entry level sales representative

sales representative entry level

sales representative

sales account manager

warehouse associate

Bisco-Industries

The management is awful. Management goes around telling my medical conditions to others as well as telling us about others medical conditions and stating that if so and so can do this with this condition, went can't you? Or you cannot leave or have time off because of your healthcare and so forth. When asking for support or feedback they speak to you very degrading and tell you, "well if you don't know then you shouldn't be here." They also berate and degrade when they give feedback or speak to you. There is no room for advancement unless you are best friends with the boss. They set you up for failure with other companies because the mark up is high and also they are very unfair with companies they have major price ups just to make quotas and they do not care about their business prices for the people they supply. They are not a family-friendly company at all. The don't do any company activities and kids are not allowed on premises. To use the restroom unless you ask prior permission and sign in. If you have a medical or behavioral appointment you have to schedule it at least 7 days in advance and it has to be at least half the day. If you have an appointment that will take you an hour you have to take that entire for our block if you get sick and have to leave for that day you get in trouble because you didn't request it in advance. From corporate Anaheim where manage the rest of the US, to is local offices, Management is not accommodating for physical health conditions and definitely not accommodating for behavioral health appointments or treatments. If you have a counseling or therapy appointment You're forced to use 4 hours. Who can afford to use all their PTO just to take care of their mental health for 1 hour a week? Direct management locally is rotated out and in 2 years here I've seen three people fired and nothing but the management's friends be hired. The hardest part of working here in sales is not making your sales, it is the price margarines and quotas they expect from you. You can make over your sales in price but they are strict on margins. They hound you to make more money in sales so you do and they get mad that your price margins are low but then also get mad because some of your quotes didn't go through because your margins were too high.... When asked for direct feedback and coaching as to how to understand this let alone navigated to supervisor, their supervisor and then the main manager after reaching out for months with no feedback support encouragement constructiveness nothing other than the question from all of them what do you think you should do? Well you're asking me for something specific and then not helping me understand exactly what you need and when I come to you for help or for clarification you degrade me by telling me I've been here a year. No room for growth with management like this. This is an opinion but I have also noticed that they have been pushing out a lot of men everyone that has been fired since I got there are men and only women are being hired and supervisors are women and again this is just opinion but I do feel I'm treated differently for that as well as because I have a behavioral health condition. Also beware this company likes to retaliate. If you call HR asking questions or putting in a complaint, you can expect a random desk review that hasn't been done in a year or a random audit on your work within 48 hours of any type of HR inquiry. And at least two of your supervisors will be calling you for the week to pick through every little thing that they can. In short I find this company to be demeaning and emotionally abusive, non-inclusive, discriminatory against those with physical and mental health conditions, a cutthroat everyone out for themselves not team players kind of company. Will probably be a suitable job for somebody that thrives on a lot of stress and pressure and doesn't have a family or any other health issues to worry about. 

I worked here for roughly a year and change and I do appreciate all that I’ve learned from Bisco. I did however, learn a lot about what not to do when operating a business. Management at this company is a joke and the old chain of command is very inefficient. There is no advancement in the technology used or business practices to keep up with the time, and eventually that is going to give.

It’s a very cutthroat environment as you’re always competing for you’re bosses job. I happened to work in offices with horrible morale and it was just a miserable experience to go into work everyday. Granted I met a couple people who actually helped me and were great coworkers, the majority are ruthless.

The negatives would be the following:

