THG / Paul Meakins / Jon Stromberg How to join a company and get the life sucked out of you + BUYER BEWARE Chicago Illinois

Playing with fire is the best description for choosing to work for this company. The gamble could pay off, play your cards right, pretend to drink the koolaid and smile, sell your a*s off and you might come out unscathed.

Truth, Lies, and Perceptions.

Truth:
You dont have your own computer.
It is a boiler room setting and selling.
You are fully responsible for all lead research.
There is no organized system for your leads.
You will lie.
You will be harassed, belittled, and embarrased in front of your peers.
You will be spied on.
The turnover is 90-95% first month in.
There is a new training class every month.
If you leave prior to payday, you won't get your money 24% is deducted from all sales.
You can make money, you really can. Just not a lot because 80% of your day is devoted to needless interruptions nit picking everything about your pitch, the volume of your voice (BE LOUDER!), and don't forget about POWER HOUR
T
here is no HR even if you wanted to complain about bullying, harassment, or the ongoing substance abuse in the bathroom.
Only Jon and Paul are making over 100k per year.

The person who is interviewing you earns between 30k-50k a year MAX but they will do their best to belittle you in the interview process. I won't repeat what has been stated above.
Curious to find out what 'top sellers' make?
Just ask to view the 'money list' then subtract 24% service charge, and multiply by the 10 or 12% commission. Top manager base is $2500 per month. You do the math. Most are struggling to keep food on the table, or up to their ears in credit card debt.

Side note to Ruben - Pierre 'kicking a*s' and going to be running a team of 16 in Toronto? Not likely. He hasn't cleared 30k yet this year and could seriously use a care package as the job has sucked the life out of him and he has virtually nothing.
He too believed that he would be a manager and sent to Toronto and spent all he had on suits after Jon beraded him on the sales floor for his 'thrift store attire'.
So be a friend and be truthful, and it's ok to be happy that you are no longer there.

Lies:

1 - 63 offices WorldWide, there are 12 sports. In NA we say there are 8, truth is there are 3. *
(ATL failed and they shut it down. Walker quit LA and they shut it down. They closed Madison overnight and fired everyone.)

* This works for hiring as the 'hook' is expansion. Massive opportunities. Transfers. Management.

2 - 'We don't speak to marketing' the correction is YOU can't speak to marketing. All the leads you enter into datacapture are for marketing purposes. They will be emailed about different events each month as part of our marketing campain which you will never be told of. When a DM indicates interest, JON STROMBERG will call their marketing manager and BOOK YOUR LEAD. Don't believe me? Check ACT. Oh, right you don't have a computer.

3 - Annual incentives. The page you receive during your first interview. Best 'NEW BUSINESS' earns you a trip for two to Hawaii. Sweet. Except nobody has ever been sent. And I am willing to bet nobody ever will. Ask the people who were #1 last year, who wrote over $500k what great trip they went on and view the response.

Marcus Evans Important Tip: If you win an incentive, you must use your skills in urgency to BOOK THAT DAY. Otherwise, you will be given a multitude of excuses for why it hasn't been booked yet until enough time passes that you've forgotten about it or just quit.

4 - Opportunity to attend events. It's almost as rare as honesty from Jon.
In other words, don't bet on it. Very few go, and be thankful to not. When you see it in person, and have to explain poor stadium seats/service/etc to your clients you will be very happy to be hiding behind that phone of yours.

All 'ballroom' events (Superbowl, FF, MLB, etc) will have tickets split up in the corners and your clients will be fuming.

Perceptions:
Jon Stromberg is an absolute psycho. He has a very limited vocabulary that he SHOUTS. Ever observe his volume with James or Theron around? It's like all of a sudden the guy knows how to talk normal. Point being, it's all for show to intimidate you and manipulate you to write business so you can get the hell out of there asap, thus giving your accounts over to him.

Every day 8-5 there is the constant robotic shouting:
'be smarter than that!'
'go after it'
'have confidence'
'executive to executive'
'hit it'
'get some vibe'
'like'
'the right way'
'stick to the pitch'

Sean already did a great job explaining what an idiot Jon is. And thanks to the rip off report, even his old college friends now know what a moron he really is. There was one girl, Shannon who had a decision with a local Chicago business who happened to know Jon and did a google search of the company. Needless to say, he didn't book and she left the company in embarrasment.



A sales job is about money, it's about writing business, It's about the customer. Be forewarned that under Jon it's about your devotion to him. Join the cult and he will feed you leads. Blaspheme, write your own pitch, refuse to shout at DMs and you're on your own, kid.
You might think that you will be the one to reinvent the wheel or view risk vs reward as enough to stick it out. I did just that and I wrote, I got out and I found my integrity right at the front door where I had left it.

Just to know what you are up against -

In his 18 years, Jon Stromberg has hired between 4-8 people each month (per office).

Simple math take the average of new hires per month 6x12 # months per year = 72.
72x3 average number of offices through the years = 216. 216X18 years of Jon's service with THG = 3888.

Now it is sales, so be fair there will be turnover. There are 5 employees who have been with THG over 3 years.

My perception of the place may be just that, but I'm confident that I stand with the 3,883+ majority.

There will be much more to write later but I hope this helps. In truth, I feel bad for Jon Stromberg because karma does come around and I can't imagine what it will be like for him.