Q: I’m tallying up my sales for this academic year and am approaching $200k. Is it common practice for college employees like myself who work in the Workforce Development department of a college to receive a commission on sales? If so, what might be an appropriate percentage of commission? On a side note, we have implemented your costing practices for our entire department and it is working WONDERFULLY. I will certainly attend your next conference in New Orleans and have been spreading the word around here and to our marketing department as to how helpful LERN is and how much more productive our department has become. I’m trying to recruit more staff to go with me and/or start attending other LERN institutes.

A: From my knowledge less than 20% of higher education institutions pay a commission on contract sales. Those that do, pay less than 20% (more like 10%) and normally the person getting the commission is making a lower-based salary and not just getting a regular salary and then being given commissions. I would imagine many are expecting sales amounts above $200,000.