- Relocation expenses are not covered unless it is for a management position. Don’t get suckered into thinking they will relocate you. You will also need to use your PTO days for the move, and you only get 6 of those a year. 
- Buy leads from a database. All the good accounts will be managed by your manager or someone else in the company so they can bonus big. They’re expect you to hit unrealistic numbers selling 50 bolts an order to bad leads. You miss your ridiculous numbers 3 months in a row, and you’re fired.
- Management is very critical of any little issue and you’re job can be on the line for something you may have had no control over. They also expect you to be at full capacity and Telemarketing for the month as well as hit your numbers, and make outside sales calls to people who don’t need to see you every two weeks.
- Internal issues are the worst. You will fight all day and night with Purchasing and Accounting. You would not believe the stress this causes. They will not order parts or order from another vendor and you will get hit with that cost. Customers won’t receive parts on time and get frustrated, and now you are out a customer. So much for hitting my numbers. Accounting will take no lie, a month to get credit approved for clients to place orders. By then they have the parts from someone else. We’re talking 50-75k orders as well, not  cheap stuff. The warehouse is terrible, they will constantly send the wrong parts or never follow instructions on the packing slip. Lost a couple clients over that. Not really their fault as they are so understaffed and overworked.
- Output for your bonus was the most deceiving. I worked on a high volume desk as an assistant for a top sales guy, and commissions for me at the highest in a month after taxes was $600. That was for roughly 120k shipped. It is the most insane commission structure ever. Need to basically ship a quarter million a month for a 2-3k bonus :(
- You are charged for everything you do. Company parties, when the owners son takes a Yacht out, or when corporate has a party every week that you never get to enjoy but pay for. From your coffee to the rent and everything in between, is what makes your target for the month. You pay salaries of the people you fight with in accounting and purchasing, who just make your life harder. 
- Zero Accountability
- Will rip you off on final pay
- Very old computer system that crashes all the time, I’ve had days were I had to go home because the system was down. Don’t expect improvement overnight they say.

Positives
- Good first job to gain experience and workplace feel, not culture just feel. This is why Google has been so successful, workplace culture. This place should adapt to some new age methods and it really would prevail. 
- Paid every week, small bonus on the 15th
- Corporate is way to crammed but most offices around the country are smaller. 
- Hour lunch break
- Managers leave super early everyday because most don’t really do much but micromanage you to hit numbers so they look good. 
- Free Parking
- People here work to live, not live to work. Everyone is out of the door at the latest 5:15. Most people bolt out of the door at 5PM on the dot. 
- Being able to do outside sales call

Good entry level sales job which doesn't require a degree or much education, just a bit of common sense.  You will learn some basic business and sales skills.  You will get some good experience dealing with OEM customers. The work environment is fairly casual.  The office facilities are clean and orderly, but very basic.  The base salary is a bit on the low side, but the benefits are on par with the industry (vacation time, pto, paid holidays, 401K).  Theoretically, with the bonus structure, the skies the limit on what you can bonus each month.  The reality is that, unless you're one of the few sales people with the BIG accounts, you're only going to bonus a few hundred a month.  
At times, it can be extremely frustrating  dealing with internal systems and support departments that are either antiquated, incompetent and/or apathetic.  Their internal software system is DOS based, probably from the 1980's.  No easy way to process RFQ's with lots of part numbers.    
The strength of your customer core list is is completely arbitrary and purely the luck of the draw. Good luck meeting the sales quota, which arbitrarily increases the first full year of employment until it meets the max.
On top that, the managers could care less about your professional growth and performance, while giving you lip service saying they want to help you improve your sales.  Yet, they have no real solutions for you and they have no incentive to help you.  People with little or no managerial experience or skills are promoted to become managers, so it's no wonder there are so many interpersonal issues on sales teams.
Also, if you have any ideas about changing things about the company, they really don't want to hear it.  Even if the managers think it's a good idea, they're powerless to change it.   
There are too many products to truly understand what you are selling and support from the suppliers is lacking.  A lot of the suppliers will treat you like your business doesn't matter.

Once you see all these things, you will know why there is quite a large turnover in employees.  Time for Bisco to get with the 21st century.

Initially, the experience was decent—management was solid, though the pay was mediocre and the bonus structure left much to be desired. To even qualify for the 'maximum' bonus, which caps at 80% of your total output, you have to meet a specific threshold. The calculation of output is poorly structured, and they claim they have 'too many expenses' to justify paying the remaining 20% you rightfully earned. Asking for a raise is futile; they’ll remind you that you’re replaceable and can easily be substituted if you’re not happy with your compensation.

In my two years at Bisco, I’ve generated over $500,000 in profit, yet I’m still not considered valuable. The management hoards 'cornerstone accounts,' offering employees maybe one profitable account out of 200, making it nearly impossible to succeed. If you fail to meet their arbitrary thresholds, they’ll find reasons to terminate you. The work environment has taken a nosedive, with little to no flexibility, creating a really unpleasant atmosphere.

