You’re a super salesperson.
Your contact information file
needs its own memory stick.
You close deals quickly.
You can sell anything
and everything.
A prospective new employer
offers you a choice
between a higher base salary
and a lower commission base
OR
a lower base salary
and a MUCH higher commission base.
Which one do you choose?
If you need the money
to live on,
in 8 out of 10 situations,
you should choose
the higher base salary.
Why?
Because base salary is set.
A superb salesperson buddy of mine
has worked for a Fortune 500 company
for two years.
This company has fiddled with
the commission calculation
three times,
each adjustment resulting
in him receiving LESS commission
for the same sales.
Because bonuses
and other calculations
are based on base salary.
Because the company
often determines your patch.
They decide who you sell to
and what you sell to them.
Companies tend to give
the salespeople
with the highest commission rates
the suckiest patches.
(Your manager will likely
say something like,
‘We want to challenge you.’
Don’t fall for that bullsh*t.
What they want
is to reduce
the costs of employing you.)
Because if you’re laid off
(which happens to salespeople
more often
than other employees),
your unemployment benefits
are often based
on your base salary.
Because the next employer
will ask you
what your base salary
was
and use that
to determine how important
you were to the previous employer.
And there are many
other reasons.
Negotiate for as high
of a base salary
as possible.