Outside Sales-What are you making/paying?

[mattfr12]

Cool that you are turning tons of removal work.

I hope they are all necessary.

We are a little different. Scientific based tree care, very small company size right now, but we handle anything that comes our way. I enjoy variety. I also want my clients trees to survive, so henceforth much of the work that we get ends up dealing with saving existing trees, and removing ones that truly need to go. If a client comes to me who's new for a removal, the first question I have if I haven't seen the tree is "why does it need to be removed". When I go out to the job to look at it, I either try to advise for, or against the removal. If its obvious, we're givin them a removal price....if its something that truly doesn't need to go, we are usually helping them keep their valuable trees healthy for years to come.

We don't usually make the call on necessary. City arbs or whoever hires us. We are just the bullet fired we dont pull the trigger. If we don't do it they will just contract someone else. A lot of them are not necessary. We did a huge oak a few month ago that was beautiful. But the lady #####ed enough to the township to have them take it out over surface roots and she got it. I would of loved to have that tree.

At that point no amount of knowledge is gonna change there mind, it's as good as done.


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?hzqavd

 

[mikewhite85]

My foreman does some sales for me but not often. I usually give him his regular hourly rate for the day. Sometimes I throw him a bone if he does really well.

A lot of our jobs are really particular- and often I need to be onsite to direct the crew. I'd love to have a good C.A. do most of my sales for me though. I miss out on calls almost every day because I don't have the time to get to the estimate.

Commission based is tricky- some jobs the profit margin is not so high- so 10% might actually be more like 50% or more of my net for the job, especially jobs that involve hefty dump fees for palm removals or crane rentals.

Example- Simple 1500 biggish palm removal and stump- 1 day job
Dump fee- at least 100 bucks, probably closer to 150 (50 per ton minimum most dumps here- some are around 70 or more)
3 man Crew with worker's comp-approx 600ish
Fuel- 50 bucks
new chains (palms kill chains) 60 bucks

Total cost 850ish

That leaves me with 650.

After the 10% commission I get about 500 on a $1500 job (if everything goes right and the job is only 8 hours). Commission guy is getting around 1/4 of the job's net and doesn't own any of the equipment. You pay all the overhead. For some jobs it could work out well, for others not so well. I guess it just depends on your business and how it is set up. For most of us small guys it doesn't seem to work really well but looks like it works great for Matt. If a commission based estimator sells 5,000 worth of work in a day, which is not so difficult considering I might send him on 8-10 estimates in a day (my record is 14 thus far) he makes about $500 in a day. Not bad!

One company around here has an excellent reputation- they have 3 or 4 C.A.'s and a well-trained crew for each one. Each C.A. gets his crew started in the morning and then goes on estimates or does office work the rest of the day. I have heard that they are sometimes booked out for 3 months.

 

[sgreanbeans]

Cool that you are turning tons of removal work.

I hope they are all necessary.

We are a little different. Scientific based tree care, very small company size right now, but we handle anything that comes our way. I enjoy variety. I also want my clients trees to survive, so henceforth much of the work that we get ends up dealing with saving existing trees, and removing ones that truly need to go. If a client comes to me who's new for a removal, the first question I have if I haven't seen the tree is "why does it need to be removed". When I go out to the job to look at it, I either try to advise for, or against the removal. If its obvious, we're givin them a removal price....if its something that truly doesn't need to go, we are usually helping them keep their valuable trees healthy for years to come.

Good post

 

[Kottonwood]

My foreman does some sales for me but not often. I usually give him his regular hourly rate for the day. Sometimes I throw him a bone if he does really well.

A lot of our jobs are really particular- and often I need to be onsite to direct the crew. I'd love to have a good C.A. do most of my sales for me though. I miss out on calls almost every day because I don't have the time to get to the estimate.

Commission based is tricky- some jobs the profit margin is not so high- so 10% might actually be more like 50% or more of my net for the job, especially jobs that involve hefty dump fees for palm removals or crane rentals.

Example- Simple 1500 biggish palm removal and stump- 1 day job
Dump fee- at least 100 bucks, probably closer to 150 (50 per ton minimum most dumps here- some are around 70 or more)
3 man Crew with worker's comp-approx 600ish
Fuel- 50 bucks
new chains (palms kill chains) 60 bucks

Total cost 850ish

That leaves me with 650.

After the 10% commission I get about 500 on a $1500 job (if everything goes right and the job is only 8 hours). Commission guy is getting around 1/4 of the job's net and doesn't own any of the equipment. You pay all the overhead. For some jobs it could work out well, for others not so well. I guess it just depends on your business and how it is set up. For most of us small guys it doesn't seem to work really well but looks like it works great for Matt. If a commission based estimator sells 5,000 worth of work in a day, which is not so difficult considering I might send him on 8-10 estimates in a day (my record is 14 thus far) he makes about $500 in a day. Not bad!

One company around here has an excellent reputation- they have 3 or 4 C.A.'s and a well-trained crew for each one. Each C.A. gets his crew started in the morning and then goes on estimates or does office work the rest of the day. I have heard that they are sometimes booked out for 3 months.

yeah commision is tricky. I subtract the extra expenses from the total and pay commision on that. Example Tree planting: cost 700 tree price 300 commision=40

crane job cost 3000 crane fees 1200 commission= 180

That is a great way to run a company, a sales rep with his own crew. That is how I would like to run mine eventually. Right now one of the good things is that there is always a CA available to the customer. On the job it is me, on the estimate or just a simple phone call it is Erik. It allows us to do the volume we do. Tree work is very competitive here and even as a good company we only land about half to three quarters of the estimates we go on. Lot of time wasted there.

You have to find the right guy for the job to make it work. I had Erik work with the crew for two months before I let him go out on a sales call.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Thanks for the info, both right out there and between the lines. I'm thinking 10% may work, with some adjustments.

 

[Seemlessstate]

my old company paid base salary of $3000ish a month, plus 3% of all sales.
guys did $40,000-$100,000 a month.
they had company trucks, and worked 10.5-13 hours a day.

now its just me:msp_biggrin:

 

[jefflovstrom]

my old company paid base salary of $3000ish a month, plus 3% of all sales.
guys did $40,000-$100,000 a month.
they had company trucks, and worked 10.5-13 hours a day.

now its just me:msp_biggrin:

WTH?
Jeff

 

[millbilly]

what if

Who eats it if the job goes in the hole?

 

[jefflovstrom]

Who eats it if the job goes in the hole?

That would be you.
Jeff