirst for 6 years. It's a great company to sell for, but, you have to be committed to put in the time prospecting. It's like any career, the more effort your put in, the greater your success. There is a good amount of prospecting. The company standard is around 80 cold call - phone calls per week , with one day per week just making dials. Our company gives every sales rep a Blackberry with loaded with prospects and call history. So your database is in the palm of your hands for every call.

With all this said, Unifirst is a $1Billion corporation that expects results of their sales force. In the first year expect a lot of training, you wont be selling in the first 8 Weeks. The sales quota is a lot lower too. But once your tenured (52 weeks) you are expected to get results.

Hope this helps.

Problem one you have been a sales rep for 6 years. No grownth here or what? This company is moronic at best. They have 5 sales reps in the RI market alone. Their base clients are uniform wearers. How many companies still use uniform services for their employees? Just about no viable clients in the RI market yet they keep hiring new reps. The average tenure of a rep is under 12 months. The blackberry with the data base in your hand is an ankle bracelet keeping tabs on you. If you do not enter a contact and an hour goes by they will ask where you had been for an hour. It is a horrible place to work. The management consist of failures from other industries. Funny thing is the senior management are all people hired away from Cintas. They are always playing chase Cintas instead of creating their own identity as a company. The commission plan is a joke. You sell a $60,000 contract and you get $750 to $1250 tops. They break down the commission to weekly rental amount and you get 2 to 5 times that amount depending how many years you get them to sign a contract for.

I hear ya Ricky. They cut territory size and increased the number of sales people in Md right before the bigger part of our economic crash. Im glad I bailed in time. But that being said, welcome to corporate America. Most of the higher ups lose touch with the workers. Look at the new TV show where the bosses go undercover. Still, alot of people do stay there for years and some move up, but as a worker, you are very expendable. They want you to go into businesses, say the script, sell the account, and do more each year. This is true of any company. They are watching their bottom line profit, not at any of the workers. If your a route driver, they want you to do the route to completion, no matter how many hours it takes.

deansuraci in Cornwall On Hudson, New York said: My take on the Sales rep position at Unifirst is that it is a good and legit sales position. However, sorry to say, it is a doggy dog type of sales job. Meaning, you work your BUTT OFF and the company, like alot of other companies out there, just keep on taking and taking and taking back from their employees every year.

it can make a doggy dog type of job into a great one.

LOL - I think the phrase you are looking for is "Dog eat Dog". It comes from the aspect that every man for himself - like if two dogs were left alone in a room, one would end up eating the other out of survival. Not Doggy dog.

My husband has worked for Unifirst for 3 years now in Sales, he works his butt off, and even meeting his sales goals only makes a few hundred in commissions per month. Their commission schedule is lame to say the least, you get paid once on the sale, just a small amount - and no continual percentage either. Benefits are pretty good. The Company has become more and more impersonal. They did away with their spring incentive trip, do nothing for the holidays now, reduced the sales area sizes and want to just keep hiring salesmen - aiming for quantity, not quality. Cintas, Aramark, G&K - it's all cutthroat. A huge issue is dealing with contracts, lack of upper management coming through to help seal the deals, and relying upon the service end to fulfill your promises of quality service.

Overall, if you go in to an interview and they make it sound too good to be true, it is just that. It's a decent job, for a decent company, that has it's issues and setbacks just like anywhere else. If you don't like dialing, cold calling, and frustrating competition - the job isn't for you.

Like any large sales company we (UniFirst) are not perfect and we experience Sales Person turnover, sometimes this turnover is our fault and sometimes we hired the wrong person. These people are good people just wrong job. I have been with this organization for almost 6 years (starting as a Sales Rep. and now over a region of them) and can tell anyone two things; If you are looking for an incredible sales organization to learn from and become a "Sales Superstar" here or down the road at another company this is the place. Second, if you are looking for an organization you can call "home" grow with and have a real shot at success this is it. If you really want to know about this orgainization feel free to reach out to me at Eric_Monroe@UniFirst.com Do not just rely on postings when making this decision (not matter what company your looking at.) Good selling.

