# what is a good commission to pay a local sales person marketing printing services?



## Guest

How much to pay someone to market your t-shirt sales. My nitch is schools


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## MentinkiZM

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

What type of marketing? What type of schools? College? Is this person just doing online marketing or are they going to the school? Are they getting you into school handouts? Tons of stuff to think about.


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## Guest

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

Well what he does is contact the The ISD and gets a list of everything possible as far as coaches and events that might be going on and then we show them what we can do witch is above what veryone else does and then if it is a 1000 shirt order are a 50 shirt order we have then done by the next day. We just need to let people know that we can get the job done before time and great work. we don't give anything away free to anyone. maybe the Head coach a polo are something are his shirt free.


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## MentinkiZM

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

That doesnt sound bad. I personaly have no idea how much that would cost.. What I would do, if he is willing, is do somthing comission based? That way if you get no sales, he get no money. But if it blows up, it will be well worth both your time.


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## Guest

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

That was my first question: Sorry that you mist what i ask.
Thanks


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## jkruse

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

A commission sounds like the way to go.


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## Guest

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

My Question was? How much to pay someone commission? say if they went out and got a job to do and it was only 100 shirts. or they went out and got 2000 shirts.


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## EnMartian

*Re: Marketing T-Shirts*

You could always set a sliding scale so the bigger orders bring a bigger commission.


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## ino

I would give a percentage as a commision. 10% on new orders and 5% on repeats that he could get in.


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## purple72

10% is pretty normal. But, as the size of the order goes up, the commision % should go down. Repeats should stay the same, because that will be his bread & butter. Also, make sure you decide whether it is 10% of gross or net. Usually, net. Remember this, the less you give him, the more inclined he will be to rep someone else. Then, he will push whoever will pay the most. Just my .02.


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## oldsaltsailor

Most of my life I worked strictly commission. Commissions should be based on your gross profit. I'm sure that if someone orders 100 shirts the gross profit will be less than a order for 50. So if your gross is high he/she should get a higher commission and visa versa. Start out at 15% with a sliding scale to 5%. Take in consideration also that you might have to pay employee taxes and for sure file a form 1099 for your sales people. Lots of things to consider and you want Happy Sales People.

Ron


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## THX1138

If this is a full time position, then something like 10% of gross up to a certain volume per month and 15% above that. If it is part time or your customers doing it, maybe 5-10% referral fee.


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## Guest

Well this is the way we have be doing it. not for sure if it's right or wrong but he said i have a order of 300 hoodies. He wanted to know what i had to get to do them and i said 25.00 each. so he sold them the job at 30.00 each and he made 5.00 x 300 so he came out good and so did i. on shirts we do it the same way. i don't do contract printing al all. I'll let the big shops do that because we don't have cheap help. Thanks


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## Guest

My shop don't do contract printing at all. what he does he will ask me my price like doing 300 hoodies and i said 25.00 each and he added 5.00 to each one and that is what he made. on t-shirts he may make 2.00 a shirt. not for sure if this is the way to do it but it keeps him on the move because he knows that he can make some great money if he lands the right one. we try and and stay 1000 shirt orders and down. that seems to be the 6.00 to 10.00 range


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## boneshaker

What would you guys expect from the sales rep? I'm in a situation where a guy had brought in a few jobs for me, but wants 10% commission now on the ones he brought in. Now, all he did was refer the companies to me. I handled the art approval, invoicing, production, and shipping.

How would you handle this situation?


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## binki

10% is not unreasonable.


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## samdkelley

binki said:


> 10% is not unreasonable.


does this count paying any expenses? Some of the people who have come to our store asking for something like this usually only get us a few sales before moving on. I just wonder if it would be worth hiring someone full time and making quotas for them to go by?


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## imhotep9

boneshaker said:


> What would you guys expect from the sales rep? I'm in a situation where a guy had brought in a few jobs for me, but wants 10% commission now on the ones he brought in. Now, all he did was refer the companies to me. I handled the art approval, invoicing, production, and shipping.
> 
> How would you handle this situation?


Has to be clear in the beginning. No way am i giving a percentage of my sale to the person who "referred" the client. U did all the work.


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## ActiveState

binki said:


> 10% is not unreasonable.


