outside sales representative

digital marketing sales executive

account executive

account representative

sales executive

Hibu

Hibu is 2.3 billion dollars in debt and now owned by their creditors. Deloitte has been brought in to make cuts (layoffs, forced retirement, downsizing) to the company to keep them from closing their doors.  They are restructuring they east coast now and from what I understand, you will make even less money on this new plan.

All this company cares about is new business sales, but they don't ever tell you that in the very long (12 week) training that teaches you how to sell (isn't that why they hire you? because you are an experienced sales professional) and how to use the Microsoft suite products (wouldn't an experienced salesperson be an expert on all those?) instead of how to deal with problems, what is expected of you, how to use their many intranets and train you on their very outdated, non functional software. It probably costs hibu tens of thousands of dollars per new employee to train them on stuff the sales professional should already know. 

They revere people with new business sales that are only worth $40.00 a month to the company, and write people up or fire those that have upsold existing customers thousands of dollars per month. They truly don't care about customers, just getting new business sales.  You can be #1 and exceeding all your (many, many) quotas but if you don't have new business you will get your salary cut in half (which takes a miracle to get back) and then you will be fired, PERIOD.  They keep your final paycheck commissions for 6 months after you leave and your benefits end at midnight your last day of work if you quit or are fired. When you work out your hourly pay, you will be quite depressed.

Customers will tell you they never see a sales rep twice and they hate that. Customers don't want the yellowbook print ads anymore and as fast as you get digital sales, you lose them due to no fault of your own but to the ineptness of other employees in any of the many departments the sale gets passed to. Then try and get paid on the sale!  Try and get back commissions paid...HA! The people in the commissions department are not nice or helpful at all, they are always on the defensive...I wonder why?

Everyday expect to spend 2-4 hours on the phone and emailing sales support with no assistance from your superiors. another 2-4 hours a day driving (since your territory and leads are assigned to you by a department that lives nowhere near you and doesn't care that you need to be out selling not driving). You don't keep very many of the same accounts (so don't get attached to your customers) and you have no say in the matter. You have to look up every lead individually (they have no CRM so good luck tracking any leads or client updates another 2-4 hours a day for planning where you want to go (again on the phone 2-4 hours a day for that if you are actually selling anything). By the time you are out selling, its time to go home.

They have way too much management (most are really out of touch with reality) and those lazy, unhelpful managers only care about sales numbers and the sales people attending the absolutely waste of time mandatory meetings twice a week. Instead of having the meetings far less often so the sales people can sell.  They take their orders from upper level micro-managers so self consumed and egotistical that they would never say "boo" to, let alone fight for their employees on any matter.  The managers just lie to your face about mostly everything and play favorites constantly.  Good luck trying to get a contest prize...they promise but rarely deliver.

They are self insured, so the health and dental suck. Expect to pay everything out of your own pocket except cleanings and a physical until the end of the year and then you might get something almost covered. 

Their products and the job look good on the outside, but be forewarned, their digital products are so very flawed and the designers and analysts have ridiculous quotas to hit every month too so they just grind them out without the quality.  

Don't say I didn't warn you, if you can brown-nose on a daily basis, work in a totally chaotic, stressed, uncaring environment and work 14+ hours a day 7 days a week, go ahead and work for this awful company.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Learning Salesforce was best. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Sales quotas are very unrealistic and result in massive employee turnover.  Managers micro manage sales reps by calling and texting and emailing numerous times a day wanting to know what they are doing almost on an hour by hour by hour basis.  Meetings are long and very ineffective and drastically cut into selling time.  The amount of daily activities required by a sales rep is unrealistic and does not allow the quality of time to prospect for quality clients.  The compensation program is below poor leading to massive employee turnover.  Sales reps get poor support from Hibu support teams leading to massive client cancellations.  Massive client cancellations lead to massive decreases in income.  Digital marketing campaigns sold to clients just do not perform leading to client cancellations.  It is embarrasing.  Client pay for services expecting great results and results are well below the clients expectations.  It is not unusual to work 12-14 hours per day and many hours during the weekend to try and succeed, which is impossible.  These are only a few reasons for the massive employee dismissals or quits.   

