sales

kevin bingham

TreeHouser
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
4,788
whats a good way to pay a salesperson. rewarding well bid efficient jobs while also making sure they have a base pay.
 
When I started climbing... He told me he'll give me 10% of any job I brought in.

I knew a a really good sales guy at Davey SF.. he made 10% off everything he sold for 2 bucket truck crews... he sold over a million and cleared 150k/year w other bonuses and stuff... but worked his butt off.

I've heard of sales guys making a low salary plus 5% on all jobs sold... what if it sells but then they cancel? Maybe it's 5% off monthly take...

Theh have to know the work... and time it takes...

I trained a guy for sales... horrible in the field but seemed good at the sales I gave him.... other people have no problem throwing the high number out... the same high number that would make me wince or cringe to put out... and he would get them... He was a kid gymnast teacher.. he could.manage parents and kids... perfect.
 
I do a thing with apprentices.
If they bring in a job and have bid it themselves, we'll let them boss it and they get to keep the profit.
If they have bid too low, they have to make up the difference.
Works great for teaching them to bid.
We topped a Linden alley once, the apprentice walked away with 1500$ for a days work.
Proud and happy!
 
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A guy who makes a living just quoting tree work would be a very rare beast indeed in the UK or here, at least in the domestic market.
 
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  • #6
are most companies owner operator does everything then?
 
I would say most are priced by the boss.
I can only think of a couple of companies who would have a full time price operative.
The utility stuff is a different matter of course.
 
are most companies owner operator does everything then?

Very strange concept to us. At least if the boss underbids the work it comes out of his pocket.

Knowing how full time sales people operate - greed! I can see that they would say anything to get the sale, regardless. Enter the order and collect the commission.

What happens when they underbid and the job runs over? Do you take the additional costs out of the sales persons renumeration?
 
Do you take the additional costs out of the sales persons renumeration?
I think that would be illegal unless part of their pay was percentage based on profit. They'd get whatever they got as base pay, and nothing else on that particular job.
 
When I was a roofing estimator, I had a decent salary, plus 5 percent profit. Profit payed quarterly. So if I screwed the bid or put the wrong crews on the job it went against any profit in that quarter.
The company set up was owner then estimators. Estimators had their own crews. So If you sold work your crews couldn't do, then you were begging other estimators for help.
 
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  • #12
I havent really sold jobs in years, here and there.. i suck at it. my wife has been killing it, but is getting burnt out. we are currently getting 15 + calls a day. we are running a crew and a half right now.
 
If I sold jobs, I'd expect the 10% after the customer pays upon completion. If there's enough left over to pay the 10%. Otherwise for an underbid job I'd expect the boss to try renegotiating, and I'd expect no reward.
 
other people have no problem throwing the high number out... the same high number that would make me wince or cringe to put out... and he would get them...

I hear ya. Lotta folks like myself who are frugal (aka as cheap) have trouble throwing out the big number. It's like you gotta take an iron grip on your nerve to muster the courage to say that number. And doh, sometimes after you do the job you find the number wasn't high at all.

15 calls per day? Beyond the covid induced biz surge, that shows awesome word of mouth and lots of very satisfied clients. What to do with that 15 calls a day is the tough part, or at least it would be for me. 3-4 good calls/day will keep ya nicely busy, but 15? That's either a massive headache or a huge opportunity, or both.
 
How many bids and much conversion to jobs do you have out of 15?

What is your customer pre-qualification like (how do you weed out bad matches)?
 
Sales is awesome. It can make or break a job and a company's reputation.

I sell non tree related stuff for a living. After 10+ years in the trees, I realized the biggest place for making margin and adding value wasn't in the tree, it was in selling the job and working with the customer. Plus trees know how to take care of themselves. They grow to light and towards water. People, we're a mess.

I'm rare in that I am 100% commission. At the risk of sounding elitist, not many people can make that work.

Sales is very very tough. Mainly that people think sales people aren't trustworthy when in reality, people who buy stuff are often less than forthcoming and use that stereotype of salespeople as a way to justify very poor behavior.
 
Yeah I'm not following that at all. Running a business selling your services obviously requires competent selling skills, but to say that the guy who is giving his money away as untruthful makes zero sense to me. The customer has the power in a sales setting, but he's also the one who has to make the leap of faith to trust the salesman. Also, i don't think I've met too many salesmen who didn't lie all the time, some realtors I've met couldn't breathe without lying. Same with car salesmen, and equipment salesmen for that matter. I'm not saying people in sales are bad people, I'm simply saying the nature of the business can spawn very shady people if they are leaning that way, kinda like how being a cop can lead to power complexes in some people.
 
I dunno Kyle, I’ve worked in sales, half the lies you tell the client is complicit in.

For instance: me “when will my machine arrive?“ salesman: “3/4 weeks”
You know he is bullshitting, he knows that you know he’s bullshitting.
You order it anyway
Generally, if you flat out let people down badly, time after time you don’t last long.
There has to be a level of trust, even if it get stretched a lot.
 
Any treeman or other tradesman who quotes their own work is a salesman. I've met tons and would say liars are rare.

Buyers lie all the time Kyle. Let's start at hello. Say customer walks into a retail store or car lot. Salesman, "Is there anything in particular you are looking for?" Customer, "No, I am just looking" when they know all along, I am looking to see if you have a 4 door F350 with less than 200k miles for less than $30k. They justify the BALD LIE by thinking, "I don't want to be bothered". That is called lying. Also, lying by omission is still lying.

There is a difference between overpromising and lying.

The classic customer lie I see is giving a technical objection when they have a price objection and giving a price objection when they have a technical objection. I get this weekly.

I believe I am successful because I under promise and over deliver. I am also more beholden to any customer than any business I work for. As such, I've built great relationships at the verticals I work and it pays off.
 
Buyers are liars? I’ve read that from you once, prolly after a deal fell out of bed.

A few that immediately come to mind.

“The tree died this year”
As no foliage or bark remain.

“This company said they’d do it for $_____”
Trying to get you to bid lower.

“If you do this project cheap for me, I will get you all sorts of good paying jobs, because I know everybody.”

Perhaps not disclosing damage to trees from recent excavation, landscaping
 
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