American Greetings – “Pay attention to your Merchandisers. They run the company...”

Pros

Company car and free gas for travel anywhere/anytime. And it is truly free. Benefits are ok but you get vacation time from the start - 2 weeks. Running your own territory from your home office. YOur boss isnt (always) looking right over your shoulder. For the most part you run your own territory and manage your employees. Set your own hours, just get the work done. Which means you will be working alot.

Cons

You can set your own hours, but there is always too much to do. Information from World Headquarters is sometimes slow trickling down to the field. My merchandisers will tell me about a new program shipped to them before I know about it. AS do not have real selling responsibilites and have to defer to the Account Exec at headquarters to make needed changes in account at times. That takes time and frustration. Depends on your DM how involved they are in your day to day functions. The previous DM did not realize that the AS I replaced had basically stopped working for the prevous year. My current Dm though micromanages and has driven a few veteran (20+ yr) AS's to early retirement. It all depends. AG will send you to the field to work anwhere in the country with no regard to personal preference or hardships of being comletely alone in a new place/city/state. Some people have a hard time with that.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the merchandisers. They are the backbone of this company and most have been doing it for longer than you. We need them to make the ideas you have come to fruition, and paying them minimum wage and arguing about their store preferences and how they dont matter will not get you ahead.