conducting an informal survey ... how are your sales people paid. Commission, salary a combination? What percentage % is fair for insurance work? I'm a newer rep and wondering if "the man" is as broke as he claims. Thanks - God Bless.

Sales rep ? who can afford one of those?

no kidding! I wish I could afford one. and if "agr." has a job and his boss says he is not making any money. he should try and see just how little we make. these people see the money come in but dont see what goes out. I had an employee that never thought there were bills to pay. just money coming in (oh when it would come in is another thing.)

I'm with Tsi, there is no way we can aford a SALES REP! eee gad, we had to lay off our secretary, and now have to do the work, answer the calls, do all bookkeeping, sweep the floor, take out the trash,ect. We even have to keep lights out when not in use to save elec. A sales rep in this industry could only be working for the really big shops or the distributors. Even if we could a afford a sales person, selling to agents doesn't work anymore, the work gets steered anyway, and selling more to fleet accounts will get you broke cause there are too many doing the work for NOTHING right now! If you are making any kind of a living at being a sales rep for a glass shop count yourself as being VERY lucky! And to keep that job you may have to take LESS just as the tpa's and ins ind. takes it away from the shops! YOU MAY NEED TO GIVE A 10-20% DISCOUNT from where you are right now!

we haven't had a glass salesman in here in months.

they always used to come in at christmas, and my main supplier laid off my favorite salesman 2 years ago. my other favorite salesman retired 3 years ago.

i think everybody is cutting staff, we have considered eliminating our book keeper as well. our problem is that we committed to a larger facility when things were good, we can only afford to go so far backwards.

Yeah speaking of distribution , I didnt even get my usual can of cookies (shortbread) this year from my local distributor , needless to say I didnt have to ask why .

Around here they get what the owners get. $1.00 per hour and all the glass they can eat.

good responses to this one! Yep all we got was a card wishing for a better new year from only one of our distributors,,, then they sent us a letter with fuel surcharges!!! I agree on ALL THE GLASS THEY CAN EAT! WE DON'T EVEN THROW OUT SMALL SCRAPS ANYMORE ON FLAT GLASS. If it's even 1 square ft it stays till we can use it! Who can afford a SALES REP???? YOUV'E GOT TO BE KIDDING!

All questions are now answered as to why I am growing while my competition fades away.

If you dont have sales reps beating the pavement...If you are sitting around waiting on business to come to you.....YOU MAY AS WELL CLOSE YOUR DOORS!


I am a Mom and Pop outfit. I have been in business 28 months. I just closed out my second full year in business at a couple dollars shy of 800k.

How did I do this you ask?????


2 of the most professional sales reps I could find!
My pay plan????

Salary plus bonus plus cell phone plus company car.

Salary is 52k per year
Bonus program is as follows

Sell 60 installs in 1 month get a $500.00 bonus
Sell 80 installs in one month get a $1000.00 bonus
Sell 100 installs in one month get a $2000.00 bonus

In 2005 one of my reps made $75k the other made $65.5k


In 2005 we ran 77% insurance versus 23% cash......We have never and will never call on agents....We sell face to face to the insured before the networks have a chance to steal our jobs.


If you hire quality reps...offer above average pay (something to loose if they dont produce) and a HUGE bonus program...These people will work 7 days a week without being asked.


There ya go......The secret to success in the glass business......Now back those sales up with the best techs your area has to offer ( you dont even want to know what I pay those guys) and you cant loose!


Is my profit margins as high as the guy with no sales rep and paying there techs a couple bucks a week? Nope.....But I will be around for a LOOOooong time to come.

See my name,I speak the truth.I am curious to how much population is your shop is covering?What kind of compitition do you have?I learned a long time ago not to brag,certenly not on the int.

If you don't have a sales person than you better be out there pounding the pavement yourself. I don't see how anyone can rely on simply word or mouth or the phone book ads. You gotta have someone out there selling.
Base plus commission is the norm around here!

Brag????

I simply stated the facts......I read on here every day reason after reason after reason why shops are going down the tubes.......I simple stated whay I m not going down the tubes.

Afraid your sales rep or tech might read this?

Not questioning you AGR, but we all know SALES totals do not really mean anything.

The real number is your NET PROFIT. Gross sales can be very deceptive, especially if you are giving it all away in labor or warranty work, or other expenses.

In either case, continued success AGR

After every expense in 05 (including my salary 6 figures was invested)......My point is that this business is not all doom and gloom...........This is not the business of 20 years ago or 20 months ago or even 20 days ago...It is what it is today. Yesterday is gone.....Work with what you have and rise to the top or simply close your doors.

This has been called bragging....So be it.

I am just simply proof that you can compete with the big guys and you can overcome. Some people are willing to do whatever it takes to be the best and some are not....This is the way it always has been and always will be.

99% of the messages posted on this board are whoe is me post .... I can barely stomach comming here anymore......I obviously dont fit in.

