Hiring A Commercial Salesperson?

[Shane Deubell]

One of my goals for 2014 is hiring a commercial salesperson, not sure if part time or full time yet. Right now i am in the brainstorming stage so feel free to comment even if you have never done it. I'm sure you all have had salespeople contact you and have an opinion on what you liked/disliked about them.

Have hired many appointment setters to work phones but have never hired a real outside salesperson, guess i have to start somewhere.

What qualities i am looking for?

Any industries that you would not hire from or you prefer?

College educated or doesn't matter?

Experience level?

What should my checklist look like?

 

[TomKing]

I would look for a former Pharma Rep. There are over 10,000 who have been laid off in the past 24 months.

They are used to working independently, making cold calls, getting past gate keepers doing lunches and snacks in offices.

Yes college educated.

The key will be hitting a sales number that makes you both happy. Commercial is hard work and carpet cleaning is last on many companies list of expenses. The sales cycle can be 6 months to a year. How do you keep them motivated is my big question?

You are going to need $500 - 600K in sales to cover someone part time. This would have them earning 35-40 k plus your expenses. That is almost 10% of gross. Do your margins allow this? Good sales people with experience make 6 figures, phone, car and expense account.

Good industries
Pharma $70-120K earnings

Enterprise car sales - they have a fantastic employee development system $35-50k earnings

Beverage distributors - these guys know how to network $30-60k earnings

Cell phone sales - driven by numbers $25-$35k earnings

Jan San Chemical & paper product Sales - already know a lot of accounts you would target and have competitor knowledge $35-50k earnings

Payroll services - These guys are hardcore cold call sales. They also have relationship with the money people in organizations. $80k earnings



Check List
Sales experience 3-5 years

Cold calling experience - yes

Documented sales awards - yes ask to see the physical awards.

Self directed sales - yes ask to see a war binder with routing and sales targets

College educated - yes ask to have transcripts sent.

Better than average looking - yes it is a fact good sales people are better than average looking. I am the one exception.

Experience reaching decision makers - yes

Sold on a larger sales team - yes who needs mavericks you want someone who is a team player.

Experience with a scripted sales message - yes

Documented sales results - yes ask to see rankings or sales reports.

Year over year sales growth - yes ask to see proof

Experience starting new sales territories - yes ask to see proof

Ask to hear demo of the last product they sold or represented. Make them sell it to you. If they where good at it they can still sell it.

Ask for stories of gaining access to accounts or offices.

Ask for reference from their last sales teams. Ask those people for a reference. See what their team thought of them.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Some thoughts, Shane:

1. Most good salespeople already have a long term career. So you are probably going to be hiring relatively inexperienced people. (Unless you go with Tom's higher priced suggestions which is great if your margins can stand the increased overhead.) So this means you must…

2. Make it easy for them with a “Sales System”. Your Sales System should include scripts, audio and video sales aids, a proposal template, paperwork for setting up the account and of course a Pricing Guide so your salesperson can write the proposal profitably!

NOTE: Maybe the most common question I hear is, “How much should I charge in commercial work?” Download our free SFS Commercial Production/Pricing Analysis Log HERE or just write me at stevet@JonDon.com and I'll email it to you.

Now once you have an entire Sales System built that makes it easy to sell for an inexperienced (but motivated) salesperson you must…

3. “Hold their feet to the fire”! You "add accountability" in two ways.

First, meet with your new salesperson and jointly (this way you get “buy-in” if THEY come up with the goals) devise a reasonable quota of new sales contacts and completed proposals. You both should also agree on a goal for signed contracts and profitability. (Don’t set the goal just on gross sales or you may be stuck with some huge jobs for a lot of money that you lose your shirt on! Don’t ask me how I learned about this one!)

The other key is to set up a very generous commission structure. (Not a salary.) Develop your payment structure using “goal directed behavior”. In other words ask yourself “What do I want my salesperson to produce?” and then compensate them accordingly. And finally, even after holding your salespeople accountable you must…

4. Manage your salespeople. There is a reason every car dealership has a position called “Sales Manager”. Salespeople need more “hands-on managing” than any other employee you will ever have. They will need direction, suggestions, motivation, encouragement… selling is a tough gig!

