outside sales representative

sales representative

administrative assistant

sales intern

sales professional

Tom James Company

A clothing salesperson (haberdash) day starts setting and holding meetings with prospective clients take up a large part of an outside salesperson’s day. This time isn’t all that productive unless you are organized and put efforts into it. An outside salesperson could spend a quite of bit of time in the day calling and scheduling appointments for measurements. There are sales meetings where other members of the team can pitch in to help. 

A salesperson career relies on networking as attending Chamber of Commerce meetings to find new clients. The difficult aspect of networking for salespeople is making time to socialize and attend events. Moreover, mustering up the energy to be sharp during such networking sessions can be discouraging after a long work week.  It is important to take note that not all of this is done during office hours. The difficult aspect of networking for salespersons is making time to socialize and attend events. 

Building connections doesn’t stop with other fellow salespeople in the industry. Some clients prefer to discuss findings over dinner or over a drink in a lounge. Salespersons would need to set time aside for such meetings outside the office and ensure that they cater to the preferences of the new and older client/s.

Alternatively, some salespersons choose to do their networking online. This means using social media to stay in touch with their connections. An advantage of maintaining one’s network online is that it can be done anywhere. Popular professional social media platforms such as LinkedIn have their own application, which allows professionals to tend to their network in between meetings, before going to sleep, or while waiting for a delayed flight.

The End!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Provides good sales training for kids right out of college. Most hires are recruited right out of college making it a fun work environment if you’re 22-25.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Where do I start…the expectation that you put between 20-50% of your paycheck into their stock program is stressful because they guilt you into doing it and that is money you won’t see for decades unless you quit or pull it out early. It’s also stressful that they expect you to make 85-100 phone cold calls everyday to fill up your calendar. You’re expected to be in the office for a 7:30 morning meeting 3, sometimes 4 days a week. They don’t provide a base salary so you only make money when you sell something.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment is what you’d expect working with a bunch of kids right out of college, fun but immature. The culture is good, they focus on building people through reading, writing self affirmations, positive self talk etc. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
7:30:morning meeting
8:30-3: expectation is to have 5 appointments set up to sell clothing. Often these appointments fall off (rarely is buying clothing a busy professionals top priority of the day) so when this happens you are expected to drop in people’s offices cold, stop people on the street or in buildings to compliment them and get their business card, or start making your daily phone calls 
3-5:15:”phone time” back at the office where you are expected to make 85-100 cold calls 
5:15-5:30:debrief where the whole office gets together to discuss wins and losses of the day
5:30:pack up clothing for deliveries the next day

A typical day at work: 
-Pointless office meetings at 7am MWF
-9am - 3pm: you're supposed to have 5 appointments set on your calendar every day and this is the time when you'd go do the appointments. The problem is, 90% of appointments cancel so then you're stuck during that time to figure out how to make sales from your canceled appointments. Your options to still make sales that day are: approach people on the street and try to get their contact info to book appointments with them or drop in uninvitedly to high level executives offices to introduce yourself and try to sell them clothing. It's rude and weird and no one liked getting harassed.
-3 pm - 5pm: go back to your office and make 85 dials to book 7 selling appointments. You'll be calling on referrals, indirect referrals, or cold calling. 
- Outside of those hours you then have to find time to add all notes to the computer and enter in new prospects to the CRM which takes hours.

It's a great place for someone to get sales training. Pay is horrible though and there's no telling if you're going to be good at the job or not. You can phone call every day, set up your appointments, do everything you're told to do, spend 80 hours a week putting in efforts to get sales and then not get paid at the end of the month. It's a weird sales system that doesn't guarantee a pay.

Management is ver nice and wants to help but everyone is trained to micro manage at this company. 

You don't have the typical sales freedom here that other jobs offer. I only recommend it to someone out of college seeking sales training.

