This may be the dumbest question I ever had to ask you guys!

Because I already know the answer, at least from those of you who know how to run a business.

Hypothetical: Your crew is doing a roof job and a different property owner sees your nice equipment with the full body wrap and nice pickups. He watches your crew for a few days and notices that they do a lot of detail the other guys leave out - they're doing a good job.

The guys owns a LOT of commercial real estate, so he stops by the job and talks to one of the crewmen who is down off the roof getting some water or something. The crewman is polite to him and answer the guy's questions, and gives him the boss' business card. The crewman is an hourly waged employee, btw.

Ok, the guy calls a few days later and wants quotes on some roofs. He likes the quotes and says he wants you to do all of his roofing. So now your crewman thinks he caused the sale and wants a 5% commission on everything you do for that new customer.

Do you give your crewman a few hundred bucks to say thanks but decline to pay him anything more because he was on the clock as an employee, or do you pay him 5% commission on everything you do for the new customer?

There is a lot more to earning the commision then talking to someone for 2 minutes. We will give extra for a lead that a worker brings from family or friends, but not from the job site.

I just had a worker bring a lead from a family friend. I asked him why he is not selling it. Our workers when someone walks up and asks for a price they know to start the sales process and get the customers information, if the home is right there get measurements if it is not the whole building [we use Eagle Views for pricing and material lists], and pictures. If they want the commission they need to do the whole sales process, right down to ordering the materials.

So the anwser is no. I would not even give him the couple of hundred.

Thanks Lefty.

I agree, when someone is on the clock he/she is expected to do the fundamental things to represent his employer. Those basic duties do not warrant a commission on that job or every job for that customer.

The reverse is the best proof of that: If a potential customer walked up to our jobsite and asked one of my employees some questions, and my employee said "I don't get paid to answer your questions, I'm a laborer," he'd be fired on the spot.

I know it sounded like a trick question because the correct answer is so obvious, but this actually came up recently for us.

Lefty Said: If they want the commission they need to do the whole sales process, right down to ordering the materials.

When I worked for a roofing company and when I became a licensed roofing contractor, I always took care of the guys. I provided them with business cards with my name on it, they would hand write their name on it and I gave them a lead fee if the job was sold. If the prospect actually mentioned their names it would be a fee based on the amount of the job. It wasn't uncommon for a tear off guy to receive a $500 bonus for a job that was sold because of their initial contact. Plus being a licensed contractor they were actual employees and not 1099ers.

They got paid to talk to the guy didn't they? I've told guys that talk too much to go home with the other guy if they want to talk! Or at least talk AND work.

edit: ^--thats co-workers though. My guys are always courteous on the job and we never used to give them anything for getting us work from family/friends. It was just considered helping us & them, but now I give them a fee.

This was not family or friends, it was a total stranger who happened by.

Back in the day when I was a realtor it was called "procuring cause of sale." The procuring cause of sale determined who got the commission. In this case the procuring causes of the sale were, in descending order of importance toward getting the customer:

1. We were on a job that was convenient for the new prospect to notice. 2. He saw our nice equipment and it caught his eye and made him curious. 3. He noticed that we do extra detail on the edges. 4. I put together a nice proposal package at a price he thought was reasonable. 5. Myself and my son answered 2 dozens questions he had about what we do. 6. Our credentials checked out. 7. An employee just happened to be standing there when he pulled up to ask for a card.

Of all the possible causes of the sale listed above, #7 is the one most likely to have made no difference in the sale.

Also, we bid the guy's work long before our employee decided he deserved 5%. A 5% commission was not plugged into the price.

The 5% part is rhetorical.... but I would do something for the guy. Probably even the whole crew, and probably at one of our company functions, for all to see, as an example of the fact that you are ALWAYS selling, even when it's just your appearance and your work ethic. Be proud to be part of something different, and know that your actions DO count, and if it shows so well that it gets us work, you will be rewarded.... even though there's no obligation to do so.

Good employees are hard to come by, something like this is an opportunity to make an object lesson that should not be missed.

I don't disagree with Lefty often, but definitely on this issue.

Mike, the fact that he has demanded the commission on every job we do for the new customer, kinda puts his value to our company not very high.

Frankly, this seems like a pretty black & white cut & dried issue to me.

Tim,

I think I understand the question perfectly.

His 5% "damand" is laughable. I would have laughed in his face. If he was anything less than a great employee that did a great job of representing your crew and company, I might have even walked him to the door.

But I would still use this opportunity as I described above for the sake of the crew and the company.

Caught your edit ;) LOL

Of course I just finished a quote for 2770 squares for that same customer I mentioned in the thread I erased a week or so ago. So I'm in a pretty good mood as it regards crewmen making a good impression. 'nother day, 'nother circumstances, maybe I'd have a different attitude.

Ya know how that goes, I'm sure. ;)

Yeah Mike, I edited it quickly as that part seemed whiney. lol

I'm just frustrated that's all. We pay our guys a good bit more than we have to. I pump their hours if we have bad weather so they get a decent check. The guy takes home our company pickup. I think we have treated him pretty darn good and it was like a 2x4 in the back of my knees when I was accused of not treating him fairly on this.

Where do people get their entitlement ideas from.

So I had this great employee - loved her. I took all the office to the trade shows and she never got to go. We would all come back with these fun stories of getting to go out to dinners and the travel etc. So I decided to send her on a dream vacation for the weekend to San Fransisco. She had never been on a plane before. I sat her down and planned her entire trip - airfare, Alcatraz, every taxi ride, tips and nice dinners, set her up at a Marriott so she could have a nice room. I also included an Oakland Raiders game BUT I asked her to get the tickets herself because she had a connection. I wrote her a check for all the spending money and the tickets.

I was happy to do it for her and proud I could. She comes to me a few days later and says the tickets were $18.00 dollars more than we had figured so could I give her the difference. Mind you she probably had $800.00 spending money in her pocket she hadn't spent yet but she needed $18.00 more.

I was so mad that I got $18 in loose change and walked up to her desk and dumped it on it and said "here you go".

:lol: Vickie, please don't stop the story there...