sales representative

field marketer

outside sales representative

manager in training

sales

Erie Home

Typical Day:

Your typical day at work is going to start around 10am for morning meetings and daily training. Erie does a pretty good job of training daily to keep you fresh and ready for new appointments. After training, depending on the time of year, you will be given anywhere from 1-4 appointments for the day. 

Your appointments are "pre-qualified" by canvassers and a scheduling confirmation the day before. You drive to each appointment throughout the day depending on the location. Some appointments are local, so you don't have to drive very far, but most of your appointments are scheduled anywhere from 45 min away to over 2 hours. Management will determine what the best appt. for you to run is based on your skill set and level. Each appt. varies in length of time, some lasting 15 mins and others 3-6 hours. 

What I learned:

Erie Construction is a sales company. Their management will teach you a specific, well planned, rehearsed script to follow for each presentation and product. Erie taught me some very important methods for gaining entry into the home, a meet-n-greet with the customer, diagnosing issues with their current situation, structuring a plan for the customer, and finally, closing the customer. There are many products in home improvement industry you will learn.

Management:

As a new sales rep at Erie, you will have 3-4 managers or "leaders" to learn and grow from. A regional mgr who oversees day to day operations and helps with training. This person usually has the most experience in the office, but generally doesn't run appointments with you. 

You will have an Assistant Sales Manager as well. Their job is to "train" you in the field while running daily appointments. This person is "supposed" to also help provide great examples in training and in the field.

Under these two, a sales rep will have a couple of senior reps for guidance. 

Workplace Culture:

Again Erie Construction is a SALES company, not a construction company. Their culture, in the office, definitely portrays this. All of your training is geared towards selling their products at the lowest discount % possible. Erie sales meetings are focused on close %, demonstrations put on, etc...

When there are a lot of GOOD appointments set, morale and the culture, are generally a positive work place. When leads are slow or few, the morale greatly declines and the culture suffers. Sales reps are all Caucasian men, so if you're a woman, no need to apply. 

The HARDEST part:

1.) Driving with no compensation: You are expected to provide a vehicle to get to your appointments. Erie does not provide a company vehicle or reimburse you for gas or mileage (which they will tell you at the time of the interview). This includes driving out of state, two hours north, etc... Also, you are not paid for your drive time. Some days you will spend 8 hours driving in your vehicle, not even including the appointments that you run. An Erie rep can expect to put 40,000 miles on your personal vehicle in 12 months.

Prime example. 

First appointment 2 hours away. 

Do your morning training. Hop in your car and drive 120 miles for FREE. Erie reps will have more appointments during the day they must drive too as well. Don't forget you have to drive home, too.

2.) Dirty Vehicle: Your vehicle becomes your office, house, bed, and work truck. You are required to pack MULTIPLE samples, bags, ladders, and various tools in your vehicle. The only seat you should have available in your vehicle is the driver and sometimes the passenger seat. Not because you're giving rides, but because you have various samples in the back seats, trunk, and front passenger seat.

3.) Staying out late: It is crucial potential Erie reps understand that you WILL be working 12 hour days ESPECIALLY in the summer. You will arrive at the office at 10am for a meeting (no compensation) and run appointments sometimes until midnight. If you have a spouse, make sure this is something you can/want to do. It wasn't bad at first until I realized you really don't spend much time with your family. In the first 90 days, you're really not getting a day off. 
*You can expect to work 6 days a week and anywhere from 50-80 hours a week*

4.) Climbing on roofs and attics: As Erie rep you will be utilizing a ladder to complete your appointments. It is crucial to provide a good inspection of the roof. If you don't like attics and ladders, this job is not for you.

5.) Tracking your business: You will have many appointments in a week and sales that go with that too. Getting homeowners to buy is one thing (probably the easier part of the job), the hard part is getting their project paid for. Homeowners can either pay in cash (which is rare) or set their project up with financing. You, as a rep, do not have to pay for the customer's credit to be ran, the company will do that, but if the homeowner's credit is low and/or they have insufficient funds to complete the project monthly, they will be rejected. 

If you sell a deal and it either A.) Cancels or B.) Gets rejected by the bank, YOU will NOT get paid. It is completely possible to sell multiple deals in a week for 50,000$  (which would be a pretty nice pay check) and you still not get paid. It is crucial for an Erie rep's success to follow your deals to see how much you will get paid. It's normally best to keep communication with the customer and install manager. 

