Complaint Review: WDM Group - Toronto Ontario

I have read so many of these reports on this company and wanted to express my experience working with them. I think the company as a whole for what it provides isnt a bad thing, digital magazines are continuing to grow in popularity and they are a nice compliment to the printed versions.  What WDM Group does so poorly is the overall mind set in how they handle their business.  

It starts with the training.

When I first started there, I was excited and it seemed intresting.  There were 10 of us in our group, all 10 are no longer there.  My excitement lasted a few hours, then you start piecing together what it really is.  The training at the Toronto office was weak, it was rushed.  Each new Research Director as we were called were given a sector either in Manufacturig, Food and Drink, Construction...etc.  Each digital magazine has their own specific magazine and overall all features went into Business Review Canada, their flagship publication.  Normally it would take someone time to learn about the sector, about the industry, but not at WDM Group.  They give you 2 days of training where you are made to read off an old out dated script and start calling Associations in your sector and then companies.  The scripts are long, boring, and dated.  It felt like you were a tele marketer.  As a research director they are paid 32,000 a year and they expected you to stay late one day a week and work on weekends so you would have fresh dials to call on Monday.  Really, for $32k a year, no thanks.  

The Management

Just as awful as the overall business model.  I'm not knocking anyone and I don't want to sound rude but I am an educated University graduate, and dealing with the girl who was running the training program was like listening to a child speak.  She seemed confused and mis prounced words.  Its like they didnt have anyone else to do this training and just asked her.  I would guess that this is a reason why the turn over is so high, lack of leaders, lack of training.  But I realized after that the business model itself is old and stale, WDM has been doing this for 4 years now yet the same expectations and KPI's are still forced like it was a new business.  But thats what they do, they just recycle old research directos with new ones, and repeat the same old process.  Nothing ever changes.  I honestly haven't worked for a compay where they micro manage their employees like WDM Group.  You were told 4 times a day, not once a month, or bi weekly.  4 times a day about how your call stats were low and you had to pick it up.  They don't seem to understand that the industry isnt what it was and theres not that many companies you can call.  It was so laughable if it wasnt so sad.  When i expressed my logical views on this I was told to keep reserching so all my dials were fresh?......noone thinks logically with WDM, they just follow the procedures that they are used to.

As far as the digital magazines themselves.  They are horribly designed.  The process in which the sell is over bearing, they like to stretch the truth saying certain things to get that advertiser to make a decision.  I dont know if the other offices were like this but the sales staff in Toronto were.  They would use skull duggery tactics that were the norm there.  In fact that word is perfect to describe them as a defiinition:

skullduggery - "Crafty deception or trickery or an instance of it."......"dishonorable proceedings; mean dishonesty or trickery."........"an instance of dishonest or deceitful behavior"

That pretty much sums hem in my opinion.