I always enjoy reading the results of Copier Careers’ annual salary surveys. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that offers recruitment services for the document imaging industry recently released their twelfth annual Sales Management Salary Survey, and there’s some worthwhile information in there, whether you’re a sales manager or the owner of a dealership.
I find there’s a lot of validity to these Copier Career surveys based on the number of respondents. This year 1,069 sales managers responded to the online survey. That’s a solid number. The survey tracked such things as compensation, how well employers are meeting sales manager’s needs, and job satisfaction.
I won’t go into all the findings of the survey. You can find that here. As far as compensation, something that most everyone in the industry is curious about, the average annual compensation for this year is $147,734, up from $137,731 last year. If you go back to 2004, the first year of the survey, that figure was $104,332.
Last week I caught up with Paul Schwartz, President of Copier Careers, to delve deeper into the results of this year’s survey and look beyond the numbers.
What was the biggest surprise in this year’s sales manager salary survey?
Schwartz: Sales managers are embracing solutions and technologies because they’re making the correlation between the ability to sell these solutions and ultimately the revenue they bring in. They’re realizing that the channel is expanding rapidly. We notice a bit of the downtick in the time the individual has been at their position and we’re starting to see some people are either accepting the new reality of this expanded channel of solutions because that’s what we’re calling it. It’s not copier anymore and the copier channel is offering more solutions. Solutions are best served locally and we’re seeing massive organic growth within our clients that have embraced this. This is directly reflected in the salary survey.
You attribute the 4.4 percent increase in compensation to revised compensation plans. How do you think those are being revised?
Schwartz: We have about 300 clients and there are 300 different comp plans. A lot of clients are dealing with how do we compensate people for this and how do we not over compensate and stay profitable. I don’t have a straight up answer for your question, but I know that most of them in one way or another have figured out what works for them and that’s what becomes the norm rather than the exception. They’ve settled in on some form of comp and it varies wildly among the various dealers, but they are no longer struggling with it.
In the last year, we have been placing a lot of CFOs, back-office operations, and operations people, and a lot of that is because of the advent of MPS and MNS. Many dealers did not know what their profit margins were before. They didn’t know how to compensate people and we’re starting to see that tighten up with all of our clients.
I found it interesting that 30 percent of sales managers participating were women. What’s happened?
Schwartz: It used to be you would rarely see a woman in a management role. It’s no longer a ‘good old boys club.’ It’s starting to evolve and we’re also seeing that reflected with sales reps; I don’t think it’s all the way there. We don’t see it as much with technicians or service managers yet.
I find it interesting that selling sales managers are making a comeback. Do you think this is by design or necessity and do you think these folks are embracing this change?
Schwartz: For roughly 10 years we did not hear the term ‘selling sales manager’ [at Copier Careers]. This whole thing that you can’t serve two masters, you’re either a manager or a sales rep and you can’t do both well. That started to change with the advent of MPS and MNS. With MPS the sales or takedowns are pretty large and to carry a personal quota for a selling sales manager, he has a team or individuals or the infrastructure of the dealership to back him up.
I think the answer is it doesn’t take as much micromanagement on behalf of the selling sales manager to manage his quota. It’s usually a big quota, but they still have time to manage a team. Typically the teams under the selling sales manager are usually three to four max and if it goes beyond that they become a traditional sales manager.
I didn’t see a graph for age, and I don’t remember if you ever tracked that information, but anecdotally, what are you seeing in this regard for people seeking sales management positions in this day and age?
Schwartz: We don’t track age, but we ask how long have you been in the industry and how long do you expect to stay in industry. We’ve seen how long they’ve been in industry starting to go down. Anecdotally, if you think about the needs of our industry, there are a lot of managers who are at the point where they are at a retirement age. The other thing we’re starting to see is people coming up through the ranks. If those individuals have been in the industry 10 years, they’ve spent half of their experience with MPS, MNS, and solutions selling. Pushing a box has almost become an oddity for these people.
Are there a fair amount of openings for sales managers?
Schwartz: We have placed more sales managers or selling sales managers in the past three years than we have in the previous 10 years. I think it’s a reflection of the aging of the industry and a reflection of how someone has to embrace this new technology, understand it, understand how to sell it, and realize that it’s a huge revenue stream. If they don’t understand it, then they’re probably not the most effective in their position.
The other thing is it’s not unusual in the last two to three years that we have traditional copier dealership clients that are going through 75-150 percent organic growth because of MPS and MNS. All that does is drive the other needs of the individual owner.
Why aren’t they finding those resources in their own company and coming to you?
Schwartz: I was talking to a client the other day and they’re selling more solutions and they were a traditional dealership that wanted to bring in someone from the outside who understood how to sell these solutions. They didn’t have someone. Some of these entities are going through such rapid expansion they don’t have enough people or enough infrastructure to support their rapid growth.
If you went through 75-100 percent growth would it be better to turn one of your inside reps into a sales manager or would it be better to bring in someone from the outside who has gone through that natural progression for the size you’re now at and let them apply their skills?
How easy is it to find these people?
Schwartz: It’s becoming more difficult to recruit sales reps, sales managers, and selling sales managers because all of a sudden their comp has become cyclical now because of what they’re selling. If they’re selling solutions, they’re implemented over a long term period and it creates a revenue stream. Once you create a revenue stream it’s harder to get that person to leave the position they’re currently at when they know they can bank on X amount of revenue.
What skills are employers looking for in a sales manager these days?
Schwartz: All of a sudden they get and appreciate the technical side of it. Where a couple of years ago they didn’t embrace that as much. We’re seeing a convergence there, and they have to be willing to work in a collaborative atmosphere. You need the tech people on board and you need someone who is a business manager, who is communicative and can lead their team and understand how to get in the door.
These positions are interesting because it used to be they basically had to start over every month, well now if you position yourself properly with your solution it’s a cyclical annuity. The other important thing they have to do is be extremely customer oriented and drive customer service and keep the client happy with all these solutions or the client will find someone else.