Well Eric is right about one thing sometimes they hire the wrong people. I am going to say statistically that number is about 95% of the time in outside sales. They have been experiencing negative growth in number of clients but there is opportunity? How many top managers are dying off Eric? Dude seriously I applaud you efforts but you just misleading people. This is a great company to work for, rake in a salary and string along until you find a real job. The GM at the location near me would drive by the salespeople's homes to make sure they were leaving their house by 8AM every day. Total psycho stuff going on at this company seriously stay far away. The very first thing you do as an employee is watch an anti-union video and it just goes down hill from there. Does Eric have a personal relationship with the owners family? Oh I think I recall that being the case.

RickyTicky in Plainville, Massachusetts said: Well Eric is right about one thing sometimes they hire the wrong people. I am going to say statistically that number is about 95% of the time in outside sales. They have been experiencing negative growth in number of clients but there is opportunity? How many top managers are dying off Eric? Dude seriously I applaud you efforts but you just misleading people. This is a great company to work for, rake in a salary and string along until you find a real job. The GM at the location near me would drive by the salespeople's homes to make sure they were leaving their house by 8AM every day. Total psycho stuff going on at this company seriously stay far away. The very first thing you do as an employee is watch an anti-union video and it just goes down hill from there. Does Eric have a personal relationship with the owners family? Oh I think I recall that being the case.

oops I owe a few R's in there.

Ricky,

I will pass on commenting on what you said. Anyone that talks poorly about something in thier past always plays the victim card. We have grown to over a billion dollars in revenue, are now the 3rd largest uniform company North America and received several awards for our performance not only as a company but a sales organization. Our sales postion is not easy, most positions that offer a significant earning potential are not easy. For anyone considering a sales position with our company (and think comments like Ricky's are accurate) ask to go out an spend a day with one of our sales people, ask to talk to some our new sales and tenured reps. and formulate your own opinion about our company. We are a publicly traded organization, you can go to the internet and research if we "lost" customers and are struggling as a company. Please let Wall Street tell that story.

Ricky, I wish you the best in your future endeavors. My recommendation is to stay away from a competitve sales environment.

Eric;

Yes I would take you suggestion if I wasn't just so darn successful at competitive sales. Comment away please you know I am speaking the truth. Now Ronny goes on Undercover Boss and goes no place near a customer or sales office. Why would that possibly be Eric? About what 75% of the business is Route Sales or outside sales driven or even direct sales but he only goes to the laundry and prep plants? How can that be? Gee if I am so off track what is UniFirst hiding? If you want to help Ron get him a gig on Biggest Loser and a Nicotine patch. Seriously don't waste a minute of your time with this company. Oh and did I mention the "Sales Managers" are required to continue to collect resumes and interview even when they have all positions filled. Hmmmm why would they be doing that? Oh yeah because no one last even 12 months. Seriously significant income? Now that is a joke no one in sales make a "significant" income.

RickyTicky in Plainville, Massachusetts said: Eric;

Yes I would take you suggestion if I wasn't just so darn successful at competitive sales. Comment away please you know I am speaking the truth. Now Ronny goes on Undercover Boss and goes no place near a customer or sales office. Why would that possibly be Eric? About what 75% of the business is Route Sales or outside sales driven or even direct sales but he only goes to the laundry and prep plants? How can that be? Gee if I am so off track what is UniFirst hiding? If you want to help Ron get him a gig on Biggest Loser and a Nicotine patch. Seriously don't waste a minute of your time with this company. Oh and did I mention the "Sales Managers" are required to continue to collect resumes and interview even when they have all positions filled. Hmmmm why would they be doing that? Oh yeah because no one last even 12 months. Seriously significant income? Now that is a joke no one in sales make a "significant" income.

Again Ricky, best of luck to you.

