Employee pay for best results.

[Mr Stinky]

How to pay Technicians to obtain the best results?

Hourly?
Hourly with incentive to up sell?
Hourly plus bonus?
Rate per job preformed?
% or commission?
% or commission after materials / expenses are deducted?

You want to make sure the Technicians make a good income.
You offer the opportunity for them to increase their income level.
You want to make sure the company does more than break even and has a profit margin. With out that there is no room to upgrade or expand and your struggling to make ends meet.

Hourly: The employee can make sure they get theirs. They may not have the desire to do more because they have a paycheck comfort zone. Will this be enough to create an employee that wants to see their comany excell to be the best in their area?
Hourly plus incentive to up sell: A base hourly rate with the capibility to increase their income by sell filters, service programs, access ports, vent filters or such? Sell a vent filter and add $10. to you weekly income? Is this an effective way to pay?
Hourly plus bonus: A base hourly rate according to skill level with an opportunity for a monthly bonus calulated by how they promote the business, how many jobs they: completed that month, making beyond the normal quota or up selling additional work or products.
Rate per job preformed: Place a set rate per job preformed. If they pump a tank, they can sell a vent filter, bacteria, riser, out put filter, flat tape or jet clean a line to add to their income level. Each job or item they sell, the Technician receives a set rate of pay per item. Will this enourage up selling or productivity from the Technician?
Pay a set %: Pay a % of the dollar amount the Technicians brings in that week.
% or commission after materials / expenses are deducted: Pay a higher % of the total dollar amount of the Technician brought in that week after all the materials and expenses are deducted.

What rate of pay is most effective in creating a technician that will:
~ be a team player and company man (women).
~ upsell products and services
~ increase productivity
~ provide a fair or good service for the pay they earn
~ have the desire to make the company strong and reputable
~ care about customers enough to do a good job
~ be most rewarding for the Technician
~ not wine and complain about increasing their work load
~ be proud to be a part of the company team

I am so looking for great advice on this topic.
There are pros and cons to any form of pay. I am just hoping to find a way to motivate technicians and give them the drive to better for themselves without giving the company away.

[Mackman]

I drove a septic truck for almost 4 years. I wish i never left. But i left pumping all together to go work on tuboats. (thats another story in its self)

I say just have a great hourly pay with a nice benefit package. I was only 19when i started and left at 23 years old. I was making 19.10hr and OT after 8 hrs. On call one week a month which i got 50/week just for being on call for that week.

Best year i did was almost 53,000. At 22-23 years old. All my friends liked to bust my balls about what i did but they never said anything about my pay check. I was busting their balls about their checks lol.

My boss never try to push me to sell anything that wasnt needed. We didnt even carry alot of stuff to sell like bacteria etc. We would push risers if we had to dig more then 12ins.

The guy i worked for had 3 trucks. 2 old macks and 1 newer sterling. Macks where 3200 gal and the sterling was 4200 gal.

He was also a great guy to work for so that helped. He would never ask you to do something that he wouldnt do him self. I seen him get into tanks before he even thought about asking his men. So working for a guy like that really helped.