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Finding good commission salespeople is almost impossible. I've hired companies who supposedly specialize in this, and no results.
Base+Commission is probably the best you're going to get. The base has to be slightly less than what the salesperson can survive on, which will induce them to go get sales. But your commission % must be high: at least 30%. Or competent salespeople will laugh you off as they walk out of the interview.
Honestly, though, and this isn't going to make you happy to hear, but as the business owner if you can't sell your own products or services, you're not going to make it. Nobody believes in your business as much as you. Nobody cares as much as you. Not your significant other, not your employees. And if you can't do it, no one can.
In your situation, which is essentially a startup in the rare situation of having some case studies to point to, YOU need to be spending at least 70% of your time on prospecting for new business. If you're programming, or supervising, you're putting your energy into the wrong thing. You need revenue. Now.
As a 20+ year salesperson/sales manager, and Dir. of Sales & Marketing in the software/technology arenas, from your description, I would say a salesperson is not the right answer to grow your sales. You're not in a position to support the runway necessary to give a salesperson an honest shot at success and it is virtually impossible to find a great salesperson in your industry without an aggressive compensation plan and a solid pipeline of opportunities. I would suggest that you pursue aggressive use of content marketing / thought leadership tactics (eg., Blog(s), Actively publishing posts on other Blogs / Magazines, Social Media - espec. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, & SlideShare), Webinars, Case Studies, White Papers, In-Person, Company-Sponsored Events, Research Reports, eBooks, Microsites, eNewsletters, Speaking Opportunities, Tradeshows, etc.).
Properly executing on these tactics should fill your pipeline - handle the leads internally - then consider bringing on a salesperson once the pipeline justifies it. I think you have many other tactics you can use to drive business at this time.
Feel free to give me a call to discuss your situation in more depth. Good luck!
Sales people, especially senior sales people, are expensive for a small company. It's also a hiring area where a lot of hires don't work out -- the people who look good on paper often have massive-company experience and startups are totally foreign to them -- which makes it even more expensive. Without naming names, there are dozens of small companies in Silicon Valley, including those coming out of prestigious accelerators, that have had to shut down because overinvesting in sales made them run out of money.
I suggest you take a look at what Upshift Partners' founder has to say about this; he trains technical- and product-oriented startup founding teams to scale their sales without bankrupting their companies. I've worked with him as a consultant but he's better in his own words: http://firstround.com/article/Looking-to-Scale-Your-Sales-Seven-Bullets-to-Dodge
Good question, thanks for posting.
You are facing a common challenge for founders of service companies. Tap the personal network for business in early years and then need to find new sources of business as time goes on.
I ran a web services company in the 90's and my current business regularly recruits sales people for web / new media companies. Before you attack your sales hiring need, it might be worth taking a step back and making sure that your value proposition is clear and differentiates you from other competitive offerings. This is not only critical for establishing a sales force, but also will help drive inbound leads which are critical for growth and profit.
Assuming you have this all sorted out, you also have a second option for driving new sales besides hiring a sales person - that is to continue selling yourself and hiring someone that does the other things that are preventing you from devoting time to selling. This may or may not be possible depending on what are your other obligations, but I know from experience that finding good sales people who can sell web solutions is not easy - takes a rare mix of technical and domain knowledge, creativity, consultative sales ability and sales DNA.
If hiring a sales person is your best option, then you are unlikely to attract one who can consistently contribute (the only kind you want) by offering commissions since good sales people are employed and earning good income - they will not want to give that up for the privilege of earning 100% commissions, even if the upside is huge on paper.
That said it is possible, if you go outside your industry...I posted some comments on this in other clarity threads:
https://clarity.fm/questions/1006/whats-the-best-way-to-find-commission-sales-reps
https://clarity.fm/questions/1291/what-do-bootstrapped-startups-offer-to-new-sales-hires-commission-only-what-are
In terms of attracting the right people I would recommend...
1. Be clear on exactly what you are looking for in skills, experience and DNA - discussed above.
2. Look everywhere- online, social networks, job boards, conferences, referrals, LinkedIn, etc.
3. Write job ads that will stand out and attract attention from the right type of people (vs. typical list of job requirements) - treat the candidates you want to attract like customer prospects and write your job ads with compelling copy
4. Offer careers, above market compensation (not necessarily cash), and the chance to work with a great company/management/team
5. Never stop recruiting because great people are rare and t takes a long time to find them
All the best!
The least expensive added sales service you can get is a meeting booking service. I am thinking that if you just get someone to book online meetings for you then you yourself would be the best person to actually close a deal with the client.
The cold calling / market prospecting work is very time-consuming and you need to get someone else to do this so you can focus on the last half of the sales process.
Meeting booking services are normally not commission based but rather a fixed fee per meeting booked (or per month), but fees can be quite low.
I run such a company myself so contact me if you're interested.
