There’s a great buzz going around about Smart Circle. Most of the feedback they receive are negative. However, negative feedback doesn’t always mean that a business opportunity is a scam.
If you are considering being part of Smart Circle and you want to make sure that you are making the right decision, reading this review will help you make a wise choice.
This will tell you a brief background on the company, some pointers you could take into consideration to make a self-conclusion of whether it is a scam or not and some reviews of people who have experienced being in the company.
Table of Contents
What Is Smart Circle?
First off, what is Smart Circle anyway? It is a company that claims to have an extensive reach in direct sales and face-to-face marketing. It is driven by an independent sales network and made up of well-experienced professionals in corporate marketing, logistics, compliance and finance.
Smart Circle takes pride in its unbeatable sales network. Its goal is to have full scalability by a wide range of distribution channels.
The sales concept that they follow is the pay-per-performance model.
They also claim to have an advanced face-to-face approach in marketing, lead generation and subcontracted solutions.
They offer products and services in areas such as health, wellness, beauty, home improvement, automotive care, food, sports, entertainment and telecommunications.
All of this information is a summary of what appears on their website. It serves a very impressive portrayal of the business that would entice many to take a deeper look at what it can offer them.
Words of Caution
However, one thing to consider is that the job market had taken a big hit with some recession. A tough time in employment plus naivety and desperation to land a job make many job seekers a target of unscrupulous employers.
These types of employers are just actually looking to fill commission-based sales jobs. Usually they don’t even offer a marketable product and only capitalize on the use of high pressure sales tactics to seal deals.
Other stealthy companies have another way of recruiting. They will move you to employ others that would do the same job you signed up for. This would be in exchange for a percentage of the sales from those working under you.
This is a borderline illegal pyramid scheme. A more pleasant term for this type of business model is the MLM or multi-level marketing program.
Granted, not all MLMs are illegal or scams. There are legitimate ones that really make you earn some profit. However, if you are not careful, you might end up with the bogus ones.
The good thing is, we compiled some pointers for you to consider giving you an idea what Smart Circle leans toward.
They Do the Initial Contact
Do you ever imagine someone very prestigious asking a destitute for a dinner date? Well, in reality shows that might happen. However, in real life the chance is rather zero. If your resume is bare-bones and a company contacted you first, that puts the red light blinking.
Largely, the economy is an employer’s market. So if your resume is not that impressive and you are contacted by a seemingly impressive company, you start being suspicious.
A High-ranking Executive Is the One Who Contacts You
That works if you have a very exceptional resume and a highly-demanded experience and skills. However, what is the human resource department for?
The highest ranking executive that could reasonably contact you is a department manager or an HR head. Being contacted by a company’s president or VP is extremely rare, especially if you are an entry-level employee.
The Job Offer Is a Management and Marketing Position
Start thinking, those positions come with great responsibilities and are normally given to those who have reasonable experience in the field.
Entry-level management ranks do not exist. It is highly contradictory. Logically, experience is must that would make a position non-entry level.
Not even a college degree in management would make you bypass an entry-level position. The only exceptions are internship programs by large companies that offer little to no pay. Even with these, you have to work under managers to gain the experience needed.
So if they offer you a fancy high-ranking position and you don’t have the experience for that, rethink stepping forward.
They Offer a Wide Variety of Open Positions
Unless there is a mass resignation or a colossal company growth, these opportunities do not exist.
If a company offers a wide range of positions available, that is a definite red flag. Normally, recruitment happens when there is a vacancy and position opens up when an individual is either discharged or promoted.
If a vacancy occurs for a salesperson, supervisor, manager and executive all at the same time from the same company, rethink your move.
In many instances, a shady company renames the same job over different titles in order to attract job seekers who resort to keyword searching.
The Promotion Is Extremely Quick
Technically, the promotion is fast because you go higher up the ladder when you are able to find someone to join the company and work under you.
If they assure you that you would be a manager or director in no time, this would imply that you would be able to run something within a short span of time.
It would mean that you would be handling recruits and earn from them. These kinds of schemes crumble when they run out of gullible people to recruit. Thus, lowest level managers would be left with no income.
No Substantial Information Can Be Found About Them
This is probably because they go by different names.
Google is able to reveal comments from past victims and so they change their names constantly. Even a relatively new company that hasn’t done any substantial business yet should have at least a few Google listings from business directories.
The simple act of registering a business would make people add that company to business directory sites and that gives you the few listings.
A constant name change could mean past troubles with the law, customers or employees. Always check the company out with Google or even on BBB.
Gives Vague Information About What It Actually Does
Mostly, they would say that they specialize in a unique customer experience that ensures maximum efficiency in all channels. Their variety of products allows them to serve a wide variety of customers.
What does that actually mean? They really say nothing meaningful and they hope that you get on in their bait.
An Interview Is More of a Sales Pitch
Normally interviews focus on job related questions with the aim if measuring knowledge, skills and abilities. Most of the time, they should spend time getting to know you in order for them to reach an evaluation.
Shady companies focus more on selling you on working for their company. This is mostly because you are compensated only through commissions.
Feedback
Deceptive Promotion
A promotion as an Account Manager doesn’t really mean anything. You may receive a little more pay for selling a package for DirecTV, however if you don’t, your earning will just be as much as the newly hired employee. New employees get easy promotion so they can give you the capital to stay. But that’s just that.
Deficient Management
After a few months a new company takes over. You will only get to realize that when someone new shows up without any idea why they are there and where they came from.
Also, even if you’re sick, you have to show up at work and be ready to pitch people. There will be no health benefits, no sick pay.
Secret Watchers
You will constantly feel watched over. This is more dreadful than the feeling of being micromanaged. Someone will watch over you, taking note of your moves. They will know if you are planning on regrouping for a pitch. These watchers will look at areas that could get you kicked out of the job.
Expensive Road Trips
They dub them as fun road trips. But you will realize there will be no fun sitting in traffic for a job that doesn’t even refund for the gas. More than that, they pay isn’t sufficient for all the toil you put on the road.
8 AM Meetings
You have to be there or there won’t be any promotion for you. You will also feel guilty of not being a team player. These meetings are where people show how they sell DirecTV, their way, not yours. Then employees stand again to acknowledge who sold the most. It only leaves with additional exhaustion for the day.
These are just some of the negative feedback from people who experienced Smart Circle. However, if you are a sales person by heart, this could work for you. If not, you better not waste your time and consider other options.
Conclusion
The company has a systematized program for overall efficiency. However, that doesn’t seem to reflect the reality.
Many react to the high working hours that don’t get compensated enough aside from the deceptive promotion and unreasonable rules.
Smart Circle is not a scam. However, the negative reality while working on it might make it seem like a scam for many.
If you a person who is looking for some genuine money making opportunity, then you should take a look at affiliate marketing, instead of working for companies like Smart Circle.
With affiliate marketing you can make money by recommending good products and services to other people. You can make money without having your own products to sell. Instead of being dependent on some other companies, you can become your own boss.
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