Job Responsibilities
As a salesperson working at G.C., you will be "talking to people and asking them
to
buy stuff" (a funny quote my manager used to tell us to simplify how the selling
process there works!). Actually, once you get the selling part down, it's not
that hard
to sell the gear to the customer, which is your main job. So, obviously, your
learning,
studying, and applying the sales techniques they teach you are vital to your
performance.
You will also learn how to place special orders for customers through various
vendors. While doing a special order or "SPO" (for short), you need to ask the
vendor
if the product is available, if so, how long it will take them to ship it to
you, what the
product number is for the piece of gear, what retail is (MSRP) and then how
much of a percentage you can take off of MSRP to sell the product to your
customer
at G.C.'s price. After you obtain all of this information, you complete a ticket
for the
sale, have the cusotmer pay for the SPO, close the sale, and then inform the
customer
at a later date when the vendor sends you an email letting you know when the
gear
will be arriving.
Another duty you will perform while working @ G.C. is that of merchandising. It
is
done on a daily basis. Floor plans change almost daily because the store
receives new
gear almost daily. You will learn to merchandise your department in relation to
the
current monthly buyer's guide, by strategically placing the gear in specific
places on
the floor or on counters, and then you will print POP (point of pricing) tags
that
reflect G.C.'s price of the gear, how much the customer saves by shopping @
G.C.,
and what retail would be on the gear normally.
When you start, your first week is spent partially off the floor doing training
from the
Sales Force Training Manual, which there will be a test over after that first
week (after
completing 5-7 days of training). An assistant manager or sales manager goes
over
this with you in extreme detail, and actually, the training is pretty fun if
your manager
has a good sense of humor (luckily all of mine did). Daily, the time you will
spend in
the back is about half your day, so about 4 hours. The rest of the time you will
spend
on the sales floor observing other sales associates, asking them for help in
ringing up
a customer or to sell a piece of gear (so about 3 or four hours on the floor).
In your first 90 days of training, you must attend "Saturday and Sunday School".
This
is where you'll receive the in-depth sales training you'll need to make your
sale
speedy and accurate. You''l learn how to do SPO's, SIT's (Store Initiated
Transfers.....this is where you obtain a piece of gear for a customer through
another
Guitar Center), how to do a return ticket, how to do an exchange ticket, how to
create
credit on account for a customer, how to process a Guitar Center Credit Card
Application, how to use different types of payment, how to talk to vendors, how
to
cold call customers to promote certain sales, how to greet, qualify, pitch, and
close a
customer (selling), and all sorts of other selling techniques. This takes place
on
Saturday after the 9am staff meeting (staff meeting lasts from 9-10am, Saturday
school lastsfrom 10-10:30am). Sunday it goes from 10-11:30 am, before the store
opens.
Now when you first start, you are there from 9am to about 6 pm, Monday thru
Saturday, plus the Sunday training during the first week. They usually give you
the
Sales Force Manual Test either on Saturday or Sunday. Then, they usually give
you
that Sunday off, and give you your schedule.
Your schedule will consist of both opening and closing shifts (usually,
depending on
what they need at the time). When you open, you usually arrive @ 9am, and there
is
sometimes one day per week where you arrive @ 8 am to do merchandising. On the
days you arrive @ 9, you leave @ 6pm, 5pm on the days you arrive @ 8am. When you
close, you arrive @ 2pm and the time you leave is really up in the air,
depending on
what needs to be done as far as merchandising and who the night manager is
(whether or not he wants to get out of there or not). Average time to leave at
night is
around 11 or 11:30 (at least at the Westheimer Houston ,tx. store...not all the
stores
are like this....some stores you'll get out as early as 10, some stores, 9:30.
It just
depends on the store's traffic @ closing time and what needs to be done after
they
close).
Every day, you will attend a pre-shift meeting with your opening or closing
crew. The
manager on duty will cover the sales goal for the day, what the crew needs to do
to
attain the goal (usually, he or she will provide each crew member with a call
sheet
that the employee fills out after they call 20 customers to try to get them to
come in
the store. The employee will provide the manager with 20 customer names, their
phone numbers, and notes from the calls, and then turn in the sheet at the end
of
their shift). The manager also covers the daily sale or promo, and any other
vital info.
