Rock Solid Associates A very honest review of Rock Solid Associates Silver Spring, Maryland

Attention Washington D.C, Northern Virginia and Maryland job seekers. If you are an up and coming college graduate, or under the age of 30, then you probably have came across this company. I was one of them also, at one point. I worked for Rock Solid Associates for several months and even managed to get promoted to Corporate Trainer. I am going to write a very honest review about the company and while not everything is bad, there are some things you need to watch out for. 

First and foremost, you need to understand what you are getting into before you accept a job offer with this company. Rock Solid Associates is a Multi-level Marketing company, which they will try very hard to disguise, because of the reputation that other MLM's have.  What this means is that you are responsible for selling whatever product they are marketing to other people, and after you and your manager get a cut of the profit. Rock Solid Associates is currently marketing Verizon Fios to customers in the Maryland/Annapolis area. You will be going door to door to try to persuade potential customer to subscribe to Verizon Fios.  

The reason why they conduct three interviews before offering you a position is because they want you to understand what you are getting yourself into. You need to understand before you accept the position that this is a door to door sales job, you will make 100% commission only, and be treated as a 1099 worker or independent contractor. You do not have to stay for the entire second round interview if you feel like you don't want to do door to door sales. If you think it is a waste of time, cut your losses and walk out of the interview and move on. After all, it takes a special kind of person to succeed in this line of work and not many people have it. 

In order to succeed in this company you need to have a entrepreneur mindset for the very start.
A lot of complaints have to do with the pay, work hours and work environment. There is a reason why you work six days a week on nothing, but commission. Think of it from a business mindset. If you decide to open your own business, you will need to work 24/7 if you want it to stay in business. Also nobody is going to hand you a paycheck if you did not make any sales for the day. That is why they only pay their workers commission. If you want your business to stay in business and make a living you need to make sales happen. After you complete the management training program with Rock Solid Associates, that is exactly what you will be doing. You will be running your own business, setting your own hours and managing your own sales team. You can choose to not be at work as often and watch your business crumble to the ground, or you can choose to be at work and motivate your sales team to succeed. If they don't make money, then you don't make money. 

As far as the company culture goes, I have seen some reviews call these practices as "Cult practices". The reason why there is dancing and cheering and chanting is to keep everyone on the sales team as positive as possible. Think about it from a manager standpoint. You manage your own office of salespeople and cannot find a way to keep them motivated. Soon they start significantly under performing and you go out of business. The chanting and cheering like it or not, keeps everyone on the sales team motivated and positive. Sales is a business where if you are not motivated, than you cannot succeed. You will cut a significant amount of time off from friends and family also, but you are running a business remember? If you open a business how are you going to find time for anything else, while keeping it in business? 

Now while is is a legitimate opportunity, there are some things to watch out for. 

1. You Do not receive your first paycheck until 3 weeks after your first sale. Triple plays will award you 100-120 dollars commission per sale and double plays 50-70 dollars per sale. Most trainees close their first sale during their first or second week. If you go more than your first two weeks without closing a sale, this is not for you and you need to get out now or risk financial ruin. Paychecks are handed out every week on Monday, after the three weeks. 

2. Your first five days with the company will be unpaid. In order for you to be able to close sales on your own, you need to learn how from your managers and trainers. This is the training process and takes about five days to complete. 

3. Keep track of every sale that you make to customers. There are horror stories on the internet about managers taking money from employees and it is sadly true. Keep a balance book of every sale you make in the field. Since there are no taxes in your paychecks, if your check looks any different than what you have in your book, question your manager immediately. If your manager says that a customer cancelled, request proof of the cancellation and by law they are required to show you. 

4. Always be aware that it is a commission only sales job and no matter what averages anyone gives you during the interview, only you know how much you need to sell a week to make ends meet. 

5. Be honest throughout the management training program. You will run across other trainers who encourage lying to interviewees, to get them to join their team, so they can be promoted. These people will fail in the end when the people they lied to, catches wind of whats going on they quits. Be honest to interviewees and find the right people to build the strongest sales team. It may take 20 interviews to find the right person, but they will be more inclined to stay with you and help you reach management

My closing comments are that this is a very challenging and rewarding career if you can make it happen. No matter what happens, even if you fail, you can still take what you learned and apply it elsewhere.