Quick clarification on this. Is this 10% with an hourly rate? Or merely 10% on gross profits. So let's say: 

New sales/customers = 10% Repeat sales/customers = 5% of the profits. So if we make a sale for $1000 to a new customer and the profit is $400. You would make: $40. If it’s a repeat customer you make: $20.​
Is that fair? Is that low? is that High? I'm new at this and have 2 potential sales reps that will help me get into retailers. 

They also may begin helping run tradeshows, track sales, etc. For that stuff I will go to hourly pay, but for retailer stores, I didn't think we need to pay hourly.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Lorne


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## headfirst

imhotep9 said:


> Has to be clear in the beginning. No way am i giving a percentage of my sale to the person who "referred" the client. U did all the work.


You're nuts. The sales rep did the only thing that matters. Anyone can print. We're in a commodity business. They could have taken that work anywhere. If you don't need the work don't take the referrals.


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## binki

ActiveState said:


> New sales/customers = 10% Repeat sales/customers = 5% of the profits. So if we make a sale for $1000 to a new customer and the profit is $400. You would make: $40. If it’s a repeat customer you make: $20.​
> Is that fair?


If I am your sales person I would never call on a client for repeat biz. Give a sales person a territory and let them sell.


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## royster13

ActiveState said:


> Quick clarification on this. Is this 10% with an hourly rate? Or merely 10% on gross profits. So let's say:
> New sales/customers = 10% Repeat sales/customers = 5% of the profits. So if we make a sale for $1000 to a new customer and the profit is $400. You would make: $40. If it’s a repeat customer you make: $20.​Is that fair? Is that low? is that High? I'm new at this and have 2 potential sales reps that will help me get into retailers.
> 
> They also may begin helping run tradeshows, track sales, etc. For that stuff I will go to hourly pay, but for retailer stores, I didn't think we need to pay hourly.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Thanks,
> Lorne


A rep calling on retail account is typically getting paid 15% to 20% of the wholesale price of all sales.....

As far as commission for custom printing, most screen printers think they can pay next to nothing....A good sales person will soon realize they can get a far bigger piece of the pie (up to 65% of the net) by working for an outfit like Kaesar & Blair and have a far wider range of products to sell....

In rough numbers on small orders they would get about 25% of the selling price.....On a larger order, maybe about 20%.....And their customers are theirs......They can take repeat orders where ever they want....


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## ceesiren

headfirst said:


> You're nuts. The sales rep did the only thing that matters. Anyone can print. We're in a commodity business. They could have taken that work anywhere. If you don't need the work don't take the referrals.


I agree with headfirst... if this is new business you would never have gotten without the rep bringing it in, 10% completely reasonable. How much do you spend on advertising without any guarantee of a job being generated? Do you get your money back if there are no sales? This guy is bringing you a bird in the hand. Any price you charge should have enough built in to cover either commission or advertising. If it doesn't, you aren't charging enough and won't be in business for long. That's why so many new businesses fail.


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## carole12345

5%-10%is perfect


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## Grizzityg

Good discussion from everyone. My company has thrown around some thoughts on this, and having everyone's input will help us when we need to make this decision. Thanks!


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## customapparelpro

This is a great post! I've also been curious abo it this sort of thing. I can print TOP QUALITY but not really a people person at all so Idk how to communicate too well as a business person. I know I wouldn't mind paying 10% of profit to a salesperson. Maybe even 15% if work came in often.


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## headfirst

Not 10% profit. 10% of the order total. I think in my first sales job in print I was paid off of profit, but it was 30% of profit.


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## customapparelpro

headfirst said:


> Not 10% profit. 10% of the order total. I think in my first sales job in print I was paid off of profit, but it was 30% of profit.


Mind letting me know why not profit? is it because you can write the commission on taxes? Because if I'm getting 1000 and it costs me 400 for the shirts why wouldn't I just give the sales person. 10% from profit? would 15% of the profit only sound more reasonable? just sounds weird if I'm paying the sales person from total without removing expenses (costs of goods)


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## headfirst

customapparelpro said:


> Mind letting me know why not profit? is it because you can write the commission on taxes? Because if I'm getting 1000 and it costs me 400 for the shirts why wouldn't I just give the sales person. 10% from profit? would 15% of the profit only sound more reasonable? just sounds weird if I'm paying the sales person from total without removing expenses (costs of goods)


Are you printing the shirts yourself? Are you taking in to account what you pay yourself? How about ink? Overhead? If you're like most screen printers you have no idea how much your finished shirts actually cost to produce. 