The new management only cares about maintaining the 'corporate environment.' As long as you hit your metrics and stay in line, they’ll keep you around. But if you try to overachieve and really make an impact, they’re happy at first—until they see the new accounts you’ve brought in start generating revenue. Then, they’ll transfer those accounts over to management to avoid paying you the bonuses you’ve earned. Upper management, by the way, is made up of mediocre salespeople who got where they are by making friends with the right people, not because of their talent

Unless you are desperate or need experience you have no idea business working here. The sales system is from the 80’s, everyone in the company seemingly has little to no experience let alone any form of college degree. The bonus structure is an absolute joke (they have a convoluted formula that even upper management cant explain). 

This is a distribution company that has no stock on any items… all you do is buy from a better distributor (not hard to do) and resell to your accounts. I actually have no idea how this company is still operating. They rave about the profitability of the company and all their locations but they invest ZERO into the company. Outdated systems, computers, offices, bonus structures, WFH is basically non existent and the only reason they have multiple locations is to catch orders from accounts that fall through the cracks of actual legitimate manufacturers/distributors.

This is a great job to gain experience if you need it but do not stay with this company (most people dont. )The turnover is absolutely insane. Which is what happens if you don't pay your employees or invest in the company itself.

this is a cold calling job and if you do develop an account at anytime it can be re-assigned to the corporate office.
Your bonus potential is non-existent due to an "output" formula that works against you the majority of time. The owner of the company would rather contribute the money you make him to fund ant hills in Africa than pay you to feed your family.
The technology this company uses is minimal and outdated and fails frequently.
During my time with the company I saw 1 manager and 3 sales people come and go and this was a small office.
The morale in the offices is terrible from managers to employees everybody is trying to get out as soon as they realize what the game is. Jokes are continuously made about management and their grip on the actual state of the company.
Nobody will make a decision because they know it will be used against them so it takes weeks to get any sort of approval.
Charge customers $4.68 shipping & handling on every order even if customer ships on their account, often causing customer complaints and hard feelings.

I mean where do I even start honestly... first id say check these other reviews they few good reviews that they have are probably written by management not kidding.

This is the closest thing to a pyramid scheme you will find... base pay is not great and the company "expenses" are taken out of your bonus. Not sure what expenses this company would even have because they literally dont spend any money. 

Its more surprising that they are still in business since they are a distribution company that only busy from other distributors... you will essentially never have the lowest prices for your customers and most of the industries knows it hence why their reputation is terrible in the industry. 

That in addition to extreme micromanagement and operating systems older than the dinosaurs are why everyone that works for this company wants to leave (in my year and a half I think I saw 9 people leave) this is at like a 10 person office...

Get your "experience" and get out. You wont learn anything of value here but you can spin it right on a resume... good luck! 

Bisco is a decent stepping stone early in your career, especially if you are looking to get exposure to distribution and inside sales. The company does a good job of teaching the basics and getting you comfortable working with customers and suppliers.

That said, the organization still holds fairly outdated views on remote work, often emphasizing “collaboration” in ways that do not always translate to improved productivity. In satellite offices, the environment can feel disengaged, and in my experience, there was limited effort to improve team culture or the day-to-day work setting.

The role itself is also very data-entry heavy, with a strong focus on transactional work rather than strategic selling. Hiring standards seem fairly broad, which can lead to inconsistent team performance and development.

Overall, it is a solid place to get your foot in the door.

This place is meant for entry level 2 years max. Most people there have their jobs based on cliques of relatives.   There are 2 smart people in management the rest are just yes men with zero understanding of what the companyvor customers do. The reason they have so many job openings is because people quit monthly. The pay is bottom of barrel.  They beat people down and managers who have no clue what they are doing will treat you like a child. It is an extremely toxic environment. Throughout the company people are leaving and so happy once out. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
This company pays well it's performers. Good benefits package. Plenty of room for growth for sales oriented careers. It is a very sales driven organization, which I like, for I'm a sales driven fella. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Stressors are normal sales job stressors. But if you are a self-starter and take personal responsibility, those goals are very achievable, especially for a starting sales rep.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fun, fast paced, great support from management, and an executive team that is committed to the success of the organization. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Contacting customers, responding to emails, reviewing orders and customer requirements.

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