Question about the Appliance area

Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 1292 Location: Brand Central

so

i currently sell appliances at Sears, usually #2 or 3 out of about 12 people selling in the depts i work in

i make decent money, and work 30 hrs a week or so

but

my understanding is that Lowe's is a lot busier sales wise, and i'm wondering what the money is like at Lowe's and what the pitfalls of working there are

thanks in advance

Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 78 Location: Right here

Compare Sears appliance sales/delivery with Lowes sales/delivery. I know the Sears in our area gives like a 1-2 week window and they contract out the delivery to some other small company. We give NEXT day delivery on all major appliances. I do know that we do give delivery fee rebates on most of them too.

So, just based on appliances sold with delivery, I think Lowes is doing pretty good just on that note.

Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 110

At my store, and at most Lowe's, if the customer is buying and taking the app with them, the sales associate is responsible for pulling and loading the appliance for the customer. They are also responsible for putting up freight, which includes the appliances. Our appliance associates do pretty well with spiffs.

Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 1292 Location: Brand Central

we deliver next day on any instock appliance

delivery is free on a rebate (same as bb, lowes and HD)

i'm more wondering about pay - how do the sales people do money wise?

i'm asking as our commissions keep getting cut Sad

i'm a top sales person in my store, but if it keeps up this way i might need to look elsewhere

can a part time (nights and weekends) student sales person do well at Lowes? what do you end up making per hour?

Joined: 11 Jul 2003 Posts: 18 Location: West

i left sears about two years ago for lowes and i make about twice the money that i made at sears-we get hourly(my is about 2/3 of my benefit rate at sears) and we make spiffs on in stock items and commissions on special order items-we can make anywhere from $1 to $125 per item-as a sales specialist you are much more responsible for your own sales and maintaining your sales margin-yes i do have to load appliances but it is not that bad and you work a little harder to sell it delivered-we also make about 12% on epp sales and they are a heck of a lot cheaper than sears. if you have any other questions just ask.

Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 14 Location: nc

I am a team leader in appliances and spiffs account for about 20% of my income. As a sales specialist you would most likely make more than that because you are concentrating more on selling. I've heard Sears only pays commission and no hourly rate, is that true?

Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 82 Location: Georgia

I was at Sears for 7 years in appliances. Saw the good, the bad, and the ugly(KMart takeover). A new Lowes opened nearby, and I was hired as a spcialist in appliances because of my experience at Sears. making 1/3 more money, lost 45 lbs., and BP has dropped considerably. Yes, we load our own take with appliances, but it's no big deal. Kind of nice to get out of the store for a few minutes. Good luck.

Joined: 31 Jan 2008 Posts: 23

Having been with Lowe's for ten years next month and having been an Appliance specialist all of those years I can definitely weigh in on this. There have many stories of the Magical "super" specialist that makes 100k per year but this is just rumor. I have ran the numbers to see what kind of volume it would take to make that kind of money and its nearly impossible. I would think the average would be around 55-65K per year this is coming down because Lowe's is opening far too many stores to capture market share which canibalizes business from other locations. Just where I live there are 10 stores within a 20 mile radius! Store mgrs. typically like to hire Appliance Specialists at a lower hourly rate because of their spiff commissions so don't expect to make more than 10-12 per hour starting. SOS commissions have gone down considerably the last 2 years and its almost not worth the time to bother with the SOS customer. Especially on a busy Saturday or Sunday afternoon when there is plenty of people looking at Duet pairs or Refrigerators. It is getting harder and harder to make a decent living selling appliances I have watched my income fall about 2-3 percent per year over the last 3 years for the very reasons I stated above. Have a good week.

Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 1292 Location: Brand Central

Sears is commission only

no sales = no pay Sad

what is SOS? unfamiliar acronym

as to loading stuff... i have a back problem, so that might be an issue if i were to consider Lowes as an option.

Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 19

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:51 pm Post subject:

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

Is that $20-25 for p/ters including spiffage?

Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 4 Location: Ohio

First of all I would like to say Magnum is a very negative person with a glass half empty point of view. It's no wonder his money is decreasing as his aspiration does.
As a Customer Service Associate (CSA) in appliances, that meant that the two specialists before me had first dibs. But whenever they were with a customer or busy elsewhere (being lazy in the breakroom) I got to sell. And having great sales experience from HH gregg, I left there to go to lowe's specifically for appliance specialist knowing I'd have to work my way up. In september I did 70 grand in sales, all with two specialists and a Team Leader (who doesnt get first dibbs, but does take away some sales) on the sales floor. Oh, did I mention that was while I was working Part Time (30 hours a week) ?
One of my checks that month (bi-weekly) I had like 600 or so bucks from my hourly (10 bucks an hour) and 847 dollars in SPIFFs!
Well I would like to announce that I got promoted to be a specialist in a new store (I'm helping set up the store).
As for those worried about loading appliances, that's what your team leader is for. If you absolutely can't you can still be a specialist. However, if you can, don't be a lazy bones. But honestly, there are going to be times where I'm busy where I'm going to have to ask the team leader to load something i sold. Thats his job. I did it for the big fat lazy specialist as a CSA.
Lastly I'd like to mention that I am 22 years old, and have a lot of game. I'm makin $12.41 an hour ($992.00 guaranteed before spiffage every pay!)... I figure that if I can do 100 a day in spiffs, thats another grand on top of it, and those are just conservative estimates. I'm 22 and plan to make 50+ !!!