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment and culture is very poor.  Team members are always changing due to the massive amount of employee firings or employees quitting.  Managers are only interested in the numbers, not the people.  Promises are always made to employees and very seldom kept.  Compensation programs continue to change robbing sales reps of monies they have earned and entitled to.  It is a very caustic culture as evidenced by the employee turnover.  Manager turnover is little, but sales rep turnover is high as the managers work together to blame employees for their poor performance.  Sales rep poor performance is due to no support from Hibu support teams, programs that do not work, high program costs to clients, and Hibu continued promise to change things for the better, but never materialize.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is no less than 10-12 hours including massive hours on the weekends.  One can expect to hear from their Manager badgering them several times a day asking what is going on.  There are meetings galore daily and weekly that cut into prime selling time.  Massive amounts of Saleforce data entry is required daily consuming valuable selling time.  Most of the day is spent fixing digital marketing program problems as the Support Teams at hibu very seldom creates a program that ever produces what the sales reps promise their clients.  Client turnover is massive leading to handling cancellation of clients one worked so hard to sell.  Managers promise to resolve issues but everyone knows this is not going to happen.  Managers are lazy and care little about their employees and nothing about their clients as witnessed by the massive amount of employee turnover, and client cancellations.

Nothing is real, question everything! You’ll hear so many promises and feel like you’ve finally found the sales career of your dreams.  The first thing they tell you is that everyone in the company “started where you did”.  While they may have had that title, it’s a skewed perspective.  Your boss and your boss’s boss used to sell ad space in the yellow pages.  Before the internet, that was a gold mine bc you HAD to be in the phone book.  The truth is they have no idea how to sell in todays climate and will never let you do things your way.  Next is the training program.  It is between 12-16 weeks long and actually is a complete blast.  You will learn so much and have so much fun learning with a group of 20 ppl from across the country.  You will build so much cohesion and team Chemistry with your classmates and teacher.  However, all of that is for nothing as they “graduate” you and stick you with the boss that “owns” your state.  That boss and 2-3 other managers of other territories form under one region under a regional manager.  You now are stuck with that team.  I was unfortunate to have 2 other people in my same city which is rare.  You are supposed to have assigned zip codes but I consistently prospected customers in my own territory that were already being worked by another rep.  Although training is great and the product is decent.  It is completely generic and is of little value to the actual consumer that needs Real content and not stock photos.  You only need $1800+ a month in sales quota but in my territory, the businesses could absolutely not afford that.  Once I got behind in sales quota, my manager rode with me on visits but ended up upsetting so many of my prospects.  You will hear from your manager almost hourly when you are not meeting quota and they are straight to business and it doesn’t matter what you have going on in life, they literally only care about one thing and that is your quota.  This is because most of these bosses bought 500k-750k homes and are scared to get fired.  You’ll eventually get out on performance watch where you get your commissions cut, your pay cut and an ultimatum to bring in more business. No one at any point tells you this is a possibility. No one tells you how to get back in good graces.  They just tell you to sell.  It’s not a particular easy product to sell because mgmt wants you to set up a webinar on the very first call, and bring in a “digital strategist” that has the biggest ego and ruins any trust you built with the customer.  After your second write up they tell you are getting another pay cut.  There is nothing that shows you will be terminated.  Once you are being written up, they have already replaced you.  

Overall, I thought I found my forever home.  Once I got behind I couldn’t catch back up and they are all about pleasing shareholders.  You are replaceable, please avoid at all costs!

Working from home, tenured account managers are responsible for 150 - 200 clients who have contracted either Yellow Book or Hibu for advertising services.  The account manager runs their own business with corporate sales and retention goals in a nearly autonomous environment.  

To be successful, an AM must schedule eight to 12 appointments with existing accounts and four or five new client meetings per week.  The AM must close four or five existing clients for another year every week and retain 80% of the previous year's dollar volume. But, the AM must also increase their overall sales dollar volume by at least 10%.  To increase sales, the successful AM needs to secure at least nine new accounts per quarter for advertising services and meet the required dollar volume.  AMs must sell at least twelve business websites per quarter.  The company supplies commercially generated sales leads, but AMs must cold-call, network, and seek referrals to find enough prospects.  Finding new prospects is one of the hardest part of the job.  AMs are responsible to design and provide text and graphics for the new websites.  This is very challenging and time-consuming.  It can be frustrating with the sales and technical support based in India and the Philippines.  

Building relationships with clients is the most satisfying part of the job.  Hibu offers products that can produce a good ROI when sold and designed effectively.  The AM is responsible to design, budget, and sell the appropriate mix of products to each client.  Satisfied clients can provide great feedback and give the AM a sense of accomplishment.  

