Outside sales rep

[tmdry]

Who here other than Ken Snow has one (or more) doing outside sales for commercial cleaning?

Are they responsible for their own leads?
How do they get most of their leads?

Thanks

 

[TomKing]

Who here other than Ken Snow has one (or more) doing outside sales for commercial cleaning?

Are they responsible for their own leads?
How do they get most of their leads?

Thanks

We have a part time sales rep who is a retired flooring retail owner.
He gets all of our leads that come into the office and he generates his own. We are toying with hiring a part time CSR that does nothing but out bound cold calls and handles some inbound when we are busy.

I just left my Pharma job and will be starting my own sales routing. When I get going fulltime I will let you know what I am learning. Can't wait!

 

[Shane Deubell]

This is a project i am working on right now, would really like to hire a part-time rep by sept 1st so they can have enough work to make it through a buffalo winter alive.
Have all the other pieces in place but a couple.

1. Want to find some great territory mapping software, 100% committed to making this position as organized and productive as possible. After being a rep i know how important this is to success.

2.Have to do some field testing myself and find out how many stops to set as a goal everyday in an urban setting and suburban. Even if a rep hits a revenue target i still want them to hit an x number of stops EVERY day, not sure if its 30, 50 or whatever but will figure out a baseline min. Too often salespeople hit a revenue target and call it a day, not going to hire that person.

 

[TomKing]

This is a project i am working on right now, would really like to hire a part-time rep by sept 1st so they can have enough work to make it through a buffalo winter alive.
Have all the other pieces in place but a couple.

1. Want to find some great territory mapping software, 100% committed to making this position as organized and productive as possible. After being a rep i know how important this is to success.

2.Have to do some field testing myself and find out how many stops to set as a goal everyday in an urban setting and suburban. Even if a rep hits a revenue target i still want them to hit an x number of stops EVERY day, not sure if its 30, 50 or whatever but will figure out a baseline min. Too often salespeople hit a revenue target and call it a day, not going to hire that person.

On your stops are you setting number for cold calls and then a number for targets who you have some relationship with?

I would set 25-40 cold call. Hard to keep it chipper for longer than that. Remember Sales reps get paid to be happy!

On regular targets I would go for 7-10 depending on geography and depth of relationships.

3 solid calls would always be better than a bunch of shotgun calls

Just my Pharma self talking

I think you miss the point on why people get into sales.
If a guy can hit his quota in 2 hours a day more power to him.

I was in sales for the last 13 years because I could produce and I wanted the reward of my time and good pay.

Top sales people will not want to work in a frequency driven count the hours environment.

The Pharma industry had that idea on time and calls. They have laid off 1000's in the last few years because of losing sight of what real sales is.

Consulting with your customer to help them find the best solution for their need.

 

[tmdry]

Thanks Tom & Shane for the feedback.

I've worked in larger companies that had at one time 25-30 outside sales people (but we all knew the top 3-5 would be the bread and butter).

I've also been in sales most of my life, did lots of years in outside sales as well, however I was never a cold call type of salesman, that just wasn't me. If someone came to me or ask about what I had to offer than I can sell them, but to go out and knock on doors it is just not my cup of tea.

I know of a large tile cleaning/sealing company in Orlando, who has 5 outside sales people, he pays them on commission with weekly draws, I believe the commission is 10-15%, and a $500 weekly draw. Each sales pro covers a certain type of market, one will hit doctors/medical offices, the other restaurants/bars, the other medium/large size offices, etc. This way each sales pro would create their own portfolio, so when they would go to the next prospect, they'd say "we also work abc medical supply, and smith's dentistry, etc".

 

[Shane Deubell]

On your stops are you setting number for cold calls and then a number for targets who you have some relationship with?

I would set 25-40 cold call. Hard to keep it chipper for longer than that. Remember Sales reps get paid to be happy!

On regular targets I would go for 7-10 depending on geography and depth of relationships.

3 solid calls would always be better than a bunch of shotgun calls

Just my Pharma self talking

I think you miss the point on why people get into sales.
If a guy can hit his quota in 2 hours a day more power to him.

I was in sales for the last 13 years because I could produce and I wanted the reward of my time and good pay.

Top sales people will not want to work in a frequency driven count the hours environment.

The Pharma industry had that idea on time and calls. They have laid off 1000's in the last few years because of losing sight of what real sales is.

Consulting with your customer to help them find the best solution for their need.

