Have You Earned A Living On Commission?

L

Lon

Well-known Member
Location
Central California
Most of my working life after age 30 was in sales and the majority of my income was based on commission. Many people have a problem with living and raising a family on commission income. It does require one to be good at handling money and budgeting, but for those that can do that, you can earn a excellent income
 

The only people I know who did well on commission were in commercial real estate back in the day, and even they had ups and downs.

Living on commission is not for everyone.
 

It's interesting how many people think only of door to door selling when you talk about commission income and certainly some people do pretty well with the Vacum Cleaner sales, House Wares etc., but what about Auto Sales,Pharmaceuticals, Insurance. Stock Brokerage, Equipment Sales etc.

A good Commission Sales Person is NEVER UNEMPLOYED.
 
There are a lot of commission jobs now that aren't door to door. My son gets a base pay and a whole lot more with the more sales he closes. He sells "smart systems" to businesses. Sometimes he'll be working with a client more than a week, so he has to know his product and be able to think on his feet. He's good at it, but it's not for everybody.
 
My husband was a car salesman in the early years of our marriage and he was good at it. And as a business owner of a window cleaning company in Vancouver, he honed his talent every day. It takes a certain kind of person to be a sales rep for any product. I would starve if I tried to do that for a living unless it was a product that I was passionate about because it was the best one for that particular need.
 
I worked a variety of types of sales positions over the years, commission sales were the worse of my experiences. I couldn't ever get comfortable with convincing people to part with money I felt at times seemed as if it were a burden for them. Sales always felt like a con, not saying there aren't worthy causes and honorable positions in the field, it just never suited me though I spent many years in retail management as well, but, I never loved it. Only good thing, is I made some life long friends during a stint here and there. :)
 
Real estate, furniture sales, sure beat waitressing. More interesting too. I liked working with the public.
 
After I got out of the Army, I tried selling Singer Sewing machines. Needless to say, I nearly starved to death.

One call was out in the boondocks, and as I was setting up my machine, chickens starting coming in the kitchen and hopped right up on the table. Come to find out, all this old gal wanted was someone to talk to, besides the chickens, so I put away my machine and spent the morning just gabbing away with her. Some salesman, right?

This was pretty much my last call and I went to work for a grocery store.
 
i spent most of my working career as a commissioned sales engineer . loved the fact i was rewarded automatically if i did well . counting on raises sucked . i much rather be in a position to eat what i kill .
 
selling is not a talent someone easily learns .

in fact they still have not filled my slot as a sales engineer .

you can teach product to a salesman and he can do well . but trying to turn an engineer in to a salesman is very hard . or near impossible
 
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