Views on employing a salesman

[David Rogers]

Rarely had a good experience with dedicated salesman who are unfamiliar with the wide and varied aspects of the business.
Someone experienced in sales, including cold calls is always a plus…Avoid used car salesmen types unless you really need to have your reputation destroyed.

Only had one good guy, older and reliable with a background in engineering / oil industry.

MUST have skills are an ability to measure, take responsibility for anything they do and only sell products and services you offer with a positive attitude. Don’t let them quote anything for at least a few months as some can get SO motivated by getting a sale that they’ll have you working just to pay their wage.

Bear in mind that you are hiring them to save you time and make you money.

Think about having them multitask and get involved in either design or manufacturing to broaden their skills and understanding at least some of the time.

Dave

[Phill Fenton]

We had a telesales women many years ago who used to phone around different companies in our local area to generate leads which I then followed up myself. She was paid a commission for all leads that ended up as sales. This worked very well and some of our best repeat customers came about as a result of her initial contact.

[Dean Poulter]

Morning

I was actually hoping to find someone who has a background in sign sales I have started getting emails from a recruitment agency that specialise in the print game so was going to speak to them, just wanted some first hand words of wisdom from you guys and girls of course!!

Cheers Dean

[James Bateman]

Hi Dean,

We’re looking to hire a general manager, if you don’t mind me asking, who is the agency you have been speaking with?

I’ve made a couple of hires recently, and one bit of advice for such a small company (as David mentioned), would be to have your sales person multi task.

If part time or limited hours are out of the question, ask him/her if they would be happy taking on additional roles as part of their job.

Their main tasks would be self motivated; lead generation and sales, but if they were to learn simple artworking and production techniques, it would make for a much better skill set in such an adaptable industry.

We’re currently a small team of 8 and multiple roles are sometimes covered by one name. If you start your working relationship with that in mind, you avoid the ‘that’s not my job’ attitude early on.

[Martin Manley]

Our business is so diverse you could really do with someone who has some knowledge of the game – especially to up-sell extras to the customer that they might not have considered themselves and only someone with in-depth experience would know about. I know for a fact that there are plenty of older people out there with a wealth of knowledge and experience but it’s finding them of course…