Compensation is extremely low relative to the amount of work required to close a deal. In many cases, commissions come out to roughly $40–$50 per sale despite hours of effort across prospecting, pitching, and navigating internal processes. The cost of doing the job also falls heavily on the rep. There is an expectation to use your personal phone for business, cover gas and vehicle wear, and spend out of pocket on client lunches and marketing materials with another cumbersome process to submit expenses for reimbursement. This can quickly become financially unsustainable.
From a tools and technology standpoint, the company is far behind industry standards. There are no modern prospecting or sequencing tools, no built-in email templates, no call recording, and no dialer. Sales reps are essentially working off Salesforce and Microsoft tools while manually dialing through outdated lists using personal devices. As a result, productivity is low and inefficiency is high.
The lack of systems creates operational chaos. Email becomes the default system for everything, often resulting in 100+ emails per day just to manage basic workflows. Closing a deal involves multiple hours of manual, redundant work that could be streamlined with better infrastructure.
The role itself is also misaligned. There is simultaneous pressure to operate as both a field sales rep (meeting CPAs and prospects in person) and a high-volume inside sales rep focused on cold calling. These expectations directly compete with each other and make it difficult to succeed in either area.
Training and support are limited. The training program does not adequately prepare you for the realities of the role, and in some cases is led by individuals without sales experience. With the removal of local offices, there is little to no in-person support, leaving new hires to figure things out largely on their own.