Working for 17% of the ticket in residential

[jmiles]

How difficult would it be to make a decent paycheck at a large national residential company that pays on commission only.?? I have a job offer from them.. They say some of their techs make 100k if they sell maintenance plans and things like that.. Then some only make 40k. I mean to make a 100k that means you would have to produce 600k annual sales. Is this realistic? They run about 10 guys and up to 20 in the busy season. Kinda hard to determine true income potential..

[Chuck]

How difficult would it be to make a decent paycheck at a large national residential company that pays on commission only.?? I have a job offer from them.. They say some of their techs make 100k if they sell maintenance plans and things like that.. Then some only make 40k. I mean to make a 100k that means you would have to produce 600k annual sales. Is this realistic? They run about 10 guys and up to 20 in the busy season. Kinda hard to determine true income potential..

Forget it.

If you don't sell enough you will be one of the 10 guys that only work in the busy season.

[Chuck]

Service Experts?

[Chuck]

I should clarify, if you love selling stuff more than solving problems, maybe you would be happy with this job.

[flange]

ouch. techs are supposed to fix stuff, whiile sales guys sell. a tech that is given that much leeway would seemingly sell a soul to get rich. not all would, but i know it would be a thought. seems like a bad idea to me.

[tjc76]

They run about 10 guys and up to 20 in the busy season.

This right there is reason enough to forget this job offer. Will you be among the ten to work 12 months a year, or among the ten who gets let go come Sept or October?

[snowbertca]

If thats the people suggested by Chuckcrj they came to visit our class last fall. Bad vibe, not very forthcoming. As far as I know no-one is going there. One guy from the school went there and did okay a few yrs ago for a while, left for other reasons. Got the impression turnover is v high and can't recruit from other firms due to reputation. Have to recruit from 500 miles away or more ? Why?

[KB Cool]

This right there is reason enough to forget this job offer. Will you be among the ten to work 12 months a year, or among the ten who gets let go come Sept or October?

If he can make alot of money in the summer, he maybe okay. Just think!!! 17 percent of a compressor change out times 50. Where do i sign up? Serious, 17 percent isn't enough. Ask for 30 percent!

[snowbertca]

Search for the outfit online

[jmiles]

The numbers just don't seem to add up. If I worked 6 days a week for 50 weeks that means my service truck would have to bring in $2000 a day and $12,000 a week to every week to hit 600k
Annual sales . Could supeman hit these numbers..

[jmiles]

If an average call is $200 that is $34 in my pocket with drive time could be 3 hours roundtrip if on call and had to leave and return back home .

[JWB]

why don't we openly name the co? Is it against the rules?

[Chuck]

why don't we openly name the co? Is it against the rules?

Good question

[John Markl]

How difficult would it be to make a decent paycheck at a large national residential company that pays on commission only.?? I have a job offer from them.. They say some of their techs make 100k if they sell maintenance plans and things like that.. Then some only make 40k. I mean to make a 100k that means you would have to produce 600k annual sales. Is this realistic? They run about 10 guys and up to 20 in the busy season. Kinda hard to determine true income potential..

We're discussing this topic in house right now.

How many calls can you run a day? What is an average ticket?

If you run 4 calls a day, with a $500 average ticket, you're practically there, without even discussing equipment comissions or maintenance agreements.

Here's the deal. Some will say, that commission-based pay "causes" unethical selling.

Does it?

How does a one-man shop operate? You got it....commission-based pay (practically speaking).

Are all one-man shops unethical? Are one-man shops any more unethical than bigger shops?

Not hardly.

Commission-based pay doesn't make you unethical, any more than a flat-rate book does.

An ethical man is an ethical man......and a thief is a thief....period.

[Chuck]

$500 average ticket is really hard to get in residential. There is always lots of maintenance calls and that drags down the average. Unless you don't do maintenance agreements.

[John Markl]

If an average call is $200 that is $34 in my pocket with drive time could be 3 hours roundtrip if on call and had to leave and return back home .

If your average ticket is $200 in a market like Chicagoland, it's too low. Unless you're running 10 gas-n-go's a day....

A $69 diagnostic, plus a contactor and 5-2-1 add-on will blow the doors off of that.

A $69 diagnostic, plus a condenser fan motor will blow the doors off of that.

A $69 diagnostic, plus a few pounds of R-22 will cover that.

It's a matter of understanding the HVAC system, AND understanding the customer's wants, needs, and fears.

[John Markl]

$500 average ticket is really hard to get in residential. There is always lots of maintenance calls and that drags down the average. Unless you don't do maintenance agreements.

I'd somewhat disagree.

If you're there on a maintenance agreement, it can be EASIER to sell repairs.

You're there because they're already "your" customer, and they trust you to make sure their system is in top condition.

If you take your wife's car to the mechanic and tell him: "We're going on vacation next week....make sure everything is in order".....and they call you back and say it's all ready to go, and it didn't need anything....How comfortable would you be?

If I take my wife's car in for a pre-trip checkup, I EXPECT them to call me with some things that need to be taken care of.

On the other hand, when you go on a demand call, upselling can be a little more difficult....many will just want it patched up and running....and may see any upsell opportunities as "gold digging"....

[Chuck]

Realistically, on a basic residential system that has maintenance every year, how can you average anywhere close to $500 worth of repairs per year??

[comfortdoc]

.....

Here's the deal. Some will say, that commission-based pay "causes" unethical selling.

Does it?

How does a one-man shop operate? You got it....commission-based pay (practically speaking).

Are all one-man shops unethical? Are one-man shops any more unethical than bigger shops?

Not hardly.

Commission-based pay doesn't make you unethical, any more than a flat-rate book does.

An ethical man is an ethical man......and a thief is a thief....period.

One difference is the one man shop has his own name on the shingle. In a multi-tech shop I can see one bad seed spoiling the entire crop.

How are callbacks handled in this system? Does the customer wait until the tech that originally performed the service is available?

In my opinion putting together a bonus system that rewards quality (low call backs) with moderate to high production would allow the owner to attract and retain the best techs.

[John Markl]

Realistically, on a basic residential system that has maintenance every year, how can you average anywhere close to $500 worth of repairs per year??

Statistically, every system represents $750-900 per year in sales, depending on who you're listening to.

That being said....We don't shoot for $500 average tickets. That was a number I threw out for discussion because the OP is in Chicago.

I'm in North Texas. The cost of living is vastly different. Nobody in their right mind would expect to make $100k a year as an HVAC tech in this part of the country. I have had guys who made almost $60k.

So, if we used $60k as a baseline...That's about $350k per year in sales at 17%.

That's about $6800 per week...or $1360 per day....divided by 4 calls per day, which equals $340 per call average. You already get $65-75 of that just for showing up and diagnosing the problem....leaving $270 to get in repairs or upgrades.....not that hard to accomplish....with what we're getting now for contactors, run caps, motors, hard-starts, and R-22.......