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I admit, a little controversial title. But that is how I (as a more technical person) feel the task that is ahead of me for which I would appreciate the kind advice of the onstartup community.

I built this product (available as a saas subscription) that fills a unique opportunity in the market. Based on some google ads testing and monitoring interest with people that subscribed, I believe some interesting sales can be made.

My questions are:

  • How to find sales people that can use their network in their respective territory to sell subscriptions? How to get them interested?

  • What would be a good sales commission agreement? As this project is currently entirely self funded, I cannot afford to 'hire' people for the job. So the 'pay' should be entirely based on sales commission.

To get some rough idea what we are talking about, the product sells for 150 - 450 euro /month /site. Onsite licenses are also available and are to be negotiated on a case by case basis. Our current conservative estimation is that a typical customer has 4,5 months of subscription.

Any advice is welcome. If you have interest yourself, send me a private message (fransden at gmail) and I’ll send you more info on the product.

Thanks,
Frans

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Get registered and list your site. – JeffO May 21 '10 at 15:11

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

That's actually real easy: the lure of money.

Great salesmen (which is what you want, not losers who want to syphon cash from your hands) are truly genuinely motivated by making money.

Therefore, in order to pitch to them, you must highlight how large customers will want to fork major dollars for your product.

That's it. Then, as a secondary aspect, sales people must feed their family while they prospect, so the commission plan often must include a base. But the percentage of commission is not as important as the attractiveness of signing huge contracts.

See, I told you it was simple. Now you just have to have the product to match the pitch. Contrary to popular opinion, salesmen are not stupid and they can tell if your product will sell or not.

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up vote 1 down vote

Needing a salesman while not being able to pay her a salary is quite a common problem, with no easy answers. Good salesmen are used to get paid well, both salary and bonuses. Why should they lose their salary to work with you? Getting equity is an interesting answer, but I guess you won't be willing to give a stake of your company before they prove that they can bring some clients on board. On the other hand, everyone in a start-up needs to perform well on sales, so I suggest you to commit yourself for a couple of months on sales; then, if your product is really hot, you'll be able to hire a salesman the usual way.

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up vote 0 down vote

I can't really give you a detailed answer as to the incentives you can set in place for them (salary/commission) as I've never been in your position.

Maybe now would be a good time to raise money, if you already have a product ready to go for which you can charge a few hundreds a month.

If you're looking for advice to make the negotiation with a salesman more equal, you should definitely read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and Getting to Yes, two classics in that space.

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