6.) Responsibility: DO NOT TAKE THIS JOB UNLESS YOU WANT 110% RESPONSIBILITY.

It is YOUR responsibility to provide a vehicle, cell phone, and proper clothing for work. When you sell a client, it is your responsibility to put on the presentation, close the deal, do the paperwork diligently and correctly (tedious,frustrating, annoying, way behind the times). It is YOUR responsibility to make sure your client doesn't cancel on you (i.e saving your deals). Here is the big one, when an installer, install mgr, other sales rep, secretary, or manager messes something up within your job, it is YOUR responsibility. An Erie rep has the potential to make DECENT money, you're not going to be rich, but an Erie rep has the potential to LOSE a lot of money. Sometimes money that you have already earned.

Erie calls this a "re-par".  Example: The sales rep will sell a roofing job per say. The install mgr could say that the rep miss measured the roof. This will cause your commission to shrink severely, even to the point of 0$ commission *be careful -- this usually happens to new reps because they don't know how to measure.* Also, someone like the office admin could send a dumpster to the wrong house. The customer gets upset and feels like the company is incompetent and cancels their project. This could cost you 1200$ in commission and volume towards your monthly bonus. The sales rep takes full responsibility for the work that is being done, the presentation, paperwork, cash, checks, or money orders, but they also the responsibility on screw ups. It is not uncommon for a rep at Erie to lose a few thousand dollars out of their bank account each year because of other people's mistakes. Be extremely detailed, take pictures, write things down. An Erie rep should always feel like they need evidence to prove they are right and should be fairly compensated. The worst is when the project is sold, funded, and in the process of being installed, and the installer completely messes up the project or just decides they don't want do it anymore. YOU the rep will lose all of the commission and volume. The most common response you will hear is, "That's just the way of the business". Not my favorite response, especially from a "leading construction company in the nation." 

High School Drama:

I probably should have put this in the culture section, but here it is. I can't remember how many times there were high school drama moments in this office. He said, she said. Finger pointing. The worst, however, is the frequency of people talking behind each other's back. At first, as with anything, you feel like "family", but you slowly realize favorites are being picked and sided with. I was mislead many, many, many times by upper management for availability in moving up. Told management was demoting and firing people and was the goal to have me in that spot multiple times -- it never happened. I've sat with the owner, management, and others, and heard them talk negatively (rudely) about other representatives that didn't have a chance to defend themselves (this will break your heart) . You become good friends with other reps because the job is tough and you ride with them for a very long time. Then people start talking behind your back and it puts a huge riff in the office. 


7.) Compensation:

Don't let them fool you.


To recap on the hard things:

You only get paid if you sell it and net it. Some weeks you make 5k (rarely) some you make -500$ (YES THAT'S A NEGATIVE SIGN).

You will put on 40,000 miles on YOUR PERSONAL vehicle without compensation.

You will be working late most nights. 10pm on average.

You will be attending meetings, both in the office and corporate, and will not be paid for them.

You will deal with negative re-pars that affect your commission

You will deal with angry and rude customers.


THE MOST ENJOYABLE PART:

The company trip that I earned for my spouse and I. I was just mediocre at Erie, but grossed 1.5 million in sales. Netted over 500k. And was the first in the entire company to earn the trip. Doing it before new reps, senior reps, and even my Assistant Sales Manager. 

The second most enjoyable part:

