How to find a salesmen

[BenBusy]

I am thinking about starting a search for a salesmen. Basically my business has been up and going for about 8 months. We provided online giving and tithing for churches. we have 6 churches under our belt right now and one large conference. 4000+ attendee's. Neither one of us (the owners) are very good at sales and we are both still holding down full time jobs. Where would i start a search for a salesmen. He would probably work on mostly commission.

[stand856]

Cheapest and easiest way would be Craigslist.

[jasaunders]

You won't get quality salesmen if you are only paying commission.

[rogercbryan]

I am thinking about starting a search for a salesmen. Basically my business has been up and going for about 8 months. We provided online giving and tithing for churches. we have 6 churches under our belt right now and one large conference. 4000+ attendee's. Neither one of us (the owners) are very good at sales and we are both still holding down full time jobs. Where would i start a search for a salesmen. He would probably work on mostly commission.

What would a salesmen do for your company? Are you a non-profit? Are you looking for someone to help you raise funds or to find organizations to raise funds for?

[BenBusy]

My hopes in a salesmen would be to make cold calls and to visit local churches. Hopefully landing sales leads. One big reason for wanting a person or solution is I am still employeed and can not make cold calls or visits through out the week.

[Woodcs82]

Many salesman ONLY receive commission, how do you justify that statement? There are many salesman who do extremely well on a "strickly commission" pay scale.

-C

You won't get quality salesmen if you are only paying commission.

[jasaunders]

No qualified, experienced salesman whill take a job with a new company that has no support for their salesmen if they pay strictly on commission. It is a fact, it is not an opinion.
Go into the marketplace trying to find a salesman for a job with a new company with no sales support only paying commission and see what kinds of applicants you get.

You will not be getting million dollar sellers. At best you will get some kids out of college with no experience who weren't able to find a job elsewhere.

[rogercbryan]

My hopes in a salesmen would be to make cold calls and to visit local churches. Hopefully landing sales leads. One big reason for wanting a person or solution is I am still employeed and can not make cold calls or visits through out the week.

I still don't understand what you are 'selling'. Do you want this salesperson to get chruches to allow you to raise funds for them? What do you consider a 'sales lead'... please explain...

[sevencube]

Regardless of comission (I realize that you might not be able to afford salary-base at this point) ... You can find some salespeople via postings on local colleges (less experience, but hungry - just have to gamble on it balancing out), craigslist.com, elance.com (probably will only find telemarketers). Echoing what some of the other members here have said, these probably wont be the highest quality salesman, but thats because of the support system. Salesman tend to like everything taken care of to the point where they just go out and sell, not having to worry about support the product, sales lead or even the sales pitch.

Possible Idea/Suggestion:
Churches tend to be organized and grouped (catholics, jewish, etc). Try to find some key people that are influencial in their particular church. And just do your best to sell them and have them provide word of mouth for you. Or possibly even just offer him an incentive to offer your product.

[BenBusy]

I am selling the ability to receiving online giving. So if a church is interested in taking tithes and giving via their website they can use simplegive.com services. We create a portal and give them a link.

[BenBusy]

Thanks sevencube!

[brianaaron]

the commission only thing is not an issue if you find a true salesman, a job with a guarantee is not what true million dollar salesman want. i have never had a job with a guarantee and every salesman, that i have ever interviewed that wanted a guarantee was lazy and not even worth that. The best jobs, careers in life many times have no guarantee, hence entrepreneurship

[jasaunders]

You are missing the point.
For an established company that has sales support, commission is the best incentive you can give to a salesman. For a company hiring it's first employee that has no sales literature, no sales support, no history, and no credibility, you WILL NOT find successful, experienced salespeople solely on commission.

No one takes a 100% risk. If a salesman works on 100% commission for a company that has helped other salesmen succeed before them, that reduces the risk... there are established sales channels and sales methods in place. The salesperson goes in and closes the deal.

For a company offering nothing but commision and nothing else, this does not hold true.

[brianaaron]

jasaunders, i agree with you last statement, i took your first statement wrong.

[BusinessAdviser]

It all comes down to risk.

What increases risk?

Commission-based compensation
A new company / a company without an established reputation
Lack of support from the company
Lack of sales experience
Lack of sales skills

What decreases risk?

Salary-based compensation
An experienced company / a company with an established reputation
Support from the company
Sales experience
Sales skills

What you are proposing is commission-based compensation from a new company (less than a year old with only a handful of clients) with little to no sales support ("Neither [owner is] very good at sales and ... are both still holding down full time jobs"). Any chance for a salesperson to hedge this risk is with sales experience and skills. The Catch 22 is that those salespeople with sales experience and skills will pass on the opportunity to work for you in favor of better opportunities that are less risky, as they can do so based on their experience and skills. That leaves you with possible salespeople who lack sales experience and skills. Of these, the smart ones will recognize their own abilities and pass on the opportunity because it is just too risky to work for you, considering the other factors, but the unintelligent ones will not be smart enough to do so. Thus, if you are offering commission-based compensation at this point in your company's life, your salespeople will be unintelligent, unskilled, and inexperienced.

This is my line of reasoning. I'm sure there are plenty who disagree though. What does everyone else think?