Pros
The work-life balance can be great at times. Depending upon your Manager/Director, it is possible to work from home 3-5 days per week. The work can also be quite rewarding if you are able to find a team of people who care.
Cons
The business is extremely antagonistic towards Business Salespeople carrying multi-million dollar targets - Account Managers/Executives, Specialists, and even Sales Engineers (CSE). The details of the Sales Incentive Program are basically structured such that your target can be changed at any time (typically raised) without your consent; some roles have minimum thresholds where you will take home exactly $0 even if you close deals; you are always at risk of having past commission payments clawed back if a team downstream does not deliver as promised (which happens about 50% of the time); commission payments will be garnished if your deal does not exceed certain margin thresholds, which are often sacrificed to win in competitive situations; and if you have a Billed Revenue target, you will be penalized if a client starts terminating services you had nothing to do with from years prior. As a new Salesperson, you are guaranteed to be given primarily accounts with a negative outlook, and expected to work 80-120 hours per week to turn them around and clean up your predecessor's messes. This inevitably leads to an extreme level of frustration and very little monetary compensation for the first few years of employment while your colleagues are continuously handed accounts ready to spend money with TELUS. In reality, a very small percentage (5-10%) of Business Sales people in Alberta actually hit their targets on a yearly basis, as the targets have not been adjusted to match the current economic climate. This means you are likely only to make 20-50% of the commission advertised to you on an annual basis, and the money that you do earn is always subject to a clawback later. Since the teams delivering and supporting these services are not compensated similarly, you will spend 90% of your time performing relationship management instead of selling, which then makes you a target for termination under the current management regime for performing duties out-of-role. In short, take everything you are told in regards to compensation with a grain of salt.
