Do your homework before you apply for a position with Wolters Kluwer. WK is a large, multi-national corporation with multiple divisions (in Health, Tax and Accounting, Legal, etc.). If you find an opening on Glassdoor or any other job posting website be sure to research the division and the location. If the job is with the TAA division of North America proceed with caution. With that being said, one possible reason you are researching WK is to get out of bad situation with your current employer. We've all been there. If you can hold out until something else comes along you will be much better off and I'll explain why.
My experience was with the Tax and Accounting division. We are an outside team that sells the software CPA firms use to do tax returns and audit work.
Here's some things to consider before joining the WK Tax and Accounting division:
*All sales goals are the same across the country. Territories aren't equal, but goals are the same. If you do not live in a MAJOR metropolitan area you will not be successful due to the number of clients you have. During the interview process ask how many reps made their goal over the past few years and watch them struggle to come up with an answer. Less than 25% of reps make their yearly number.
*95% of sales come from current clients. Once a CPA firm locks into a suite of software they will not change if it's working. The competition has cleaned up since 2008 with firms wanting a less expensive alternative. WK software is the industry leader, but if a firm can get near the same results at a fraction of the price they will never change. WK cannot and will not address this. They just keep raising their renewal prices every year to make up for the lost clients and that continues the ongoing trend of clients leaving for a less expensive software provider.
*Every month you will have a sales goal that is impossible to make. Make it one month and you're a good rep. Miss it the next and you're a bad rep.
*Management: As a rep you will go through 3 months of sales training. The current management in place has never gone through one day of management training and have no idea how to treat or motivate reps. They rule through fear and intimidation. Everyone gets put a plan at one point or another UNLESS you cover one of the major cities.
*Turnover at WK is out of control. It's bad enough to not be making the income that was promised, but the stress created by management makes the job completely unbearable. Most reps are covering more than one territory because of the amount of turnover. They can't hire and train reps fast enough. Reps live in a constant state of fear. They are going to ask you what you have coming in at the beginning of the month and if you don't deliver that number at the end of the month you're going to get a long lecture that you didn't deliver what you promised the organization. They seem to like to hire reps from payroll companies because most of upper management is from ADP. These new reps walk into an open territory full of non customers and are told to go out and convert them. Chances are they left WK because of price and will never come back. After one year reps discover that it's all about selling to current clients and if you live in a big city with 200 or 300 current clients you'll do okay. Anything less than 150 and you're going to struggle. That's when reps start to leave. It's good to ask how many CURRENT clients are in the territory.
