Pay Day in the Dealer Community
Copier Careers annual salary surveys for sales managers, service managers, and service technicians offers insights into compensation packages within the office equipment industry.
By Scott Cullen
Last year Copier Careers a recruiting organization focused on placing experienced imaging professionals within independent dealerships across the United States, conducted its third annual salary survey among service managers, service technicians, and sales managers in the copier community. Here are some of the highlights in each of those categories. The entire salary surveys for the past four years are available for review at www.CopierCareers.com. The first of the three 2005 salary surveys will be available beginning in April 2005.
Service Managers
The 2004 Service Management Salary Survey reveals that although salaries are up on average and managers are generally content with their compensation, most are dissatisfied with their current employer and are open to new opportunities elsewhere. That dissatisfaction and openness to new opportunities is consistent with their sales manager and service tech counterparts who also seem to possess a "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" mentality when it comes to their current employment situation.
The breakdown by title in this survey is as follows: service managers (421), followed by vice president of service (222), general manager (201), regional service manager (112), and ops manager (108). Most respondents supervise directly or through subordinate supervisors more than 200 individuals.
Respondents are career copier industry folks, averaging 23.44 years in the industry. These individuals have been with their present companies a total of 16.8 years. When asked how many years they expect to stay at their present company before leaving, the response was 8 years, compared to last year when they noted 15 years. "That's a sign of instability or uneasiness about their current position," observes Paul Schwartz, president of Copier Careers. "That's pretty significant because that's about half as long as they said they intended to stay last year."
Annual base salaries for respondents vary depending on management position, but salaries are up for all job titles within the service management segment. The highest compensation goes to vice presidents of service at $72,813, followed by general manager, $71,980. Ops managers have an annual base salary of $71,840 while regional service managers have an average base salary of $69,367. The average annual base salary for service managers was $60,099. "Wages are up a little bit for these people and it seems like they're being paid alright, but even so, they're still looking for other opportunities," notes Dave Grandelis, director of recruiting for Copier Careers "Currently, there's not a lot of turnover in service management positions. It seems like there's a lot of talk, but not a lot of walk."
Ops manager report the biggest increase--$2,358-in annual base salary over 2003 followed by vice presidents of service who average increases of $1,524.
When asked to report the value of non-cash and indirect cash rewards they received in the past year, managers averaged $17,132, an $883 increase over the previous year. This may indeed be related to a rebound in the economy compared to last year when those rewards dropped $11,782 from 2002.
Looking at the bonuses and other direct cash payments received by respondents, 63% of respondents receive bonuses for personal performance, 51% receive company profit sharing, and 45% reap rewards for project milestone completion. No other response yielded double-digit results. While personal performance bonuses are up 10%, perhaps again reflecting an upturn in the economy and an upturn in business, down by 6% from last year's survey is project milestone completion. Also down by 5% are retention bonuses, which were received by 4% of respondents, and those who received no bonuses (3%), a 5% decrease from 2003.
Respondents report certain non-cash and indirect cash rewards are on the decline, again reflecting the belt tightening that has been going on throughout the industry the past two years. 401(k) Match rewards are down 43% with only 31% of respondents enjoying this benefit. Also down a significant 31% are those receiving rewards for further education/training with only 2% saying they receive this perk. Other areas down double digits include stock purchase plan (-14%) from 19% in 2003 to 5% this year, and company or car allowance (-18%), with 78% noting they receive this benefit compared to 96% in 2003. One area that is up (+10%), however, is tuition reimbursement-17% this year compared to 7% last year.
When asked how satisfied they were with their total compensation package, the majority of respondents (36%) were neutral on the matter. That's an 18% increase from last year. Fully 19% were very satisfied, down 7% from last year, and 21% were satisfied, down 4% from 2003. While one may view these responses as a glass half full situation, it's safe to say that managers seem to be generally satisfied with their overall compensation. Overall, fewer respondents (13%) were dissatisfied with their total compensation package, compared to 20% in 2003. The number of managers very dissatisfied remained stable from last year at 11%.
