Sales Compensation...

[kdw75]

Much to my surprise, I didn't find much advice on hiring a sales person when I searched the forums. I am interested in what we should offer in compensation, and how much should be commission vs salary.

We are a small family shop that has been around over 100 years, in a small city. Our two competitors have sales teams and are thriving, we have none and merely get by. Back in the 80s and 90s we had a couple of salesmen that left bad tastes in our mouths. I feel this was partly because of the people that were hired, partly because of the lack of oversight, and partly because they were paid a salary that they could live on comfortably without making sales.

Now that I am taking over the operations of the business, I feel that there is a great deal of work to be had, if only we had someone out selling. I am not a salesman at all, but I love printing, and have been able to pick up a couple of $100K+/year clients, just by forcing myself to go out and sell, even though I am much, much more comfortable overseeing production.

All that being said, I have no clue what the industry standard is for compensation. My thought was to pay them a minimal wage, enough to get by on, but not enough to be comfortable, then give them a percentage of each sale to a new client, or for new work picked up from clients that just give us a little bit of their work. Then I figure they would get a smaller percentage of repeat orders they originally picked up which would continue as long as they worked for us.

I also feel that we would need some type of non-compete clause so that they didn't leave and poach our clients. Something along the lines of no printing sales within 100 miles for 10 years.

I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendation on this.

 

[gabrielp]

I think one of the best things you can do is pay a commission based on value add instead of sale price. That way, work you take that doesn't fit what you can do within your shop doesn't pay out as much. This aligns your interests with your sales rep and gives a bigger commission to work you're actually profitable on.

 

[D Ink Man]

Hire a print guru, a technician.

Cheaper, smarter, more effective and you won't waste money on football ticket comps.

D

 

[ajr]

I've worked in pre-press for 29 years straight out of school, looking to change so being interviewed for a sales job next week. Bit scary , but I cant be as bad as some of the sales reps I've seen in the past! Will be a drop in money but I should be able to do it.

A

 

[CKL]

I understand both sides fairly well. I married a sales person and have worked in production my entire life. I have also dabbled in sales, but enjoy production equipment more than people.

I have seen comp plans structured multiple ways.

Ask yourself
What is the biggest commission check you are comfortable writing ?
Are you ok with a sales person making 100 K? 200K? etc.

They can be greedy bunch, but that is what you need.

If your pricing is off ? your sales team will struggle on mark-ups, where they might make a good living.

100 % commission based on VA. with an approved mark up structure.

You don't want people that need salary, a draw to start sure......that gets paid back.