re: Fresh out of college, no real-world experience, no specialized degree. Salary expectation?

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What would you do without Google? To those of us old enough to have lived before it, don't you think our Google is simply memory? I know what my crappy rates were. I was only 27 trying to figure it all out with a real live human being.

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You didn't think to call around to find the best rates? You don't need google for that.

“Sales position” is so vague you might as well have said I’m hiring for a business job

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We pay roughly $45k/year + commission which is a % of the yearly revenue they bring in. You bring in a $2,000/yr deal, you get $100, bring in $20,000 you get $1,000. I guess most of them bring in about $70,000/yr incl. commission

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Leads provided and spoon fed or would a fresh out of college kid have to cultivate and prospect? Who is teaching them? How much rope until they are on their own? How are they measured?

Pedro, are you a teacher

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Will Cover

Salary expectation? For a sales position.

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After reading this entire thread, I have several observations.

Position

1. Most people who think they are salesmen are really just order takers. Those type of jobs should usually get low-to-middle base pay plus bonuses for team performance. Typically this involves inside and catalog sales – but it can also involve outside sales if they only have established customers with set purchase patterns.

2. True salesmen… SELL. They are problem solvers – sometimes they can solve problems you didn’t even know you had! These people CREATE opportunities for new product depth and penetration. Expansion of customer base. And of course, doing it better than the competition. These people are much more confident and are willing to work on a smaller base plus higher commission, and they will usually make double or triple what order takers make.


Process

1. 150 interviews? That’s insane. Even a blend of phone, face-to-face, managers, and panel interviews would take on average 1000 man hours a year to complete. Multiply that times your managers pay and you could be blowing through $50-100K worth of interview time easily. And that doesn’t include travel expenses to get someone there.

2. Fire your recruiters. They clearly don’t understand that their job is to pre-qualify candidiates before the interview cycle. In fact, they should never put a candidate in front of your managers that are not willing to accept the job if offered. Even if it requires a move. Even pay and compensation should be ready to go. Candidates should already be sold on your company by now and all they should be worried about is a) whether your company wants THEM, b) if the manager and team personality is a fit. Maybe c) nuances about the job the recruiters can’t talk about. But that’s. Right now, they are sucking big time at their job.

3. Maybe fire your HR manager if you’ve been operating like this for a long time. Clearly he isn’t managing his staff. Recruiters handle job candidates and they should be on first name terms with the departments and workers they are recruiting for – they must understand the job really really well. HR people handle benefits and protect against lawsuits. They are usually 100% clueless about actual job duties and what is needed in a person to fill it.

4. Have the balls to cut an interview short. Frankly, for a sales position, you should know pretty quickly whether or not someone has a chance at fitting or making it to the next interview round. If they are not a fit, ANY MINUTE extra you spend with them is counterproductive.

5. Train your people on how to interview. Most employees on an interview panel truly don’t know how to ask questions or even know what to look for.

a. Was the candidate prepared? Did they do good research, know your product details, understand who your competitors are, etc.?

b. Are they confident and have a good personality without being smarmy or smug?

c. Do they present themselves appropriately for your company?

d. Do they have too much ambition or a plan to move out of sales in the future?

e. Do they ask the right questions?

f. Are there any unexplained gaps in their resume or work history?

g. Is their education appropriate? Your company may not care for educational background for sales reps… but your customers might.

h. Would they be willing to take an extra day and ride/work with one of your top sales reps in another region? Or since you mentioned inside sales, at multiple sales desks?

i. Are they willing to move and ACCEPT this position if offered?

j. Do they have unrealistic expectations about salary/earnings/benefits? Do they understand reasonable salary levels for your area?


Finally, I’m going to tell you the perfect answer on how a candidate SHOULD answer the salary question: “What type of compensation would you need to come to work for us?”

Answer: “I am currently making XXX dollars per year plus bonuses that could add another YYY dollars to that. I’m not going to make a major change unless it is worth it for my family, or if it doesn’t make sense for my career path. If I start to work for you, and exceed my job evaluation expectations and show how I add value to the company, what type of compensation could I earn? I know that’s what *I* am going to do for your company, so *THAT’S* what I would expect you to pay me.”

And wrap it up with “It looks like there might be a good fit if we can work things out. I am very interested in the position you have described to me and I know the company has a solid reputation. I think I could do well here. What is the next step in this process?”


JMHO. Good luck on your hiring!

Entry level pay for that field

Put your boots on and head for Midland Baw, well testers getting 110K+ a year to live in the middle of hell in a trailer and watch gauges 24-7.

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Look, I know the real money is always in the base salary. Why? Because it is guaranteed. But it took me many years to be able to get to a point in my career to understand, expect and demand it. This person does not.

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It really isn't. Great salespeople blow out their numbers and their base salary is not a big number compared to their overall income.

jeebus this is for somebody fresh out of college with no experience?


I started out after graduation at 40k with an associates degree but I had years of pipefitting/qc experience (i miss that money but i like the office). I was excited to get that. I graduate with my bachelors in December and I'm hoping to get bumped up in to the 60k range mostly based on my experience.

I know a ton of folks who think that they are valuable just because of their degree. They have no internships or work experience.

It isn't just millenials who have over the top expectations. My best friend is a civil engineer. When he graduated college he took the first job offered which was for a surveying firm making about 16 bucks an hour. He worked that for 2 months while job searching and ended up landing a position with CBI for about 60k. His dad told him that maybe he should hold out for more money.