Leasing News - Alerts and Flags

Salesman Pay Survey Up-Date

Today it appears the industry average for salesmen who work for companies that “discount” their leases ( sell their lease contracts to others ) is approximately 50% of the profit. This is the present value of the lease contract, less funders discount charges. Many are paid a percentage of the override is fees charged, such as for documentation, site inspections, etc.

Some provide other expenses, such as health benefits, travel, but that is not common. A few will pay up to 60% over a “quota.”

One company did report paying 30%, but all expenses, health,

medical, and when the residual was received, 30% of the residual,

if the salesperson was still working for the company. ( This company

is no longer in business .) Another paid 45%, and when the quota was exceeded, 55%.

Volume was basically $10,000 to $20,000 in gross profits per

month ( less processing fees ), meaning the salesmen made anywhere from $60,000 to $120,000 a year, averaging $80,000 per year. As anywhere, 20% of the salesmen made in excess of $120,000 per year, always exceeding quota.

All were paid a draw against the commission in either by-monthly or

monthly installments with charge backs against quota not met; often

implied. Most were not given “house accounts”, but relied on their

production of signed leases.

The industry average for salesmen who work for companies who act as lessors, not selling or discounting their lease contracts, is more complex to state due to the various volume requirements for salesman. The main difference is “rate” versus “volume.” Lessor salesmen generally have accounts that the lessor services

and remuneration is not on the difference between the rate of the lease, but primarily on the volume of transactions.

Most salesmen here earn a base salary versus a draw. They are paid in excess of making their quota, or an additional percentage based on volume.

Where minimum volume was $6 million, .0075 to .008 was common,

or $45,000 per year. A report of .02 on volume over $200,000 was

stated, meaning the quota was $2.4 million a year in sales for the base

salary.

One salesman reported making $50,000. plus.0025% of volume. He was hoping to make $100,000, meaning his goal was $20 million a year.

It appears the average lessor salesman must produce $10 million a year. This figure, of course, is based on the market. Larger ticket or smaller tickets have a different ratio. To sum up the remuneration schedule to satisfy all requirements would take many, many more pages than this report. Again, this report is from our readers.

It was also reported that transaction the lessor did not carry, probably for credit reasons, were either brokered by the company, giving a split of 30% to 50%, or as the circumstance with many, some approved by the company, such as practiced formerly by Sierra Cities, the salesmen could send to another source and received the total commission. It was not reported if this is common wide in the industry for lessors.

In the 1970's, most leasing companies had salesmen who handled

“house” accounts, this changed in the 1980's with the growth of

brokers who worked solely for a “commission.” The 1990's saw

the growth of “super brokers,” who funneled other brokers transactions for a commission. In addition, many funders were in essence super brokers, discounting transactions for the present value, often including the residual in the discount or pledge of the contract.

Discount Response:

From your survey it appears that we may be giving the shop away. We have a very simple commission only program. As a small to mid ticket lessor broker/discounter we pay 50% of the gross fee on the

transaction. Higher amounts up to 60% are paid to consistent

producers, We pay every Friday for deals that fund that week. We

provide complete office and back room processing and pay for all internal costs such as D&B, CBR, rent, phone, overnight etc.. Salesman pay for all external costs such as entertainment and travel. We share in all promotional and trade show expenses. We will work with established, proven producers for a few months should a draw be necessary and we are always interested in finding new talent.

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Our sales reps earn 50% of GP on all transactions. We provide office, phone, internet, marketing and trade show reimbursement. We have a credit, documentation and funding staff to handle most of the non-selling processes. In addition we do a draw on future commissions if a rep is new. Our monthly bonus plan is $240 over $7500 (which is the reps 1/2) and $600 over $10,000 . Quarterly bonus is $720 over $22,500 and $1800 over $30,000. If a rep hits $100,000 annually then the company provides a $600 per month car reimbursement for the entire next year. We feel we have an aggressive compensation package because we want all of our people to succeed. We are nothing without our people who got us here. Oh yeah we also have a condo in Vail available to all our staff and reps to use at no cost. We are currently attempting

to create a way to pass ownership to super stars as well, but have not finalized it as of yet.

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We pay our sales reps 50% of the GP after inspections, UCC's and routine office costs. We also pay for marketing and promotion items, business cards, brochures, handouts, mailings, etc, etc.

The reps responsibility is to bring in the business and that is it. I do not require a monthly volume, but do ask that they stay in contact, preferably in person, with any customer or vendor once a month at least. I price, doc, close and fund the deals. All they do is make the contact.