BE POSITIVE

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 4 Location: Ohio

Skibunny, that is absolutely not true. When I was a CSA I had to load appliances for our Specialist, who is enormously overweight.. Actually, many times she wouldn't even go back and locate her appliances, I had to go back and do that. Whenever myself or the team leader was not there, I imagine she had to call someone from another department to do it for her. Specialists are not technically required to load the appliances. However, most of us choose to do so because calling someone from another department is rather impractical.
And you can't say it's only that way at my store, because I can tell you right now that EVERY single store in the Columbus Ohio area is like that.
As I stated before, Imagine this scenario: There are three customers waiting whom all want to buy a washer dryer pair. You just get done selling the first customer who wants to take it with them. Do you think Lowes would prefer you to load the appliance for that customer and keep the other two waiting, or leave the other two to be waited on by the team leader?
Or do you think Lowes would prefer to have the team leader or some other CSA load it while you begin helping the next customer?
I loaded stuff for the two specialists all the time as a CSA. It was my and the team leader's job to do so.. And I did not complain one bit, because I was greatful just to be in the department with plenty of times where I could sell.
Also, you DO NOT have to pull your appliances and stage them for delivery. THAT IS DELIVERY'S JOB...
You don't call the delivery team out there on the sales floor to help you close deals do you????

I wouldn't be surprised, 'cause you obviously sound weak enough to not be able to put your foot down on the issue.

Anyways, when there isn't much traffic, I'm going to load my appliances, always.
But If it's a day where we're busy, you better believe I'm not going to have a customer who wants to buy a 2,000 dollar fridge wait while I load some 200 dollar range for some redneck, and risk having that customer walk.
I'm going to get my team leader, or whomever is near, to load it while I see to it that the next deal is closed.

Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 4 Location: Ohio

Also I would like to add that while SOS sales are not as lucrative as in-stock spiffs, they are still worth your time, contrary to what our Negative-Nelly friend magnum was whining about above.
I would prefer the spiff on something in-stock, but many times I've looked at my SOS sales incentive on my paystub and was very satisfied.

Just be Positive

Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 445

"Also, you DO NOT have to pull your appliances and stage them for delivery. THAT IS DELIVERY'S JOB..."

Um every store I've been at that's what people do.

When you sell products as a PL there's a PL bay in receiving, if it's a LD then it's in the LD bay in receiving. You do NOT leave product for customers on the floor. Why not? Well I've seen customers take that off to try to buy it for starters. I've seen some try to sell things again hoping we'd get a delivery before the first person finds out etc.

You stage orders for delivery as they don't have the time to go though the entire store to pull and order. Now some orders naturally you can leave on the floor. There's no reason to say pull bits and pieces a week beforehand if it's that far off and all common stock.

deliveries is being gradually outsourced and HDG (home delivery group) does not come back during the day so everything has to be staged for them in the morning. It makes things far easier.

Generally if you sell it...you pull it.

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

My team lead is out on worker's comp. There is only another specialist in the department with me. Now tell me who in the heck is going to be pulling appliances? I tend to work really well with my delivery crew. They are willing to pull things for me to the sales floor. Our psa is worthless(but that is another thread). My delivery crew is also always willing to go above and beyond. Often they make room for an emergency same day delivery. Many stores around the country have gone to the third party delivery system. I'd prefer to pull the appropriate product in any case. If I've loaded them down with a heavy day I try to pull and stage as many of my orders as possible. One hand washes another. You seem to forget that while the salesperson may have sold the product the delivery crew is the final Lowe's representative that the customer sees. Let's try to work together.

There are times when I'm the only one there for the entire day and I've been too swamped to even try to leave the salesfloor to pull anything. It's a horrible time of year. People burning vacation time before the end of the year. Foot traffic is slow most of the time. However, be there alone and you'll be swamped covering 2-4 departments at a time.

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 143 Location: Region 1

In my store Specialists pull all appliances for CW or PL. If it's LD the delivery manager or delivery associate pulls it either that day or early in the a.m. for HDG delivery. In talking with the appliance Specialists in my store, they never pull LD's.

Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 445

"Do you think Lowes would prefer you to load the appliance for that customer and keep the other two waiting, or leave the other two to be waited on by the team leader?
Or do you think Lowes would prefer to have the team leader or some other CSA load it while you begin helping the next customer?'

No offense but do you honestly think that a specialist automatically will sell better than other people?

OPE has a profit margin that is low...usually 20% or less. Hardware has large amounts of 50% or more.

They eliminated the specialist position for electrical...long ago there was a specialist position in tools (we're talking a long time). they gutted the lumber specialist (commerical sales took most of the volume)

the decor specialist only exists I think if a store does 300K in sos orders a year

I can see the specialist position for inside and outside seasonal getting cut next. If there's no installs to be sold or something higher end then why sell it?

Likewise don't think specialists some some elite teir. anyone can get sos commissions as well as spiffs. You don't have to be a part of a given department to get spiffs...just past the tests.

Customers see lowes employees go all over the place so the idea that someone in a department knowing specific informatino is a bit rough at best.

Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 497

I'm in a very low volume store. I just want to make certain that the right items are pulled or tagged. I have had a coworker that used to sell stuff out from under me. If it wasn't pulled for delivery and tagged as such they thought we actually had the product. Forget looking in the due file. Well ok he did but it didn't matter if it wasn't pulled he would go ahead and sell it out from under me.

Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 82 Location: Georgia

We pull our own appliances, don' trust antone else with it. I worked at Sears also. number one appliance salesman they had(all departments). Made 15000 dollars more than I did with Sears my first full year with Lowes. Recession? Bull..if it breaks they have to have it. We have it in stock, can deliver next day, and leave the customer with a smile on their face. Sears advertised a Samsung fridge that we carried at 15 percent off. It amounted to a 50 dollar saving from our regular price. Go figure...with Epp at 119 as opposed to 479. No damn wonder they are suffering with market loss.

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