you could go the large manufactured goods route too as an alternative (GE, Caterpillar etc)

These are good options. Look at businesses like facilities management, freight brokerage, meat brokerage, produce sales and other stuff like this as well. If you've got a talent for operations and can sell a lot of these businesses are incredible.

I don't think the people in this thread realize how much money you can make in commercial real estate. Top tier brokers can literally make millions of dollars per year.

Sell yachts.

I work for a staffing company. The recruiters that have been there 5 years average over $200K (the top guy makes $25K a week). But it's more like 1-2 years of ramen time to start off, and very few make it to that 5 year level before washing out, so there's that.

It's the same in a lot of the niche markets I've mentioned. My boss at my old company made 300k in a week during Katrina.

I know several people including myself who make over 100k/yr selling mattresses and its very easy

Would be really interesting if you updated your original thread!

1000x this

There are all manner of random niche sale gigs out there with lucrative comp structures for high performers.

Once you get to larger companies this phenomena fades away aside from certain notable exceptions but for mid market organizations it isnt at all unusual for there to be some heavy hitter sales reps getting $250k - $1MM. Tons of industrial and B2B focused companies have either internal or external reps rolling in the money.

Comp plans I've seen for these types of jobs often weren't designed for the scale of revenue/profit the sales person eventually hit. Ie comp was based on simple x% of sales or X% of gross margin vs any type of quota/OTE system you might see in larger more corporate environments.

No one expected that Bob the rep would eventually develop a $40MM book of business so he ends up making more than the CEO lol.

And Bob the rep has TONS of leverage because the company he works for has competitors... and his book of business is at least partially portable. This means that the company he works for can't cut his pay without potentially losing all of the business Bob brings in. It's a very nice spot for Bob. He often works 20-30 hours a week for that 250-1MM.

EDIT: In the best situations a good salesperson can become a defacto partner in the company. In fact the way they try to cut his pay might be trying to get him to swap some salary for equity.

Correct! I work in a aerospace and defense manufacturer. Our outside sales domestic reps are typically paid 5% of shipments. Some reps also get commission on all existing business in territory (we eliminated this scheme). As a salaried employee my plan is going to be negotiated to be something like 1% on the first 1 to 2 million and 2 to 3% or more with higher figures. So hitting a vein would definitely do it. I have quotes in the millions so they would add up

This sounds ideal.

Would you be willing to say how to go about finding these niche companies? That seems like an art in itself. Like what would be some key words to look for in an employment ad?

I just got hired by a window company by the way. They say reps make 80k on average with 250k being the highest. Not what I'm looking for but its a start.

A couple years ago a large medical device company (~5000 employees, $4bn annual revenue) that had my email address in their address book accidentally emailed a sales job offer letter and employment contract to a bunch of random people, including me. It was for $70k base pay, plus commissions, plus bonuses for meeting various targets.

Before seeing that offer letter, I always assumed the sales guys were pretty much full of crap, but I had to totally reassess that after seeing that contract, and being generally familiar with the volume of sales the company makes.

There was a lot of competition for these jobs, and a lot of foul play, i.e. sales reps married to purchasing agents for hospital buyers groups, sales reps going into partnership with doctors, sales reps selling products from other companies, etc. It sometimes got out of hand and you can find articles in the news about people going to jail. But by and large, as far as I can tell, the culture never really changed.

You know those commercials you hear on the radio, saying if you owe the IRS money, to call them? Or if you've ever had a lien filed against you, those companies that send you official looking letters saying to call and they can help? The people that answer those phone calls, pretending to help you, are actually high pressure salesmen and they make a lot of money if they are good. Low six figures easy. They prey on people in bad situations, facing liens or possibly jail, and make various promises about how they can negotiate with the IRS for them, and get them to pay a lot of money for the service.

Problem is, it's essentially a scam. Those people should call actual tax attorneys, there isn't anything that salesman can do for them that they couldn't do themselves with a little Googling. They're just going to call the IRS and ask for an extension and a payment plan or whatever.

Aaand this is the other way to make a lot of money in sales. This works really well for sociopaths. Unfortunately I have a (very small) conscience.

I don't know if it is still around, but many years ago I knew a couple who made a comfortable living using a government program which paid you to teach job skills to intellectually impaired adults.

It was totally a sales job, because they had to find their own customers. That meant spending a lot of their time in places where ******ed people are likely to be brought by their caregivers, and then hitting them up on the spot to enroll the ******ed adult in their care in the free job training program.

At first they loved it because it was good money. In the early 90s he and his wife would make $40k in a good month, $5k in a bad/time-off month. Not quite sure how many good months vs. bad months there were, but they did quite nicely.

Eventually he got a regular job and his wife scaled back to doing it part time, because he said they felt it was eroding their souls. For one thing, they got into it, in part at least, because they wanted to help people who society often neglects, but by the end, they found themselves referring to their customers as fast fukks (1 week of training) and slow fukks (6 weeks of training, for only 2x the money). The other thing was, they realized they no longer went anywhere or did anything purely for themselves, for their own enjoyment. Instead it had become second instinct to them to make every outing, whether it was dinner out, a trip to the drug store, or a vacation, into something where they would have a high probability of running into potential clients.

So I guess all in all, while it was good money, there were also negatives offsetting it. But perhaps your "soul" could handle it for a few years, like theirs did, long enough to pay off the mortgage, and sock a few bucks away.

What would be an example of a place to go where one has a high percentage chance of running into a ******?

NVG

I don't remember discussing it with him, but in my personal experience, matinees at the movies and aquariums. Also, public events like state fairs will have dates/times/sections for disabled people that you might never even notice if you weren't actually looking for them. Etc.

1-2 NL

Commercial airplanes and Defense Contracts. Very long apprenticeship and long sales cycle but big money.

Surprised nobody has mentioned it yet, but technology/software sales can be very lucrative. From entry-level to account executive can take 2-4 years, but once you're there $200k+ is pretty much the floor with some type of 50/50 split between base salary and variable pay.

A friend of mine just broke in pharmaceutical sales after working in sales at lowes for 8 years and he didn't know anyone involved with the company he ended up working for and had a degree in business that eh got at 28. He just reached out on linked in to a sales rep, went on the sales reps daily sales trip, picked up the pharma sales handbook, studied and cheated to get some silly certification that doesn't mean much. He just was really hungry and had a lot of phony enthusiasm which they loved. If you want to break in I would suggest trying that. Much easier than CRE but probably less lucrative in the end. He said it was amazing though. Even starting out as a floater for the probationary period until they find you a full time position you get 40k + bonuses + they pay for your car, food, and apartment + benefits. He actually got me an interview that I punted but you can definitely get it if you have the drive. Getting paid a ton of money to cater lunches for doctors sounds nice.