Pros
Very nice people to work with. There were helpful employees that truly enjoyed what they do.
Cons
If you do not have a book of business you can bring with you, I would not recommend accepting a sales position with Intelligent Solutions. I was told during my phone interview the starting salary would be between $40K - $50K. They offered $35K and said that was their normal starting wage. Plus, there was complete confusion regarding my start date. I kept being told different dates by multiple people.
The day I was hired, I was strongly encouraged NOT to take the dental insurance, because it was not very good. Find out what the benefits are like and their cost before you accept the position. The health insurance was $200 more a month than it was at my previous job.
I also was not told until after I started that the company did not reimburse for mileage. So, if you do not have a good book of business, you will be putting up a lot of your own money to build this company's book of business.
Regarding training, I was instructed to watch some videos on Cisco products and Auto Task, which is the company's Customer Relationship Management software. The main product/service we were selling was Managed IT services. Those videos did not help prepare me to sell managed services.
In a sales role, you would expect to know relatively early in your employment what your goals and expectations are. After 3 weeks, I approached my boss and asked about commissions and expectations. His response was " I guess I should give you your quotas". A company that does not give its salesman his quotas and expectations in a timely manner is suspect in my mind of a lack of focus or interest in the position.
I started asking questions about what Intelligent Solutions’ marketing plan was and what my role in it would be and I could not get a good straight answer. Ultimately, what I was told is the marketing plan was to network and get referrals. That told me there was not a plan in place. RED FLAG!!
There ultimately was no business plan, marketing plan or sales plan. I went through two bosses in my six months and both could not focus on a minimum price point to pursue. Their focus would change on a weekly basis. Each wanted to start focusing on smaller deals in the south suburbs of Chicago, where there is less money and what money there is, is not spent on IT.
If they reimbursed for mileage, it might have made more financial sense for me to pursue smaller accounts. Some of the accounts I went after would have paid commissions of $25 and $32. I spent or would have spent half of those commissions on gas.
I was given an initial book of business that contained six businesses that fired Intelligent Solutions for various reasons. The CTO expected me to go back to these companies and ask for referrals. How can you expect to receive a referral from someone you haven’t done anything for lately and who has fired you?
The CTO also has an inability to read and or respond to emails. That caused a loss of some business due to the lack of a timely response. One of those could have been a six figure deal and then some more deals after that project was complete.
There were a few big accounts that fired Intelligent Solutions while I was there, which concerned me. How would my accounts be handled or serviced? Once a deal is closed, it is turned over to the engineers. They handle it and deliver on the contract. They become the face of the company and are led by the CTO. Given his inability to handle or manage his emails effectively, it makes me wonder how effective he is at managing his engineers and the accounts.
I was not able to sell a lot, but what I did sell; I did not receive commissions when they were supposed to be paid out. Four months into my employment, I ask when I could expect to receive those commissions. There was serious doubt cast on whether I was owed commissions on EVERYTHING I sold. I ultimately had to provide the list of what was owed, either because management did not care to pursue the issue or they had no record of what was owed. I was finally paid my commissions on my last pay check, and they were not correct.
Upon my termination, I was told by management that it wasn’t working out and they were going to have to let me go. The manager that let me go said he did not know why it wasn’t working, but they were going to have to try their luck with someone else.
Well, if you are that someone else, good luck to you. Management that does not know why an employee is not working out is management that is obviously is not engaged with that employee or really has no clue of what is going on.
As of 10/28/13 and under the management of the current COO and CTO, I would strongly urge you not to accept a position with Intelligent Solutions.
