John Beasley

Model for Division Partners is flawed Toxic Environment. The company is struggling to grow and retain any talented sales people. The problem starts with CEO/President. No one will disagree with him, and anyone that offers a differing opinion will be threatened with their Contract being torn up. Usually this threat is made in room filled with other employees and sales leaders. So naturally no one will speak up and say something. Management is pushing all its costs onto the DP, so expect to be required to open a warehouse and roughly 35-55% of any money you earn be spent on Warehousing and Operations. Despite what you will be told the Override does not work and will not cover your Warehousing and Delivery costs. In order for it to work, you will need to have several performing LC's in your area, and you cannot be the number 1 sales person. Your override will only be 5% regardless how it's delivered. Once you get started, you will need to work hard to grow your sales book of business. However, as a DP you will then have to handle warehousing and delivery operations. Which will slow you down from growing sales... usually around 3-5 depending on how much business you can close early on. Near impossible for DP to recruit any LC's. You are expected to recruit and train sales reps for your territory (LC's). You will do this all of out of pocket. They will tell you about the increased Override you will get on any LC orders. Keep in mind, this will take 1-3 years for them to begin to sell anything that really adds up. Most DP's don't bother any more with recruiting given the time and expenses it takes to find any LC candidate. You will see only a couple of DP territories have established LC's, those folks have been here for 20 years or more. Management is tone deaf to feedback from the field. Again this goes back to people that disagree being threatened by the CEO/President to have their contract torn up. (I point this out again because in my 8 years I have seen this at the Annual Meeting more than a couple of times). The recent changes to the Sales Incentive Program financially punished a couple of the more seasoned sales people... by seasoned ones that have been with Hydrotex for more than 20 years. When they voiced their concern, they largely ignored or belittled. The CEO/President is convinced the problem is with the Sales Field Personnel and treats them as such. There is a joke among the sales people with regards to how the CEO/President treats sales people.... "Yeah you sold $500,00 last year, but what have you done for me this week" Most of the field sales guys... DPs and LCs have accepted the state of affairs and are looking for ways out or quietly riding it to the end.