

Ask HN: How do I hire commissioned salespeople? - PaulHoule

I'm launching a product in April 2012 that I believe I can sell 10 or so licenses for in the next few months.<p>Accordingly,  this is the kind of thing where a salesperson is involved and I was planning on being this salesperson -- I can say that in my spare time I am checking out books from the library about sales and reading them.  It's outside my comfort zone but it's the most plausible way I can spend the next few years working on what I believe in.<p>So I hear from some guy who's a specialist in this kind of system,  he's excited about what I'm doing and he's looking for an engineering role.<p>Well,  I wish I could say I had a lot of revenue and could hire him and a whole "dream team" to do all of the things I'd like to see happen but of course that depends on the revenue, which depends on the sales.<p>So I float the idea he can work as a commissioned salesperson.  This fits in just fine with my cost structure.  It frees up my time,  means I have someone who can drop in on customers in a different geographic zone,  and means I have a second salesperson who can team sell big clients and have a different p.o.v. about my marketing problems.<p>Anyway,  at the very least I need to write a contract but the more I think about it there are complications like I'll probably need to write this guy a 1099 if he sells anything.<p>It seems to me that this could be profitable for all concerned and could help us get a useful product in people's hands,  but I can also see screwing this up and having a lot of hard feelings.<p>Any idea of how I should get started on this?
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kvinge
Personally, I think you can do all your sales from one location to start off.
It's great to send people to location, but you might not have the cash to do
that. A lot of this really depends on what you are selling and for how much.

If you find people that love your product and have free time... get them
selling! I would have no hard feelings if they can't sell anything. Just make
sure they can clearly articulate your product so they don't harm your
businesses reputation. As long as they believe they can make money and ideally
they really believe in your product and they are good let them loose!

You might even consider having someone generate the leads and get the calls
set up. You take over on the actual sales aspects and if you make the sale
they get their commission.

Good Luck on the launch!

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PaulHoule
I do good on the phone and I can cover New York. It wouldn't hurt to have some
help in L.A. and San Francisco.

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debacle
What kind of commission are you planning on having? For something with such a
limited license pool, you're probably looking at a sales commission of 15-30%.
Were you planning on this arrangement eventually resulting in a hire?

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PaulHoule
With my cost structure I could certainly offer a 20% commission. If somebody
could sell like gangbusters, more than that.

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debacle
What's the install configuration time? How many sales, theoretically, could
one make in a month, and could that 20% commission cover a month of reasonable
salary?

Salespeople are a dime a dozen, but, like programmers, a good salesperson is
worth their weight in gold.

