[defguy]

My friend and I just started up a business. My friend was in the same business before with his dad but under a franchise and was paying 30K a month in licensing fees. That coupled with paying employees twice market value and paying himself too much caused the dad to go out of business.

Anyway with all the knowledge my friend and I possess, we started up our own business but from scratch instead of with a franchise. Were doing residential cleaning right now but the previous business was making 60K+ a month because of all the commercial accounts they had. We still have all the contacts for the commercial accounts however because of my partner being deaf and me being young and speaking with an accent/limited cold calling experience we decided an experienced, older salesman would be best. I dont want to lose sales over the phone just because they think Im an illegal immigrant or they cannot understand me.

A salesman with telemarketing/ face to face sales experience would be perfect for helping us land commercial accounts and we are prepared to pay him very handsomely 30% of all commercial accounts landed as long as he stays with the company. However, were having trouble finding such a salesman, currently were advertising on Craigslist online but that doesnt seem promising. We want to be very picky with who we pick as a bad first impression can go a long way. Any suggestions for finding a legit salesman?

[thegmanifesto]

"A salesman with telemarketing/ face to face sales experience would be perfect for helping us land commercial accounts and we are prepared to pay him very handsomely 30% of all commercial accounts landed"

How much is a "commercial account"?

You might get lucky and find someone on here.

Craigslist is a joke for finding good sales people.

[defguy]

Yes that was my thoughts on craigslist exactly which is why I am trying to think of other recruiting efforts. Im skeptical of finding someone on here because I want our salesman to be able to meet the businessmen face to face. And I dont want a college student because they are too young, a slightly older person with professional business attire and sales experience is my ideal salesman, anyone with balls can do this job but no businessman is going to take a 20yr old college student/graduate seriously.

Just one commercial Account depending on how big it is could be decent money stream every month. For example a little strip center with 5 stores ie a subway, haircut place, and 3 other stores could land at least $300 once or twice a month depending on how often they clean their windows. 30% commission of that is $90+ once or twice a month. Not a lot but it adds up quickly, especially if you land bigger/more commercial accounts. And there is no shortage of business as my city is a metropolis with ~ 2 Million citizens in the city/surrounding area, countless businesses and only 6 main competitors.

If the salesman Lands all the ones my friend had previously that salesman could be looking at $70K+ a year for as long as he stays with us. Its in his best interest to make us money.

[k37]

I would suggest hiring two who are really goal / numbers orientated so they compete against each other.

[Brian]

realistically thats not a lot of money for a big city

[babelfish669]

Find a salesman that has done this in your city/area or for some reason knows a ton of business & real estate owners in the area. The best thing often can be to get a salesperson from a competitor who can just pilfer his old accounts over to you. Otherwise you need to start networking to find a potential sales person by talking to people that are involved in city government like town council members. Anyone full time in sales making under six figures is a jerk off (and those over that amount are too, sales basically means paid to lie.)

Companies are notorious for rewriting salespeople's contracts. If you actually set up a contract with irrevocable terms and find someone who already has all the networking done, they will be pretty willing to go out of the way to get them signed.

[[email protected]]

I would advertise on LinkedIn as well as target specific candidates using the search function. Just my .02

[mikeyarde]

I also agree with you that if the business is wide then you should hire the sales man who works on the sale of the product and also he should be look smarter and has some ability in his how sale the product. also you can give him a commission on the selling of the product.