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I'm a b2b sales rep with Cintas. Been with the company now over 10 years. Started as a relief driver to fill in when a SSR was on vacation or sick. Starting salary was around 26k a year. Tough job. Worked my way into management then into sales. I now make a nice 6 figure income. That doesn't include the car package, or cell phone allowance. Love the company and I'll probably be there till I'm to old to work. Hours 55-65 a week. Could be less, but we all probably waste a couple hours a week just visiting with each other. Sales and service work very well together as it should be. We have a corporate culture within our company than few others have. It's been developed over 82 years of being in business and doing business how we do. We have values, morals and standards that we believe in and practice every day. They're more than just writing on paper. I can't speak of the inner workings of Unifirst. I never worked there. I'll take the high road and make no bad comments regarding what I don't know. I do know we've taken a lot more business from Unifirst, than they have from us. It's all about that guy in the truck. He is the customers perception of the company. Hire someone that's not a fit to be a route man and you will loose customers, period! Want to work for Unifirst? Go ahead, but don't come to us if you fail. As a former hiring manager I will choose the candidate better qualified and it likely won't be the person that failed at Unifirst.

Nick Name in Sacramento, California said: Ok test went well.

I'm a b2b sales rep with Cintas. Been with the company now over 10 years. Started as a relief driver to fill in when a SSR was on vacation or sick. Starting salary was around 26k a year. Tough job. Worked my way into management then into sales. I now make a nice 6 figure income. That doesn't include the car package, or cell phone allowance. Love the company and I'll probably be there till I'm to old to work. Hours 55-65 a week. Could be less, but we all probably waste a couple hours a week just visiting with each other. Sales and service work very well together as it should be. We have a corporate culture within our company than few others have. It's been developed over 82 years of being in business and doing business how we do. We have values, morals and standards that we believe in and practice every day. They're more than just writing on paper. I can't speak of the inner workings of Unifirst. I never worked there. I'll take the high road and make no bad comments regarding what I don't know. I do know we've taken a lot more business from Unifirst, than they have from us. It's all about that guy in the truck. He is the customers perception of the company. Hire someone that's not a fit to be a route man and you will loose customers, period! Want to work for Unifirst? Go ahead, but don't come to us if you fail. As a former hiring manager I will choose the candidate better qualified and it likely won't be the person that failed at Unifirst.

Good comment. I have worked for UniFirst for 8 years and in that time the people have bent over backwards to help me. Both of these companys are very large and while I know that we have great service at the locations were I have worked I know that we can't be the best at all locations. I know many people at Cintas, so I can say the job description is almost the same. At UniFirst they give me a quality product at a competitive price.

I agree. I have worked for UniFirst for 8 years and have always been treated fairly. All I ever wanted was a quality product at a fair price. I worked hard and made good money. What else would a true sales person want? UniFirst is not perfect. There are good and bad managers, but as a whole the management has always wanted me to do well and done their best to motivate me. And you are right. Fail at one uniform company and you will fail at the other.

I feel a strong need to weigh in on this. I've been with UniFirst for 6 months and have had complications with management, success in sales, and other things that EVERY job experience out there offers. I've also worked for other large sales organizations in various industries and there's a bottom line: it's all the same. First, don't be fooled into think that outside B2B sales is easy in any way. Second, if your service side at your branch is poor, your experience is going to be poor. Third, if you hate making cold calls, you'll hate this job. Fourth, if you hate management that are overworked and are usually too busy to get to your need right away, forget about this job.

At UniFirst, you sell uniforms, mats, and toilet paper. Nothing is too glamorous about it. Yet, one thing is blatantly true: you make it here, you can make it anywhere. That goes for UniFirst, Cintas, G&K, Aramark, etc. This industry is tough. Plan on working hard or start looking into a new career. It's true that the turnover is high, yet their turnover rates are equal to that of other Fortune500 companies. Do a quick search on outside B2B sales jobs and then research the companies. You'll find the exact same threads.

Rick...I'm in the final stages of joining unifirst as a sales rep...could you please email because I need some advice or suggestions...bklepper20@gmail.com...thanks...Brian

is there anyone on here that reads this and that is working for Unifirst that has a minute to email me, I need some advice or suggestions....Thanks...bklepper20@mail.com

Had an interview recently with UniFirst. They do promote cold calls and fill the funnel with A's. B's and C accounts(potential). Not sure which way to turn in going forward and surveying 8 businesses and trying to see if UniFirst is a good fit. Any feedback from anyone is appreciated...