The Berry Company Reviews

Pros

Wonderful management and extensive training.

Cons

Competitive industry and tough to close a sale.

Pros

Fellow employees would help new employees to be able to do a better job.

Cons

Management was not trained to supervise employees. Watched us like a hawk.

Advice to Management

Training on how to motivate employees specially the new hires.

Pros

Decent money if you work for it, like most other places. A few senior leaders at the corporate level that can be helpful, but are detached from the local reality. Decent, but over priced and outsourced digital product.

Cons

Customer service is atrocious, sales leadership is focused on themselves. Leadership is quick to throw others under the bus when an issue arises to save themselves. Sales managers want you to convince business owners that the yellow pages still work! Sales managers with car salesmen's mentality, they want you to get as much money as possible with little regard to what the customer actually needs. Advancement... opportunities largely based on personal relationships with upper management so be ready to start kissing butt.

Advice to Management

Drain the swamp.

Pros

Great training environment, good starting job in sales

Cons

not a lot of opportunity for growth.

Advice to Management

-

Pros

Flexible work schedule for those who can succeed.

Cons

Going in the gutter. This business is DOA

Pros

you can build great sales activity habits here because everything is watched. There is also constant critique and numbers based recognition, so it helps to hold you accountable.

Cons

There's some really great managers here I'm sure, but I have witnessed more intimidation tactics disguised as sales management.

Advice to Management

Focus more on leadership, coaching, and positive reinforcement. Not so much on the used car salesmen approach.

Pros

Colleagues were - lot of idea sharing for success - motivated one another. Great environment in that respect.

Cons

Unrealistic expectations Responsible for selling print (phone book) ads - most clients cancel paid ads and go with only free listings Digital programs were not effective - Advertiser doesnt get good return on investment. This may have improved but during my tenure pretty large spend for small returns - often times customer would have buyers remorse.

Advice to Management

Use SMART goals - Specific, Measurable Attainable Realistic and Time Based - Emphasis on Realistic - Phone Books have gone the way of the Dodo Bird. Do not try to brainwash reps that their use has not drastically declined and then hold them accountable for those losses. Also offer digital products that are not so costly to advertiser Make sure there is truly a demand for advertiser services in those smaller... markets that the Berry Dayton office calls into. When the market is small (ie: town in the boonies) it doesnt matter how great your online presence is if there are only 3 people searching for your services every month - you are not going to recover your investment in such a small market. Also get rid of managers who seem to have people in tears everday. Just my two cents worth - most folks were great. Sales is tough and you hear "no" all day - don't make matters worse by expecting the impossible - overcoming all of those print advertiser precancellations and losses - Starting a new phone book with accounts having already called in to cancel the next publication - and being in the red on day one is really demoralizing. your reps will end up totally dissolutioned. Hopefully some of this has been addressed since my tenure bc i truly loved working at Berry but I could not pull off the impossible. I am pretty good too - I am happy to report that I have had Great Success in Sales since leaving Berry. If these things have been addressed - go for it - its a fun place to work and family/work balance is awesome!

Pros

Base salary is ok. Benefits could be more affordable for the family plan. Employees are friendly but a little uptight and on edge expect for a couple of employees.

Cons

Trainers are the worst trainers on the face of the earth. They personally know and understand products and systems but are horrible at teaching others. Company need to invest in professional trainers if they want success with the inside sales department. Worst training than any I've ever seen. Very negative, condesending, and everything tha t a sales organization should not tolerate.

Advice to Management

General manager great upbeat guy. Hire more management like him and not the smug types under him. Attitude is everything.