David Thorp: rewards for experience.

With both basic pay and bonuses rising, salespeople are amongst the best-paid employees in business, according to The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s latest Croner Sales Rewards study unveiled on 9 June. Sales professionals are paid more than colleagues in marketing, finance and human resources (HR) at most levels of seniority.

Above average

The average basic salary for a middle manager in sales is just over £38,000 – 5.6% higher than the national average for this level.

At the same time, average pay for a head of sales is £57,060, slightly behind a head of finance on £58,000, but comfortably more than that of heads of marketing on £53,963 and heads of HR on £52,603.

Highest-paid reps

Sales representatives in the South East remain the highest-paid (£27,490 on average), with pay a striking 16% more than the national average. Those in London were the next-highest earners with average pay of £26,716, 13% above the national average.

In contrast, sales representatives in the North East and North West are paid just under 10% below the national average, whilst sales representatives in Northern Ireland are paid 21% below the national average.

Rises

Pay awards for sales professionals averaged 3.2%, and are expected to remain roughly unchanged in the coming year at 3%. Once again, directors received the highest increase in earnings, up this year by 6.8%, whilst junior managers received the lowest increase at 1.3%.

Bonuses

Outside director level, fewer sales professionals received bonuses compared with last year, but the value of bonuses rose. Bonuses for the 31% of senior sales managers who received them were on average £7,780, whilst the 36% of sales directors who collected a bonus received on average £21,600.

Attracting talent

‘With the UK economy still in recession, organisations will need to hold on to their most experienced salespeople and attract the brightest talents if they are to tough it out until the economy recovers,’ said head of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing, David Thorp.

‘Organisations appear to have recognised this and our latest study confirms that businesses are rewarding their most experienced salespeople well for their vital contribution.’

A full copy of the Croner Sales Rewards 2009-2010 report is available for £350 from Croner Reward on 01785 813566.

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