What to pay a sales person.

Suggestions for commition and expectations

[johnhamman]

Hello,
I run a decent web design company. We do sights running from the range of usually $6k to $30k and up. And I'm looking to hire a salesman for brining in more business. But I'm not sure whats resonable for commition. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or tips and warnings. I would like to make as few mistakes in my desisions as possible. Plus what are some good insentives and expectations.
Thanks for any help.

By the way this is not an advertisement. This is only for advise on a current prospect.

John H.

[edited by: rcjordan at 5:46 pm (utc) on Aug. 26, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no specific references to your site. Please see Terms of Service [/edit]

[eljefe3]

Boy I think it would be pretty difficult to get someone to work just on commission unless you have a recognizable brand name. Do you currently have your old clients giving out testimonials and/orrecommending your services to their friends? If their friends sign up with you, do you pay them a commission? This would be a good place to start.

As far as what to pay, that's difficult to say as there could be a lot of variables depending on the market, size of the contract etc.

[bunltd]

We just went through this with a couple of guys. We've been in business since '96, and thought we'd try having outside sales guys who would we'd pay on commission. The thought was: we'd save time by not having to spend so much time on the sales process, so we could spend more time building web sites.

It did not work for us. We provided them with leads in most cases, and they were to initiate contact and close. They could also sell on their own. After a trial of 6 weeks, not one sale was made as a result of their efforts. Your mileage may vary, in our case, we were acquainted with the salesmen in question, and it still didn't work to our expectation.

Just my 2 cents.

[Mark_A]

for bunltd - imho 6 weeks is pretty fast to expect results for web site commissions from a new salesman ..

It is my experience dealing with companies that the lead time from initial qualification and first contact to an actual purchase order is usually in the region of 6 months to 1 year. I am talking about complete build of sites to replace existing ones or a site from scratch I am not talking about optimisation or promotion work for which the lead time may well be quite a bit shorter.

It depends I guess what type of customer you are targetting but it is not my experience that many commercial organisations in the smaller to mid size spend the "$6k to $30k and up" mentioned by the original poster quickly ...

There is usually a consultation process ... specification process etc and then a group of individuals have to make decisions ... you have to influence many or all of them positively to come out with the order ahead of your competitors.

For johnhamman Re payment for a salesman .. the best bet I would say is that you will have to be competitive to get someone who is worth having.

So to be that ... I recommend checking the adverts and recruitment information from competitors in your area of the world .. try to interview (even if only on the phone) some of their sales people and ask them how much they are getting and how much they are looking for ... they cannot lie about their current salaries without being founf out if you recruit them (at least in UK as their tax code comes with them and previous salary / renumeration info is on that)

Best of luck.

[caine]

I think offering a wage, with a commision based package on top is the way forward. Hence offer them job security, and motiviation to get more work.

[andy00]

I think it depends on how much commission u r paying them

[Essex_boy]

List the qualifications and experience required by the salesman - then contact employment agencies in your area telling them thatyou are looking to hire - giving them the above spec.

Youll then get an idea of how the going rate is Per year etc.

We do this all time works a treat.