FSM Actions

[blindmansam]

Sept 11, 2009 14:18:00 GMT @red said:

I have waited a long time to put this posting up. A very long time indeed.
A time of poverty and loathing for the company I work for.
A company I was once proud to be a part of. One that was a market leader in quality.
This is no longer the case. So before my story unfolds I will tell you who I am.
A lot of you will know me and a lot have met me.
I am Red, Agent Stonehills.
So my story.
12 years ago I joined a great company with a great man at the helm. That man was Tony Hillary. Although I never met him, I had great admiration for him. For what he had achieved and built.
His understanding of what it was to be a sales agent for his company and how tough it was and more importantly, how vital we were to the future of his company.
We all worked hard and as such were rewarded financially. My average income then was around £800 a week and this was 10 or so years ago.
Then he left. The history is unimportant as those that have been with them long enough know what it was to be a part of this once great company.
It was taken over, by people who are driven by their own greed for profit even though most of them have probably more than enough for 3 lifetimes.
They had no real knowledge of the way this unique business ran.
They decimated their advisor network and I am talking about the ones from 10 years or more ago. The ones with the knowledge, the professionalism to do the job correctly and they had a great back up from head office.
Agents were left to run their own agencies and most flourished. I was close to nearly £300.000 in sales before the inception of the big brother system they now call Sam.
Sam is where any FSM can and does rule over an advisor like an unseen god. Deciding whether they like you enough to allow you to earn enough to put food on your table for the children to eat.
Sam is also where CLG will send you out to one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening so you cant do anything else with your time and you find they are in the next street as the one you did the day before, 20 miles away, Priceless.
FSMs have only one personal, selfish goal and that is to secure their own monthly bonus by keeping leads down to under 4 days no matter what the cost to an advisor.
When I ran my own agency, I was constantly booked up 2 weeks in advance. People who knew me and the job I did were always prepared to wait. As a result, those not prepared to wait or only after quotes or the cheapest just went elsewhere. It suited me because I was not after those customers.
So my sales ran at around 90%. Not the 50% to 60% they are now and dropping.
4 years ago, I was almost made bankrupt by the pathetic income I was getting from this company due to the Sam inception. The constant meddling by FSMs. The drop in quality. The lack of control over my own life. The pathetic things we are told to do like asking for time out of our own diaries. The mopping up after bad, new advisors. The telephone manner of some of the CLG staff. The list is endless and I don’t need to spell it out.
So, 4years ago I was almost bankrupt. They could not have been more uninterested. My own company started to take form. Not through wanting to but by being forced to.
1 and a half years ago I suffered a minor stroke, brought on by the stress of dealing with the constant aggravation caused to me by the machine. That was my turning point. I had dithered for far too lone expecting things to get better and I could give up trying to get my own business going It never came.
That turning point made me realise that if I stayed I would end up either bankrupt or dead from a heart attack. Things were never going to get better under the management you have now. It would need a massive restructuring to do this and that was not going to happen some time soon as they were milking the cash cow and had no regard for the future of advisors and their well being.
During this time I learned how to build web sites, graphic design work, data base building and handling. I built up a network of contacts and friends and started to trade under my own name.
I did not dual trade and by that I mean, I never sold any of my own product to a lead supplied to me.
I built it all up on my own.
It was not easy but I wanted to be sure that I could generate the work needed to keep me and my family in the home we had. If I had not done this I would have lost my home around 2 years ago. I would certainly have been declared bankrupt.
So, where am I now? Well, my own business slowly took off. I won’t tell you it was easy. It was not.
My income from this now outstrips anything I was earning as an agent. My sales are now back to around 90%. My profit margin is around 50% constant. My self esteem is back, my love of life has returned and I have taken back control of my life. I once again love the job I am doing but more importantly, its mine. I control it. I make the decisions. I don’t answer to any FSM for a stupid school boy problem. I don’t have the dor problem any more. I am my supplier’s customer and as such they treat me with respect and my goods are top notch. Way in advance of anything this company can do.
Sitting on both sides of the fence has given me an insight into what customers really think of the set up and it’s not good. I also got to know things that my Fsm would not like me to know, like other agents going out to jobs that were in my area.
During my time with them I was privy to a great deal of insider information. Information that made me shudder. They say ignorance is bliss. I am so pleased I was not ignorant of the internal goings on within the company.
I always said that I would either go when I was ready or they would find out when I was ready for them to find out. I have been ready for some time now. Everything was in place for me to be what I once was, Successful, but more so now than ever and you know what. No one can meddle any more and decide how much or how little I can earn. Where I can go and where I can not. What I can sell and what I can’t.
Working as an advisor saps all you confidence. You never really know if it’s quiet because you are not much good, the economy is flat or because you’re FSM has decided to give your leads away to some other agent.
They think we don’t know. They lie to you and tell you they don’t, but they do.
What ever happened to this once proud company?
Nothing will change. It has gone beyond that now. They had their golden opportunity some time back when advisors got together to try and thrash out some sort of agreements. What happened? Well it was twisted round and nothing positive happened. They choose to ignore what was being said. It was an arrogant mistake.
The repercussions of that were dual trading on a massive scale and the loss of a vast amount of experience and with it, customers.
I know personally at least 30 ex advisors that are now doing well for them selves and work together to better each and every one of us, we work as a national team. There are many more that I know of and others I don’t know but have heard of. Each of these advisors would still be sending the work to their old company if they had not been treated with contempt and forced to look elsewhere.
They are a laughing stock in the industry now.
Customers are not stupid. They know the quality of the product has deteriorated as has the advisors mind set and the service they get because lets face it, when you are looking at earning £10 to measure, fit, drive twice to a customer then put it right after dor,ing it then take responsibility for a miss measure fine and do all your admin, then who can blame an advisor for being disinterested . You can earn more washing cars in a local car park without any of the stress associated with it.
Customers can read and most can use computers now so all the complaints made on the web are easily findable and people do look and base their decision on those findings. I run my own business with very little advertising overheads compared to the vast machine and Ill tell you what. I get more customers from Word of mouth than I have had for years. I get more customers than I did with massive advertising but I don’t give false promises. No 50% off call outs attracting all the dregs of society. I choose my areas well and am not after every single penny I can lay my grubby hands on.
I do not advocate going down this route for everyone. You need a strong will, a need to survive and you need the experience or you will be eaten by the sharks.
So, I wish you all the luck in the world as you need it with them. Especially if you put everything in to it as I did those years ago.
I met some great people in the time I was with them and built some good long lasting friendships from all walks of the business be it H/Office staff, advisors or the old school FSMs, remember them? They were the ones that actually did come and see you and help you to build your business up and not knock you down. It was good working with them in the early years, prior to share holders and Sam. I can not say the same for the last 5 years. It has been a nightmare. Chasing departments for the least little thing. Using that stupid little machine and getting children’s pocket money for what is a demanding and highly stressful job. No professional sales person would work under those circumstances unless desperate for the money.
My biggest regret in life is building up my name under their banner. Life is too short to be wasted on a company that has only one interest at hart and that is the share holders.
So now it is onwards and upwards.