LEAVING

The role of appointment setter in this company is unlike any other setter position I’ve heard or known of. The product that you’re promoting is a excellent roofing product that lasts longer & holds up better than standard roofing. However, the job of appointment setter is to make anywhere from 600-1000 outbound cold calls per day to those number of “inquiries” that consumers fill out about roofing. Hoping to get 25-30 appointments per day, where the better money is. 85% of the leads are some of the most unqualified leads ever created. Which means your job is spent dealing with people who either have no idea what you’re talking about, have no business reaching out about a roof (due to wording of advertisements) because they think it’s free, or fighting just to get people to agree to a free information & sales appointment. For those looking for something new, this job is, like they say, not for everyone. But for reasons other than what they’d say I’m sure. High turnover rate, even within management. The guy that hired me along with the initial group of upper management wasn’t even working in the department by my last day. Turnover rate not just related to employees it seems. Granted, if you’ve been with the company for 5 or more years, they take care of you. All the leads coming in are sorted & distributed out in call queues. The queues that have the most actual opportunities (higher calls answered per hour) are given to those who’ve been with the company the longest. Which means, if you’re new, the opportunities are far & few between. You’ll go days where, in a 4 or 8 hour span, you’ll have 4.2 answered calls per hour. Meaning only 4.2 opportunities per hour to hit the metric they want you to be at, which is setting at least 2.0-2.5 appointments per hour. Even seasoned appointment setters struggle with a 50% or better closing ratio every single day. The scheduling for work shifts is supposedly based off seniority so chances are, even if you have kids & or a family, you’ll be on a shift that disrupts that part of your life starting out. The pay is laughable especially considering the amount of effort you put into even setting the appointments & talking on a phone every day saying the same things. Ok scheduling & below average pay make it almost impossible to pick up a 2nd job or focus on a small business/2nd source of income. Like any other, opportunities for advancement are promised & pay raises but they’ll delay employee reviews on pay raises to avoid that conversation for as long as possible all the while they’ll have enough to open a new office in another part of the country every other week. Again, great products, some great supervisors who really do try to help as much as possible, but a corporate role in every sense of the word. Also a role best suited for the college kid/graduate, someone just starting out in the workforce or having been in for maybe 10 years. Seasoned sales vets, marketers & appointment setters would feel like they’re time is being wasted away. 

Ugly, backstabbing corporate politics at it’s FINEST. From my experience, corporate doesn’t care about how these dollars are made, they want to see your branch hit quota, if not, your position may be in jeopardy. How I felt- I was no different than any other employee they hired that walked through that door. 
The Regional Sales Manager made me feel expendable during my time Erie. If I was younger and not as mature in my work life, I feel like I would have been primed, molded and exploited/ taken advantage of at my own expense. I have integrity and values that I carry with me and pride myself on, but I did what was required for my position. At the end of my employment with Erie Construction is where I saw true colors of management and corporate- and they were ugly and heartbreaking! (-maybe not all branches were run like this one but corporate executives seemed to stand behind this behavior). 
Misleading marketing tactics that trick the vulnerable customer into thinking it’s a great deal. Maybe, for some... but my experiences in life honesty and loyalty have gotten me further than doing/saying whatever to make a buck. 
After my time with Erie ended, I now see why the employee turnover rate is so high. You gotta be open to doing things the “Erie” way to actually make money and succeed with this company, there is no in between. They did have an amazing “basic training” program... but honesty and genuineness were not linked to how they wanted to sell their product. It’s up to the Sales Rep if they want to do honest and genuine selling and maybe not make as much money or you can do the dishonest high pressure sale tactics that Erie trains you in and make money and move up and get promoted with the company. 
This company may be great for some people (people that are unsure and don’t really know what they want. They are liable intriguing prospects that are open to being molded to the “Erie” way). Either conform to the ”Erie” way or you might as well walk out that door. It’s an ‘all or nothing’ company, which I respect, but from my experience and what I endured, it was the ugliest and most toxic environment I have ever been in, unfortunately.

They do a great job upselling the job and the company. After awhile, you'll start to see how poorly run things are here. 

On the sales side of things: 
You'll be working 12-14...sometimes even 16 hour days. You'll constantly have to go into the office for additional "training" at 9 or 10am. From there you'll end up running your appointments. These appointments will have you on the road for anywhere from 10 miles to well over 100 miles. In the span of 10 months, I have accumulated over 50,000 miles on my own personal vehicle (which you'll receive no compensation for). 
They'll tell you the appointments are well qualified leads, but well over half of them are bad. You'll end up wasting time, gas and mental energy getting to these appointments. 

Management side of things:
Management will constantly entice you with advancement opportunity by dangling the carrot in front of you with no actual advancement. There is quite a bit of speculation the reason being is that some of the individual managers for each location have found a way to take the additional money that would have been paid to senior reps and assistant managers, and are lining their own pockets with it. While they're lining their pockets with this money, individuals are being "trained" for these rolls and doing all the work for these rolls without any of the compensation for it. 

