Commission rates, need some ideas

Maybe some of you might be able to give me some advice.

I have a mostly offline business, I have an ecommerce site and do email marketing. However, the businesses I deal with mostly use the phone to do business.

For good reasons, I cannot deal with taking calls from 9 to 5.

So I've been looking locally for someone to fill in for most of the customer facing stuff. (making quotes, phone, letters, emails)

It's a new and small business, I can't pay hourly wages, it would have to be commission based on the sales numbers.

In this scenario, what would be an acceptable commission rate?

I don't want to give too little or too much.

Some people have shown interest already, I just need to work out a good deal for both parties..

Calculate how much profit you make on the second sale, and how many customers it takes to get there.

Now pay 100% commision the first sale, then 15% thereafter. plus a retainer 100% commission on every 100th sale.

Build the cost of this into the amount you make on repeat business with customers. This way your only paying out what you didn't have to start with.

adding some incentives sounds like a good idea.

the business operate in the education market mostly, most customers are school boards and schools.

there's no cold calling, customers just ring or email us.

Panther28 said:

Calculate how much profit you make on the second sale, and how many customers it takes to get there.

Now pay 100% commision the first sale, then 15% thereafter. plus a retainer 100% commission on every 100th sale.

Build the cost of this into the amount you make on repeat business with customers. This way your only paying out what you didn't have to start with.

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commission rates are usually around 10-15%?

I think it makes sense to get higher commission on new customers than on repeats, as there is a lot less work involved.