Oh and just as an after though, No I am not Brian but I can well believe his claims.

This was a long and very appropriate Message !

EVERY WORD IS TRUE !

Good Luck RED - You Joined the Free Men of the Blind Industry.

Let our NETWORK Expand and Prosper.

[topfixers]

Red,
I feel the pain in every sentence of your posting. It rings true and I agree with your sentiments. I am still soldiering on after more than 10 yrs service but I am also being shafted at every turn and have very little motivation, I feel it is only a matter of time before the final straw is placed on the camel's back.
I was lucky enough to meet Tony Hillary who was very charismatic and friendly, he made you feel as if your efforts were genuinely appreciated, not like the current bunch who are only after a quick buck before selling on to the next asset stripper.
Just writing this makes me depressed thinking how things have declined, I have to say some things have never been very good, the advisor support has always been poor as far as Im concerned, I can remember having to ring several times to organise a DOR even in the 'good old days'
I wish you all the best in the future, I think I will have to start looking in the trade mags myself soon..... ;D

Best regards
Topfixers

[red]

Sept 15, 2009 14:05:19 GMT topfixers said:

Red,
I feel the pain in every sentence of your posting. It rings true and I agree with your sentiments. I am still soldiering on after more than 10 yrs service but I am also being shafted at every turn and have very little motivation, I feel it is only a matter of time before the final straw is placed on the camel's back.

Hi Topfixer.
Your first sentence will probably ring true to a great many ex and current advisor's. The lack of motivation is something many will be feeling right now and its not down to recession.
There are those that at present think the sun shines out of their backside but they too will be shafted eventually. It just takes an illness, one too many short holidays or a greedy fsm. Thats it then, you loose half your income in one fell swoop and no one will give a jot.
I did not feel any pain once I took the decision to dump them.
Yes it was a traumatic time prior to doing it but once gone the massive weight that lifted was something else.
I do not need to get anywhere near the same amount of work as I had to with them. Just one order on Monday brought me in £600 and I have had more since. Just 1 vertical this afternoon brought me £100, so you can see, from just 2 orders its £700 and there are more orders but I only need maybe 5 a week to way outstrip anything I could make before.
If you are happy with them doing the advertising and taking the non payer risk then fine but you do have to do a lot of running around to do for an income though.
Me, I am at last starting to relax. My aim is just 2 leads a day 3 at the most. I don't need any more than that to have a good life style but for now I am still dragging myself out of the cess pit that they pushed me into.

I will never understand why a company can let good people go so easily. I am not talking about myself here but others I know. They were all good sellers that had their agency ripped apart by fsm,s.
They all suffered and even though we have been through a recession all of them are still trading. Some doing exceptionally well, others just ticking along.