Want to earn top dollar? Become a chief executive officer at a direct marketing company with annual sales of more than $25 million.
Last year, those executives earned $413,100, a 6% rise over 1997, according to a compensation survey by Hal Crandall, president of Crandall Associates Inc., a New York search firm.
CEOs in companies with $11 million to $25 million in sales earned $237,500. Those in firms with sales under $1 million earned $108,000.
Compensation includes base salary as well as bonuses, incentives, board attendance fees, stock options and non-cash benefits.
List company CEOs reported the highest salaries. They were followed closely by executives in insurance companies, advertising agencies and financial services firms. Business and consumer catalog CEOs were among the lowest paid, reporting median compensation of $155,000.
Path to the Corner Office.
How did these officials get where they are? Roughly 28% rose through the ranks from marketing, while 26% are entrepreneurs who started their own companies.
Another 17% reported a management background. Anyone from legal? Only 1%.
Executives who worked in sales earned more, while those with marketing backgrounds came in second. Former operations execs ranked last in terms of compensation.
Participating companies reported median sales of $8 million, and median compensation for CEOs of $195,000.
Twenty-one percent of the firms had sales of more than $25 million, with one company topping $1 billion; 29% earned between $6 million and $25 million; and 39% took in less than $5 million.
Close to two out of three companies had higher sales in 1998 than in 1997 and almost three out of five also indicated higher profits. Twenty percent noted lower profits, while 16% of the firms claimed no change from 1997 to 1998.
The survey is the first ever done for the DM industry, Crandall claims. A total of 562 direct marketing CEOs participated.
The full report, available from Crandall Associates, covers compensation in both public and private companies and includes profiles of the CEOs.
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