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Ask HN: How to make sales happen?

1 points by sejje ↗ HN
I have a small service I recently finished building that is a marketing app for a specific niche. The niche is under-served (because it can't be targeted well with SEO/adwords), large, receptive to the product, and I have ~$700/month in recurring revenue after 6 weeks.

An average customer is worth $50-$70/month (profit), in my estimation, and is long-lived (predict 12+ month average).

A sales call takes 15-20 minutes average, but we never make a sale unless we're talking to the owner (small, local businesses) and we have a lot of difficulty getting owners on the phone (cold calling). Most of our current sales have been in-person or through personal networks.

If I don't want to do my own sales, can you guys give me an idea what/how I should expect to pay someone?

Should this be a commission job? Hourly? What would be a normal commission (or hourly)? xx% on all recurring sales? Bonus per new customer? Is there a go-to place for this kind of worker?

Any specific advice for getting the owner on the phone in a non-deceptive way?

Any answer and all other input is quite welcome.

4 comments

[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 33.8 ms ] thread
[dead] moneyrich4
financially your best deal is hourly rate, you'll save the most money. the next is one time commission. avoid recurring commisions and give 25% of the recurring amount (a smaller percent) as a bonus, they'll think they have a dream job.

what a lot of younger companies do is hire sales people or a sales person, and then after x months your best seller becomes your sales manager (gets raise and/or bonus).

in a lot of those scenarios each sales person can also serve as an account manager for important customer. it sucks when you scale this though b/c each person can only manage N customers and each customer takes away from the time spent on sales calls, but in a lot of cases its worth it for big customers... not really important if they all pay the same rate however..

there are companies that can do this also but i dont know any and you get what you pay for - you'll only get a % of his time.

typically people just hire someone for sales. ive seen ads on craigslist. ive also heard stories of finding someone in your own team and moving them to sales, ie. someone with a outgoing personality. also this has bonus points b/c they already know the product so you dont have to train them. i guess this isn't relevant.

just my 2 cents.. gl!

strwbrry
Hey

You mention sales 'call' I am assuming this means face-to-face and not as in call via phone?

My opinion:

1. Use professional cold caller to book appointments 2. You seem to have done a good job doing the sales calls in person, why not keep this up until you reach MO RR of some level eg $5,000 3. Then employ a hot sales person with a proven track record, give him a decent basic but an awesome commission structure

If you don't want to pay a basic then look at giving any new salesperson all of the profit 100% for the first three months of a new customer. If you are certain they will be around for 12 months then you will get the biggest share but this will drive the sales person to get as many RR clients as possible.

Money talks with good sales people.

Keep on keeping on

@scottsbarlow

scottishguru
This sounds like a very interesting project. I'll have to admit, I'm intrigued...

I come from a very strong sales and business development background and have currently left the 9-5 grind to pursue freelance work that allows me to manage my own time.

Aaaanyway... I'd be more than happy to have a chat with you and see if, together, we can come up with a game plan for you.

Drop me an email when you get a chance: fortitude3141@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you!

javiani
I've been working on a similar problem, and have some ideas I would like to test (on my dime, not yours.) Let's chat when you get a chance. james.aviani@gmail.com