And Shane, likely at first YOU will have to be the “sales manager” and meet with your salesperson every morning just to help them line out their day plus weekly to review what they have done. (See point #3 re: “accountability”!) Don’t ignore this point. Too many times cleaners will hire a salesperson and then ignore them which never works out well. (I learned this the hard way too!)

Best wishes Shane! (And if your salesperson starts signing up accounts that morph into an "encap route" I want a public apology for busing my chops on the concept!)

Steve

PS One last observation, Shane. If and when you find a good salesperson- wonderful! BUT I will caution you that salespeople have one of the highest turnover rates anywhere. By their very nature successful salespeople are ambitious. And that means the good ones probably will not stay with you long. So plan for “succession”.

 

[mirf]

I have a friend who was laid off from his professionial sales job and asked to work for me at a reduced rate and percent. The sales cycle was longer than I anticipated. It is as Tom said 6 months and up. He is looking for a job also so the time was short and we are keeping notes for the next move. The other point was not having the litature and leave behind items ready. The investment was more than I planned for to a break even point. Would have to have stopped the expansion If not for this opportunity of someone and their employer parting ways. and have reduced the time for him as he continues to look for work at the income of more than I can afford.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Thanks Tom/Steve exactly what i was looking for.

Lets be real though, tom king is not going to walk through the door. This is an entry level position and more then likely a young guy with 1-3 years experience will be who we end up with. The phone/cable companies here have armies of young people in suits going door to door at businesses selling data packages. This is kinda what i am thinking.

The good news is i am in no hurry, so the plan is to run couple ads online only. Then set up a couple interviews.

True steve about selling more encap, we can scale that up quickly/cheaply. Last thing i want is buying more truckmounts...

 

[TomKing]

Shane
I believe you can get good people with experience.

Mirf is right it takes awhile to get your sales message together.

When I was downsized from Lilly last spring it took me 3 months to get my message honed. I had been working on this part time and going full time required a whole new beast.

This is what I will be talking about at MF10.
We will be talking about targeting, routing, sales message, growing your referral sources and presentation skills.
Sure hope you are coming out it would be great to meet in person.

You must have a base plus commission structure.
I am filling this roll right now. I believe it will take $30k plus bonus, car allowance $1000 expense account, and cell with a target of $70-80k to get a solid sales person.

I am planning for 12 months before they pay for themselves. Contract monthly work will and should be their focus.

I like the phone company employee idea. Thanks

Thanks Tom/Steve exactly what i was looking for.

Lets be real though, tom king is not going to walk through the door. This is an entry level position and more then likely a young guy with 1-3 years experience will be who we end up with. The phone/cable companies here have armies of young people in suits going door to door at businesses selling data packages. This is kinda what i am thinking.

The good news is i am in no hurry, so the plan is to run couple ads online only. Then set up a couple interviews.

True steve about selling more encap, we can scale that up quickly/cheaply. Last thing i want is buying more truckmounts...

 

[Brian H]

Lots of GREAT advice from Tom and Steve!!!

We have had at least one commercial salesperson at our company for at least 25 years. The numbers Tom threw out are pretty accurate to be able to afford a full time person. After losing focus for several years, commercial sales is our fastest growing area. We added part-time sales to our staff by using a couple of our on-location cleaners. It gives them a chance to try something new and to see an area that they may be able to grow into when they eventually get off the truck. They are expected to act and dress the part of a professional salesperson on those days they are working sales.

If you can afford to have one of your cleaners off the truck a couple of days a week, it's a way to start slowly or see if you can find an experienced sales person that may want to work part-time.

 

[Shane Deubell]

$30k base plus extra's is what ss is paying and some of the semi related industries here restoration, cleaning franchises, mat rental etc.

Really a matter of when not if, this is the business plan i want. From day one the goal has always been to be a niche operator in residential.
I can't move the needle anymore by myself selling, hopefully will get lucky and find someone part-time.