Pros
Independence, if you are willing to do your job and work diligently, you have plenty of freedom. Boss was great, great guy, moral, and has a great work ethic himself. He trusted me and gave me complete support, atonomy, and as long as sales increased, had no complaints. The customers were great as well, be consistent, and they will do what they can for you. Great product lines, more than willing to work with pricing, and you will have the ability to have pride in what you do.
Cons
Life can change on a dime, 4 day notice to pulling Gas Card, Expense account card....turned into a pay to work endeavor. If you were fortunate enough to have a smaller territory, no big deal. I covered 3 states and it was a career ending change.
If you are not around a D.C., it can be a rough gig. Most opportunities are on contract which makes growth potential slow.... alas, always a way around with creativity.
As the aforementioned states, delivery times, which can predicate a sale can be rough depending on the urgency of the customers need. Location and Delivery times predicate a bunch in this business....be close to a D.C. or be prepared for delivery time complaints.
Bottom line, loved the job, but in the end got the rug pulled out from under my feet with a 4 day notice. Traveled over 6k miles a month with my own vehicle, and they took fuel and expense card away. If I could have afforded to stay, I would have. The company idea of just compensation was to float $500 reimbursement from paycheck to paycheck which was every two weeks. The out of pocket for my territory would have been heavy. Floating expense made it impossible to stay and not float my own living expenses.
