Internet Sales Consultant Pay Plan: 4 Shapes, Worked
An internet sales consultant pay plan has two parts: what's guaranteed and what's paid per result. It can be hourly pay plus a bonus per appointment that shows, a salary plus a flat amount per unit, or a percentage of gross like the floor. Which pays more depends on your volume, and the split rules with floor reps matter as much as the rate.
Search this and you get job boards, salary sites, a dealer forum thread and an old advice-column post. The big domains answer "what's the salary", which isn't the same question. A pay plan is a formula, and a salary figure doesn't tell you how it works or what your month would pay on it.
So here are four shapes an internet or BDC plan can take, each worked through a month. Every unit-based figure comes from the free car salesman commission calculator. The plans and the numbers are illustrations, not a survey: nobody publishes how common each shape is, and we won't pretend to know.
What does an internet sales consultant actually get paid for?
It depends which job the title means, because stores use it for two.
- The appointment job. Answer internet inquiries, phone and text web buyers, set appointments, and hand the buyer to a floor rep when they arrive. Often called BDC.
- The selling job. Work the internet inquiry from first reply to delivery, like a floor rep whose buyers come in through the website.
The first job is paid mostly for appointments and shows. The second is paid mostly for units. Some plans mix the two. Before you compare any numbers, find out which job you're being offered, and who closes the buyer when they walk in.
What are the common shapes of an internet pay plan?
| Shape | Guaranteed part | Per-result part | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Hourly plus shows | Hourly pay | A bonus per appointment that shows, and a small flat amount per sold unit | The appointment job |
| B. Salary plus flat per unit | A monthly salary | A flat amount per unit, plus volume tiers | A seller with steady volume |
| C. Percentage of gross | None, or a draw | A percentage of front gross after a pack, with a mini, plus tiers | A seller whose deals hold gross |
| D. Any of these, with splits | As above | Half a deal when a floor rep shares it | Whoever shares buyers with the floor |
Here's how each one is set up for the worked months below. All of them use the calculator's starting volume tiers, $500 at 10 units, $1,000 at 15 and $2,000 at 20, except shape A, which has none.
| Illustration | How it's entered in the calculator |
|---|---|
| A. $15 an hour for a 40-hour week, $25 per show, $50 per sold unit | Base salary $2,600 a month. Commission 0% with a $50 mini. The show bonus is added by hand. |
| B. $2,000 a month salary, $150 per unit | Base salary $2,000. Commission 0% with a $150 mini. |
| C. 25% of front gross after an $800 pack, $150 mini | The calculator's starting plan, with no draw. |
| D. Shape C, with some deals split with a floor rep | Tick split on those deals in the Deal by deal tab. |
Two of those entries are workarounds, and you should know it. A flat amount per unit is entered as 0% with the mini set to the flat amount, so every deal pays the mini. And the calculator has no field for shows or appointments. Count those yourself and add them to its total.
What does each shape pay in a month?
A strong month and a slow one, on each shape. Shape C's front grosses run from $800 to $2,400 a deal, averaging about $1,600.
| Shape | Strong month | Pays | Slow month | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Hourly plus shows | 40 shows, 12 sold | $4,200 | 25 shows, 7 sold | $3,575 |
| B. Salary plus flat per unit | 14 units | $4,600 | 8 units | $3,200 |
| C. Percentage of gross | 14 units | $3,575 | 8 units | $1,700 |
Shape A's month is the most predictable: $2,600 of it is guaranteed, and a bad month costs $625. Shape C's is the least: the slow month pays less than half the strong one. Shape B sits between them.
The table doesn't say shape C is a bad plan. Its deals here average about $1,600 of front gross. Give the same rep fatter grosses and shape C pulls ahead, because it's the only one that pays more when a deal holds more gross. Enter your store's real grosses before you decide.
Shape A's figures are built from the calculator's total plus the shows by hand. 12 sold units at $50 is $600, on top of the $2,600 base. 40 shows at $25 is $1,000 more, so $4,200 in all.
What does a split with a floor rep cost you?
