Lurked for the last couple of weeks, had to join as so far this is about the only place I've found that seems at least relatively active and full of solid information.
I wanted to throw in my two cents as far as pay structure is concerned, and how we've tried to get the issue handled at our own dealerships.
When I started here two years go, we were two people (myself and an hourly employee) cutting and pasting pre-formatted word documents into our CRM (the former internet manager was... not very tech inclined). We've since changed websites twice, CRM once, moved to a mixture of automated and manual tasks for email/phone, graduated to selling on eBay (after a four year hiatus from it), dug into Google and other search efforts with both spurs, upgraded our photo process with a dedicated booth and on-staff photographer (handy to have around), changed inventory "push" providers... a lot has changed in just two years.
I have sales experience if you count selling TV's for three years (I can sell the hell out of them, too) and I'm amiable on the phone. My real background is in IT and networking/systems management, but I'm absolutely and utterly self-taught and thankfully they were willing to take a chance on me (plus I worked cheap for a while; still better than hourly somewhere else).
I am currently on a weekly salary, plus monthly bonus based on a percentage of YTD gross variable ops at two of our three franchises. The pay plan is written so that as my work duties spread, the percentage payed or where it is from (our third franchise or fixed ops, or both) can be adjusted to better control incentive. My job is to make everyone sell more cars, and thankfully our GM is very forward thinking and we have been grooming the position towards that more and more frequently as we progress. I am still, however, in the "under $60,000" bracket mentioned in the poll thread regarding this topic, but that won't last forever.
Coming from an IT background, I don't look at the process the same way our established management does, and I think (as do they) this is absolutely vital to our continued growth. They took a chance on a 24 year old kid two years ago and some change, and so far it appears to have worked for the better. We survived the Carpocalypse (we are GM and Chrysler at our core) and even gained some franchises in the shakedown; August 2008 was a really risky time to join the car industry, but I did anyway.
I'd like to pose a question at the end of all that tripe; how have you coped with a growing department? We're already wearing pants way too big for our skinny little legs, so what qualities have you found important in your existing and prospective employees? We're constantly stressing phone skills when we hire, but where have you found success in the search for people who are fearless on the phone?