I am surprised no one has chimed in yet about this. There are a few variables to consider. Since you have been a member of this forum for awhile, you obviously know the business, so I'll skip the generalities and address your specific concerns.
First of all, you can make $1500 a week or more, if you bust your ass and work hard, and don't make excuses or listen to haters. Most likely it will be closer to $1000/week unless you already have experience, which it sounds like you might.
Now to address your million dollar question. Cable or Telecom? They can both be great depending on the market, or vice versa. First I would talk with the reps, not the managers, and listen to their input. Find out who the top guys are, because they are the ones that are actually working.
You might also want to ride out with one of those top reps and shadow them before you commit, if the company will let you.
On a more technical side you are going to want to consider the nature of the turf, and the particular market sentiment when deciding between Cable and Telco. What kind of marketing and advertising campaigns are being played, does one of the companies have a bad reputation, has their CEO been caught stealing recently, etc.... that might affect your reception at the door.
As far as turf is concerned, with Fios, an area needs to be "lit" or "green" to sell, its not like cable, where everybody is a potential sub. So if the company(contractor) is not getting any new areas to work and mix in with their current turf, they might be knocking the same turf that they have been working for the past 3 years. That will affect the ease of the sale. On the other hand it is a newer product, and can be argued to have some benefits over coax, and people are always looking to upgrade their technology
Cable is usually going to be the incumbent, and cable still has at least one of their products in homes already(TV or Internet), so you also have to consider what are going to be the bulk of your sales, triple play winbacks or upgrades? And you should also find out about Alchemy, and if that region still has that. I believe that Alchemy is one of the highest paying sales you can make in this business. Find out what your payout is(from the contractor) and what the tops reps are averaging. 4 or 5 of those a week, is a nice supplement to your regular one or two product sales/upgrades.
I am not biased one way or the other. It depends on the market. As far as picking a contractor to work for, this is a great forum for finding out information and doing some research.
Good Luck.
This is CABL.com posting #294016. Tiny Link: cabl.co/mboEm
