outside sales representative

account representative

shipper/receiver

machine operator

architectural designer

STONHARD

This is a great place to work as long as you invest in it. Prospect, build relationships with accounts, and learn from their training. They equip you well and really make it impossible not to find success quickly.

However, once you've sold between $750K and $1M, start looking around for a new opportunity. Every year management will ask you what you expect to sell based on the following: your jobs that are forecasted to close, your relationship with accounts that you think will buy from you, and residual sales. However, they will raise your quota above what you expect regardless of the opportunity you have to meet it. If you have worked to prospect, built relationships with accounts, and learned from their training, then you've done all you can. But in the end they won't take that into consideration when they raise your quota and you cannot achieve it. 

Another thing and it is just as important, since you should be focused on building relationships. Management is more worried about short term revenues than long term residual business. I've seen, on a number of occasions, situations where the management team would rather charge the customer when the product doesn't live up to the expectations that the customer has instead of taking even partial credit and pay for any sort of repair. Of course this jeopardizes future business with the account and makes it even more difficult to meet the quota that management sets. 

One final comment, you cannot trust the managers. I knew an employee on my team who made the company trip to the Caribbean, his 3rd time in a row.  This employee hit his quota annually and was achieving the quote expectation that our manager set in place of 3 quotes per week. But the week before the company trip, he was fired. I asked our Area Manager why he was let go and was told that one of our partners had reported that the employee wasn't reliable and she didn't want to send him any more leads. My manager also said that he had to take over on one of our major healthcare accounts because the customer was complaining that the product that we'd installed didn't meet their expectations; and when he did, this employee didn't 'put up enough of a fight.'

Despite this guy's performance, our Area Manager chose to listen to the opinion of someone who wasn't a customer or Stonhard employee and FIND a reason to fire him. The managers act like they have our customers and employees best interests in mind and that we're all part of a team; but truthfully, all they care about is themselves and their paychecks.

The TM role is unique to any other company I’ve worked for. We prospect, do site surveys, present proposals and close. Nothing different there. Once the sale has been made, we schedule delivery of material and select an install crew from approved sub-contractors. Then we make sure the material arrived and meet the crew onsite to go over the install. This can be any day of the week including holidays. It is expected that we’re onsite each day of the install and then again the day after completion to walk it with the customer. Majority of us are home based with the ability to make our own schedules. The pay and benefits are the best I’ve ever had. Most years I’ve matched my salary with commissions  The training is world class. The only real complaint I have is that with all of the responsibilities after the sale, there is a massive amount of lost sales time. This makes for a lot of catch-up tasks that frequently require being done outside of the traditional Monday-Friday 9-5. This stretches the work/life balance.

They throw you out there to sink or swim with essentially no training. You go to “phase training” but that’s taught by a guy that knows little and all managers and TMs don’t respect him. He was just placed there until he retires. Management is too focused on their goals and forecasting that they don’t care to help you with the day to day work needed, especially if you’re new and trying to learn the systems. Every person in the company will tell you a different system to use for one project. Quotes take weeks to get approved because 4-5 people have to approve them. Makes you look like an idiot in front of your customer when they expect it within a day or two. If you don’t like working weekends then don’t work here. Installs are often on weekends and take up all your time but still expected to maintain 3-5 in person meetings day. I could go on and on about how awful this company and the people that run it.

What is the best part of working at the company?
A company that values employees and their customers.  Opportunity for advancement. Performance based compensation. Support and training. Supplies a product that has a reputation of being the best in their industry. Superior benefits.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Sales orientated therefore performance is critical. There is no place to hide.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Support from your colleagues in other departments. Open and straight forward communication. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Activities that take place come from both internal and external interactions therefore if you are doing your job there is always something to do in terms of problem solving, supporting and creating new opportunities.

I was not comfortable working in a hostile environment with harmful chemicals but the compensation was good for northern Indiana. Overall, management does not believe in continuous improvement. In most ways, they want to continue to do things in ancient ways and put out frequent random fires. Communication was horrible between Supervisors, Quality Department and Production. Most supervisors have their favorites so rules do not apply to all. My experience was not enjoyable at all. I became a very negative complaining person due to the environment and culture of the Fort Wayne plants. I would not recommend this job to anyone that is looking to grow with a company. This is definitely a step stool place to work with decent pay and benefits.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Leaving at the end of the day. Going on vacation. Pretty much any time not spent at that job. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management. The company is run by some of the most incompetent fools, many who get their positions based solely on how much behind they kiss. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Aggravating. Trust no one. There is no unity or loyalty. Every man for themselves. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You work like a dog, just to watch others sit around and do nothing all day long. It's better to come to work and do nothing, you will be praised highly for it.

Constantly working and busy throughout the entire day.  The salesmen are also project managers, which require two different skill sets.  Most are usually not good at the project management part of their job which directly effects you and makes your job more difficult.  The good, smart, dependable, and capable admins don't stay long due to the low salaries especially compared to the responsibilities and no room for advancement.  Great position to develop your project management skills.  The company has some good perks like lots of holidays off and a pension after five years.  They support many charities which is nice.

A lot of Dishonesty and managers’s bonus structures are in conflict with sales people’s goals so you will either be fired if you don’t cooperate with things which do Not work in the “upper Managers” needs or not be rewarded for all of your work ...and if you do have a good year and maintain your position then your territory will be divided into smaller groups for new hires and you will start the vicious cycle all over again while being berated and treated very poorly on a daily basis 

If you can befriend a manager and become a yes man who puts the yourself and the customer last...you may a chance for a long and non rewarding career here.

Great place to learn how managers can usually  ignore customer problems and warranties to the point of losing relationships 

I enjoyed working at Stonhard while I 
was there. I learned a lot in a short amount of time and had some awesome coworkers. The work can be very fast-paced with quick turnaround required, which can be stressful but made the days fly by quickly. That being said, there are some lazier people in management positions who don't like to take action or who make short-sighted decisions, which made it difficult for people in other departments to get their jobs done. It was also somewhat challenging to get a handle on what courses of action to take as there seemed to be an exception to most rules (but I wore a lot of hats so maybe things was just my position?). Overall, it's a very solid company that treats it's people decently and pays decently, as well. 

Strict standards for sales quotas/quotes per week.  No excuses.  
Expect to work most holidays and weekends to complete installs.  
Never expect a worry free vacation.  You are in charge so keep your phone on always bc if something goes wrong, it's your fault.  
Make sure to get in writing from a manager if you are asked to do something "unethical" or crossing the line for company standards.  You WILL be asked to do these things and will need a non company email address to cover yourself when told to do something wrong. 
Excellent benefits!  The best!  Good money if you are in a good industrial area.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Outside sales representative 16 salaries reported	$130,000 per year
Account representative 40 salaries reported	$112,500 per year
Shipper/receiver 1 salary reported	$17.00 per hour
Machine operator 3 salaries reported	$19.17 per hour
Architectural designer 1 salary reported	$132,500 per year

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