What do good/bad A/V salepeople make? (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Ery]

I have a good idea what my brother makes and the range of earnings amongst the guys in his store, but, for giggles ,I'm curious if anyone else has industry knowledge or just a good educated guess...I know a lot of BB guys make about $8.00 an hour (not much incentive for their good employees to get better at what they do if the idiot they work with makes the same) .....What about CC, GG, Ultimate, SOUND ADVICE, Tweeters, and all the "Custom" shops ?
I hope this isn't personal , just trying to get an idea of how much I could expect to make if I worked in the industry. Do you have a salesperson that you like/dislike that you think is underpaid/overpaid ?
Does it bother you when the "Hi-end" shops guy shows up somewhere in a LEXUS?...

 

[Adil M]

At CC you can make 24000 to 80000 roughly (average is closer to 42000.) The best 2 salesguys know "enough," but are just plain great at sales. They crank people in and out. They act like they know what they are talking about. They move you to the high commission stuff. The next three guys are just quick to customers and longterm guys. These are the guys who stand by the entrance and claim you (and the other three guys)as their customers. The knowledgeable guys run right behind them and represent the median for sales. These are the guys that know the products and a lot of them do installs to the side to make a little extra. They can take you through pretty much the whole store and explain stuff. They also refer only each other to their customers. Then comes the lower half which is a mix of lacking knowledge and annoying personalities to different degrees. Snaking or stealing money will bump you up a step in this hierarchy I just explained.
Guys at the local high-end place have a much larger range of salaries w/ a higher mean and median too. At this place the guys who have been there the longest make the most ranging in the 70000 and higher (top quartile). The first three years here is the hardest b/c it's all about building your client pool and pretty much everyone is claimed.
If you don't like electronics, don't bother, b/c somewhere along the line you will get too frustrated w/ the customers to stick around or the beginning salary.
It does make a good sidejob and gives you a whole new perspective on the general opinions out there. You do get disounts on stuff you work w/ everyday.

 

[Ted Lee]

i worked at cc & gg for about four years total. i can tell ya adil has the hierachy down to a science!
one of the cc's i worked at was near a predominantly hispanic neighborhood. we had one guy in our department (who was the only guy who could speak spanish) - i'll tell ya...he made big bucks! the store loved him and he could do no wrong. luckily he was a pretty decent guy and never really snaked us. then we had some goofballs that i can't figure out how they made any money.
at the time (i don't know about anymore) the stores had a "draw vs. commission" structure. so you were guaranteed to take hom at least a certain amount per paycheck - if you were under they would subsidize you. the backside is that once you made over your minimum, they would take the subsidy back. don't know if it's still like that or not.
anyway, i don't remember my exact figures, but i think i took home around a grand every two weeks. i do remember during christmas time it was like candy. i think some of my two-week checks were around 2k...of course that's pretty rare.
commission sales sucks...i'm pretty sure i won't do it again...especially not as my primary source of income.

 

[Frank Carter]

Hey Jeff,

Which store does your brother own? Is it in the No. Va area? Just curious if I haven't found any hifi stores around here.

Frank