Good points about mixing in some former/current customers and old estimates into the daily rotation, after 6 years of telemarketing we do have some decent info on large-mid businesses but none on smaller.

We currently use ACT and have pretty good info but i wanted to see if we could layer that on top of a map?
End of the day we can just do street searches in ACT everyday, but thought it would be great.

Yes if a pro walks in i would definitely be more flexible but how likely is that? I was preparing more for the 24-28 year old cable tv or electricity reseller ....
Who knows maybe we will be lucky, last batch of hires have been great.

 

[TomKing]

Pay for talent. You will be glad you did.
We just hired a new Office manager and raised our pay by 30%. Our lives are better after only 6 weeks. She is also selling at the same rate as the CSR we had who was hear a year before her husband was transferred.

Have you used Streets and Trips from Microsoft? You can dump an excel list in and it will map it for you. Pretty neat tool.

Good points about mixing in some former/current customers and old estimates into the daily rotation, after 6 years of telemarketing we do have some decent info on large-mid businesses but none on smaller.

We currently use ACT and have pretty good info but i wanted to see if we could layer that on top of a map?
End of the day we can just do street searches in ACT everyday, but thought it would be great.

Yes if a pro walks in i would definitely be more flexible but how likely is that? I was preparing more for the 24-28 year old cable tv or electricity reseller ....
Who knows maybe we will be lucky, last batch of hires have been great.

 

[Desk Jockey]

One of my guys built a simple auto scheduler in Excel. It prompts our marketing girl as to whom she needs to see this week, if she misses someone one the list just keeps growing as the next week her new list is added. He just built it a couple of months ago so I'm not sure if all the bugs are worked out but Erin loves it because it keeps her on track and on task.

 

[smastio]

Who here other than Ken Snow has one (or more) doing outside sales for commercial cleaning?

Are they responsible for their own leads?
How do they get most of their leads?

Thanks

OK... This topic I may be able to get some insight into. Prior to setting up FittleBug, I used to work for a National Franchise Commercial Cleaning Company. (a real shady company, come to find out) I spent 9 months with them and lead the nation selling in just the 9 months I was there. ($900,000 in sales) I tell you this because I know sales and I understand commercial cleaning sales ( commercial cleaning, not so much); left them and started my own cleaning company bciclean.com . Still have it. I hit the pavement and knocked on doors with one pitch - How would you like to communicate directly with the person emptying your trash? (and I would shut up). The person who speaks next loses. They ask how and I show them. I built a communications portal for secure and better communications between all the people involved. That's what I sold. The commercial cleaning industry has big challenges because of it timing of cleaning. I grew VERY fast. In 18 months I was cleaning 120 buildings in 4 states. Out of state was subcontracted, but Chicago accounts were employees. My number one suggestion for a sales rep is... don't micro manage a stallion. They don't like it. I could go on forever, but if anyone is interested in seeing my one and only (even today) piece of marketing leave behind material, let me know and I will scan it and post it here. I should also say that telemarketing for appointment setting does work as well, but in my opinion, nothing works as well as cold calling and walking in - with "something different" like a portal they have never seen.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Man I hate it when Steve starts calling himself a Stallion.

Yes I'd love to see your piece Steve.

Didn't you also have a winning hook line you mentioned in Jeff Cross's class?

 

[smastio]

sitting at a coffee shop this morning working... I will scan it when I get back. Winning hook line? Which one... lol Which class did you attend that I was speaking?

BTW... I'm more of a mustang, not a stallion (unless you're female - then I'm a stallion) Just sayin' Ah who am I kidding. I'm a 52 yr old put out to pasture! lol

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'd have to look up my notes. I think you said it was the number one reason you were so successful.

St Louis, a couple of years ago, my daughters sat in on the class for awhile until the twins felt the need to go shopping.

 

[smastio]

Thanks for taking notes - I thought everyone was asleep.

 

[smastio]

Yes I'd love to see your piece Steve.

Too big to post here... so here's a link... copy and paste. Let me know if you have problems and I'll email it.

http://www.bciclean.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=29qVQC1RLcA%3d&tabid=777&mid=2048

Steve

 

[Shane Deubell]

Have you used Streets and Trips from Microsoft? You can dump an excel list in and it will map it for you. Pretty neat tool.

Yes, but didnt read the instructions as usual...

I was looking more at mappoint but i will convert ACT to excel and see what it looks like on streets/trips.
Thanks!