Every year, Copier Careers, the copier industry recruiting firm, presents its annual salary surveys, including its Sales Representative Survey late last year.

The company has been compiling salary surveys since 2002, but has only been presenting the Sales Representative survey since 2011 primarily because it took them that long to come up with a survey model that they were satisfied with that fit the mix of sales representative positions within the copier industry.

More than 10,000 sales people participated in this year’s survey, including account executives, MPS/solution sales reps, senior account executives, major account managers, government account managers, and national account managers. That type of response rate paints a valid picture of what’s going on in the industry.

Here’s some of the highlights from this year’s survey:

The average annual base pay for all job titles was $48,804. Combined with average commissions of $68,067, total average compensation is $116,871.

Major Account Managers reported the highest average income ($131,349 annually), followed by Government Account Managers ($126,076), MPS/Solution Sales Reps ($121,859), National Account Managers ($121,546), Senior Account Executives ($118,378), and Named Account Managers ($109,689). Account Executives had an average annual income of $89,200.

Quotas remained stable in 2015 with only tiny increases since 2014. Account Executives report average monthly quotas of $37,655, an increase of only $10 over the past year. MPS/Solution Sales Reps report average quotas of $44,998 (up $180 since 2014) and Named Account Managers report quotas of $59,112 (up $500 since 2014).

Many dealerships have streamlined and simplified their comp plans over the past few years. However, a separate Copier Careers poll conducted earlier this year found that more than 60 percent of sales reps think there is still room for improvement.

As a result of MPS and MNS annuities, sales reps are staying at their current jobs longer because the cost of leaving has gotten higher and as a result do not want to leave behind their recurring income streams. In addition, it appears that they are staying in the copier channel longer. A recent poll on CopierCareers.com of more than 2,800 people found that 87 percent of respondents view copier sales as a long-term career path.

When successful sales reps do leave their jobs, it is often a response to a dealership’s inability to provide adequate service and support.

If you’ve been reading the various challenges facing our Elite Dealers in this newsletter, one of the most common ones is finding good people, particularly in sales, and that’s reflected in the survey as well. Jessica Crowley, Business Development Manager and Senior Recruiter for Copier Careers, says that finding reps who genuinely enjoy the hunt is a perennial challenge that has become even more difficult as solution selling has matured.

“Finding a true hunter is really the holy grail for owners,” Crowley says. “Every sales rep says they love to hunt. But do they really love to hunt, or do they love to see the commissions rolling in every month?”

Paul Schwartz, president of Copier Careers, reports that many dealership principals are attempting to solve the problem by recruiting more reps. “Unfortunately, the industry is currently facing an enormous staffing shortage,” says Schwartz. “The people who already know how to sell solutions are having a lot of success right now, which makes them incredibly difficult to recruit. Hiring inexperienced people and training them is always an option, but it’s a slow option-the knowledge required to successfully sell in the copier channel has increased significantly over the past decade. Dealership owners that are looking to expand right now are in a tough place. There’s no doubt that the shortage of experienced staff is holding some dealers back.”

You can dig deeper into the survey here.