These meetings take about 15-30 minutes per shift.
So, the majority of your shift is spent selling or preparing to sell. If you'r
not dealing
with a customer on the phone or in the store, you are merchandising or cleaning
your
department. There's always something to do. I would say out a 9 hour day, most
of
your time is spent either on the phone doing deals or selling in the store. The
closers
spend about 2-3 hrs closing/merchandising and the openers do their merchandising
in the morning, spending about the same amt of time on that task.
From time to time, you will be required to do product training, which is usually
provided through a specific vendor. Sometimes, the training will be outside the
store,
but usually it is done @ G.C.. I did Monster Cable training @ a Hilton Hotel
down the
street and it was really cool. The rep usually gives you all kind of free stuff,
and lots
of times they have contests and if you win, you can receive some really
expensive
gear for free. You get paid for the training (hourly, thru G.C.) and it is
required if your
manager says you must go. Usually, these training session last from an hour to 2
hrs.
They're really a lot of fun and I think anyone would get so much of out of
going. I
would say it helps your selling immensely.
You are required to work certain holidays. You'll work 4th of July and Memorial
Day.
You get Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Day off. Around December
you will start working 6 days/week. The work day gets longer and harder due to
the
volume of customers coming in the store. The 9 hr day turns in to a 10-12 hr
day,
and Saturdays are even longer.
A normal workday usually lasts 9-10 hrs (Monday-Fri) and Saturdays begin @ 8:30
am w/ department meetings, (am w/ staff meetings, and then the regual work day,
which usually lasts 12 hrs. So a Saturday shift is about a 14 hr day. This is
weekly.
From time to time, you will be required to do "Merch Parties". A merch party is
where
the whole staff comes in the merchandise the store for a big sale or to prepare
for
someone in upper management to "walk the store". They usually happen on a
Sunday,
and the usually start around 8pm. They're pretty much over when they're over.
The
latest we ever got out was one morning @ 4am. One night, a small crew in hi-tech
was there until 6am. Sometime, you'll stay there that late even if you've
already
worked a full day, and then if you're scheduled to come in that morning, you're
still
responsible for it. It's a butt-kicker. Luckily, they don't happen all the time.
But they
usually last about 6-8 hrs, and you are paid for them. The managers usually
provide
you with food and drinks in case you get hungry (pizza, fried chicken,
sandwiches,
cokes, water, etc).
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Job Requirements
No sales experience is required to obtain the job, but it helps a lot of you've
had it.
Really, they look for outgoing, tenacaious, hardworking people with a whole lot
of
creativity. They also want someone who is highly competitive and is comfortable
working hard to acheive daily sales goals and to push themselves to accomplish
top
sales in the store or even in the region/district. They've hired a lot of
waiters and
bartenders because those people typically know how to work under pressure and
how
to deal with a lot of tasks at once. I've also seen them hire a lot of
marketing/
advertising majors. In my opinion, if you're the kind of person who is willing
to
devote a lot of your time and energy to this company, you will be successful.
It's not a
job for slackers or even someone who just wants a job to pay the bills. It's a
very
goal-oriented job that takes up a lot of time and energy, so a possible
applicant
should be aware of this.
Sometimes G.C. does a group interview, where a sales manager talks to a crowd of
applicants about the job and then pulls them in one by one to interview them
personally. After the sales manager screens out the people he does not want, he
schedules a second round of interviews with the people he has chosen with the
store
manager, and then that store manager decides if the applicants should be hired.
There's really no academic nature of the job, just the training I described
above. I
would say every aspect of the training is very in-depth and valuable, and
actually, a
lot of it is done on the employee's on time. There are different levels of
certification
for each department, and each employee completes these certifications pretty
much
on their own discretion, but their district department manager will let them
know
when the process begins, and will give them an overview of the info. they need
to
know to complete that level of certification. There are separate study guides
for each
level of certification, and some of the information in these guides can be
completed
at the store,and some of it is done at home. Here is a basic account of what
each
level entails:
"D" Level: Basic certification. You'll learn some of your big profit centers in
your
department and how to sell out of those profit centers. For example, a set of
Takamine strings sells for $5.99, and the gross profit is almost $4.00. They are
a
phosphor bronze set of strings and they come in extra light, medium, light, and
12
string.
