Has anyone hired a commission based sales rep for their landscaping company?
Looking to grow our company and it’s getting harder to handle all the requests in a timely enough manner, but same time we aren’t busy enough to have another crew lead. Looking to weigh options and interested in feedback on how it’s worked for others.
Landscaping and Electrical are similar because the range and type of jobs can vary so much by volume, product type, and labour for the jobs. Are you looking to Have someone just bring in leads or have someone quote jobs?
We're looking for someone who can bring in leads and quote jobs.
Following! We hired an outside sales rep internally and it came with alot of pros and cons. The biggest takeaway was a solid process. Where are you in your journey in the sales expansion of your company?
We’re currently in the early stages putting feelers out there and looking for feedback that have gone through this step before.
One way you could do it is give them a percentage of gross profits over a certain theshold - that way you make sure the jobs they are selling are profitable. For example:
This was for an ops manager position. Basically had a base salary then there is no cap on the amount they can make using these calculations. I don't know how sales reps would like that but it could be a hybrid model.
Yes we have a part time sales rep for 2 years now. She has salary and a commission based on what type of cleaning she sells.
For our exterior cleaning company we give our sales reps a base pay plus commissions. The total amount equals 10% of their sales. Everyone always talks about commission only sales people but I haven't found that to be realistic but I also want to incentivize them so the combo works out well for us.
Have you checked out SalesAI.com. I know a lot of people are using them to get after people that called and they never connected with to get them on the calendar. maybe the first step towards growth is winning more with the lead volume already flowing?
I'm doing this type of thing in Chicagoland but for window services not landscaping, I'm open to connect and have some availability for cooperation/collaboration for symbiotic overlapping opportunities in Chicagoland: (example: flooring; doors; blinds/shades etc..) I'm already helping people with windows and people often ask me all the time "do you know someone that does this or that... and I'm like I can be this guy for you" If I have the right connections which I am slowly building.
I’m in the kitchen and bath business, and one of our subcontractors who handles gutters and flashing has a full-time, commission-only sales rep that we work with. It’s been very successful for them. I’m not in the same exact line of work, but hopefully my experience can still help in some way.
I recently tried hiring a commission-based sales rep myself, and the position stayed open for a long time. I was only able to fill it after I changed the structure to include a base pay along with a competitive commission rate. It was honestly a little scary for me to make that change, but he’s eager to learn and seems to be adapting quickly to our processes. I’ve even received a few compliments from clients after they worked with him.
I do still believe commission-based sales can be a great model because it takes a lot of pressure off the business owner. However, if someone can’t reliably support themselves on commission alone, they may try to juggle multiple jobs or not give your position their full focus. That’s ultimately why I had to adjust the pay structure to attract the right person.
Of course, every situation is different, so take my experience with a grain of salt—but I hope it helps
Howdy Vossreno, out of curiosity what are the salary and commission rates your offering?
For the commission only gutter guy, it’ll obvi have to be higher rate so what’s that % look like to be appealing enough?
thx.
Yea unsure what the gutter guy gets paid, but we did $25/hr plus 5% commission and a company truck to be an experienced and lead technician.
We have a part time sales rep. Part salary and part commission. We are a residential cleaning business. Works out well. She follows up on all the leads until they tell us to buzz off :)
Before committing to a sales rep, worth asking what's actually happening with your current lead volume. If calls and requests are coming in but not converting fast enough, a rep won't fix that. The bottleneck is response time and qualification, not sales skill.
A lot of landscaping companies in your position find that tightening up the front end, faster follow-up, better intake questions on the first contact, pre-qualifying before a quote visit, frees up enough of the owner's time to handle more volume without adding headcount yet.
Once you've got that dialed in, then a rep makes sense because you're giving them warm, qualified leads instead of asking them to chase cold ones.
If you do go the rep route, the base plus commission structure others mentioned here is the right call. Commission only sounds good on paper but you get part-time attention.
