On Tuesday, Oct. 16, sales representatives from Vector Marketing came to campus to discuss their business and techniques in the Business Public Management building. Hosted by the American Marketing Association, Austin Craig, a division manager for Vector of the Montgomery County branch and Ryan Supplee, a district manager at the Bucks County office shared their success stories within Vector Marketing. Roughly 20 students came out to the presentation, all of which were business majors.
Craig described how he began working for Vector during his senior year of high school. He had only worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant previously, and found Vector through a friend at school. He described his experience as a “paradox of choice” and what it was like for himself as an 18-year-old to essentially be his own boss within the company and make his own hours. He made very, very little money at first, until he decided to put in a 100 hour work week during the summer after he graduated high school. In that week, he reportedly made $25,000 which he was able to put towards his education.
A previous student report detailed only making 5% commission in his sales during his experience working with Vector, which makes Ryan’s experience appear exaggerated based upon this student report.
Supplee described the satisfaction as being the same as his vacation to Jamaica, which his experience with Vector was able to fund. He later went on to coach future sales representatives through the Vector leadership program.
Supplee has been working for Vector Marketing for six years. He started out as a sales representative, and worked his way up to the district manager of Bucks county in 2014. He found Vector through a friend of his at his high school, who hired him after he interviewed for a job as a sales representative with the company. Supplee made $10,000 during a week in which he sold $30,000 worth of product. He also described his experience with the Vector leadership program where he was able to learn to be a manager for the company.
“Managers care about your personal lives,” he said later, describing that successful managers will ask questions about employees personal lives to build a good and forward-thinking working environment for the employees.
As a business owner, Supplee described managing a business as “the highest high-paying job, and the lowest low-paying job,” detailing that owning a business is about the work ethic the owner is able to put in. “The average millionaire,” he said, “puts in 67 hours of work a week. You can’t blame anyone for poor results except yourself.”
Through Vector, Supplee reports being able to give himself his own pay raises while making his own hours, all depending on the hours he puts in at his office in Bucks County making sales and managing his own employees.
Supplee emphasized that business owners need to be able to have fun at their jobs, to not stress over numbers, that people always come first and to work harder than anybody else. He emphasized that business leaders should always work towards a cause — not a paycheck.
In reference to previous student comments about Vector Marketing, students believed that they were expected to only work for a paycheck, and to do so by any means necessary. Supplee also explained that as an officer manager, he helps sales representatives make their schedules and appointments with customers, something else that student comments expressed they had not received help with during their work experience at Vector. Ryan and Craig described the vacations they were able to go on and televisions they were able to buy while working with Vector Marketing, reflecting student comments about managers describing the cars they were able to buy during training sessions.
Student comments have also expressed not having been provided adequate training, whereas Ryan and Austin described the positive, engaging experiences their training with Vector provided.
Supplee reported that 60 to 70 percent of those who work for Vector are students, and highly recommends the job to college students looking to make their own hours or pursue a business career.
Ryan Supplee and Austin Craig can both be found on LinkedIn with further detail of their experience working for Vector. For information of previous student comments about their experience for Vector, my article last week has quotes from two different students who worked for the company in 2016. Vector Marketing’s website can be found at https://www.vectormarketing.com/.
Sam Walsh is a third-year student majoring in English and special education minoring in Autism studies. SW850037@wcupa.edu