# Outside Sales - base salary and commissions



## ribbityribbitz (Mar 10, 2010)

We're a growing embroidery and print shop and I'm weighing the hire of an outside sales helper. I tried this once before, about a year ago - and then I commission only (10% on all new jobs and 2% on repeat orders). I was not able to offer a base salary, although I was able to give gas cards from time to time to help cover that expense. That being said, I got a few new accounts, but it wasn't long until my rep had to seek more dependable sources of income (very understandable!).

Now, my pockets are a little deeper, and Im interested to learn what really works as far as hiring and retaining a sales rep. Base salary? How much? How many hours per week do most work? What kind of commission scale works best? What about on repeat orders?

Thanks for any feedback (good or bad, successes or failures) that can be given.


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

So this might start a bit of an argument here, but I'll start by saying that I'm a salesman first and a printer second. 

If you want to attract top talent you must expect to pay for it. And, if you want to hire not-so-top-talent you should... WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU HIRE ANYTHING BUT TOP TALENT!?!?

Your sales rep should be the highest paid person in your organization. They are the most valuable person you have - *they have the skills to pay your bills and they know it*. If the sales rep isn't top talent, then get rid of them and find the top talent that will make you money. 

And if they are that good you should know that they will jump ship to someone that will pay more than you will.

The compensation you have in your post is terrible. Your base salary should be just enough to provide a substandard level of living but the commissions should be top notch. Try 1/3 of the gross profit on every account they open on everything they print. Don't skimp on commissions on repeat orders! Why?!?! Pay them the same commission on every order that the account they opened places. They're not an order taker. Don't think that they shouldn't get paid commission on something because it's a repeat order. 

Their job is to open accounts and keep those accounts happy and ordering. To build that customer relationship and educate the customer on what they can purchase from you. This is what they do. As for taking orders? If your accounts start placing lots of them without the rep hire a $10/hour clerk to fill out the order form. 

Evaluate everything that your sales rep does on a daily basis and remove anything that isn't directly related to selling. 

Give them a marketing and entertainment budget. If they don't use it, find out why. They should be spending every cent you give them in order to increase your sales. 

If you cannot afford to do that then you need to be out selling yourself until you are able to. 

Why? Because if you cannot hire the best than you're going to have to train the best yourself and if you cannot sell how are you going to teach them?

It's the best or train them from the ground up. One or the other. There is no in-between.

So where to find someone to hire? Who sells to you? Ask the best sales rep's you know if they know anyone. Ask them what they will bring to the table. Ask them how they are going to sell for you. Audition them. Shadow them on a call before you hire them and make sure they are the real deal.

Where should you find someone to train as a new rep? Poach them. Talk to bankers, waiters, car salesmen and find the ones that give the best service, that have the most drive and start teaching them. Buy them sales training materials, send them to sales training seminars and then, if they work out pay them as much as you can so that they do not go elsewhere after you put all that work into training them.

Great sales people are motivated by money. Plain and simple, money.


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## kal6150 (Jan 22, 2011)

We agree on maNY points. I will share our way of doing it.

I have 3 reps. Commercial, Retail and School. Retail is anyone who resells to the public. Commercial are your roofers, builders, etc. Yes they do overlap but it usually sorts itself out. School is self explanatory.

I pay a flat rate of $18k per year. Paychecks come once a month on the 1st. Everybody starts on the 1st of the month, makes "management at a glance" very easy. Everybody is on the same 30 day cycle. I give all my reps 60 days probation. If they can't sell enough to make their pay after 2 months, adios. 

Commissions are 30% of NET Profit. I feel that increases our upsales. 

Nobody gets a marketing or entertainment budget. I don't wine and dine prospective customers, only established ones. And I'm the one doing the wining and dining. My name is on the front door and my customers know that I'm just a phone call away if they are dissatisfied woth any part of our service.

Since I have 3 reps I have sales contests every month, and I change them on a whim. We all know sales go in cycles. School gets hot and Commercial sinks, it happens. I try to keep track of who wins what. It's sort of rigging things, but it keeps everybody happy and motivated.

There's my system in a nutshell. Good Luck.



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## sttbtch (Oct 5, 2010)

I am small. 2 person shop one outside sales. he works more like a contractor then a sales person. he know the cost of the apparel and what we would charge to do the work. then he pads it for his commission. I cut him a check for his portion only after the customer pays.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Base salary commensurate to market. 30% net profit commission. Cell phone cost covered, gas compensations if necessary. Don't let them do any paperwork filing if they meet their weekly nut.

10% for sales is attracting bad sales people. 30% is what it takes to get a hawk.

My best sales guy walked even though he was netting $10k a month. A huge national ad company stole him. He earns $400k a year now. I got him for a steal.

And 2% for repeat sales is criminal in my market. Don't pay yourself for 6 months and try out different sales people for 2-3 week trials until you find one who calls every school, every landscaper, every car wash, ever charity walk, ever food truck, every retail boutique on full time repeat.

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## ribbityribbitz (Mar 10, 2010)

thank you for the feedback. This is most helpful. I asked for help because I clearly know that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying to learn and make my money work better for me, and find a system that will make an employee happy and retain them. I know my old system didn't work - but I had to start somewhere (we were all beginners at some point - remember?).


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