The most enjoyable part of this job can be building mutually-supportive relationships with one's peers.  Being successful requires being supported by your peers and supporting them in return.  Managers are stretched very thin, and generally not well-versed in the constantly changing product line-up.  Managers are sales-drivers, who must enforce unattainable sales goals.  Some recommend questionable sales tactics in misguided attempts to meet goals.  Nobody meets them all, there are too many metrics, some of them conflicting.  So, nearly all AMs are always performing below expectations.  Most AMs will not last, much less be successful, without supportive peer relationships.  There is very high turnover among sales and first line management.   The pressure for new sales is indescribable.  Unfortunately, high turnover precludes most peer relationships from being long-term.  I saw sixteen Account Managers and three Assistant Sales Managers fired for not meeting expectations in a twelve-person sales office in 2 years.

I have been at RevLocal for 3 years now.  The opportunity to grow is amazing.  The on-boarding training and comp plan has continued to improve since I started. So let me help you read between the lines...Leadership is focused on helping people be successful, they listen, and then act to make the necessary changes.  

I continually hear Consultants say they are making more money here than they have made anywhere else. That may not be true for everyone, but being able to make a great living while helping businesses succeed is a pretty great combination.

PROS:
1) Culture and knowing that your company can and will deliver on its services...so much so that they never require clients to sign a contact. The attitude is we should bring you value each and every month. If we stop, you should stop being our customer. (I know, sounds logical) 
2) Growth potential is amazing. The company is growing at phenomenal pace and opportunities to grow are endless. 
3) Executive leadership...this team of executive is absolutely plugged in. They are open to ideas and suggestions that benefit the company, clients, and associates. There is ZERO arrogance with this team. 
4) If you are in sales, you get a chance to be on the "fun side" of the income statement. Helping businesses generate revenue and change their financial trajectory is so much more rewarding than helping them "save money and improve operations efficiency". 
5) They only look for top-notch talent. They get that a company is only as good as your team and will be selective when screening potential candidates for all positions. Understand that top-notch is not always "experience". Integrity, initiative, and a commitment to excellent are as important as experience.

CONS:
1) This is not a salary sales job and has no guarantees. That said, the company pays you commissions on sales with both up front commissions and residual commissions.  As residual takes time to build, new Sales Consultants get paid "commissions" on activities as well. So, doing the right things earns commission. 
2) High activity sales & prospecting. The Consultant position at RevLocal is a hunter role. If you are not willing to work or are a "career farmer" this is not for you. Consultants do a lot of prospecting.  While I personally find it pretty fun (most days), it is not for everyone. However, when you understand how this company can impact a business, the prospecting is not as challenging as one might think.

My position consisted of office and administrative assistance for sales managers and sales teams for 4 area offices. Primarily generating reports to assist with forecasting revenue shut-down, and new business. Data tracking of new business lead sources, metered call performance, cross market sales, customer payment history, etc. I assisted with getting artwork, deposits, payments, and other additional paperwork processed and sent to corporate offices for sales reps. I created spec ads invitations, meeting agendas and sales aids, and regional email communications. Also assisted with new hire processing, maintained Vacation/Personal Time Off trackers, handled termination process, & equipment assignment and returns. Created invoice vouchers for accounts payable, maintained chamber memberships. Assisted with event planning, expos, market kick-off, & closes and victory celebrations. Customer service, office inventory and supply ordering. I learned to use Excel extensively, and learned a lot about corporate business practices, and a lot more about digital advertising and websites. I have always worked with a high-quality people in the sales force and sales management teams. The hardest part of my job was having my position become more distanced from my sales teams, and not feeling connected as part of a team, and very isolated. Also, there were often multiple dead lines and heavy workloads during market kick-off prep and campaign closes to accommodate simultaneously, without incurring overtime. What I enjoyed most about my job was having any opportunity to teach or assist others in tasks that made their jobs easier, or to make a real and tangible contribution to the success of a sales person, or the profit of the company. I also enjoyed anything having to do with graphic design and event planning.

I enjoy arriving at work early enough to greet my co-workers, start up my PC and launch all relevant programs(Outlook, Excel, Word, Internet Explorer, etc..)  Throughout the day I am always prepared to take incoming calls and handle whatever concern the individual on the other side of the phone presents me.  Whether it be a customer with a claim concern or a sales representative who needs assistance in deciphering their customers' monthly billing.  Often, I am required to communicate with individuals in other departments to determine the cause of an error that a customer may report.

Mainly, I have learned how to quickly adapt to changes.  hibu is a company that has undergone significant changes in my time there.  I have improved my communication and people skills simply by interacting with such a wide variety of individuals displaying a wide variety of dispositions from very friendly and agreeable to very agitated customers who feel (right or wrong) that they have been misled, stolen from or simply misrepresented in their advertising.

