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Training: Day One (Con't)
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"My lack of exposure to this specific sector of the security industry was something they were counting on, they wanted people who knew nothing about the costs and tactics of alarm sales."
As a group we continued to play along with our teacher, and after three or four near misses, he finally got a bull's-eye answer from a middle aged woman at the back of the room.
"Why it works doesn't matter, just that it does work, that's all that matters.”
I wasn't sure what the overall point of this round-a-bout discussion had been, other than to get people using their words, but Mr. James accepted her answer as correct and quickly moved onto a deeper explanation.
"Just like a math problem, this equation adds up. You will find that anyone who possesses these qualities will be a successful person.”
It made sense, in an obvious and elementary sort of way, but we soon found out that this was not his point.
"Can anyone tell me which of these components, is the responsibility of the employer, and which is the responsibility of the employee?”
Ah ha! I nearly jumped up and pointed at him with a Sherlock Holmes-esque accusation, finally we get to the meat of it, I thought. My shy desk mate had found her courage by this point and she thrust her hand into the air.
"Why it works doesn't matter, just that it does work, that's all that matters.”
I wasn't sure what the overall point of this round-a-bout discussion had been, other than to get people using their words, but Mr. James accepted her answer as correct and quickly moved onto a deeper explanation.
"Just like a math problem, this equation adds up. You will find that anyone who possesses these qualities will be a successful person.”
It made sense, in an obvious and elementary sort of way, but we soon found out that this was not his point.
"Can anyone tell me which of these components, is the responsibility of the employer, and which is the responsibility of the employee?”
Ah ha! I nearly jumped up and pointed at him with a Sherlock Holmes-esque accusation, finally we get to the meat of it, I thought. My shy desk mate had found her courage by this point and she thrust her hand into the air.
"...they had several components for demonstration... apparently we didn’t need to have any real working knowledge of the product to sell it".
"Um, is it opportunity - because it's up to us to do the job?”
"Close, but not quite.” He responded, and not waiting for another answer, he jumped right into his spiel.
"It’s pretty easy to see that training is your employer’s responsibility, right? It’s also fairly easy to see that without the opportunities our employers give us, we could never succeed; but what about motivation?”
Pausing for dramatic effect, something he seemed to enjoy on a basic level, he paced across the front of the room as he talked.
"Motivation comes from inside, it’s something you find within yourself, and it’s something that no one else can give you.”
"Close, but not quite.” He responded, and not waiting for another answer, he jumped right into his spiel.
"It’s pretty easy to see that training is your employer’s responsibility, right? It’s also fairly easy to see that without the opportunities our employers give us, we could never succeed; but what about motivation?”
Pausing for dramatic effect, something he seemed to enjoy on a basic level, he paced across the front of the room as he talked.
"Motivation comes from inside, it’s something you find within yourself, and it’s something that no one else can give you.”
His laboured and overly theatrical point was taken, at least by me. He, or more accurately, they, wanted to build a team of self-starters, self-managers, self-motivators. They wanted to build a team of sales people, to nurture them and to bring them into the folds as a child to their favourite school teacher. One might ask if it would be easier for them to seek, hire and let loose a team of seasoned sales people, men and women who already have experience, whom have that sales personality and ‘closer’s’ mentality.
Easier, yes; affordable, no. To me, this instantly added to the already mounting evidence against sticking it out. Others with a more entrepreneurial outlook may have seen these events as an opportunity to excel among lesser capable peers, but my sceptical mind tends to ask why, instead of why not. Why does it make more sense to these people, to hire a room full of poorly qualified, inexperienced sales people, in lieu of a handful of the opposite? This of course suggests that they had a choice in the matter.
My lack of exposure to this specific sector of the security industry was something they were counting on, they wanted people who knew nothing about the costs and tactics of alarm sales, they wanted people who were looking for a new way of capitalising on an often impressive, yet useless background in law enforcement or physical security. As both a start-up company, and a business relying on only residential alarm sales, Weston was setting themselves up to be a small fish, in a sea of other small fish. They seemed to see their alliance with ADT as a leg up on the competition, but common sense tells us that ADT is in bed with many other authorised dealers, and Weston is no better or more important than the rest.
Weighing all of this new information in my mind, I considered only the possible benefits and detriments to my own career and situation; I failed to see the impact this type of business arrangement might have on consumers.
In any event, I stuck by my lifelong motto; where difficult decisions are concerned, inaction often works better than action. (We can discuss how well this motto has actually worked for me some other time). I chose, yet again, to stick it out and see how things develop.
The rest of the day was spent going over the basics of security and an overview of ADT products. For those who aren’t familiar with the vast array of security products that exists for virtually the same function, let me be the one to tell you that the alarm sales industry is largely made up of smoke and mirrors.
At the time of this training, I had little-to-no knowledge of how the technology worked, let alone the principals behind their installation. Since then I have educated myself on every aspect of physical security, and the single striking feature of this business is that between companies, there is virtually no difference at all in technology.
Easier, yes; affordable, no. To me, this instantly added to the already mounting evidence against sticking it out. Others with a more entrepreneurial outlook may have seen these events as an opportunity to excel among lesser capable peers, but my sceptical mind tends to ask why, instead of why not. Why does it make more sense to these people, to hire a room full of poorly qualified, inexperienced sales people, in lieu of a handful of the opposite? This of course suggests that they had a choice in the matter.