Start with your goals. Knowing your goals and measuring your performance against them is the most important place to start. Multiply your customer goal by the average sale price of your company’s product to get the amount of revenue you should be aiming for. Make sure you set personal sales goals as well. You can always tell when a salesperson is in the top 2% of their organization. Aim to be in the top 2% of your organization. Recognize that sales are a process. Sales is not an art. Sales is changing rapidly, but some things will always be the same. To get customers, you will have to establish their needs and interest in your product, address inertia in their business, and determine a timeline to sell. The way your company moves through the funnel, however, will be unique. If you treat every sales process the same, you could easily miss something. Understand that every business has its own playbook for a reason. So, before you ever get on the phone with a prospect, sit with your managers to thoroughly understand your company’s process. This will include learning how to position your product, gaining strategies for speaking with prospects, understanding your key value propositions, and discovering what your ideal customer looks like, just to name a few factors of any successful sales process. Identify business pains.
You can read more here: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/keys-to-successful-selling-for-the-first-time-sales-rep
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
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What do (bootstrapped) startups offer to new sales hires? Commission only? What are some good examples to keep people motivated and still survive?
Generally bootstrapped startups should avoid salespeople, for a few reasons: a. they typically can't afford the base and overall comp required to attract sales people who can actually sell / or afford to support them with marketing, management, etc b. it will be very difficult to find the rare person with the right mix of sales and startup DNA along with the critical domain knowledge, consequently the startup is likely to settle c. the founders need to be very involved in the selling and customers will demand it That said, if the plan is still to hire a salesperson, find someone who has demonstrated sales success in startups and is excited by the early stage in company building. Create a comp plan heavily leveraged on sales results (unless you are in an industry where 100% commission is a common practice, would recommend against $0 base as this creates the false impression that your hire isn't passing time with one company while looking for another job with a richer comp plan - you want your rep focussed). Sell the vision and opportunity to be part of a growth story. I have written a several blog posts on hiring sales people into start-ups. You might find these useful: http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/ceo-question-should-i-learn-to-sell-or-hire-a-sales-person/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/start-up-sales-and-hiring-advice-dont-stop-selling-once-you-hire-your-first-sales-rep/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/hiring-start-up-sales-reps/ http://www.peaksalesrecruiting.com/startups-and-salespeople/ Good luck!EB
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Recommended copywriting course?
Writing skills are best learned through practice, critique, and revision. Curriculum is a waste, in my opinion – that is, listening to generalizations about how to write something other than the task at hand. Only the actual words on the page are worth discussing. Not rules. Maybe courses would be worthwhile if they entail a lot of hands-on interaction with a brutally honest, pragmatic instructor. What your team would really learn from, I suspect, is watching someone perform surgery on their copy, pausing to explain why the guts are being ripped out here, why the sutures are stitched up in such and such a manner there, etc. Consider hiring someone to workshop in person with your team. No prearranged abstract curriculum. Just critique.JP
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Whats the best way to find commission sales reps?
This is not my specialty, however, I have been in your position many many times -- maybe this will help. If the product is in-tangible, then look for JV partners on the Internet. Try to find an expert that deals with these JV opportunities (like me). If the product is physical, then look for sales organizations that have networks of sales people across the country. You do the deal with the organization and the independent network of sales people sells your product. It's a sweet setup if you can negotiate a margin that works for everyone. Hope that helps - Cheers - NickNP
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Best sales funnel to scale $47 fitness infoproduct?
Scaling with paid/cold traffic is a very different kind of beast. Depending on your paid traffic source their motivations and behavior is different than that of a house list or affiliate / JV traffic. Usually paid (cold) traffic is more difficult to convert with a $47 initial offer. I've had success warming up this type of traffic, with clients of mine, before asking for that level of sale. There are some exceptions to the rule depending on how rabid your market is to buy, but the fitness niche is usually more skeptical. You can warm them up by starting with an email opt in to a lead magnet then present them with your $47 sales offer, theres a side benefit to this as well. The other way to warm them up is to start with a survey leading them into a customized VSL to your $47 product. There's also some major benefits here if you segment your traffic right. As far as after the initial sale in regards to the backend funnel itself my typical flow looks like this: Sales page > Up Sell #1 > Down Sell #1 > Up Sell #2 > Thank you page. However some of my clients have much more than 2 up sells in place in some funnels. The trick is that your up sells should flow logically to each other. Meaning make your first up sell a product that gets your target market to their desired solution faster and easier with the up sell. For your down sell, you can keep the same product / offer but lower the price or offer a payment plan. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.BH
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What should my consulting rates be as a freelance developer who can also do SEO, social media optimization and other marketing services?
Pricing for different tasks that require the same amount of time from you tells the Customer (and your subconscious) that you're working at a 5 on task x, but working at a 9 on task y simply because it costs/earns more. That seems to be a disconnect. Your time is your most precious asset, and I would charge for it whatever you're doing. If you build a site, and they are happy with your dev fee, but feel like you should charge less for SEO, simply let them find another SEO guy. That's their choice, but YOU are worth $xx.xx, no matter what you're doing. Also, in general, take whatever you're charging and add 10% to it. If you're still busy, add another 10%. Let the demand level determine how much work you do, and at what cost.SL
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