13th-annual telemarketing compensation update

Telemarketing, Jun 1995

In April 1995, we mailed a Confidential Compensation Questionnaire to 2,500 qualified telemarketing managers. The results were compiled in May 1995 from information received from 161 companies -- a response rate of 6%. (Companies that did not provide complete information on how they compensate their telemarketing employees were omitted from tabulation.) Of the 161 respondents included in our results, 88 identified themselves as in-house telemarketing departments (55% of respondents), 13 as service agencies (8%) and 60 did not specify (37%).

What You'll Find

The average, minimum and maximum salary and commission (if applicable) figures are provided for each employee category (and subcategories -- inbound, outbound, both inbound and outbound, and undetermined), for both full-time (working 30 hours or more) and part-time (working less than 30 hours) telemarketing employees. Please keep this in mind when comparing your salary figures to those listed in the tables and graphs. (All tables and graphs omitted)

Average, minimum and maximum bonus figures for each category are also provided. Because the total number of companies providing employee bonus information was small compared to the total number of respondents in each of the subcategories (inbound, outbound, both inbound and outbound, and undetermined as to inbound or outbound), those figures are only identified as referring to either full-time or part-time employees.

The two-page Confidential Compensation Questionnaire also included demographic information, which will be published in our exclusive "Inside The Nation's Call Centers" report, in the July 1995 issue of Telemarketing(R) magazine.

Results

The following tables and graphs include information on TSRs Paid Salary Only (No Commission), TSRs Paid Hourly Wage Only (No Commission), TSRs Paid a Base (either Hourly or Annual Salary) Plus Commission, and Management Salaries (supervisors, managers and combined positions). Although we included the category TSRs Paid Commission Only on the questionnaire, the total number of companies that provided information for this category was not considered to be statistically relevant.

While most of our compensation information is presented in tabular form, we felt the information for TSRs Paid a Base (either Hourly or Annual Salary) Plus Commission could be best presented in graphs. When comparing your compensation practices to those of the respondents in this category, please note that there are separate charts for TSRs who are Paid a Base Plus Earn Commission as a Percentage of the Value of Product or Service (or Unit) Sold (Graph A-1), and those who are Paid a Base Plus Earn Commission after a Certain Sales Volume is Achieved (Graphs B-1 and B-2). (All graphs omitted) Please be aware that because there were several variables involved in calculating the total annual compensation figures for TSRs who are Paid a Base Plus Earn Commission after a Certain Sales Volume is Achieved, you must consult both graphs provided under that heading (Graph B-1 and Graph B-2) to find the total annual compensation for those employees. Once again, please note that there are separate graphs for determining compensation for full-time and part-time employees.

Management Commission Practices

When requesting information on telemarketing management compensation practices, we included an open-ended question asking how telemarketing management earned commission, if they, in fact, did so. Because companies responding to this open-ended commission question listed a number of ways in which commission could be earned, and because many did not specify how commission was earned, we have disregarded those variables -- providing only the average, maximum and minimum commission figures for each category (and its corresponding subcategories). For your information, the most frequently mentioned ways in which commission is earned, according to our respondents, are: sales, override, quota or by appointments made.

Note: All dollar figures have been rounded off to the nearest dollar.