Thanks for the responses. Great to hear from the shops without reps, however I was addressing the question to shops that do have reps (how do you get insurance work without reps or manager calls?) I do work in a large town and yes I work for a big regional. Seems like the two worlds collided over my questions. Mucho gracias for the replies.

AGR, If you don't call on Insurance, Fleet or dealerships, who do your sales reps call on. How exactly do they sell direct to the customer?

Thanks

Magic......My sales reps and myself spend the entire day getting to know people in the community....Every employee of EVERY business within 50 miles of us have our card ( from Applebees to zerox) we dont cherry pick customers....Everbody got to work in a car so they are potential customers.

We attend every Chamber of Commerce meeting in 3 counties.
We attend every business lead sharing meeting within 3 counties.
If I go to Home Depot on a Sunday to pick up something for the house I will give out a card or two.

In order to make it I have found that you must be working 100% of the time.

If I take the wife and kids out to dinner and someone pulls up with a cracked windshield I will give them my card........I never stop.....EVER!

Does it suck always being on? Yep
Does my wife get ******* Yep

But my goal is to get this company to 1.5 million in gross sales by the end of 06....when that happens I will try to maintain what I have....But until then I will do whatever it takes.

Just curious... you say you paid 65k to one sales rep 75k to another 100k or more to yourself, that equals 245k, and you have the best installers in your area, I don't know what area your in, but how many and what do you pay them? even if you only have 3 and pay them 55k, that is 410k in salary, is that about correct or are my numbers off?

thanks for the math rich. if i remember correctly my accountant tells me to budget payroll around 20% of gross sales. i'm way over that now, i just have to increase sales.

AGR-

I am glad you are doing well and I understand your positive message of hope to the rest of us. You are correct, not everything is doom and gloom in the AGRR industry, but not many companies are making anywhere near what they were pre-1999, not even Safelite.

I am glad you seemed to have found a formula that is working for you. Keep up the good work my friend.

Unfortunately our local Home Depot and Lowes have a strict NO SOLICITATION policy here. Guess we will have to try a different angle.

"Just curious... you say you paid 65k to one sales rep 75k to another 100k or more to yourself, that equals 245k, and you have the best installers in your area, I don't know what area your in, but how many and what do you pay them? even if you only have 3 and pay them 55k, that is 410k in salary, is that about correct or are my numbers off? "


You are a little high on tech pay....as far as my pay I am on the same pay plan as my sales reps.....I take great pride in leading...I will not ask someone else to work for less than I am willing to work for....Plus it pushes my reps to try and beat me every month and it keeps me focused.

I am curious about AGR's location. Are you in a zero deductible state? If not, do you waive deductibles?

i am impressed by your energy, you must have substantial buying power if your payroll is that high.

are you strictly mobile? i would like to have my overhead low enough to pay people that well.

No deductible state
I had a shop for the first year and then I saw the light :)

Great responses to AGR,(Start your own post and quit stealing mine !!). Back to MY question - How are reps, when you have them, being paid? Anybody out there beside AGR? Any big regionals or national people reading these boards?

(To reply you get to rename yourself, nobody will see your real e-mail)

I can tell you from the place that I worked I was a sales rep, installer, and owner b*tch. I was paid commission w/ a gaurentee. My commission was based on previous months total invoiced sales. (NOT what they actually recieved net)It worked out real well for me for a long time. Until the **** guy got a hair up his azz and decided that I was making too much money per pay period. He set it up the program and I went wild getting new accounts and growing his business but it was all for nothing. my example is as follows: I was paid no less than $850 per week, so I had a gaurentee. then it was structured like this. $30,000 per month = $1000/week $32,500 = $1100/week $35,000 = $1200/week $50,000 a month was what I was up to when I got fired and I would have been earning $1500/week. But he forced me out and found a guy he can pay $13/hour to do the work. he will fail and have to end up filing for bankruptcy because his new guy doesn't know the difference between a 1341s and a 1217s so I could care less. Not only that but I have taken all the accounts I worked hard for there and took them to my new shop.

Dogg, no offense, but if you were only bringing in 30,000 per month in sales, in a large metro area, I would fire you.

Is it just me or does Dogg's post remind anyone else of proTek or Butch McGlass?

AGR,I am sorry if I got you rilled up,But There is always somthing funny about A man feeding off of his emotions,sorry man!

Webmaster;yup it does.

karl, who is pro tek or butch mcglass? I am new to this game

Bugged;just a joker or two.don't listen them or read their posts.Smart alec trouble maker/s.

Let me re-phrase that.I don't know him,her,it or them.Believe or not he/her/it has caused some frustration on a few of us.Kids will be kids.

I ams mo betta now

Sometimes I get a little wrapped in what I am doing and start spewing

AGRsalesguy, as a software provider I see lots of companies compensating salespeople lots of different ways. The most common is a low base salary with high commissions based on sales for that rep's accounts. The reps stay hungry and pound the pavement to drum-up new business. I agree with AGR, sitting around waiting for work to come to you is not the way to go in the glass industry. Most of our companies have salespeople and are doing great sales volumnes with good profit margins, they are being pro-active and making wise business decisions.