I always figured the chamber was filled with: 1) Insurance salesmen 2) Real estate agents 3) Local politicians 4) Bureaucrats looking for a free lunch and and excuse to not work 5) Sales, Marketing and HR people looking for a free lunch and an excuse to not work
From: Lewis Bergman Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 11:54 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Finding Sales People In my opinion, the only reason to go to one of those Chamber events is to look for sales people to hire since that is all that go to them. I think that might be what someone was suggesting when they mentioned it. If you are a one man shop I would definitely consider 1099 them just for simplicity sake. On the other hand, that is one more reason a professional salesperson won't work for you; lack of benefits. On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 12:37 PM Joe Falaschi <[email protected]> wrote: Two other things: You/someone should figure out your buyer personas. For us we sell very little Internet Service to retail organizations - especially directly. They all seem to have corporate policies and decisions. The vast majority of our retail sales come in via the CCRs of the world. We stopped going to the Chamber of Commerce events. We left at least three of them in the area. It just seemed like everyone attending events was either another sales person or not fitting into our buyer personas. We looked at who our best customers were and who was attending the events and the positions and companies were not matching up. Generally the CFOs and IT directors are not going to the Chamber events. A lot of small service businesses who wanted basic best effort internet service were attending. If you have the time and want to be a part of that community - it might pay off in the end but it wasn’t for us. Joe On Oct 28, 2016, at 9:27 AM, Mike Hammett <[email protected]> wrote: Either approach. Sometimes the management company wants to be involved, sometimes they don't. Sometimes the anchor stores are owned separately from the rest. ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions Midwest Internet Exchange The Brothers WISP From: "CBB - Jay Fuller" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 8:06:09 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Finding Sales People 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 To: [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 Intelligent Computing Solutions Midwest Internet Exchange The Brothers WISP From: "Lewis Bergman" <[email protected]> To: [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]> 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 Intelligent Computing Solutions Midwest Internet Exchange The Brothers WISP
