DDM Mareting Please, seriously consider what is right for you Milwaukee Wisconsin

Situation: I quit Davis Direct Marketing today after 5 days in the field. I really enjoyed working for the company at first because of the intensely positive people and the lack of corporate red tape as you are able to move up quickly. I had fun marketing CPEA products and did not mind the long hours - 72 hours for a full week.

Complaint: While many people here complain about the low percentage of proceeds going to charity - 5% - I'm not. CPEA hired us to market their products and while it is a low number, that is more money than nothing. I understand overheadd, cost of products, salary, etc. But I did find out that the CPEA - per the link on their Web site - is not recommended by the Better Business Bureau. One of the reasons is that the CPEA only spends 51% of revenue on program activities - the BBB recommends 65%. I'm not hugely stringent on the BBB but when I asked the President of the company if she knew the CPEA did not pass BBB standards, she flippantly replied, " Yeah, well neither do we. They sent me a package and the most important thing they want is membership. Did you talk to X about this? She is great at explaining this..."

Departure: My trainer taught me that I should include the sentence, " Online or on the Web site, these T-shirts run $25 while we are doing 1 for 15 or 2 for 20 bucks." . No big deal except that the T-shirts - I called the CPEA about this - are not offered online. They ARE the 2nd biggest prevention organization helping out missing kids (another line in the presentation); I verified that as well. I had to make an ethical choice - I'm not angry. I just didn't like the manager's response, as if not meeting or at least not trying to meet BBB's expectations is legitimate. This coupled with the fact that I would be lying to 300 people a day at an event about the availability of the T-shirts onine did not sit well. I walked out...

Resolution: I'm really disappointed. I loved the positivity, motivation and self-confidence the position required. I was hitting my goals. I'll miss a couple of people there including my trainer. So if you can rationalize the deceptiveness of the T-shirt pitch and don't believe in BBB standards, this job is utterly amazing. I had to quit though as I couldn't lie to that many people.

Response to other postings: It really isn't a sales job. You are working in partnership with a charity and it does not require in-your-face tactics. One of the points in FUGI is Indifference. We were not there to turn every no into a yes and said "Thank you...Have a great day" after the closing.

Steven
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
U.S.A.