Sales People?

MHasterok

MHasterok

New member
How many of you have sales people working for you? (I know you do Ron)

I am debating on looking for one that is willing to work on full commission. Is that how you started with yours?

My wife wants to quit her job and do sales full time for us, but she likes her gaurenteed paycheck. Any advice on salespeople?

Thanks!
 
My wife would like to do the same thing, but her job provides health care for us and a nice consistent pay check. Everyone's financial situation is different. There is no doubt that it would be better to have a sales person, it would just depends on your financial situation and market.

How long do you think it would take her to bring in enough work to to replace her current income?

Does her current job provide health insurance.

How long can you pay your bills without her income?

Just a few things that I'm sure you have already thought of but I thought I would mention them anyway.

Good Luck
 
We have 2 paid full time sales people. Small salary+car+gas=commission is how we get paid. For a salesperson to start out 100% commission would be extremely tough. IMO....
 
I put an add up about a month for a sales guy, I gave him full commission, it was tough for him, and he did find and close about 10 jobs, but then he couldnt do it anymore, and I understood, Id like to pay an hourly and commission, but We are still small.

I liked it though becasue it was at no loss to me, his time, His gas, but he made it worth it.
 
I just got two guys who i have known since high school for sales. They are paid only commision, but the are part time. they both have jobs offshore and they work 7 & 7, so the commision is just extra change for them. because if they were not doing this they would just be sitting at home.
 
I have been looking for a salesperson but from the 3 that I tried out, they were more of blowing smoke than actually selling. They sure talked a lot but when it came down to it they could not perform. I am still looking.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. It's a tough choice. Maybe I'll wait and have my wife sell during the summer (she works for the school district), then there's no lost income.
 
Be sure toget someone trustworthy. I had a guy working on commission only. He brought in a few jobs and was trying to get us into janitorial. I provided him a car, phones and paid him good when he did some of the work. As soon as he started getting good janitorial lined up he went on his own. He has never told me he quit, would not even return phone calls.
 
Lenny Schrecengost said:
Be sure toget someone trustworthy. I had a guy working on commission only. He brought in a few jobs and was trying to get us into janitorial. I provided him a car, phones and paid him good when he did some of the work. As soon as he started getting good janitorial lined up he went on his own. He has never told me he quit, would not even return phone calls.
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That's why straight commission would be nice, but harder to find the right people to work with it.
 
We made our sales training program and manual so future sales people can learn and get familiar with the nature of our services better. My opinion is that a sales person is knife with two edges. If he/she doesn't know the nature of the business, he/she could make more mess rather than bringing more biz. I am talking about commercial contracts. This is not a real estate sales but, more specific service which demands more education for the sales person. My biz partner came up with few levels of sales associates, the top few levels are estimators as well and they get paid much more and get more benefits. Different contracts as long as daily basis or quarterly and etc. get different commission. As far as sweeping goes, as long as the contract is alive the sales guy gets his % commission. The only thing he needs to care is to keep a good relationship with the PM. We listed an add in craigslist and got a few good guys.
 
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:We are planing on hiring someone in 2010 to do sales only so i can learn to run my company the way it should be im going to give them a salary commission and performance bonus plus we are hiring someone to work at night doing nothing but stenciling
 
Do nothing but stenciling?? Wow hope my walks don't get marked!!!!
 
IMO, the key to a sales person is cross-training. Even if the guy can gab, you should still put him out in the field for a while as a laborer.....a person with hands-on experience in your trade can just sell so much smoother than a person who is book trained. Obviously, they need both the book training and practical experience.

Another thing: put timelines on whatever pay plan that you start them with. This will protect you and him. For instance, if you are new to having a sales guy you may put into his commission that he gets a percentage of each cleaning on the contracts he sells. If you are new to this, and you get the percentage too high, you'll lose money and he'll make a bunch. You'd pretty much have to fire him to get out of your predicament.....so put in a timeline that you'll re-evaluate commission/payment at 6mo.
 
Dimitar,

Is it possible that you can send us you trianing material, so we can all benefit from that way you h ave trained your sales people. It would be a great help to all of us that are looking to do add a sales force in the future.

Thanks,
Bryan
 
I had a full time sales guy about a year ago that was on full time comission. He did great. He was happy with the % that he was given. However, he is a cook, not a sales person. Also, it takes someone with a 100 % entrepeneur spirit to work off of straight comission. My sales guy is also my brother, so he is aware of our work situation now and then. There are times that he kicks himself for no longer doing it, because of additional work that we have gotten from the jobs that he brought in that he did not get paid for because he had moved on, but like I said, although he was happy with everything, his heart was not in it and no one will be totally happy if their heart is not in it.
 
Alot of great points and tips. I agree, you have to find someone with alot of drive, and self disipline. It will not come to you in this business, you definately have to go and get it.
 
bhenson said:
Dimitar,

Is it possible that you can send us you trianing material, so we can all benefit from that way you h ave trained your sales people. It would be a great help to all of us that are looking to do add a sales force in the future.

Thanks,
Bryan
Click to expand...

Bryan,

The manual is more for parking lot and street sweeping business, but we are working on the manual for the power washing division. Some of the main points are: nature of the business, equipment and type of services, different ways of approaching the Property Managers and decision makers, most common questions that PMs ask and the proper answers, follow ups, establishing long term relationship with the PMs as an essential part of the sales strategy, sales reports, sales data base, levels of sales associates/estimators and commissions.
 
Do you have employees??? Pay them a commission to bring in jobs. Have them pass cards and sell everywhere they go. Going to get coffee at 7/11? Sell them and earn a 5 or 10% commission on top of having more work to do.
 
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