Advice on a finding a salesperson

flyingsheep

Hi,

I'm wondering can people here offer some advice based on your experiences on how we can get our company going in the sales department.

To summarise, there's three of us currently involved in a tech/web company. 2 of which are wholly production based (design,development etc), and the third person on a part time basis being part of the initial investment in the company, not to mention networking, business development etc and dealing with warm calls.

To summarise, we firmly believe we can deliver our service to a very high standard, I would like to think better than many competitors out there. We are also a relatively decent price and most importantly to us , we genuinely do want and look to have all happy customers.

We have done the figures and if we are to work to full capacity we are earning enough to pay good wages and put money into the bank too.

So I believe, at least theoretically, our model is fine.

The issue is this , we are simply not getting in the work. We are lacking sales experience and a sales strategy. While we are working on our marketing and general brand recognition the results are still not enough in the short/medium term to make this workable. The hours simply aren't being filled.

We were considering finding a sales guy that might see eye to eye about our company and what we stand for. Im wondering have people experience with this?

Questions spring to mind...

Is it worth getting someone in on the company altogether if paying a good salary is an issue?

Should we pay just commision?

Where do you even start to find these guys? Especially decent ones. Are they common?

Are there decent honest, hard working sales guys out there who also have a strong appreciation for the industry? Or are we setting our expectations way too high?

Id be very grateful to hear your experiences with this.

Thanks

jimmii

The decent guys are hard to get and if you find the right person its definitely worth considering giving them some equity as the good guys that way they are less likely to get poached in the future too which is probably what you need to be looking at doing yourself! A good salesman is never going to be short of work so your starting place is probably going to be rival companies in the short term it will probably be better for you if they are already working in the industry as that will quicken the learning process. By the sounds of it sales definitely looks to be a missing piece at the moment the right person should make a big difference.

pedronomix

A full-time salesperson is unlikely to be affordable for a 3 man band. A good one will be working already for a larger firm and hugely unlikely to take a risk on a small start up. Commission only notion is for dreamers.
You guys are currently under-employed, get off your a*ses and out selling. If you dont have the skills, do a sales training course.
I suspect your biggest issue is too much competition selling at low prices, this is a serious structural/market availability issue. You will need a very strong USP to make headway in sales growth.

Geniass

flyingsheep wrote: »

So I believe, at least theoretically, our model is fine.

flyingsheep wrote: »

The issue is this , we are simply not getting in the work.

Unfortunately these comments are at variance with each other.

There are a lot of these types of business around and therefore work will be very hard to get.

I know of a fairly large company in this business and the main owner/founder is their main sales person.

As said above, YE need to become sales people. Otherwise...

How are ye doing re Tender work for Government agencies?

antoinolachtnai

You really need to go back and look at the model. There is another thread on here about web development market. The problem is probably that you are big enough to have overheads, but not quite big enough to be able to attract the quality of business you need to meet those overheads. You need to be really careful here.

Why would a really good sales guy with strong contacts come to work for you, rather than taking a job with a mobile phone company, a large system integrator or an established web or advertising agency? This is the problem everybody faces.

flyingsheep

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice, Ive been doing some serious thinking on your comments so far and you're right, our best option is the most obvious one, start picking up the phones and get our own sales.

I've also noticed that any slight warm leads we've met we have very easily converted due to the passion and quality of our work. So perhaps the potential skills are there and just need to be brought out.

I am going to start looking at sales courses and talk to my colleagues.

Any other tips or comments are very welcome.

midland_pat

flyingsheep wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice, Ive been doing some serious thinking on your comments so far and you're right, our best option is the most obvious one, start picking up the phones and get our own sales.

I've also noticed that any slight warm leads Ive met I have very easily converted due to the passion and quality of our work. So perhaps the potential skills are there and just need to be brought out.

I am going to start looking at sales courses and talk to my colleagues.

Any other tips or comments are very welcome.

Good evening Flyingsheep,

I am a little surprised at the negative tones that you have received thus far in this thread! Firstly I want to commend you and your partners for getting a business up and running in a really tough commercial and economic market. Good on you all its not easy!!!

I have been in medical/pharma sales for 12+ year and run a team of sales execs myself and let me tell you this for nothing. It is my honest opinion that if you understand and believe in your product then the sales piece will be easy for you! You just need to hone your skill set, thats all!

Most sales reps are over paid and underworked and unless you find a diamond in the rough none of them will be as "invested" in getting your company off the ground as you and your partners are!

I think you would be well able to convert leads to sales and I would advise you to open a prospect bank where you can track all your leads. This will give you a foundation to revisit warm leads. CRM systems are good (can be pricy) but a well thought out excel doc will do in the beginning.

Now for an old cliché (forgive me) but its so very true for sales people "the lord gave sales people 2 ears and 1 mouth and they would all do well to use them in that ratio" i.e. listen to your clients needs, understand what they want and then go about making their lives easier. If you make someone else's life easier then they will be sure to use you time and time again!

I don't want to go on and on here so I can PM you with my details and I would be happy to help you with some basic advice that might help you feel more confident when approaching sales?? Let me know if this would help you?

Regard

Pat

pedronomix

flyingsheep wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice, Ive been doing some serious thinking on your comments so far and you're right, our best option is the most obvious one, start picking up the phones and get our own sales.

I've also noticed that any slight warm leads we've met we have very easily converted due to the passion and quality of our work. So perhaps the potential skills are there and just need to be brought out.

I am going to start looking at sales courses and talk to my colleagues.

Any other tips or comments are very welcome.

Good response. I would just add this, you are unlikely to find cold calling for these types of services to be very productive in terms of leads generated versus effort input. The key to selling such services is that your marketing and promotional activities generate a strong lead flow. Add in eTenders etc to get quoting. The next stage is actually selling/closing, these are learned skills. You say you do a good job is converting leads, so you must be OK at it! A bit of sales training will never go astray and will help increase conversion rates.
I would focus mainly on the promotional/marketing side of the business as increasing the volume of leads is the primary route to sales growth. You existing/past clients can also be mined for new work and introductions etc. and might be a good place to start with some sales type calls.