Sales question!

**pcbres16** · 11-02-2010 07:31 PM

Well here is my situation. I work at a landscape supply yard and I was given a promotion the other day. My boss wants me to be the Rock salt/road salt salesman. Here is how it works... I sell salt by the pallet and half pallet, which i will get commission on, I also get $20 per delivery I make of bags of salt that I sell. I would be moving the product in my own car and I would be driving about in my own car to make the sales.

Here are my concerns:
Is $20 per delivery a fair price? (most deliveries are 1-15 miles each way, also I am told the avg. of deliveries in an hour is 2)

What should I ask as my commission per pallet, half pallet, and bag sale? Mind you I have never had an actual commission based sales job before.

Additional info:
the car I own is a 2002 Buick Century.

Any info is appreciated, thank you for your time!

**pcbres16** · 11-02-2010 07:57 PM

lol, sorry I would be moving the smaller orders, you know like 10 bags, which would equate to about 500 lbs of weight.

**nigelstephnie** · 11-02-2010 08:26 PM

If you will be delivering the product by your own it will less the labor,then you need to compute the mile per hour of delivery if you believe $20 is enough then business can now go.

**nabors** · 11-03-2010 12:57 AM

20 Dollars Per Delivery = @2 deliveries per hour in a 8 hour day that puts you @ 16 deliveries which is $320 a day. Now at this rate I would invest a portion of this money into savings until I had enough to buy my own delivery truck and I would put it under my own company name (company truck inc Example) and then have the owner of your company subcontract your truck usage that way you can write off mileage and it would then become a 7 year depreciable asset. Now of coarse this is going on the solid delivery basis I would say cut this in half which puts you at 160 per day to make deliveries, I would ask for a base salary or hourly plus commission until you started building up your personal sale list of clients then switch over to straight commission. Further more I would make sure you have a good hold on this list of clients you build and don't sign anything that states he owns the rights to your list. I would also suggest getting your own mCard with a good solid short code you can see what I mean at my mCard is below it is like a mobile business card. First and for most with doing sales "Make real friends" people buy from who they like it took me 4 years to finally get this through my head, let the "friends" start the selling process go out start meeting people my friend then when they ask what you do tell them you sell salt and keep going with they conversation away from work this is how you get them enticed by attraction. I am not sure how much of this you needed but I have plenty more if you would like have a blessed day. Then again you may even want to talk to your boss about subcontracting you to work for him as a contractor but if your not ready to handle all the paper work just yet just sit back and enjoy the easy life

**borisfowler** · 11-03-2010 01:29 PM

Whether or not $20 is fair will depend on the actual cost. As far as commission, I am not sure what the industry standard is, but I would research that if I were you.

Also, I have a Buick Century as well. For the past 2 years I ran a painting business and used my car to move a lot of equipment. It worked out ok, but it was very inconvenient and I know it damaged the car. I would look into something more durable and appropriate for the job.

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**pcbres16** · 11-03-2010 10:41 PM

You mentioned cost, what do you mean by cost?

**generationy** · 11-04-2010 10:51 AM

I would suggest that you factor into your equation gas price, consumption and other expenses to see whether this is viable or not. You are essentially asking whether you using your car, your time etc. is worth while or not. Right? Well you have to first know how much money you need to spend each day, week, month etc. and then see how much, on average, you can make each day, week and month etc. Good luck!