Compensation/Benefits side of things:
The compensation is good...when you actually get it. Be a good salesman and keep track of your own numbers. There have been many times that my pay has been messed up "accidentally". There are also times when they will dock your pay for issues from the installation side of things. They will find a way to skim money out of your own pocket to keep their own pockets lined. The benefits offered by the company are extremely laughable and outrageously expensive. 

TLSS:
If you're young, single and looking to make some decent money; go for it. Everyone else, I'd highly advise staying away from here. Behind all the fake positivity and motivational posters on the wall in the office, you will find no future here with them constantly dangling the carrot in front of your face. 

One year later: I’ve made 6 figures, been promoted once and am on the verge of a second promotion all within the first 15 months. 

This career requires grit, hustle, and self motivation to remain at peak levels at all times. The most challenging but also most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. 

You are compensated 100% directly on your own ability to master your sales skills through experience in the home and training/role play in the office/zoom with your managers and coworkers. It helps that Erie only believes in offering permanent roofing solutions, which are the best of the best, so the product speaks for itself and is easy to back. 

Erie provides all of the tools needed for you to succeed in this career as far as training, mentorship, and support from management. 

You will be promoted directly based upon your performance and sales but only if you also carry yourself as a professional. Someone who wants to help others more than themselves and be a leader. 

There’s still a lot of driving, but many soon realize that the pot under the rainbow usually isn’t 5 minutes away from your apartment. Some of your best stories and sales will come from picking up a lead that you didn’t really feel like driving to. That will then change your mindset on those appointments moving forward and you actually become excited for them. Throw on some music or a podcast to get your mind right during the drive. 

As with anything, in the end, it always come down to you. Your success with Erie is a direct reflection of your own work ethic. There is nobody else to blame besides yourself if it doesn’t work out. Erie will provide you with the solid foundation, but it’s ultimately up to you to decide what is built on top of that. Are you going to settle for mediocrity or are you going to build greatness? 

If you want greatness, Erie is the place for you. 

I have been with Erie for almost a year. I love the company and management is the best I have ever worked for. It is a rapidly expanding home improvement company, with room to grow within the company. If you work hard you will always have a “home” at Erie. I say home because this job is more like a family than any place I have ever worked for. 

The media inquiries are constant and the lead flow is exceptional! You will do no cold calling here at all. Your first month in the media department is mostly outbound calling to people who have already inquired or are familiar with the company from our canvas teams. Like I mentioned above, NO COLD CALLING! The company and sales reps are very transparent in their inspections and estimates. We do not know details of pricing, etc. because our job is to set leads and ensure the quality of leads for our sales reps to go to these appointments. 

The manager, who is also new to the department, but not the company is a leader and knows how to motivate a whole department. He truly cares about Erie’s employees and makes sure we all know it. Employees are rewarded for a strong work ethic and performance. The bonus structure is dependent on your position with the company, but also very attainable if you’re willing to put the work in. I have received a bonus in varying amounts every month aside from my first month, which they make clear to you at the time of hire. They provide daily sales reports and also your direct results and numbers, so you know what you are doing right also what needs improved on. 

When I took the position at Erie I didn’t expect to find the place I would build a career and retire from, but I did! Most employees have been with the company for years and there is a reason for it. Erie is a phenomenal place to work, build a career and be a part of not only a billion-dollar company but a family.

I was told what now seems like was just anything, to accept the “call center” position with this company. I inquired heavily during my interview as to lead volume/quality, agent averages, lead distribution, as well as several other important factors. I was told mainly only positive things all in favor of what I was asking- this all turned out to be false. After starting the position, once training was complete, I found that the leads were old and of low quality. Also, the distribution of leads, especially “fresh leads” was questionable as it seemed certain agents were favored. After creating rapport with seasoned agents, I quickly learned that the commission and bonus structure was mis-represented during my interview. Potential candidates are led to believe bonus is super attainable and would be a regular part of their income. This was very untrue. Overall, the work was simple and easy. However, you don’t stand to make any money at this job outside of the very low base pay. It is also worth mentioning that their job ad states incoming calls however, I never took 1 single inbound call. All calls were outbound- with very little contact. 

Aside from the misleading factors of accepting the job, this company is struggling with their management team. They used “restructuring” as their main and only excuse to any concerns about their management. In my opinion, this environment is just a ‘pass the buck’ show. On any given day we could have 5-6 but usually 4 on average (no exaggeration) in the building with us between about 30-40 employees and couldn’t not get simple questions answered in a timely manner. This caused major frustration as well as detriment to the actual workload and ultimately your pay. 

