Paramus, N.J. -- Salary plus fixed commission is the primary compensation method for fulltime salespeople in smaller printing companies according to two industry sales segment reports from NAPL: Sales Representative Compensation Reports, Second Edition: Annual Sales $2 Million or Less and Annual Sales $2+ Million - $5 Million. The reports are two of a series of 10 new segmented reports on industry sales compensation broken out by annual company sales. Others in the series cover sales of $5+ million - $10 million, $10+ million - $20 million, and $20+ million. A similar segmented series tracks compensation for industry customer service representatives (CSRs).

About one-half of companies in the two smallest segments choose salary plus commission as their primary compensation method; by comparison, only 34.1% of companies in the $5+ million- $10 million segment use a salary plus commission percentage, and that number drops to 30.8% in the $10+ million - $20 million category, where draw against commission is the choice of 51.3% of those surveyed. Despite reservations voiced by some respondents, gross sales remains the primary commission base for a majority of companies in all segments, ranging from 51.6% in the $20+ million to 83.3% in the $2 million or less.

"NAPL believes in giving its members and others in the industry the opportunity to access critical management information in ways that best suit their needs," says Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL Vice President and Chief Economist. "We've presented the results of our latest  compensation studies in segmented reports for both sales representatives and CSRs so that companies can zero in on the data most relevant to businesses in their size category. Of course, for companies that want a broader industry view, we also offer reports that present the entire industry compensation breakdown for sales representatives and CSRs across all sales segments."

Paparozzi will discuss results from the new studies and NAPL Sales Consultant Mike Philie will offer practical ideas for restructuring compensation plans to optimize business growth in a free NAPL webinar on June 15 at 12 noon Eastern Time: "Solving the Sales Comp Puzzle." To register, go to http://tinyurl.com/plmlor.

The new NAPL compensation reports are based on research into compensation, benefits, and hiring practices of nearly 250 printing companies with annual sales from under $2 million to nearly $120 million, covering more than 900 sales reps and 850 CSRs. They are available in pdf form for instant access.

Among other findings for the $5 million and under segments:

Roughly half of sales representatives have the opportunity to earn a bonus-a figure in line with reps in larger companies-and, where bonuses are offered, their primary basis is exceeding sales targets.

Three-quarters of the smaller companies believe that the skills required to be a successful sales rep are changing, but only between 42.6%-50% say that what they look for when hiring a sales rep has changed.

For more information or to order any report in the NAPL Sales Representative and CSR Compensation Study, Second Edition series, please call (800) 642-6275, Ext. 4, or go to www.napl.org/store and enter Product Code NP410.