Where do you hire your sales people?

[johnp]

I'm at the point where I need to hire some sales people to get on the phones so I can start growing my sales. I have been trying to hire for about 2 months but I can't find any good candidates.

I need someone who can make at least 100-400 calls a day. Right now it's either going to be commission only ($1,000) per sale or hourly at somewhere around $9-$12 per hour. But I'm having trouble hiring.

Places that I have looked:

- CraigsList - had a few bad sales people working for me, they didn't last more than two days.
- Family/Friends - Terrible idea.
- LinkedIn (won't pay for job posting though)
- Elance (had one from Jamaica lined up by she had family issues)

I'm trying to stick with someone in the US. They can be located anywhere in the country. Has anyone ever hired a telemarketer successfully from elance, o-desk, or freelancer?

 

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[People>Cash]

First place for employees is family and friends. Second is employee referrals. Third is job postings.

$9-$12 is pretty low compensation for sales. Any good salesman is going to choose a luxury car dealership or medical sales where they make $100,000+ after a year or two including commissions. You may want to reevaluate the pay although if sales are easy then $1000 for commission is healthy.

It's hard to say because I don't know anything about your situation but if I wanted to skimp on pay then I would provide really good training for college students/grads who are energized to work.

Just my two cents

 

[Get Right]

You got it all wrong. Never going to get the good ones with that approach.

Why are you cheaping out on the most important guys?

 

[ZCP]

What is your close rate? 400 calls a day! And $1k per close? So at 1 close per day (0.25%) your salespeople can earn $250k?

 

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[johnp]

You got it all wrong. Never going to get the good ones with that approach.
Why are you cheaping out on the most important guys?

I probably do have it all wrong. I haven't successfully hired anyone yet so I agree.

One thing that I don't have wrong is my sales process. So I just need to figure out hiring.

I'm actually looking for more of a telemarketer/apt setter. That's why the pay is so low. They don't need to be involved in the close. I just need someone who is motivated enough to dial all day, and follow-up. What happens after that is up to me.

A sales person would be nice and if that's the case then I"ll probably do draw + commission. But for now I can make good money with a room full of telemarketers dialing all day long. But I can't find the people who are motivated enough to sit there, maybe I need to pay more than $12/hr?

It's hard to say because I don't know anything about your situation but if I wanted to skimp on pay then I would provide really good training for college students/grads who are energized to work.

Thanks for the suggestions. Family doesn't really work because then I can't fire them if they fall below their call qutoa.

 

[johnp]

What is your close rate? 400 calls a day! And $1k per close? So at 1 close per day (0.25%) your salespeople can earn $250k?

400 calls in a day
at a 6% close rate on cold prospects = 24 closes (not in a single day though, sales cycles are longer than a day!)

24 * $1k commission = $24k.

or they sit there and dial all day for $12/hour and make $96 per day.

 

[Vassilios]

You got it all wrong. Never going to get the good ones with that approach.

Why are you cheaping out on the most important guys?

I agree. A good salesperson has the ability to transform an organization so don't be cheap with them. A superstar salesperson should be able to work purely off commission.

If you have a great product, straight commission (or possible draw), and NO CAP on the commission, you could get some heavy hitters. You dont want to attract people that want to make $50k/year.

If you're offering $1,000/sale and a superstar salesperson could make 300 sales per year, then put that as the comp.

"Superstar sales person needed. If you're not the best, don't waste your time" "Only interested in those that need to make over $100k/year"

Sales people come in all sorts of mindsets, so it's important you get the winners that have high standards as far as what they want to make

 

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[Vassilios]

Here's another idea for screening candidates.

When you speak to them, get them excited about the organization and earning potential, then start giving them objections
- " I just get the feeling you're not the right person for the job"

How do they respond to this? Do they take that and leave, or they do try to overcome and convince you otherwise?

 

[SEBASTlAN]

I was thinking about hiring a sales person also - is 100% commission the way to go?

 

[GuestUser113]

This was in Jay Abraham's Mind Shift Challenge.

#1: THE 100% SOLUTION

I have a client whose income curve was flat. It doesn’t matter what they sold. Pretend it’s your product or service. This company had a compensation program that paid the sales people 10% of the profit. And the dollar numbers are arbitrary – multiply them by 10 or 100 and the lesson is the same.
So, if the company made $1,000 profit on a sale, the sales person would get $100 and the company would get $900.

I had them calculate:

• What the average new client is worth to them in dollars each time they buy.
• How many times that client will buy from them each year.
• How many years the average client will be with them.

It turned out the first sale, on average, resulted in about $200 profit for the company. Of that, $20 went to the salesman or woman, $180 to the company. On average, the client bought five times a year for three years. So basically, each time that company got a new client, they were receiving $3,000 in cumulative profits.

My solution: Instead of giving the sales people 10% of the profit on a sale to a new, first time client, give them 100% of the profit of the first sale.
The company management’s response: “You’re insane!” I smiled pleasantly and went on to explain that as long as their sales people maintained
sales from existing clients at past levels or above, give them 100% of profit on the first sale for every new client they bring in. They’ll be ten times more motivated to sell new clients. And every time they bring in a new client, the sales person makes an additional $200, but the company makes an additional $2,800. The company implemented the plan and sales tripled in nine months.
…and they said they were sorry for calling me insane.

 

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[Bellini]

400 calls in a day
at a 6% close rate on cold prospects = 24 closes (not in a single day though, sales cycles are longer than a day!)

24 * $1k commission = $24k.

or they sit there and dial all day for $12/hour and make $96 per day.

Hey johnp, just some thoughts....the reason you "can't find people that are motivated enough to sit there" is because nobody in their right mind wants to sit in a chair for 8 hours and make 400 phone calls a day. Not even 100 phone calls. I don't know if you've ever done telemarketing but it's the worst kind of hell. That's why there is such a huge turnover and why people have trouble hiring and keeping anyone to do it.

My suggestion would be to hire part-timers only. I wouldn't even consider trying to ask someone to do that full time. For example, get 2 part-timers to do 4 hours each a day, or even 3 pts to do 3 hours each a day. That's about all people can take. That way they might actually last beyond the first week

Then you won't have to depend on just one person, and also they will get to choose their own time slot / shift which will be attractive to people who need some flexibility in their schedule. As you mentioned, you might want to increase the pay / commission some also. That always helps draw people in.

 

[tafy]

You don't really need to hire sales people, what thus is really is a lead generation job, so you can pay the$12 an hour and a bonus for every 5 leads they get. Then you sort out the leads yourself, until its too much for you.

Basically u can get 3 lead gens per closer, I would get 5-6 part timers as you will get some turnover in staff.