Pros

High Energy
great environment to be a part of-great coworker, managers and clients
Great product to offer
Great training in place
I loved my benefits!
Great potential for growth
I made lots of money (unexpected)/ that compensate for the long hours at work
lots of fun over the weekend with our sales team

Cons

Long hours for work (10-12 hrs)

Advice to Senior Management

Thanks for making me a better person and helping me to pick up my sales skills! Your company culture is excellent. I love the open door policy that is really practiced in the corporate.

Pros

Rewarded for any deals. Party hard attitude and new talent. The management always gives me props for understanding their needs.

Cons

It's a brainwashing cult. I have met the best thing that's ever happened to me and this job is ruining it. The culture is like a bunch of lab rats. They have us spinning on these wheels and everything is fake and vapid. Unfortunately, the talent at Cbeyond isn't as good looking as I expected. They just promise a hook up with a co-worker attitude. But, they're just lame kids fresh off of college. My girl can't even go to events with me. They won't let that happen. They just keep dangling that carrot. Unfortunately everyone there doesn't get the big picture...They are nameless, faceless wannabes.

Advice to Senior Management

Get real qualified talent. This is a sweatshop.

Pros

The free tip to Atlanta, some what ok benefits, and a young, money motivated culture.

Cons

I have moved up from a sales representative to team lead to sales area manager. I have seen it all. Micromanaged to death. Inferior product that gives our customer headaches, but we like to blame it on vendors and not us. Gas mileage reimbursement is a joke. A typically day will consist of 10 to 12 hours. If you can survive 6 months here, any sales job will be a breeze. Turnover rate last quarter was about 70%. I stay because I was in the right place at the right time and was moved up to a SAM position.

Advice to Senior Management

HA! Where do I start?

Pros

Great networking...even if you hate it you should have a good network to move on to bigger things within 6 mos. Solid training...you can use the skills other places...learn how not to treat people...learn about telecommunications and technology and one again network, network, network.

Cons

Seems to be kind of a bunch of frat boys and sorority chicks. They can be cliquish and seem to forget that this low level of acting fails in the proper corporate environment...need an ethical bypass at the door

Advice to Senior Management

lighten up...there are other more successful ways to sell business to business than the jim geiger way...with so much VOIP competition watch over you shoulder

Pros

quick career path, great benefits, quick money and great sales experience/training

Cons

micro managed to a fault, what have you done for me lately type of management. long days with not enough balance from personal to work life

Advice to Senior Management

i would suggest a stronger communication between upper management all the way down to the outside and inside sales force

Pros

They do start you with a pretty strong sales training class that lasts about 6 weeks where they teach you about their products and sales techniques used in door-to-door sales. They don't just throw you out there to make a sale.

Cons

You have to visit 50 businesses per day at the minimum. It is achievable but if for any reason you come up even a couple short you are scrutinized for lack of effort. Door-to-door cold calling is also very degrading to a certain extent. You are treated like an unexpected guest all day every day which is very unpleasant. Very high turnover. Sales managers don't really care about you, just the number of sales you bring in every month.

Advice to Senior Management

Teach sales managers to be more supportive and less degrading in nature. Teach them to help improve their teams by leading by example rather then by degrading their sales associates.

Pros

Great people to work with. They give you a Blackberry, and car allowance. The training there is also very good.

Cons

Management grills you every day. They try to make it tough and toughen you up, but sometimes this isn't the right approach.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to stop being so strict on employees. They are people too, not dogs. Tough management can only take you so far.

Pros

A fun competitive environment. Great place to start out if you want to get into aggressive sales techniques. I still have a lot to learn.

Cons

I have recently started but work and life balance is quite a struggle. Long intensive hours of cold calling and field work.

Advice to Senior Management

Management appears to be friendly. They really try their best to help but the industry itself is really competive. Especially Business to Business sales

Pros

Management is excellent. There are some highly skilled managers there. The office can be really fun. It has a really quick pace. No wasted time. Everyone tells a lot of jokes. They'll teach you how to sell whether you want to learn or not. You'll be around a lot of interesting people in the office. You get a blackberry. There can't possibly be a better place that is better at giving recognition. They make you feel like gold when you get a sale. Every job after it is gonna feel like a cakewalk.

Cons

Long hours. Starts real early, ends really late. Even later on the last days of the month. There is hardly any downtime. Lots of micromanaging of time. Very high attrition rate. People quit constantly. They just disappear. A lot of people from your training class are no longer working there after 3 months, even less after six. Time goes fast. You'll talk to a coworker about what you two did the other day and then realize it was last night.

Advice to Senior Management

Hold off on the criticism while you're giving praise. Most people work there solely for the recognition.

Pros

Youthful, very high energy environment (when sales are up)
learn in an environment of your peers
learn to hard close, stick with something when its very tough because the rewards (ie finally making a sale) will be great
good pay for an entry level job
great experience for any future sales job, teaches you to be ruthless

Cons

unspoken mentality of doing anything, such as misleading a client, to get a sale
management attempts to brainwash the entire office, pretending frequent service, unfair billing issues do not exist
extreme service issues (ie internet/phones go down, takes days to fix them) put your integrity into serious question with the clients you've sold to
teaches unexperienced 20-somethings a specific sales method to "hard close", which in the wrong hands results in way-too-agressive young salespeople pissing people off every day.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire higher quality candidates, acknowledge weaknesses in service, etc. and work to fix them so that you don't have to resort to brainwashing dumb but eager 20-somethings