My lack of exposure to this specific sector of the security industry was something they were counting on, they wanted people who knew nothing about the costs and tactics of alarm sales, they wanted people who were looking for a new way of capitalising on an often impressive, yet useless background in law enforcement or physical security. As both a start-up company, and a business relying on only residential alarm sales, Weston was setting themselves up to be a small fish, in a sea of other small fish. They seemed to see their alliance with ADT as a leg up on the competition, but common sense tells us that ADT is in bed with many other authorised dealers, and Weston is no better or more important than the rest.
Weighing all of this new information in my mind, I considered only the possible benefits and detriments to my own career and situation; I failed to see the impact this type of business arrangement might have on consumers.
In any event, I stuck by my lifelong motto; where difficult decisions are concerned, inaction often works better than action. (We can discuss how well this motto has actually worked for me some other time). I chose, yet again, to stick it out and see how things develop.
The rest of the day was spent going over the basics of security and an overview of ADT products. For those who aren’t familiar with the vast array of security products that exists for virtually the same function, let me be the one to tell you that the alarm sales industry is largely made up of smoke and mirrors.
At the time of this training, I had little-to-no knowledge of how the technology worked, let alone the principals behind their installation. Since then I have educated myself on every aspect of physical security, and the single striking feature of this business is that between companies, there is virtually no difference at all in technology.
We spoke, in round table fashion, about the various components of a security system; the panel (the brain of the system), the keypad (the face of the system), the door and window sensors and glass breakage or decibel sensors (the senses of the system) and the add-ins like motion detectors, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, remote keyless operation, wireless installation and a few other largely window-dressing-type components.
Mr. James verbally laid out two separate systems for us to examine, claiming that these are the two most common types and therefore delineate the two classes of system: wired and wireless. In hind sight, I know that Mr. James was either ignorant of the truth, or was spinning the truth to his advantage in a class full of people who knew no better.
Mr. James verbally laid out two separate systems for us to examine, claiming that these are the two most common types and therefore delineate the two classes of system: wired and wireless. In hind sight, I know that Mr. James was either ignorant of the truth, or was spinning the truth to his advantage in a class full of people who knew no better.
In a box on the floor, they had several components for demonstration, most of which were simply the shells of each component; apparently we didn’t need to have any real working knowledge of the product to sell it.
After a short lunch break, during which we were served cold pizza that had been delivered an hour early, we reconvened to go over what had been discussed in the morning portion of the session. It was a rapid fire progression of questions from Mr. James, to which the answers were blurted out by whoever knew the answer, or whoever could get it out first. What might strike you about this portion of the story is not necessarily the speed at which we covered the information, but actually the small amount of information there was to be covered.
One would expect the training of an alarm salesman to be somewhat comprehensive, maybe described as a crash course in home security. After all, we were to be tasked with going out to secure whole neighbourhoods. To bring piece of mind to housewives and to allow husbands to jet off to work without a worry for their family and home.
Shouldn’t we have been armed with all the knowledge necessary to speak intelligently about security and its technology?
Wrapping up for the day at just past 2:00pm (yes, a full days training that lasted just more than four hours), Mr. James issued a homework assignment for his class. We were to use whatever media resources we had available to us, to find, copy and memorise a news story about any security issue; preferably one with included statistics about crime rates. He didn’t explain why, and offered little in the way of instructional detail, but after our day of scholastic exertion, I figured less might be more when it comes to Weston.
After a short lunch break, during which we were served cold pizza that had been delivered an hour early, we reconvened to go over what had been discussed in the morning portion of the session. It was a rapid fire progression of questions from Mr. James, to which the answers were blurted out by whoever knew the answer, or whoever could get it out first. What might strike you about this portion of the story is not necessarily the speed at which we covered the information, but actually the small amount of information there was to be covered.
One would expect the training of an alarm salesman to be somewhat comprehensive, maybe described as a crash course in home security. After all, we were to be tasked with going out to secure whole neighbourhoods. To bring piece of mind to housewives and to allow husbands to jet off to work without a worry for their family and home.
Shouldn’t we have been armed with all the knowledge necessary to speak intelligently about security and its technology?
Wrapping up for the day at just past 2:00pm (yes, a full days training that lasted just more than four hours), Mr. James issued a homework assignment for his class. We were to use whatever media resources we had available to us, to find, copy and memorise a news story about any security issue; preferably one with included statistics about crime rates. He didn’t explain why, and offered little in the way of instructional detail, but after our day of scholastic exertion, I figured less might be more when it comes to Weston.
As the group slowly disbursed I tried to get a sense, through overheard conversation and facial expressions, as to whether or not I was alone in my growing mistrust. Up to this point there had been no mention of money, no rumours of recompense nor statements of salary, aside from the single graph in our folder that vaguely outlined a ballooning commission structure based on units sold (essentially, the more you sell, the higher your commission rate), but this graph offered no actual numbers.
Patience is not exactly one of my virtues, and as I tried to corner Mr. James to ask a few pointed questions, he skilfully slipped into Mr. Santos’ office and out of sight, forcing me to save my questions for another time.
So, still confused and conflicted, I left the office with even more doubt. I knew my wife would be less than pleased at not having answers to our pressing financial questions, but at least I was supposed to be paid for the training. I would return the next day, resolved to be taken seriously, and much more active in my decision making process.
Patience is not exactly one of my virtues, and as I tried to corner Mr. James to ask a few pointed questions, he skilfully slipped into Mr. Santos’ office and out of sight, forcing me to save my questions for another time.
So, still confused and conflicted, I left the office with even more doubt. I knew my wife would be less than pleased at not having answers to our pressing financial questions, but at least I was supposed to be paid for the training. I would return the next day, resolved to be taken seriously, and much more active in my decision making process.
Working For A Home Security "Sub Dealer": Career Opportunity, Or Pitfall?