Pros
ADP Small Business Sales (SBS) is a great start for someone RIGHT out of college. They teach you the the sales process and how to structure a work schedule. The training is some of the best among fortune 500 companies, and is also very well recognized by other organizations. If you have a goal of getting into the Device or Pharma industry than this is a great starting point. The fellow reps you work with are usually good people so that is a plus!
Kontras
ADP has a burn and churn business model which they follow to a T, do not let anyone tell you other wise because that would be a lie. Like any other sales position the territories are all not equal nor should they be, but ADP insists that everyone has the same opportunity thus each quota is identical. Much of your success or failure can depend on the rep or reps (some areas can have 3-5 reps cover the area in one given year) that have previously been in the territory and the relationships they have damaged (ask any former ADPer they can all elaborate on that). ADP in the Philadelphia area has a partnership with Sovereign bank that is supposed to be one of your main partnerships in regards to referrals. That being said Sovereign is extremely poorly run from top to bottom and offers little to no value to any rep even with ADP leadership pushing the partnership down your throat as a viable referral channel. The biggest issue I personally had with ADP was the structure of the CPA Centrics and how some Centrics could control nearly EVERY CPA in your territory leaving you with CPA’s who either had no business clients or did not work with ADP or ever wanted to work with ADP (usually because they got burnt from a former rep). If someone discovered a CPA who became a good referral source the CPA Centrics waited for that rep to leave and just added those CPA’s to their book of business. The average tenure for a SBS rep tends to be anywhere from 6-10 months, most of the Centrics have been there for 4 plus years which speaks for itself. Understanding the value of a CPA to this business will help you realize how hand strung you are when you don’t have any CPA’s who refer or let along want you to step foot in their office. The close rate from a CPA referral is nearly 90% vs a 15% close rate from a prospect you found through cold calling/foot prospecting.
