Although many industries have embraced business models where customers shop at their own pace and approach sales staff only with questions or when in need of assistance, home appliance dealers continue to put an emphasis on sales service. Appliance salespersons must know technical details, warranty information and product information on all items they sell as well as the basics of salesmanship to be successful at their job.

Average Salary

Many members of home appliance sales staffs work on a commission basis, and at least part of their earnings depend upon their ability to close sales as well as the number of customers that enter their store. Because of this, determining annual earnings for the industry may be difficult. Simply Hired lists the average salary for appliance sales specialists as $46,000 annually as of January 2011, while Career Bliss’s survey reveals average annual earnings of $44,000 annually.

Electronics and Appliance Store Sales Salary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 216,370 people work as sales staff in appliance and electronics stores as of May 2008, comprising almost 42 percent of the workforce that’s employed in electronics and appliance retail centers. These workers earn median annual salaries of $26,900 and an average hourly wage of $12.93. Supervisors and managers of sales staffs in these stores earn median annual salaries of $44,380. These figures include commissions.

Average Appliance Telemarketer Salary

A much smaller number of workers -- 1,040, or 0.2 percent of the electronics and appliance retail industry -- are employed on telemarketing sales staffs. These salespersons, who work on both in-bound and out-bound calls, earn about as much as their brick-and-mortar counterparts, with median annual incomes of $26,480 as of May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their average hourly income, including commissions, is $12.73.

Comparison to All Retail Salespersons

Those who work in appliance sales earn salaries that exceed the average for all retail sales staff, regardless of the industry in which they work. The average salary for retail sales staff is $23,463 as of January 2011, according to Salary.com. The average appliance and electronics sales salary reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is 115 percent of the national wage for sales staff. Appliance sales staffs don’t earn as much as automobile sales staffs, which average an hourly wage of $18.18 as of May 2008, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.