*Only take this job if you are desperate for a paycheck, and a small one at that.*

-Good luck to everyone out on their job searches!

First off, you’ll sign a waiver that essentially allows them to chip away at your commissions for various reasons. More importantly you’ll never realize the money offered. If you’re lucky and good at the job, I was consistently a top 3 performer, you’ll make 60% of whatever is promised. Their main motivation tool is the carrot, except you’ll only get to nibble enough to hopefully keep you from leaving. They favor small bonuses over small raises. If you produce and are willing to be pushy, you can get a small bonus every few months. In fact being pushy is the key at Erie. For example, being promoted and being offered a raise is a long drawn out process. Once I was promoted to management and given a raise, the increase in responsibilities was immediate. But the pay bump wasn’t. It took 3 months of prodding to not only get the raise activated, but to ensure the agreed upon amount was given. At the time of the promotion they offered one amount, then tried to shave a few bucks off of the offer later. This is one of many reasons leading to the constant turnover. The leads aren’t great, they are generated through a bait and switch mechanism. Basically customers see ads on social media that lead them to believe they are getting a free roof when in fact, it is almost always the most expensive quote they’ll get. Worse, half of what you do sell will either cancel or fail to get financed. Which means, you waste a significant amount of gas and time. As far as safety, there are no background checks. I’ve seen more than 1 physical altercation in office. Lastly, I turned in my 2 weeks notice. At which point my boss immediately had my dental insurance canceled after becoming aware that I had an up coming appointment, despite the fact that I was still within my 2 week notice period while having the insurance fee deducted from my check.

Your typical day starts with an unnecessary 2 hour unpaid training in your home’s office making sure you know your script and deflection tactics. From there you will drive your own car up to 2 hours away to a “qualified lead”. I can promise you the leads are anything but qualified. Eries call center is trained to hound and harass anyone unfortunate enough to interact with one of their online ads. This means you could drive 2 hours away wasting your gas only to have to turn right back around because the customer either: 
•Didn’t know you were coming and tells you to leave
•only has one home owner there
•has no one there

In all of these cases you are out of luck and out of the gas you used getting there and back. 

If you are lucky enough to sit an appoint you will be running a 2-3 hour long scripted appointment designed to scare and pressure your customer into a sale day commitment to a roof that is 4x the price it would be literally anywhere else. Any customer with a brain in their head will tell you to get lost and you’re out once again on your time and gas. You will be driving your own vehicle 6 days a week for on average 3000 miles a month. This means a lot of gas and fluid changes out of your pocket. There is no reimbursement for this. 

If you do sell however,  the commission and bonus can be incredibly lucrative and the company culture is rather fun and competitive. There are monthly Spiffs available to top producers, but I rarely ever saw these paid out without hounding the managers daily for weeks.

One of the biggest downsides is you will have ZERO free time. Your day starts at 9:30am and will likely end somewhere between 10pm-Midnight by the time you get home 6 days a week. 

If you're young and looking to get your feet wet in sales, this isn't the worst position you can accept. However, if you are a critical thinker who can read people and feel you can guide sales conversations, you're not going to enjoy this position. You MUST stay on script. I was reprimanded for going off script despite obtaining sales. 

The biggest issue however was being lied to and in turn, unknowingly lying to potential customers. I was told the products were manufactured in Toledo. This was entirely untrue and left a bad taste in my mouth. Additional lies included the territory radius, length of work day and expectation of appointment times. 

I was told "from time to time" there may be appointments as late as 7:00PM within "an hour radius" of Toledo. The reality was appointments at 7:00, or even 8:00PM EVERY night up to 120 miles from Toledo. 

The money isn't bad, but unless you've been with the company for many years, you're paired up with another sales representative and therefore split any commissions. 

The day started around 9 or 10:00AM with a sales meeting. During the meeting appointments were handed out. It was not uncommon to have appointment times of 1:00PM, 7:00PM and 8:00PM, all an hour or two away from Toledo. During my last week with Erie, I had over 15 consecutive appointments (pre-established, mind you) in which no one was present at the home. I essentially wasted three tanks of gas driving around. 

I Highly recommend avoiding this company. 

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