Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #435069

Complaint Review: TBG, Inc. , The Brenar Group - St. Louis Missouri

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: St. Louis Missouri
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • TBG, Inc. , The Brenar Group 1430 Washington Ave. Suite #105 St. Louis, Missouri U.S.A.

TBG,Inc The Brenar Group, TBG, Inc Company focuses on recruiting, misleading, uses employees St. Louis Missouri

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

First off, I just read what Steve had to say in his report last year. I agree with much of what he had to say, but I want to focus more on the way the company works and operates. I believe that honesty and integrity are important values that many people are losing in our current society. I will accurately depict the way TBG operates. The current client is at&t; the campaign is at&t U-verse.

TBG, Inc.'s primary focus is recruiting. Many people are interviewed on a daily basis, and contrary to popular belief, they don't accept very many people. In fact, the statistics they gave me at the office is about 1 out of 160 people that initially apply actually make it to the leadership phase of the business. That aside, candidates don't know very much about the company before the second interview. TBG relies on the four impulse factors for not only the sales part of the business but also for recruiting. The goal is to impulse the individual to accept the position.

There are four positions in the office: Manager, Assistant Manager, Leader, and Account Representative (Future Leader). It took me about 14 days to get promoted to leadership, but it varies on an individual basis; this is based on a few factors, primarily the number of sales as well as revenue in a given week. There is currently one assistant manager, Dan K. and one head manager, Rebby Sutherland, who runs the office. Leaders and Future Leaders are paid solely commission-based. In other words, their compensation is "merit-based." The idea is to not be sales people forever, but to manage an office as Rebby does.

Now each new future leader that enters the company has a leader above him or her. This leader does not get any kick-backs like one would assume. The leader's role is to have people on his or her team in order to, in theory, open an office someday, which is what Rebby did. The new recruits, however, need to stay with the company long-term for obvious reasons. My leader actually left shortly after I was promoted to Leadership. In fact, since I left TBG at the end of last week, my entire "team" has quit.

On a typical day, you arrive at the office around 9:45am (early to be on time), and then begin the morning meetings. Future Leaders are excluded and enter the "Atmosphere" room at around 11am. Everyone stands in a circle while yelling and clapping. Some games are played in addition to skits being performed. Learning and applying the four factors of impulse, the five steps to a conversation, and the eight great work habits are essential to the core of the business. These concepts are drilled into the minds of everyone on a daily basis in order for them to be properly applied during sales pitches.

Rebby is a pretty successful manager, but even though she claims to be, she is not a good leader. She continually puts down the entire office when sales are low, and she feels that profanity is appropriate. She used to live with some of her old co-workers, who are now under her in the office. It's a bit of a double-standard when describing the professionalism of the office. Business professional is the dress code while at the office, but many of the account reps, especially Rebby, fail to represent their attire. Her constant negativity while preaching of positivity wears on everyone, and especially recently, her anger and profanity levels have risen. This is obvious because her office gets paid off of every sale, which have considerably dropped in the office as a whole. She does frequently mention, though, how when she's on business trips or vacations, she's making thousands of dollars while sitting on the beach having a drink (or 10).

After the morning meetings have concluded, everyone heads out, solo or in teams, to the field. Lead sheets are provided by at&t, but the majority of the neighborhoods have already been canvassed numerous times by other account reps. Pitches and rebuttals are, in most cases, ingrained to the point of comfortableness. So, the task is to travel door-to-door to persuade customers to switch from whatever TV / internet provider they currently have to at&t U-verse, which is the leading fiber-optic network in the country. The fact that I was selling a good product originally made me feel like I was "helping people." This is not the case, however. I learned that potential customers can always call in an order themselves for a considerably low promotional rate. Rebby reminds the office that the reason people sign up with us is for convenience and because they like us. In a way, I felt and still do feel as though I misled customers.

This company is not for everyone. I have a bachelor's degree from a major university, and initially I thought that this was a great opportunity for career advancement and possible entrepreneurial development. I've never been too fond of sales, but I figured that since we're in a recession, commission-based work would be good because it's difficult to get fired. I can tell you that it's very difficult walking door-to-door all day while possibly not making any money. I'm not going to lie; I did make money while at TBG. It was in no way, shape, or form consistent though. The problem is that even though Rebby constantly tells everyone to not blame their territory for poor sales, it is a major factor and a main reason why people are not consistent in their number of sales per week. Obviously some customers are nice, and some are not. It's part of the "law of averages." The majority of people do not like talking with a stranger at their door.

Once a leader becomes good at the sales, training future leaders begins. If the leader can still achieve consistent sales while training, he or she is granted interviews. This is how leaders gain people on their team. Most leaders in the office have zero people on their team, even after months of interviewing.

At the end of the night, around 8pm, everyone returns from the field to the office for "bells." This bell ceremony is a way of recognizing those that did well that day, which is based on personal profit; which bell you ring is determined by the amount of money you made that particular day. Most people leave the office before 9pm. Working until 4pm on Saturday is typical.

Overall the people in the office were nice at first. The problem I noticed was that when I was doing well, Rebby gave me a lot of attention and recognition. When my sales fell a few weeks later, she completely ignored me. Many of the leaders in the office were two-faced as well. Of course I discovered a few people that were genuine, but not many. The majority of everyone drinks every night and overall does not behave professionally. "Fake" is an appropriate way of describing the overall culture, which I assume is not atypical in the sales industry.

Bottom Line, if you enjoy sales and feel that you can be a great recruiter, this company may be for you. Many people will not enjoy working at TBG. I gave it a chance, but at the end of the day, I did not feel as though I was helping people at all. In addition, the inconsistency not only in my sales but in the office as a whole gave me far too many doubts. These doubts began affecting my performance in the field, which led to a collapsing effect that led to my resignation. I feel used, and I know that because the company's focus (besides sales) is on recruiting, candidates are misled into believing the company operates in a certain way but later discovers the truth. Any company that needs to convince someone to work for them, especially during a recession, should doubt many of its competence and credibility. Be careful and watch out for TBG, Inc.

Djuniorstl
St. Louis, Missouri
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 03/17/2009 11:20 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/tbg-inc-the-brenar-group/st-louis-missouri-63103/tbginc-the-brenar-group-tbg-inc-company-focuses-on-recruiting-misleading-uses-employe-435069. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now