"C" Level: Intermediate certification. Here, you'll learn detailed information
about what
you are selling (extended product knowledge). For example, the history of Fender
Guitars....what year the company started, where it started, the first guitar
the
company put out, what it was called, how it was made, and what it sold for.
You'll
also be required to provide more extensive information regarding your profit
centers.
"B" Level: Advanced certification. Basically, an extension of the "C" level
certification
going into more depth about how certain instruments are made. For example, the
kind of woods used in different acoustic guitars , how the guitar is made, the
different kinds of sounds they produce, information on the vendor, contacts @
the
vendor, pricing, etc.
"A" Level: Expert level certification. A lot of Sales Managers have this. It's
the most
advanced kind of sales and product training you can have. I never got to "A"
level
certification, but I do know it is extremely difficult. At this point, you can
also receive
certain prizes and awards through G.C. contests that another employee without
this
level of certification could not.
Most of the info that you need to complete you certification packets is
available at
G.C.. You can also find info on the internet or by calling a vendor. I would say
completing the certification is really easy. When you're done, you turn it in to
your
district department manager and he grades it and then sends it in to the
corporate
office. The employee later receives a plaque and a pen for "C" level, a plaque&
palm
pilot for "B" and a plaque & jacket for "A".
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Uppers
The biggest benefits of working at Guitar Center would surely be the sales
training and the product training. Anyone who is either interested in acquiring
great sales experience or just furthering their knowledge on gear would surely
benefit from working there.
Another perk is the discounts you get on the gear they sell (employees can
purchase most of the gear there @cost minus packing charges).
Guitar Center also offers wonderful healthcare benfits....full medical, dental,
and visual coverage provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield (PPO, not HMO).
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Downers
The worst part about the job is that not all the stores are on the same
commission
system, which means some employees are compensated differently for doing the
same job. Some stores are on a team pay program and others are paid by what they
sell as 10% of gross profit and 2 or 3 % of gross sales. On team pay, if an
employee
sells a piece of gear, the percentage of what they make on that piece of gear is
split
up amongst the whole department. On the other system the employee is given the
full percentgae of what he or she sells and is paid according to only what he or
she
sells. Last time I checked, the fact that all employees of G.C. are paid from a
corporate office (the separate stores are not franchised) entitles them all to
be paid
on the same system, whether each store performs differently or not. I.E., what
they're
doing could possibly be illegal.
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Lifestyle
The hours are definitely a downer. You will spend most of your time at work. No
lie. It's really interesting that this store employs a lot of musicians and then
you end up working through all your weekends and are too tired to play by the
time you get out. It's an energy consuming job, lots of lifting, running around,
stressing due to multiple factors, and just standing all day. You will be so sore
and tired by the end of the week that you'll just sleep a lot on your days off.
There was a period of time where I worked mostly night shifts and I had no life
whatsoever. I never got out of there until after 11pm, sometimes later, and by
the time I did get out all I wanted to do was go to bed.
As far as business travel, some employees went to store grand openings. The
plane tickets, food, and lodging is covered, as well as a rental car. They said
that they had a lot of fun and learned lot about what it takes to get a new
store going, from selling to merchandising. There were also cash spiffs invloved
for working the grand opening, something to the tune of about 2-300 dollars for
about 4-5 days per employee.
Every year, each individual G.C> has a Christmas party, usually at a nearby bar.
Some of the stores attempt to combine their parties. Last year we went to a
Karaoke Club. It was a lot of fun, an most everybody that worked at our store
went. We got a few free drinks food was provided. Other than that, there's a lot
of business events that managers do, like manager meetings. I know that there's
one in L.A. every year, but there's others as well. They basically just drink and
play golf (big shocker!).
Our dress code is business casual. Guys wear collared shirts and dress pants (no
jeans). They must be clean shaven at all times and long hair must be pulled back.
Girls must wear nice blouses and dress pants. Employees must wear a name tag at
all times.