Management is generally available to lend a hand if necessary.  As previously mentioned, hibu is currently in a state of transition and the management structure has changed significantly since I began my employment there.  Given this, I feel it would be inappropriate to judge or evaluate the management team at hibu.

The hardest part of the job -for me- is when I am genuinely attempting to assist a customer and the customer will not provide with the materials(emails between sales and customers, medical records, bills of sale, etc..) that I require.  The amount of frustration that I experience when I am unable to assist a customer with a legitimate concern is significant.

On the other hand, when i can genuinely help a customer, very little pleases me greater than the feeling of a job well done.

Let's start with the MASSIVE Turn-Over here.  My training classes of 32 People started on April 11, 2022.  As of December 16, 2022 there are ZERO people left at HiBu from this class.  They were either fired or quit.  On top of that there were several other training classes that came and went and lot of other Reps that came and went.  The chances of you being successful here are very slim.

You will start out with NOTHING.  No accounts, no leads, no direction etc.  You are left to find your own leads in an open territory that other reps will be working at the same time.  You will be looking for prospects and making a TON of calls and in person visits "hoping" someone answers the phone or their business is open.  Mind you most of the people you will sell to don't even have a store front so be prepared to walk up to workers when you see their truck.

As for company culture you are NOTHING MORE than the numbers your produce.  You will have weekly "success calls" but you'll quickly learn there are only 3-4 people actually selling anything while everyone else is struggling to keep their jobs.  When you are down on your sales and ask your manager for help they will not help you.  I asked dozens of times to do a ride along only to be shot down.  I was fired a week before Christmas and when I was written up it was only for 14 days before the 2nd one of 14 days.  So, you get 28 days to fix everything.

The work/life balance is a big benefit and the company has great Benefits.  Upper management is positive and I think they want you to succeed but they just don't give you the resources to do so.  Starting out without any accounts is a real challenge because you need to name drop in this industry to get anyone to even talk to you.  If you interview they will brag about how people have been with the company for 20 - 30 years.  They are people that worked during the Yellow Book days and just continued on.  They will brag about longevity while you will quickly find out 95% of people don't make it more than 2-5 months.


I am a remote digital marketer who works with small local to medium sized businesses to improve their digital marketing strategy so they make more money! I decided to learn about digital marketing so I could be a help to small businesses who don't have time to do it themselves, and I joined Hibu. I was looking for excellent digital marketing solutions plus excellent customer service to help me support my clients, and I found it with Hibu. When I call customer service, I get a live person, and the problem is addressed until solved. The culture is hard working but also work life balance so that good Account Managers will stay. The culture is also "client for life" so that customers will stay. I have been with the company over 18 months, and only have had one client (who I inherited) cancel. ALL the customers that I have brought on board myself are still with me. 

The hardest part of the job is working in the digital marketing space where there is a lot of deceit, and so at Hibu we bring a solution that has been proven to work, and that is hard to convince people about. Persistence and proven results shows our potential customers that we can benefit their business. What I love most about this job is being able to help small companies succeed online, to actually see their results real-time (daily!) and make decisions themselves about their digital marketing strategy. The support from Hibu is unmatched in the industry. We can show our clients a Statement of Work that details what we do for them. We have a dashboard of results they can easily access. And we have customer service that is responsive, anad doesn't quit until the problem is solved. This helps me as an Account Executive, Account Manager, keep my clients happy and bring them results that positively affect their business. 

A typical day consists of an easy workload with little challenge. I learned very little on the job. Most of my skill growth happened outside of work on my own time.

Management can be supportive and respectful. The biggest concern is a focus on "the team": Very rarely was I privately acknowledged for work I did. Instead, praise was given very sparingly and always to the group during company meetings. 

Because of the "team-centric" feel of the company, management struggles with outliers. Individuals who propose new plans, criticize existing systems, and offer potential solutions will find it hard to navigate the work environment. 

Most enjoyable part of the job is the people. They are nice, friendly, and engaging. I've made many friendships that have lasted even after I left the company.

On the benefits side, healthcare is costly. Once I left the company, I realized how much had been taken out of my paycheck, and it's a staggering amount. If you have a family or prior health concerns, you may want to look elsewhere for employment.

This is an excellent place to work for any developer, writer, or designer looking to break into the field. Unfortunately, there is very little investment in your growth and development. However, you'll have the freedom to improve your abilities, find solutions, and gain work experience. 

More senior or talented job seekers will find the job boring. The structure of the websites, workflow, and task management system is misguided at best and incompetent at worst. You will be frustrated but if you need a paycheck and stable place to hang your hat then this is a solid place to be.

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