R.H. Donnelley Reviews

Pros

Proactive and growth oriented leadership drives our business to offer cutting edge products and services. Compensation is commiserate with drive and ambition. This com
Any offers the strongest new hire training I have ever experienced.

Cons

Our IT department has been outsourced to India. Our graphic artists are now mainly based in the Phillipines. Communication barriers affect level of productivity in dealing with both departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the graphic artists. They are the creators of our products, and we cannot afford to have an inferior product in this day and age.

Pros

Still pays very well if you can convince customers that YP's are still a good investment. Internet product is crappy but most small businesses don't know any better. Easier to sell.

Cons

Upper Management is trying to squeeze the last dollars out of advertising base before the product becomes completely obsolete. Lots and lots of pressure for hard core selling and closing.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop all of the non productive busy work. It seems like the main event is the company is filling out enough paperwork so your boss can justify to her boss that you're working.

Pros

Fair benefits package. Decent vacation and pto time. Fellow employees are good people.

Cons

Micro management. Managers have less experience in sales than sales team and no management skills. Upper management targets employees they don't like until they quit. Lack of support staff and who they do have are overworked.

Advice to Senior Management

Sales is a tough job, management needs to support and encourage employees. If you care about your employees they will care about your company and do well. It's that simple

Pros

If you work at it you will be successful.
The people that you work with are all excellent. Everyone gets along well.
They have a very good sales training program if you have not been in sales before. If you have, you will find it a bit remedial, but you will be prepared to sell your products if you fully participate.
Advancement is usually by performance.
If you are average you will not have to worry about your job.
Great springboard into other sales careers. If you can sell this, you can sell anything.

Cons

Yellow Pages is a Dying industry
The internet programs that are sold are now behind the rest of their competitors.
The comp plan keeps going down, down. You will work harder for less money.
The new micro-management platform is awful and stifling.
If you are a performer, management will do everything possible to keep you in sales and out of management.

Advice to Senior Management

Advance your systems. Stop trying to feed the sales force information that just isn't true. We all know that yellow pages are dying.
Do something to build back the trust of your customers.

Pros

The hourly pay is good. Don't feel micro-managed. Able to take off with no questions asked should something come up unexpectedly, such as car repairs, child's illness or some other emergency.

Cons

Bonus based on number of dollars collected, however the distribution of accounts are system generated. Some are at an advantage because the balances that are being collected on are higher so they stand a better chance of collecting a monthly bonus.

Advice to Senior Management

This is very rare. Usually dead end.

Pros

You can make good money..sometimes great... definitely above the norm for this type/level of job, Great Sales training program, they are known for hiring good people/good reps come out of there. Wonderful Benefits, Social and rewarding company

Cons

Management is typically "yes" boys, or people that weren't the best sales reps so they moved/were moved into management. Out of all advertising sales this is the least exciting (but the best paying)...you get beat up quite a bit from your customers. A lot of unethical reps out there, dont always believe that the reps/company are doing whats in the best interest of the advertisers.

Advice to Senior Management

GET BETTER MANAGERS!!! People that can truly motivate/lead and lend some experience/advice to the reps vs. people who are not qualified and are so desperate to be KNOWN as a "manager" or a "leader" that they are too busy preaching to themselves and marching up their own bottoms to notice nobody is following! Less conversation, more action.

Pros

This company offers great earning potential. You can earn over $100k with some hard work. Lots of recognition if you are a top performer. Nice incentives and bonus opportunities. Great company trips.

Cons

No respect for employees. You are truely judged by your numbers alone. The company is insensitive to the economy or any other factors that are out of your control. Sales reps are held accountable for customers who are delinquent due to financial hardships. Management expects you to collect money from customer by any means necessary. The atmosphere is very tense and you always feel insecure as if you could lose your job at any time. Even senior reps have no security and always feel on edge. Finally, there is a lot of nepotism.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with sincerety and concern. Not like a machine where you are only interested in what they can produce. I believe reps will work harder if they know management is "in the trenches" with them .

Pros

A job is better than no job in a down economy. Its indoors, and they don't physically beat employees. Pay is so-so.

Cons

Bad management. The company is a dinosaur, and unwilling to look to the future, is on its way out of business.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop spending billions on antiquated Yellow Pages Products. Your search product is a joke. Nobody buys that its a better alternative to google for local search. Know why...? because we all use google and experience tells us this is not the case!

Pros

Best reason to work for R.H. Donnelley...or Dex...or Dex One...or whatever our name is next month is the 7-week sales training you recieve (top-notch) and the sales experience you recieve while on the job. The new commission structure is a big improvement. Depending on your manager, the job can be fun and rewarding if you're up for the challenge.

Cons

-The TOP REPS continuously quit due to micro-management or are terminated for minor issues (very bizarre for a "sales" organization

-Management and HR too closely knit (dispute resolution non-existent)

-Managers more focused on your whereabouts than on results...consistently calling you on cell throughout the day asking for updates and the very popular "WHERE ARE YOU?" Very weird considering they have our daily apppt schedules. Managers must definately be going stir-crazy in their offices, paranoid that their reps are sitting at the pool drinking mai-tai's. This is of course impossible considering the workload of closing 100+ accounts in a matter of months and the fact that WE WANT TO MAKE MONEY, which you can't do if you're not making new sales.

-Office vibe and the sales meetings are right out of the "Twilight Zone"

-Being successful at outside sales is a skill with a lot of creativity involved, their looking for robots who can set appts, not professionals who can sell

-Everyone always wondering why the top reps are always leaving company without having other job lined up in a horrible economy while they were making great money here. Something very strange going on behind the scenes.

Advice to Senior Management

Get message to division sales managers to lay off the outside sales reps and let us do what we were hired to do...SELL! Get off our backs and get a grip! Too much negativity and micro-management. Not enough positive leadership.

Pros

They have a great training program which prepares you for better positions elsewhere. Furthermore, the name looks GREAT on your resume! Due to the company's stellar reputation working there definitely opens lots of doors for better sales careers in the future. If your fresh out of college or looking to gain B2B sales experience from a good compnay I'd suggest you work there, get in two years of experience and find a position with a more career oriented company that pays a high base salry and competitive commissions. Aside from that the benefits are above average!

Cons

the pay is just ok. It's also extremely hard to get promoted even when you have great numbers. They promote based on popularity.

Advice to Senior Management

stop promoting based on popularity and promote based on job performance.