If you're going to pay out a commission on profit without knowing your costs one of two things is going to happen. Either you're going to shoot yourself in the foot or you're going to end up in a fight with your sales rep because they think you are screwing them.

Use a percentage of sales for commission. It will be much easier on you.


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## royster13

I just chatted with a friend in NJ......He is getting from 18% to 25% of the selling price as commission...


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## Mtnview

customapparelpro said:


> Mind letting me know why not profit?


Even though this thread was initially started in 2008 I will chime in on a recent question. Another reason not to pay on profit is your sales rep then knows what your cost and profit is for those jobs. My sister did some part time sales for us on profit through her own business. I knew she would never be a competitor and didn't mind her knowing the cost and profit of a job. Someone just hiring on that I don't know? I don't want them knowing my cost and profit.


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## wiseguy777

I would start from 10%.


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## rico4566

5% on referrals and 10% on actual sales.


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## atomicaxe

When I have a sales person I usually start at 10% on total sale before taxes. I don't penalize on repeat business as they make the world go around.

There are 4 things I normally do to incentivize the position ...

1. if they hit a minimum of sales for (week, month, whatever) I would add 5% to their sales after that ... so if they sold $2000 in sales for that period I would pop them up to 12.5% commission on sales after that. Usually mine was for every couple of weeks (like a pay period), but I had a few part time sales peeps that I let them do it for the month.

2. if they could up sell the order (On shirts, that results in a lower price for qty, for example) and it affected the price ... I would give them a pro rated commission ... so if the shirts go from $20 each down to $14 each, I would probably give him a commission on $17 each.

3. Repeat customers get locked into that sales person while that sales rep is with me. That way if the customer just calls up and wants something done, the process can get started with follow up and commission paid to the sales rep. 

4. occasionally I would make an item an added commission item. usually it was something like hoodies in that Aug. to Sept. months or tanks in Feb. .. you know ... early seasonal stuff to get the jump on sales for that. the added commission varied, but on average it was an added 2% or what have you. 

Since your sales people are feet on the pavement most of the time ... I sometimes throw in a gas allowance on their commission check if they were constantly bringing in work. they wouldn't always get it, or know they were gonna get it until they look at their check ... but it was just a little 'thanks' I could do. ... now with gas as high as it is ... it would be a nicer thing to do.

When I still had my screen shop in Florida .. it worked out well. I had about 3 sales people who would hustle like demons ... 2 of which were hot stay at home moms so when they needed flow they would go sell me some swag. Nothing says sales like hotties on a mission. I mean, it's not bad when you have one job that can net out around $2.5k for shirts and that person ends up getting a check cut for around $350-400 bucks from it after one sale. My profit on something like that after man hours and overhead was worth that cut of commission since the sales rep usually did 90% of the work landing the sale. 

Sign work isn't as easy so I've never had the same success with sales people and signs ... so find out what works for you.


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## Austinite

atomicaxe said:


> Nothing says sales like hotties on a mission.


Haha, I Heard that!


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## SnapGraphics

I am going to start using the following scale:

Monthly Sales:
Tier 1 > $0-$4999 = 10% (up to $499 commission paid)
Tier 2 > $5000-$9999 = 12.5% (up to $1250 commission paid)
Tier 3 > $10000-$14999 = 15% (up to $2250 commission paid
Tier 4 > $15000-$19999 = 17.5% (up to $3500 commission paid)
Tier 5 > $20000+ = 20% (up to $4000 commission paid)

This includes dealing with customer and arranging art files to be sent to me and dealing essentially with any one on one contact with the customers. We have a $75 an hour rate on artwork for anything that exceeds 15 minutes (I am pretty lenient on this) and if they sell this service they get 25% of that. I also add a little kick on top of the commission if I give them a suggested price of $10 per shirt and they sell them to the customer for $11 each we split that $1 50/50. 

I also have a program for referrals which is 5% of anything over $1000 in a calendar month. I don't let people get this if they are referring their employer or team because I see that as a conflict of interest and not very ethical. 