Service Technicians
Take a close look at the average service technician and you're likely to find an individual who is consistent in their work habits, consistent in their job and consistent in their personal lives. At least that's the assumption one can make based on anecdotal evidence and the results of the 2004 Service Technician Survey.
In this the third year of the survey, responses by and large were fairly consistent with the surveys of the previous two years, although there were some interesting variations. Perhaps the most notable variation was in current base salary which jumped from $33,144 in 2003 to $35,106 this year, an increase of $1,962.
Bonuses were down $164 compared to the previous year. In the 2003 survey, techs earned $3,492 in bonuses, but in the 2004 survey, that figure dropped to $3,328. The biggest drops were in Project/Milestone Completion (-14%) and Hot Skill Premium as separate line on paycheck" (-15%). Signing bonuses were also down 5%.
In the digital age, certification and training are critical, and that's one area where techs are being acknowledged by their employers, with 54% earning bonuses in this area. That represents a 40% increase from last year's survey. "Having certification is reflecting more on a technician's paycheck," notes Schwartz. He also notes that more techs are expected to have greater knowledge of certain products and certain models, which may also reflect why techs are being compensated for their training.
Outside of those areas, responses were up or down between 1% and 2% from the previous survey when it came to bonuses or cash compensation for Personal Performance (2%), Company Profit Sharing (-2%), and Retention Bonus (1%).
Stock Options continue on their dramatic three year decline. In the first year of the survey, techs estimated the value of their Stock Options at $8,520. Last year that value nose-dived by more than $6,000 to $2,112. This year techs estimate the value of their stock options as a modest $1,103 or $1,009 less than last year. "Three years ago bonuses and stock options were a bigger part of a tech's compensation," explains Schwartz. "Over the past three years things have gotten back to traditional employment issues for techs-their commutes, is management good and honest people and will I be rewarded for my work?"
Sales Managers
Fully 97% of sales managers responding to the 2004 Sales Manager Survey say they are either actively looking or somewhat looking for a job with a different employer. That's up 12% from last year and is indicative that these employees are keeping their options open for better opportunities elsewhere.
Thirty-two percent of respondents work for companies with less than $1 million in annual revenues. The majority of respondents (66%) work for companies with annual revenues of $1-$10 million. The remaining 2% work for companies with annual revenues of $10 million to $50 million.
Base salaries and commissions are on the rise. The current annual base salary of this year's respondents was $42,211, a $1,111 increase over 2003. Commissions for this group are up $3,443 over the previous year to $62,121. That's quite the contrast to last year when sales managers reported commissions of $58,678, down $2,622 from the previous year.
"Salaries have increased, possibly because employers are trying to keep their people around longer," notes Grandelis. "The commissions are coming back to what they were in 2001," says Grandelis.
"I'm assuming if commissions are up, sales are up," adds Schwartz.
Personal performance bonuses were earned by 87% of respondents, up 12% from last year. Fully 46% received additional monies through company profit sharing and 48% received bonuses for project milestone completion. The biggest negative variations in compensation are found in signing bonuses where only 3% earned money in this area, down 15% from last year, and retention bonuses (9%), down 10% from last year.
While overall compensation is up, sales managers aren't overwhelmingly satisfied with their total compensation package. Only 19% of respondents said they were very satisfied with their total compensation package and 21% said that they were satisfied. Meanwhile, 26% were neutral on the topic, 13% dissatisfied and 11% very dissatisfied. "We have seen a lot of dissatisfaction among sales managers and reps as some employers are changing commission plans and moving established territories away from seasoned reps and managers," explains Grandelis. "Most of this has been attributed to cut backs."
Non-cash and indirect cash rewards were largely in line with last year but for three notable exceptions. Only 78% of respondents received a company car or car allowance, down 19% from the 2003 survey. Down a whopping 36% were sales managers with company paid phone/fax/cable modem/DSL lines. Last year 58% of respondents said they received this perk, this year, just 22%. This is just another example of dealerships cutting back as they look to increase productivity and reduce costs. On the plus side, more sales managers are receiving tuition reimbursement. In this year's survey, 17% qualified for this perk, compared to just 2% last year.
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