sales representative

sales

sales support representative

inside sales representative

service technician

Lawson Products

Lawson is hiring greenfield reps that know nothing about MRO products.  The only training you receive is held in Chicago focusing on the Top eight products, this is what you are to use to create an account base. Turns out these sales are transactional no repeat business. As I understand it the previous structure was a 1099 position.  The agents sold LP as a side job.  Building a territory from scratch is almost impossible no guidance  .  Pricing is not competitive, dealing with the government is non existent because  government Director is impossible to work with always treating sales agents as though beneath her. Contracts for government and GSA margins are so low it is impossible to make any money.  Yet you are expected to provide full service VMI even though you make less than a 1.00 in commissions. Your gas your time and wear and tear on your vehicle without any compensation . emails from the government Dept. are condescending and rude. And this is being nice about this Dept. 
BDM group does not have a plan to bring on new business and will take credit for any account you open.  Regardless if they were involved or not they get commissions for 6 months and so do you. They double dip the company in the most dishonest way and are allowed to do so.  When brought to upper management it's as though it goes unheard.  I imagine the company is paying 1000's of undeserved monies to this portion of the business sector.  Most of their activity comes from Sales reps opening accounts and the BDM simply takes credit for it through the ability to view reps activity.  
Strategic Account Executives are the bread and butter for this company. They actually do seek out find and close major deals  National Account rollout s are very secretive if you get any information at all. You may not contact the SAE directly, but you do get a price file through the AOS system.  The pay structure is that of one that does not give you enough time to develop a relationship and thoroughly understand the company you are pursuing. It is impossible  to develop a trusting relationship to move from current vendor to LP. The engineering dept. is made up of people that simply look in the catalog and if an item is not there they send you to specials. This is not a Dept. you can call experts  In fact they will do anything possible to NOT help you as an agent. The company would like to move in a direction of a unified Salesforce, but still treat agents as though they are 1099.  Making the agent responsible for every thing from Catalogs to customer giveaways Lawson Branded items. You have to buy your literature your clothing and anything to make you successful. This company will be bought out if this path continues the only Sales Reps they have are veterans that still have their book of business not leaving much room for growth  They work you.  This company will work you until your bones hurt from ordering bins putting them together and they would prefer you buy and make your labels from your home.  This way the company is not responsible for the cost.  I would not recommend this company to anyone it is a very tight company and in my opinion does not have the Sales Agents best interest.

Lawson does have a good training program for new reps at their headquarters. I have learned some valuable tools for the sales world. Other than that this place is a disaster.
 Lawson claims to care about their employees and resolve issues. I have only found one person in HR that cares about my concerns I have voiced. It is the District Management and above who don't care or want to hear the truth. When asked about my concerns from management they skate around the fact that there is serious problems within the company. The only thing they want to hear about is the food in the cafeteria is bad. Sadly this is most companies now days, and even across the world.

 Lawson will flat out lie to your face to get a sales person out on the streets. When hired I was told this is a greenfield area (more like a scavenger area). There was already a rep here. It doesn't help in a low population area when there is a rep who has the largest businesses in town that spend the most money. Lawson's management answer-"Sometimes we forget that we already have a rep in a area". How does a manager forget they have reps already in place? Isn't it the job of management to manage? Lawson will hire as many reps as they can to peddle their over priced products. This is also embarrassing for the rep and the company when a new rep shows up at a company and they already have a rep. Even more ridiculous is when two reps have to argue over who gets the new account because they are stacked on top of each other.

 The commissions are terrible. Let's do some simple math here. On a $200 order at 20% commission (if your are lucky) that earns you forty dollars. Now a rep has to go out and find 200-300 accounts and drive hundreds of miles just to try and survive. Another financial issue is that if a rep needs to demo a product that isn't provided to them they have to buy it with their own money.

 It is few and far between at Lawson to find people in management that are good leaders who truly care about people. A large amount of them only care about how much you are doing in sales. There is no happy medium with management. Either they don't care about the reps or they are so far down your throat that it will make a person quit. Lawson will send you to an awesome training program and teach you one way. When you get back your DSM will tell you otherwise. This is where lack of communication comes in.

Of the reps I have met I have made some great friends. Hardest part of my job is dealing with management, stacking of reps, and competing with other large outside vendors i.e. Kimble Midwest, Grainger, etc. The best part of my job is meeting new people and going home.

This is the short of the long believe it or not. In summary if you want to deal with poor commissions, poor management, micromanaging, embarrassment, being set up for failure, and other frustrations then Lawson is the place for you. Lawson is nothing more than a stepping stone to something bigger and better. You have been warned!

Mileage reimbursement advertised is misleading. It barely covers your gas for a month let alone repairs from wear and tear on your vehicle. You have to use your own phone, they pay you a few bucks per month for that. After the initial allowance they give you when you first hire on for sample product to demonstrate, you have to pay out of pocket if you want more sample product. You have a small yearly allotment for literature that they give you but after that you pay for your own literature if you need more. If you want brand builder Lawson logo give away items for customers, you have to pay for them out of pocket. They don't give you logo items to give as gifts for your customers. Salary is not very good and dwindles after a couple years to a low yearly amount with a commission structure percentage that is low. I started out as a greenfield rep with "0" accounts. They did not give me any seed business at all. They expect you push multiple product demo's on cold calls. Almost like snake oil sales. Products are often expensive and not very competitive on price. Good products for the most part, but often not very price competitive. Received very few leads, and half of the ones I did receive were out of business accounts that used to buy a couple things here and there. Sales model is archaic and cumbersome. Poor support for field reps. If special pricing for a non stock item is needed it can take a week or longer and cost you sales. There is a tendency to micro manage, lots of criticism, very few compliments. The customer service people and others at the corporate office seem very nice. The total sales support structure and business model is in need of revamping and updating. It is not very innovative or customer friendly. If you work in the corporate office or any position other than a sales rep I would guess it is a good place to work. new sales reps who are not familiar with the industry or products starting with "0" established accounts may find it a challenge. There are no expense allowances for taking customers to lunch or other customer oriented expenses to help stimulate business. Customer entertainment is all out of pocket.

