November: Sales and Marketing Executives

December: Laboratory & Technical

Keep The Bucks Coming

By Lisa Tocci

How much do sales and marketing managers in the lubricants industry make? According to the hundreds of individuals who responded to our exclusive 2014 Lubricants Industry Salary Survey, the average pay for such jobs is $133,500 a year. Thats just 3 percent higher than the last time we conducted the salary survey, two years ago. Median pay, however, has jumped a satisfying 7 percent since then and now sits at $125,000, the current data show.

The results also show that company type and size, geography, number supervised and other factors leave plenty of scope for individuals to lift their pay above the average mark. In fact, the best-paid sales and marketing manager boasted to us of raking in $380,000 a year in total compensation.

While that level of pay is exceptional, working for a lubricant manufacturer tends to be far more gainful than working for a lubricant distributor, the survey shows. Of the 296 individuals in sales and marketing who sent replies to this years questionnaire, 178 work in lube manufacturing and 118 in distribution. Those in lube manufacturing reported earning $149,400 a year on average, while those with distributors say they make $109,700 – 36 percent less. Median pay for these two groups is $140,000 and $100,000, respectively.

That wide gap between the two types of companies repeats a pattern seen in every LubesnGreases salary survey dating back to 2000. In 2012, for example, sales and marketing managers with lubricant manufacturing companies told us they averaged $146,100 a year, while those with distributors reported making an average of $107,500. In 2010, the figures were $130,000 and $92,900, respectively.

Its important to remember that direct comparisons of the results from year to year should be avoided, because each biennial survey goes to and receives replies from a different pool of respondents, and the number of usable responses also varies. In 2012, for example, we heard from 257 individuals in sales and marketing, versus 296 this time. Still, many trends can be discerned regarding how the industry rewards these executives.

Behind the Figures

What does the average lubricant sales and marketing manager look like today? This years survey shows that he or she is 51 years old and has almost 12 years of tenure with the present employer, seven years in this job. Eight percent of the respondents are women. Twenty-two percent are Certified Lubrication Specialists, holding professional credentials from the Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers. Most respondents, 60 percent, say they got a raise in the previous 12 months, an improvement over the 2012 survey when only about half of them did.

On average, this years respondents say they have nine other people reporting to them, and the link between people supervised and pay is quite straightforward. Thirteen percent of the sales and marketing managers who responded to the survey said they supervise more than 12 full-time individuals, and earn an average $165,400 for it. Seventeen percent have management responsibility for six to 12 employees, and their annual average is $147,000. And 70 percent of the respondents say they manage five or fewer other employees, and take home an average $124,400.

The median data paint a different picture, however. Respondents with lubricant distributors supervise a median of four people, while at lubricant manufacturers, its zero. That is, half of those with lubricant manufacturers may manage a business segment, a product line, a sales territory or the companys distributors – but they dont manage people.

This is typical, comments Kevin Marquis, director of sales at Wallover Oil Co. in Strongsville, Ohio. A lot of our sales managers have no direct personnel reporting to them, but they are fully responsible for their regions and relationships. The manager title helps when theyre dealing with customers, and they do have full responsibility for everything that goes on in their region. If they need to unload a distributor or even a customer, they have the wherewithal to do that.

Weighty Factors

Compensation for sales and marketing managers also hinges on several other factors, the survey reveals, starting with company size. Almost 40 percent of the respondents say they work at companies with more than 500 employees, and they enjoy the best pay as well. At companies this size, most of the respondents – 92 percent – are working for lubricant manufacturers, rather than distributors. Pay for all sales managers at these largest companies averages $156,800 a year.

As company size goes down so does pay, shrinking as you descend the scale. The respondents who work for companies with 201 to 500 employees say they make $125,200 a year, which is in the same ballpark as those at companies with 101 to 200 employees ($127,400).

Those toiling for companies with 51 to 100 employees said they average $112,200 a year, neck-and-neck with the $111,000 reported at companies of 11 to 50. These smaller-company responses were weighted more towards distributors, rather than manufacturers.

Oddly, sales and marketing executives at the smallest companies, with 10 or fewer employees, say they make an average $145,300 – but with only three responses from this tier they cannot be called a representative sample.

Geography makes a difference too. Every region of the country was represented in this years survey, and exactly half of all responses came from the countrys manufacturing core, the Central states. One-third of the participants were in the U.S. East, and the remainder in the Western states.

The highest salaries were reported from the Southwest, at $149,100 a year, followed by those in the Southeast $138,600 and the Southcentral states ($134,600). The lowest figures came from the U.S. Northwest, where the average reported salary is just $95,100 a year.

Most respondents also report some earnings beyond straight salary. Almost 80 percent of those who work for lubricant manufacturers expect a bonus this year, and 23 percent receive commission. At distributors, 62 percent expect a bonus and 37 percent earn commissions.

