Unleashed

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Amerinote Xchange. We’re a loan acquisition firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Unleashed?

We hired them to help us bring in new salespeople to expand our business and free up my time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Unleashed to provide leadership training, a framework for scaling our company, and candidates for us to interview and onboard to our sales team. Their training consisted of a ton of homework for us, including documents to study and tests to take, which unlocked a new set of documents and more tests. 

Their recruitment process was mostly unclear to us. We submitted information and completed multiple courses to paint a picture of our business, background, and goals. We’re in a specialized industry, so we gave them specific qualifications to look for in candidates. We assumed they would use this information to find qualified candidates. Unleashed identified two candidates, and neither had any financial experience. 

What is the team dynamic?

Richard (Co-Founder & CEO) is the face of the company. Broc (Co-Founder & President) co-signed our agreement. Megan (Acceleration Leader) recruited the candidates. Hope (Integrator Support Specialist) managed our account. Ronnie (Former Senior Advisor) was the salesperson who sold us their service package.

How did you come to work with Unleashed?

I found them through a YouTube ad.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them $19,600 in two installments of $9,800 each. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract began in October 2021, and we fired them in December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

The overall experience was fairly negative, and there were red flags throughout. We didn’t have much visibility into Unleashed’s product until after our first of two payments to them; that’s when alarm bells started going off. Their service was very elementary and not tailored to our business at all. Their leadership training did not include actionable intelligence to help scale my business; instead, they told me to change my mindset. I could’ve easily found their advice in a self-help book. 

The project really went downhill when my partner and I started interviewing some of the candidates Unleashed brought to us. We were shocked at the atrocious quality of their candidates. We’re experienced business professionals, and both candidates were the opposite of what we would’ve chosen. One had been self-employed for many years, which is the last type of candidate we’d want to hire. The other candidate had sales experience, but onboarding him would have taken months since he had no financial background. This would not have allowed us to scale as quickly as Unleashed projected in their initial pitch. In their defense, it’s possible there was a shortage of talent. 

In the end, we moved forward with our own contractor in the position instead of either of the candidates recruited by Unleashed.

About a year after the engagement, Unleashed sent a collection agency requesting our second payment and threatening to sue us, even though we felt they’d breached the contract. We considered legal action against them but decided against it because it would have cost us more money and stress overall.

When we tried to leave a review to telegraph their behavior to the world, we found that there were limited options to do so. Other former clients of theirs had actually created a blog to air their grievances because that was their only recourse. 

How was project management handled?

Unleashed communicated very infrequently, and when they did, it was through a third-party app, Voxed, which was not effective for the project and no longer contains any record of our messages. Megan was the only one who emailed us, and we also met with her on a video call. Unleashed didn’t respond when we brought up our dissatisfaction with them. 

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Megan did her job well — our experience with her was positive until we reviewed the candidates she recruited, their salesperson sold the product well, and their marketing team did their job well.

There was some information about how to structure my time in their materials, but it was not actionable or related to our business.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

If you’re thinking about hiring a consultant, set expectations for communication methods and frequency. I’d also speak with actual clients the consultant’s worked with. If you can’t find any reviews of a company, that is a massive red flag. Finally, read the agreement before signing it and ensure there is a clause that holds both parties accountable for their obligations. I wish I had studied the agreement closer and ensured there was some recourse when deliverables weren’t met.