Honestly, this job is better for young people with a lot of energy looking to
develop a career for themselves. It's not great for people who have other major
commitments in their lives, such as a band that gigs full time or a wife/husband
and kids, or even someone who is going to school pretty much full time. Just know
you are going to have to devote anywhere from 50 to 70 hours a week to this job,
so be prepared for that. This is not a laid back music store. It is Corporate
America at its best, so know that too. You'll be playing the same game you would
be at any big, publicly traded company. There's a lot of politics at some stores
and promotions are not always based upon quantiy or quality of work, but on how
much you agree with a store manager's policies or beliefs and what you do to help
him or her put those beliefs in practice. The money can be good if you work at a
store that does a high volume of sales and that is on the individual commission
system (NOT team pay). For example, the Hollywood store, the Manhattan store, and
the Atlanta store would all be great places to work (plus you get to meet a lot
of famous people). All of the new stores will pay their sales associates $5.15/hr
and team pay, so there's really not a lot of incentive to go to work at one of
the newer stores, unless of course you're a kid still living at home with mom and
dad or are just independently welathy and are bored looking for something to do!!!
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Compensation
Like I said, all the stores are different regarding pay. Some stores are on team
pay
plus hourly and some are on individual commission plus hourly. The hourly rate
varies from store to store.....we were paid $6/hr and team pay and the new
stores are
$5.15/hr and team pay. Then some stores are paid on the individual commission
system and an hourly rate.
There are sometimes contests where you can sell a certain amount of a product
and
win a prize. These contests are outlined in our monthly survival guide, which
all
employees are to read. It provides not only information about the monthly
contests
for your department, but about contests for the chain and the region. It also
gives
you information on merchandising for the month and people who have completed
certain levels of certification.
There are also cash spiffs that the sales managers and store managers offer to
sales
associates from time to time for reaching a specific performance level. For
example,
if you sell a certain amount (in dollars) of in-store warranties for a product,
you get a
bonus check at the end of the month for $200. There are also cash spiffs for
hitting a
daily goal. For example (and this is just a hypothetical situation), if someone
was to
hit $1000 in gross profit and sold $200 worth of in-store warranties, then a
specific
cash spiff would go out to that person. It's up to the store manager or sales
manager
to determine the spiff if there is to be one.
All assistant managers are paid $10/hr plus commission. Department
managers.....$8/hr plus commission. Sales managers and store managers are on
salary, but their pay varies from store to store. Our store manager makes around
$80,000/yr.
We do have stock options and can invest to earn money right away and long term.
They offer a really diverse portfolio. There is 401K available as well.
Again ,there are full medical, dental, and visual benefits available to
employees
through Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO. Doctor visits for me were only $20.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Again, make sure you have a lot of time and energy to devote to this job. 50 to
70
hour work weeks are the average and the pay isn't worth it in my opinion. I've
been
offered jobs in the last week that START OUT paying $50,000/yr. If anything, use
it
for the sales experience and then get out as soon as possible. Try to at least
last a
year. It's not common for people to last more than 3 months there. The turnover
rate
is 90% because most people do not understand the workload they will be
undertaking, and they think they can do the job and still play in their band.
WRONG!!
So if you last a year, you'll at least be able to show another company that you
tried to
work within G.C.'s policies and demanding schedule. That makes YOU look nothing
but good. A lot of companies know about Guitar Center and how they push their
salespeople, how hard it is to work there, and its "turn and burn" attitude
toward its
employees. I've been offered nothing but the best opportunities for jobs in the
last
week, and all because I've toughed the place out for the last year and a half to
get
their name on my resume'. If you want a cool job in a music store, go work at a
mom
and pop place, not G.C.. This job would be too much for you. But if you want to
develop your career and get a great name on your resume' and also get some great
sales training (although you won't get paid too much for it), then use this job
for what
it's worth for the time it's worth then get out and get a job that actually lets
you have
a life and an income!!!! It's a great training field for bigger and better jobs,
and a cool
place to work for discounts on gear (if you are a musician). Oh, and it has
fabulous
heathcare benefits and a good stock portfolio. Other than that, it's pretty much
a pain
in the ass job that isn't worth the pain for the pay.
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