At Lawson Products the ideal sales rep will build a territory and manage on a weekly or biweekly schedule.   This is the closest thing to owning your own business without having to keep onhand stock that I have encountered.
   If a person is truly interested in having a career with Lawson, they will need to approach this business as not only a means to an end, but a lifestyle choice.
    I learned very quickly that my income was based completely on my own activities and that if I chose to take a day off, I could count on a dip in my income.
    Lawson products has always been known as a premier supplier of MRO products but, in recent years has had to source many products globally to stay competitive.  
   The hardest part of working for Lawson is being able to be competitive and provide top quality products.   Competition is fierce and I have discovered that the buying climate has changed from buying quality products from the sales rep that visited most often, to finding the cheapest option available.
   The most enjoyable part has been with repeat sales you develop a friendship with nearly everyone you sell to.

At the surface level everyone uses the right buzz words: culture, respect, and accountability. However, that only flows in one direction, down. It doesn’t take long to start seeing the cracks. Steering vendor contracts, using team members for personal business, and family members installed in roles of the business without notice or questions. Then comes the intimidation, the bullying and verbal harassment. Once you see it, question it, you become a threat. 

Executive and HR teams are well aware and your first thought is that, wow this can’t fly, but then they do nothing. The HR team at Lawson are enabling sycophants. The only recognition of the complaints  are verbal, they would never respond in writing. They acknowledge there is an issue but either are spineless or scared of retaliation themselves. Their answer in 2025, ask employees to flood job boards with good reviews to prop up the public image, not address a single complaint. The thought,  just respond to every online complaint with the same canned answers provided by legal. 

Pros: if you hit your numbers you have a lot of freedom.
Cons: Your salary decreases every year to “motivate” you to add more accounts and more commissions (which are a small part of your income
More than normal price increases to customers (14 last year alone)
Customers have to spend more than $5000 a year to receive an outside sales Rep (they tell you that accounts that spend between $2000-$5000 a year are their bread and butter only to move them to inside sales if they do not meet the purchasing minimum)
You will not receive your last paycheck after you put you quit (they require all your accounts to have their invoices paid in full or they take that money from your last check)
Very little gas and office supply stipend (you receive $250 a month for fuel, $25 for cell phone, and $0 for office supplies)
Senior leadership only cares about themselves (was that if something that affects the employees doesn’t affect senior leadership they do not care)
Bottom line is this is a company you do not want to work for. They do not care about their employees or customers.  It is more of a pyramid scheme than anything.  

Management is unprofessional to the point that romantic relationships have been formed between management and their employees. Not only is this unprofessional, but to make matters worse, due to the said relationships, there are jealousy issues that have caused the work environment to be stressful. Co-workers of the opposite sex cannot communicate to employee that is involved with the supervisor, all work related matters, without later getting recriminated for petty things such as the amounts of times gone to the washroom, speaking to other employees for too long. Lawson is always holding safety meetings and it’s a huge concern, however when safety issues are brought up to management, it’s shrugged off and nothing changes.  Working around safety hazards is a bit frustrating, especially when easy non costly solutions have been presented to management along with the original concern. Employees are forced to work 10-12 hours weekdays and 8-10 wekeends. no concern for employees whatsoever.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Freedom of making your own schedule and having a home office.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Losing customers in this industry is inevitable.  You can establish great accounts and lose them 3 months later.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
If you have a good boss that knows the industry and has actually worked in your position, it is great!  That was the case in my first few years at the company.  When he got promoted he was replaced by a clueless moron that thinks going in and micro-managing very experienced sales reps would be beneficial.  NOT so much!  It doesn't help when your bosses boss is also a clueless moron.  
And when you go to training your first few months, the Company Educators are the cheesiest and most 2 faced people that I ever met in my life.  Very product knowledgeable people but have an extremely tacky training stlyle. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Visiting VMI accounts and managing the very cumbersome Order Processing/Admin work that goes along with it.

This is a great company to join if you're looking for stability and company reputation. However as a new sales rep its extremely tough to earn a living based on their commission structure and salary. The benefits offered are also below average. This company immediately lowered the base salary right after I joined them, also lowered the commissions and bonuses. I read they do this often. Management is great in the training department which is good because there's years of studying products ahead of you. This is a quota based sales job so if your numbers are off just a little bit, even if you're new, you will be hearing from management as month's end nears. As a new sales rep I was given a territory that was picked clean years before so it was extremely difficult to open any new accounts, any quality buyer was already assigned a rep from another territory so I was left to struggle on my own, the rejection was very disheartening not to mention frustrating.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working remotely in an industry and product line I know very well. Helping others with product knowledge to increase their sales numbers.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Trying to get an established territory to work on. Software failure issues that prevented you from doing your job. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
That varies by job position. The culture of the company appeared to be in flux as a newer CEO was redirecting the way the company went to market from the prior 70 years that made them successful and a large brand name in the industry.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working remotely, I was on the phone making 50+ outbound calls while taking incoming calls, emails and attempting to keep a new CRM system updated that wasn't designed for inside sales reps.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales representative 140 salaries reported	$54,018 per year
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Sales support representative 7 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Inside sales representative 3 salaries reported	$48,833 per year
Service technician 2 salaries reported	$72,500 per year

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