Any deal originated or referred by that salesperson's vendor or customer is theirs even if they haven't talked with them about the specific deal.

Average annual compensation is usually 50 to 65K, but the opportunity is unlimited. We are presently looking for reps in northern New Jersey and western NY and eastern PA.

+ + +

Here we make no salary, 45% of the gross margin on $1.00 residual deals, and 55% of the GM on the deals that we retain the FMV or 10% residual. We make 100% of the doc fee over what our sources charge and a draw is available on a case by case basis.

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I pay my in-house sales people as follows: Base Salary of 30K per year. this covers the first $5,000 in GP. I allocate 50% of any deal the generate themselves and 10% of the GP on any house deal that I assign to them to help them cover the first $5,000 in GP. On the second 5,000 in GP the sales rep earns 25% and 40 % on any GP generated after that. A rep working for me can justify their existence at about $800K per year in volume. They will make $45-50K at $100K per month in volume and about $75K at $150K per month in

volume.

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We get 35% of the first $10,000 per month in gross that we bring into the company. We get 45% above $10,000 and 50% above $18,000 per month.

We split document fees over the amount required in the approval. It is all commission, no guarantee.

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We compensated salespeople with a 50% split of the

gross commission due on the leasing transaction. The salespeople generally had use of our office space, and we paid for special promotions. In addition, we provided an auto allowance of $300 per month, and a telephone allowance of $150 per month. We found it necessary, in virtually all cases, to provide the salespeople with a draw against future earned commissions. We found that even our most experienced salespeople did not break-even on this arrangement until they were employed with us at least three years.

The most generous compensation program I have first-hand knowledge of provides the leasing salespeople with 65% of the gross transaction commission. This company, a longtime, successful leasing broker, also provides office space, use of telephone, and the payment of advertising promotions.

In fairness to all leasing salespeople, their compensation potential depends as much on their company's access to capital, and flexible financing plans, as it does on their individual sales ability and work ethic. In our case, at just the time our salespeople began to realize their individual potential, their ability to grow their earnings was drastically curtailed by our loss of bank funding.

Your ability to cultivate vendor and lessee relationships depends to a great degree on your company's ability to deliver on its credit program and funding promises. Unfortunately, in today's economic and leasing environment, the only thing you can count on is uncertainty.

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Working for a tech company, as the Leasing Manager in a captive scenario I find am in the a middle of the road in you compensation survey. I am paid a base salary of 45K, .0075 of volume on deals until I hit 50% of a 6MM quota. Over 50%, I am bumped to .1025 on volume. I also receive 33% of GP on fee income from transactions. Volume Commissions paid out monthly, and Fee commission paid out at the end of each quarter (the bonus incentive).

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I work for a leasing sub. of a large foreign bank. Mostly small ticket. Bases are in the 30's-40's depending on experience. We get .008 of volume with a kicker on spreads that exceed 50 over. Quotas are $6mm-10mm depending on territory.

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$50K base

.25% of volume

Cell phone paid for.

He should be making $100,000-

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As a sales rep, with 4 years experience I make a base salary of $48k with a chance to make commission once I make more money for the company than it takes to keep my seat, i.e. $4000 per month. It seemed to be online with the Advanta commission plan but unless you really generate volume you cannot realize commission.

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We pay 2% of equipment volume in compensation. Generally there is a base of $48K and the 2% commish is paid for volume over $200K. They also earn 25% of the fee of any brokered deal they bring in. The 25% split of broker income is independent of our funded equipment volume We pay monthly though will probably shift to quarterly.

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Around here, be it small ticket or big ticket, I believe all the lease

origination personnel have had a base salary and then a bonus once a certain minimum volume was done on a monthly (for the small ticket group) or annual (for the large ticket group) basis. Our most experienced and senior large ticket salesperson makes well into the 6 figure range I've heard but they consistently book volume in the tens of millions each year. I think all our large ticket group that have been here two or more years each make over $100,000 per year between base and bonus.

Our small ticket people have had the potential to make six figures but it has always been heavily volume dependent.

There are several different bases, based on whether or not they hit their bogey for the year or month. Bonus is only paid once minimum target volume is reached.

If someone is not hitting their target within a year around here they

usually let them go.

Commission structure . . .

Our general compensation plan for salespersons is 50% of the

gross profit commissions on a deal that they bring to the

table and 35% on a "house" deal.

We pay for virtually everything; telephone, marketing,

trade-shows, travel, computer, etc., etc. While we have paid

for health insurance in the past, we do not currently

do so (times are tough!).

Only very extra-ordinary, deal-specific, expenses are deducted

from the gross commissions for purposes of calculating a