What is the range of income for Field Sales reps for major bike companies?
For independent outside (work for yourself) reps, from what I have seen usually 5-8% of what you sell, i.e. wholesale cost. Mark up is usually 30 ish% for hard goods and 50% for soft goods. Its all about your accounts (customers) and really what lines you sell, and year round lines (i.e. products that represent and sell year round, bikes and skies for example.) Hope that helps.
Thanks for such a prompt reply. It certainly is a good introduction.
My bet is that it works out to between $2/hr and $12/hr. But a lot of those hours are spent BS’ing in bike shops.
No-one does it for the money…
I hate my sales job for the money so maybe change is due, but that’s not very good. Just researching as many different outlets where I could apply my experience to something I wholeheartedly enjoy and have a passion for. Of course, I could find something along those lines and hate it too.
I think that most reps spend a lot of time driving around to different shops. Some have enormous territories which makes things harder.
Some have enormous territories which makes things harder.
Darrel,
Great point.
Yes, indeed. Mine is North America and Europe!
The phone is your friend.
Coming from someone who works in the job you want to know about…it literally comes out to a few bucks an hour. You need to factor in tens of thousands of miles (about 60 thousand for me) on the road, weeknight hotel stays, early morning and late evening clinics, weekend expos and supersales…You get the idea. You quickly go from being a racer to a participant in most events. The best way to survive as a rep is to have the world’s most understanding spouse and kids - and make sure she has a real job that pays better than a liveable wage (to make up for your losses).
although in all fairness Mac, you ARE the exception to the independent rep rule 
You are by far the most active and aggressive rep that I have met/known, and perhaps some of the various vendors whom you represent can substantiate this.
For the OP, I would venture to guess that depending upon which products you rep, your territory, and how active/aggressive you are, I would guess an average income ranges from $35k/year to maybe about $80k/year (the latter being for those who bust a hump). There are a rare few who make more than that.
…as far as having an understanding family, Mac is right but he was lucky to begin with. Whether he was a rep or not…if you ever met the dude, you’d realize that his significant other (sometimes posting under Kristi here on ST) was “understanding” long before Mac ever got into the bike biz