Tom James Company is no doubt one of the best companies to get involved with if looking for a career in sales. It is on the verge of becoming a billion dollar company and over the last 50 years they have truly perfected their training program and overall company culture. If quotas are not met or if an individual partner is struggling in the growing of their business, the corporate office will step in, identify the problem, and do whatever it takes to ensure the partner improves and has overall success.
A typical day consists of seeing clients from morning into afternoon whether it be new business, fittings, deliveries, etc. The afternoon consists of phone calling either referrals or online prospects in order to set up more appointments.
The position is exciting, fast-paced, and no day is the same. The company really focuses on having a personal life vision and short, middle, and long-term goals.

They inflate their compensation numbers with a lot of other things like estimated stock value and the discount on the clothes you HAVE to buy to work there. I made $45k and I was a top first year salesperson (over 115 first year salespeople made less than me). 
I thought the work/life balance was fine for me. I was in the office at 7am everyday and was home by 6pm everyday. I think those are typical hours for most sales roles but some people may think those are long hours. 
The one positive thing I will say is that the product is great. I loved the clothes. I am actually still a customer of theirs today. When I worked for Tom James, I got 50% off and I still couldn't afford to buy them. But now, in my current sales role at another company, I can easily pay full price for Tom James clothes.

A typical day at work included contacting clients for potential sales, mining for referrals, closing sales in a direct selling environment in high level executive clients offices, collecting payments, delivering products, customer problem resolution, order entry, sales pipeline management...

The hardest part of the job was that the company seemed to have a lack of any concern for the clients... Sales goal were the only thing they cared about.  I regularly far exceeded any sales goals set for me by the company or set by myself.  I just didn't like their approach to the clients.  This ultimately resulted in me starting my own business in the same field with a customer focused business plan.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the independence, being on the road meeting new people/clients

I go on appointments from 8am to 2:30 pm, and from then until 6pm, I set appointments or review and submit orders. In my down time I prospect for future clients, or finish up general housekeeping details. I have learned how to function in a high pace business setting, dealing with key executives.
The office culture is awesome, the management team is very helpful and will do anything for me. We get the job done while adding a little fun to the mix. In my opinion, setting appointments with qualified people is the most challenging part of this job. I believe if I can get in front of my prospects they will appreciate what I do, however they are very busy and extremely hard set an appointment with.
The most enjoyable part of this job for me would be when I deliver a custom suit that fits perfectly, that makes my client see the value in what I do.

I currently work 40 hours a week. It is a very challenging yet rewarding atmosphere. I've learned how to work behind the scenes in retail; purchasing, pricing, developed many business relationships, worked along side 600 salespeople facilitating the improvement of their sales and business. Customer service/relations is my area of expertise. I work hard, learn fast and stop at nothing to get the job done no matter how difficult it may be. I love the relationships I have made with people all over the world. The most difficult would be having to say no when I know other options exist to make a request happen. My management team has been invaluable- they are willing to teach me anything, work with me, help me cross the boundaries of impossibilities.

My time at Tom James taught me very valuable principles of customer service, leading and influencing others, and how to be holistically better in my life.  My day to day would vary depending if I was on campus recruiting, attending summits with my recruiting team, or if I was out selling to my customers.  I enjoy working with clients and helping them select the clothing that best fit their lifestyle; however, my passion for recruiting and talent acquisition is where I see my career going.  At Tom James, I will not be able to narrow the responsibility down and remove the selling activities to focus on growing the number of sales people that work at our company.

I enjoyed and admired the people that I worked with.  They were very supportive and offered assistance if possible.  The job was making phone calls all day long in an effort to try and book selling appointments for outside sales reps.  My job was to create new business by booking new clients, in addition to making appointments with current clients.  I definitely learned a lot about customer interaction and how to seek out and facilitate their needs.  Also, working next to a divisional vice president allowed me to see a very effective form of management style. The most difficult part of the job was having to sit down all day, as well as not having very much influence on prospects beyond what our script says.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Outside sales representative 4 salaries reported	$89,375 per year
Sales representative 65 salaries reported	$3,758 per month
Administrative assistant 42 salaries reported	$19.18 per hour
Sales intern 58 salaries reported	$14.26 per hour
Sales professional 2 salaries reported	$65,000 per year

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