Cbeyond Reviews

Pros

Good money for recent college grads, you can make 60k if you work hard

Cons

Long hours, physical cold calling

Advice to Senior Management

Allow other lead generation tools than business cards

Pros

As mentioned in many other post the training is good. They teach you a model that can be adapted in my different sales jobs. Yes the atmosphere is upbeat, but if you just want to come in, do you job and go home its not that easy. You are expected to attend every event which can get old after awhile.

Cons

Where to begin. The word micromanagement is the best word to describe this job. While making phone calls there is someone constantly over your shoulder listening to every word you say. You have to keep a tally of the calls and even how many hangups you get. Yes they encourage you to keep talking until you get hung up on. When out in the field your manager will call you about 2 times a day to check your activity. They say they want to empower you to be a 'business professional', but how many professionals get checked up on multiple times a day. They emphasize a 'one call close' because if owners have a chance to shop they realize that it is not worth the money. If you don't close it on the first appt. you better have a great excuse for why not. I worked there for a year and a half and I found the most intelligent owners did not sign a 3 year contact worth about $14,000 after meeting with you for an hour. I had a good track record and was one of the top reps when I left, but I still got checked up on everyday. About 50% of the time after closing a deal I would get a call either that they wanted to cancel because they decided too late to do their homework, or something went wrong with the service after they installed. Overall, the experience looks good on a resume but you can only take so much of being treated like a child and stressing out because your number isn't good enough (which it never is). Even if you hit quota mgmt rides you to keep going. You never get a day off. Oh... and don't even think about taking a vacation day without getting flack for not having your numbers where they should be.

Advice to Senior Management

Entrust your reps to be 'business professionals'. Only check up on them when they are struggling, not everyday. Allow the reps time in the day to input info in XLERTR, in the long run mgmt will have a great database of the businesses in the area, and it will give some time for the reps to relax and share ideas.

Pros

It's a small company. Newer technicians can get experience in areas they wouldn't at a big company. All Cisco shop.

Cons

Very heavy workload. Low pay. Salary paid twice monthly? Poor training for Cbeyond specific systems/processes. Disorganized system for handling tickets.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being cheap. Spend the money for training. Either pay your employees more money or give them better work conditions.

Pros

Amazing training program, honestly it's like being paid to expanded your skills and knowledge.
The company pays well for starting, however the ability to earn what you are worth is possible at Cbeyond. For those of you who might know the concept of "Earning what you are worth" Cbeyond provides this opportunity which is hard to find.
Cbeyond forces individuals to see beyond themselves and their fears. If you are a person who loves to learn and believes in continuous personal growth then Cbeyond is the job for you.

Cons

It is a learning process believe in yourself and push through your lows. You never know what tomorrow might bring. Hmmm kind sounds like life?

Advice to Senior Management

Thank for all your support!

Pros

Teach you basics of sales and makes you work hard.
Good company vibe and sales team.
Good supporting managers if you're lucky to have one.
Has potential to be an amazing company

Cons

Bad hours.
Terrible commission structure although it was changing when I left.
Bad upper management due to pure sales and not having the proper background to run a branch. It's good that they know what the company is about but having an all "sales" mentally is terrible for customer support.
Some of your clients will hate you.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop pushing so much in sales. I know you guys have the, throw new sales reps against a wall and see if you stick mentality but there are some talented reps that needs more time to develop themselves. Also take care of your clients more. Many dissatisfied clients are stuck with your 3 year contract. Take that away and the company will be down a lot of "happy" clients. You guys have a great product and great idea. Just take care of your customers.

Pros

Rapid upward mobility
Uncapped commission
Team coaching/cohesion/support
Extensive training
Rewards and incentives
Large, customizeable suite of products/services
Fun, dynamic people

Cons

Long hours to start, until you build a funnel of prospects
Could be too high activity for some that don't enjoy being on feet/out in field throughout day

Advice to Senior Management

Stay abreast of changes in telecom market to keep us competitive. We've already created a lot of headway with offering cloud computing and new smartphones/tablets...keep it up!

Pros

autonomy and respect when earned

Cons

Off site corp worker have little support in development. Leadership does not know how to coach.

Pros

It is a great learning community. Potential to grow in the company is realistic. It's a testing ground and separates the men from the boys. If you want to find if sales is for you, Cbeyond will give you a definite answer.

Cons

Very competitive and high pressure. Though if you are good and prove yourself, I can't think of any better opporunity than Cbeyond.

Advice to Senior Management

Care about your people, set the right expectations.

Pros

It's a good place to begin a sales career and provides good sales training. There are a lot of contests and prizes to make the environment more motivating.

Cons

The hours were very long. The environment is stressful and most people don't enjoy going to work there. A lot of the territories we had had already been burnt out and most people in them already know who Cbeyond is and don't like that we keep going in.

Pros

This is a pro and a con, but having relatively young management was a benefit in that when they were put on the right track (had a good idea) that they were willing to implement it almost immediately. If there wasn't such a work-life imbalance (that leads to a high turnover rate) the promotion opportunities would be great.

Cons

Young management. While they're willing to look into fixes to broken processes, they never stay the course. Shifty management=perceived instability (whether real or not) by line level workers, which erodes trust, morale and leads to high turnover rates. Some of the cloud offerings would be great if they could be sold separately from the outdated T1 plans, or with faster connections.

Advice to Senior Management

Management seriously needs to start appreciating every candidate and employee (more reasonable work hours, mileage reimbursement, etc.) or the company will continue to implode. Study some leadership techniques. Hell, Washington was an effective leader- start there and work your way up. There's still an opportunity to salvage this company but it needs a massive overhaul.