Your Next Move

Where should job seekers go to find lubricant industry sales and marketing jobs? First, its important to do your research and be familiar with your prospective employers culture and ways of doing business, confided one lubricant company sales manager, speaking off the record. You have to ask yourself, can you get along in that organization? I used to work for [a company] and they did everything after long and slow deliberation – a good company, but so slow to move things along. Ive moved to this recent start-up, and we jump on new opportunities much more quickly. This is an adventure, he enthused.

Wallovers Marquis echoed the importance of fitting into the organization. Our culture is a bit different. Its a family business, and you have personal responsibility for what you do. Its not a cut-throat environment; were a team, we dont want to make a sale at any cost because thats short-term thinking. We want to see long-term engagement with the customers, with the regions, with our product lines.

Where does he find such people? Although he sometimes uses recruiters, Im constantly looking for people, and pursuing those with the talents that I desire, Marquis says. Ill poach them from others. Ill look at industrial distributors, people who are in tool sales, who understand the business-to-business environment, who have been in the field. We start by watching how the person works, how he or she manages customer relationships. I have guys who sold fasteners, others who were in tool sales or selling machines, and another who came from medical equipment sales.

And when a prospect is ready to talk, hes ready to pounce. I recruit like I sell, based on relationships and trust, Marquis adds. One guy I pursued for two years, and when he was ready to move we created a territory just for him.

Another tactic is to look at the companies that are building new plants or launching product lines. Check out the news briefs in 7 and the weekly Lube Report newsletter. For example, Idemitsu Lubricants America, a subsidiary of Japans Idemitsu Kosan, added a dedicated turbine oil blending line in 2012. It went on to install new product packaging lines, and it now aims to build more blending and bulk storage capacity. Sure enough, Tammi Walts, the companys senior vice president of manufacturing in Jeffersonville, Ind., confirms that all this growth has resulted in a need to staff up in sales and marketing.

We are working with recruiters, and are using our network of contacts, too, Walts said. We want to be sure were getting the right people. One of the most crucial things for us is to find someone who can work in our multicultural environment where we do things as a team, by mutual agreement. A person who manages by giving edicts and orders, rather than by building support for an idea, probably is not going to fit in here.

Were really growing quickly, Walts revealed. Right now Im looking to fill at least five sales positions, including at the most senior levels.

Putting CLS to Work

Sixty-six of our respondents in the job category are STLE Certified Lubrication Specialists, half from lubricant manufacturers and half from distributors. In outward aspects they seem similar to the other managers (average age 51; 24 years of industry experience; eight years in their current jobs) but they stand out on payday. These individuals average $137,100 a year, versus $132,500 for those without CLS. Over the course of a 30-year sales career, this could add up to a $150,000 or greater advantage.

Leigh Smith, vice president of sales at Tulsa, Okla.-based Nu-Tier Corp. and a 25-year industry veteran, strongly believes that having the CLS certification has opened doors for her. A lot of people can inflate their resumes, but you cant fake a certification, especially one that has a number attached to it, she reminds. If you have CLS, it means you understand the products and the applications and how to add value to your customers business. You have to have very broad knowledge; you need to know about metalworking fluids, PCMO, fleet operations, industrial plants – you know how things really operate.

Getting CLS is a material way to invest in your own development, Smith advises. CLS shows that you take lubrication seriously – that this is your industry, your knowledge, your passion. You cant just take the test and pass it, it requires you to commit time and study to it. When my sales staff ask how to get it, I tell them to start by taking online courses, such as Lubrizol offers, where you go online for a certain number of hours each week or each month. Above all, you need to invest in yourself and your career.

METHODOLOGY

With guidance from experienced specialists in both surveying and personnel issues, LubesnGreases designed a salary questionnaire for key job functions at U.S. lubricant suppliers. The main objective was to investigate compensation for three professional career paths (manufacturing/production; sales and marketing; and laboratory/technical). A second objective was to determine whether companies which manufacture lubes offer higher or lower salaries than those which distribute lubes only. A third objective was to track salary trends over time.

On July 21, 2014, questionnaires were e-mailed to 1,848 professionals drawn from the LubesnGreases and STLE databases, in the job categories under study; a reminder e-mail was sent in each of the following three weeks. A total of 465 usable surveys were returned, for a 25 percent response rate. Participants responded directly to Charles R. Mann Associates Inc. of Washington, D.C., an independent statistical survey firm, which compiled the results in mid-August. No one at LNG Publishing or LubesnGreases magazine saw any individual data or any of the returned forms.

The respondents to the 2014 survey included 90 plant managers; 296 individuals in sales and/or marketing; and 79 in laboratory/R&D/technical management.

The complete 2014 Lubricants Industry Salary Survey will be available for download in digital .pdf format in late November for $125. As well, the data set for each professional category (plant manager; sales & marketing; lab/technical) may be purchased at that time for only $50 each. For information, visit www.LubesnGreases. com/SalarySurvey/orderform.cfm.