Half of every deal it touches. Take shape C's 14-unit month and make 6 of those deals splits with floor reps.
| Shape C, 14 deals | No splits | 6 deals split |
|---|---|---|
| Units counted | 14 | 11 |
| Front commission | $3,075 | $2,387.50 |
| Volume bonus | $500 | $500 |
| Month | $3,575 | $2,887.50 |
The splits cost $687.50. They also left the rep 4 units short of the 15-unit tier, instead of 1. In the calculator, a split deal pays half and counts as half a unit. Your store may count it differently, so ask.
On shape B, the next tier is where it hurts. At 14 units, the 15th is worth $650: its own $150, plus the jump from a $500 bonus to $1,000. The calculator's next-tier readout shows that number for your own plan, and what a car sales volume bonus is really worth works through why that one unit pays so much.
What should you ask before you take an internet or BDC job?
- Which job is it? Setting appointments, selling, or both.
- Who closes an internet buyer who walks in? You, a floor rep, or whoever is up. If it's a floor rep, is it a split, and what share is yours?
- How is a show counted? Who confirms it, whether a same-day reschedule counts, and whether a buyer who comes back next week counts twice or not at all.
- Who gets the unit on a split? Half a unit, a whole one, or none toward your tiers.
- What happens to a buyer who contacted the store and nobody worked? If they buy, is it a house deal? Car salesman pay plans, explained covers house deals and what they tend to pay.
- What about buyers you bring in yourself? From your own posts, your own customers, your own friends. Is that buyer yours, the store's, or the BDC's?
The last one matters more every year. A buyer who found you through your own listing should be your deal, on the plan's best terms. Get the answer in writing. Building that book of your own buyers is covered in how to find your own buyers as a car salesman.
Do internet sales consultants get overtime?
It depends on the job, and this is a question for your state labor agency or a lawyer, not a blog. Here's what the federal text says. 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(10)(A) exempts "any salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles" at a dealership from the overtime rules. The words that matter are "primarily engaged in selling."
A consultant who works deals to delivery is plainly selling. Whether a role that only sets appointments fits those words is a different question, and we won't answer it for you. If your plan is hourly and your weeks run long, ask your state agency. And the exemption is from overtime, not from minimum wage, which is part of why draws exist, as how to calculate car sales commission explains.
How do you compare an internet offer with a floor job?
Run both through the same calculator, on the same honest month.
- Enter the floor plan with your real grosses and unit count. Copy its link.
- Enter the internet plan the same way. If it pays for shows, work those out separately and add them.
- Run a slow month on each. A guaranteed base looks better in a slow month than it does in a strong one.
- Count the splits. An internet plan that splits most deals with the floor pays half of whatever the table says.
Six complete floor plans, worked on the same deals, are in car salesman pay plan examples.
Where does more volume come from?
On every one of these shapes, more units or more shows pays more. On an internet plan, the buyers come to you through the store's website and listings. Your own listings are the part you control.
autobook.io posts your dealership's inventory to Facebook Marketplace from your own profile, in your own browser, in batches of up to 50. It imports the inventory from the dealership's website and writes an editable description for each unit. Posting a vehicle by hand takes 10 to 15 minutes. You still choose the units, answer every buyer in Messenger and close or hand off, and the buyers take roughly 40 minutes a day. It removes the grind, not the job. Plans start from $99/month, and across the network about one in nine posted vehicles sells.
Whatever your plan's shape, enter it in the commission calculator and run your own month.
Frequently asked questions
How are BDC reps paid?
Plans vary by store. One shape is hourly pay plus a bonus for each appointment that shows and a small amount for each sold unit. Ask how shows are counted, because that line moves the most.
How are internet sales managers paid?
That's a manager's plan, and it varies even more than a consultant's. Ask what the bonus is measured on, such as the department's units, its gross or its appointments, and whether units the floor closes count.
Is an internet sales job better than the floor?
It's steadier on plans with a base, and capped on plans that split most deals. Run your realistic month on both plans before you decide.
Can the calculator handle a per-show bonus?
Not directly. It counts units, so work out the show bonus by hand and add it to the calculator's total. Hourly pay goes in the base salary field as a monthly amount.
Do internet consultants get paid on the back end?
Only if the plan says so. A plan may pay a share of back-end gross on deals you deliver, or nothing at all. The calculator's back-end field takes whatever percentage your plan names.