Essentially, a sales rep selling $15000 a month brings home $3500 in commission a month which is a decent living of $42000/year. I would say the first 3 tiers would be a part-time person up to 25 hours a week and the upper two tiers would be more of a full-time sales person. 

No expenses paid.


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## TeeBird100

Think about how the salesman feels. You want them to be motivated to make calls non stop because you are going to make them rich. The manufacturing side is always focused on reducing costs to improve bottom line profits. It is natural you want to drive down the sales cost and pay the minimum. After all, you beat up your suppliers all the time. 

But the sales guys are all about driving the top line sales. They have to talk to a bunch of folks before they make a sale. Looking rejection in the eye all the time. Think about it, what is your reaction when a new sales guy walks in the door to sell YOU something. 

So your mindset has to change when thinking of compensation for your sales guy. They are bringing you revenue and work. If they do a good job, they will lower your cost per garment as you will be using your overhead more effectively and improve your buying power. 

I have always rewarded my sales team and my creatives as they will both drive the top line. Save money on overhead and inventory, reward to the best of your ability your sales team. That is the winning combination in my humble opinion...


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## Lagarius

Commission on each one sold is the best route at the start


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## ToATeeDesigns

I was thinking about doing this and am so glad I read your questions. I have a someone who wants to market/sell for me. I was going to give her 30% for each new account she landed and 25% for reorders. but after reading this that may be too much. What I may offer is 20% for each new accounts 1st order and then 5% or even 10% on reorders that go through her. This will encourage her to go after the new clients to keep new business coming in as well as make it worth her time. I would not want to pay so little that she is not motivated to do the job. In fact with that thought I may stick to my original 30%. I was thinking of a % like the reps for pampered chef and other mlm companies use... what do y'all think of that?


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## HALFWAYMARK

SnapGraphics said:


> I am going to start using the following scale:
> 
> Monthly Sales:
> Tier 1 > $0-$4999 = 10% (up to $499 commission paid)
> Tier 2 > $5000-$9999 = 12.5% (up to $1250 commission paid)
> Tier 3 > $10000-$14999 = 15% (up to $2250 commission paid
> Tier 4 > $15000-$19999 = 17.5% (up to $3500 commission paid)
> Tier 5 > $20000+ = 20% (up to $4000 commission paid)
> 
> This includes dealing with customer and arranging art files to be sent to me and dealing essentially with any one on one contact with the customers. We have a $75 an hour rate on artwork for anything that exceeds 15 minutes (I am pretty lenient on this) and if they sell this service they get 25% of that. I also add a little kick on top of the commission if I give them a suggested price of $10 per shirt and they sell them to the customer for $11 each we split that $1 50/50.
> 
> I also have a program for referrals which is 5% of anything over $1000 in a calendar month. I don't let people get this if they are referring their employer or team because I see that as a conflict of interest and not very ethical.
> 
> Essentially, a sales rep selling $15000 a month brings home $3500 in commission a month which is a decent living of $42000/year. I would say the first 3 tiers would be a part-time person up to 25 hours a week and the upper two tiers would be more of a full-time sales person.
> 
> No expenses paid.


Derek - Thanks for this breakdown. Super interested to hear how this approach worked out for you?

Also, to confirm, this was for a commission based rep. only, yes?


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## tern101

How much should the commission be in addition to a base pay for an in-house salesperson (who sells to existing customers and finds prospects)? Several posts say pay 10% of sales. Is this 10 % in addition to a base pay of $20/hour? I have offered base pay of $20/hr plus commission. Thank all of you for net ideas. 
(I have a small shop doing custom printing and our line of wildlife designs. We have one auto and 2 manuals, but during the Covid pandemic, we have only 1 or 2 printers.)


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## imhotep9

No you are nuts. This wasnt a salesperson, this was a referral from someone. If a company refers a business to you do you pay them commission? Not to mention NOTHING was agreed on in the beginning. Bad communication is also why business fail.


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## tern101

Should the commission be in addition to base pay?
Binki wrote pay 10 %, and Royster13 wrote 15-20% of the wholesale price for a line of designs. He also wrote that for custom 20 to 25% of the selling price or up to 65% of the net.
I want the sales person to work with existing, lapsed, and prospective customers. Thank you for advising that bad communication needs to be avoided.


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## tern101

Is this 10 % in addition to base pay? I have offered base pay of $20/hr plus commission. Thank you.


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