Mike, you could try attending the Chamber of Commerce meetings, but that’s a long term approach, won’t reach a lot of the potential customers, and assumes the owner is a born salesperson which you say you aren’t.
I’d take the approach of paying commissions to someone who is already in your target customers on a regular basis, plus probably advises them on communications purchase decisions. Go visit 10 businesses you would like as customers and ask who they pay to work on their computers and network. Watch for the nerdmobiles parked outside businesses you want to target. One company will probably stand out. Go make a deal with them to pay them commissions, plus explain the advantages to them of working with a local business where they have the cell number of the owner and they can work directly with someone with technical knowledge rather than wait on hold with some script reader at the big phone company. For example, if I were trying to sell to small businesses in my hometown of Glen Ellyn (not where my WISP has service), there is a local company TMC2 that has done the legwork to get a local customer base. You say that you are targeting DeKalb and Naperville, I’m sure there are similar companies there. Unfortunately someone may already have deals with them. But it can’t hurt to ask. As far as finding someone with the right skills, my opinion has always been look at realtors, but right now the real estate market has picked up. 5 years ago you could probably have found tons of them willing to give it a try. From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lewis Bergman Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 8:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Finding Sales People Having actually paid the guy $10k a month for doing nothing and watching for a year as he answered phone calls we would have gotten the customer from anyway I would think when it actually happens you might feel differently. You can pay someone $13 to $15 per hour to do inside sales. IMHO you pay an outside sales rep to go get business you can't get by answering the phone. You can take a good salesperson and turn them to crap by paying them not to sell, which is what you will end up doing. Been there, done that. But, if you want to learn that mistake yourself go ahead. Maybe I am to "half glass empty" but of course, it is yours and you should definitely do what you want. In the end, we are all rats working the maze. If you put the cheese at the start of the maze, the maze never gets worked. That is what you do to a sales person with non expiring commissions. You move the cheese closer to the front of the maze after a while and every month it gets closer and closer until they just have to lay there and open their mouth. Limiting the time they receive it keeps the cheese nearer the end of the maze. And of course, they can get paid for a contract renewal so they can go back to that expiring commission and renew it and start the clock again. To each his own. On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 8:06 AM CBB - Jay Fuller <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I'd love to wire up whole strip malls to and have had this conversation with a potential sales guy - but how do you get access? is there one management company or one land owner you have to get through? Once you wire the place do you own your own infrastructure? ( no ) , can you get a term-deal? I'm not sure, can you? ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Hammett <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Finding Sales People I'm not in a position to offer a base pay that would do anything other than offend. If they want to hook up everyone in a strip mall, paying $100 each, I'm fine with that. Each deal is $100, but there's seven separate deals, that's real money whereas if I discourage them from lower deals, they wouldn't have chased that. If they want to work all day for a $30/month account, that $3/month residual is all theirs. I'm not out much. Tying the compensation to the value of the sale should incentivize most toward the higher dollar accounts. I figured the long term residual would be self-fulfilling. If I'm getting paid forever from the customer, paying the sales guy forever really isn't an issue. Once the ROI is done, I'm in an even better position. If the customer stops paying me because the sales guys wasn't taking care of them properly, I'm no longer paying the sales guy for that account. If he stops working because he's collecting $10k/month for doing nothing, fine. I get a new sales guy. If someone truly wants to do nothing, they'll do everything in their power to do it. Then again, I'm not getting any bites, so maybe I have the wrong approach. I have done regular LinkedIn posts and even shared those posts to the greater Chicago area B2B and sales groups, but not a job position ad. I have a hard time swallowing paying $400 without the guarantee of getting someone good (or at all). ----- Mike Hammett <http://www.ics-il.com/> Intelligent Computing Solutions <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> <http://www.midwest-ix.com/> Midwest Internet Exchange <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> <https://twitter.com/mdwestix> <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/> The Brothers WISP <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg> From: "Lewis Bergman" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 7:45:13 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Finding Sales People First, I would focus on just business sales and raise the minimum package value sold by this person to a few hundred dollars. You don't want them wasting time with the consumer level stuff you already handle well. Small businesses wanting to pay $100 or less are making their own phone calls and expect to be treated more like regular consumers since that is what they really are. Next, make sure you put a limit on the revenue share. Tying it to a contract length or 18 months are good. If you give them rev share forever eventually they don't need to work to earn a substantial paycheck and become unmotivated. At least that is how it ended up for us when we made the mistake. Most of these people want some kind of estimate of what they can earn so I would try to come up with that and put it in the ad. In addition, if you can pay a lower commission and add base pay some people are just not in a position to live commission only. I prefer it and I think the absolute best sales people do but you just might not get those people. Maybe consider doing without the first month and replace with a base as an option. I give my candidates the choice and the option to switch at 12 months. You might try LinkedIn. I have had some success recruiting there. Otherwise, if you like a salesperson that tries to sell you on a B2B service ask them if they know anyone interested in a sales position. They may be or they may know someone who is. That is how I hired my last one. I like copier sales people for their technical side. I like the phone book salespeople as they are 100% cold call with no support for leads. It also easy to make a case on the fact that they work for a dying company. Most of them are actually selling web pages so they are close to your business anyway. On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 6:46 AM Mike Hammett <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: What's the best way to get a B2B sales guy? That's the overall point, but digging in deeper, what should I be asking for? I'm very tech oriented, very little sales. I'm needing someone that can do it on their own without guidance from me on what I want them to do. To me, sales sounds more like B2C or lower end services while business development sounds more B2B or higher end, but does the sales world reflect that? Where do I look? The #1 source people say is referrals, but apparently I don't know anyone that knows anyone worth a darn as I've posted it on various social media... a dozen times over the last couple years. Here's the copy from a posting I did this past summer: Job Description Local ISP seeking independent sales leader. ICS has been operated in the DeKalb - Naperville area for 12 years by tech guys. Compensation will be a one time commission after the sale and a 10% residual to ensure the customer is attended for on an ongoing basis. Our services range from $30/month into the thousands of dollars a month. The path you take is yours. Job Requirements We need someone with B2B experience to lead our sales force. You will be responsible for the entire sales and marketing process. The tech guys will say what they can do where and your job will be to develop the strategy and then pursue those clients. We can teach a good B2B salesperson the tech they need to know far easier than you'll teach us how to sell. We believe that boots on the ground would be necessary, so willingness to travel to the DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, southwest DuPage and northwest Will County areas as needed would be required. ----- Mike Hammett <http://www.ics-il.com/> Intelligent Computing Solutions <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> <http://www.midwest-ix.com/> Midwest Internet Exchange <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> <https://twitter.com/mdwestix> <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/> The Brothers WISP <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp> <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
