As a sales professional myself, I’d like to provide some insight to employers into what I think a sales pro is looking for from a potential job. This is only if you are looking for a top performing pro, not if you are just looking for someone to make phone calls for you.

Sales drive your revenues so don’t skimp. Selecting the right sales person can make or break your business so take the time and effort to attract and keep top performers. Good sales professionals are multifaceted and usually will bring with them talents and systems that will benefit your business for years to come.

There are many ways to compensate a salesforce and I have given an overview of the basics below.  These can all be used individually or combined with each other depending on what your needs are.

If you are offering a straight commission position your leads should not be cold and should have already expressed interest in buying in one way or another and have been, in some way, indoctrinated into your product/service and  to attract top talent.  

Cold calling should always include a generous hourly or salary rate. A cold lead would be any lead that you want contacted who does not know who your business is and has not expressed interest in your product.  A targeted list would also fit into this category.  Example of a targeted list: You provide services to auto mechanics and provide a list of auto mechanics.

Promising high returns for their time is not a good idea unless you can back up your numbers. I see lots of jobs promising the “easy sale” or a high number of sales resulting in high dollar amounts per hour for “top performers”.  If I were to respond to one of these jobs, I am going to ask the poster to provide me some evidence to back up their claims that is based on real, historical data. Even if you have that data, you could be basing your closing ratio on a totally different type of lead than you are requesting the contractor to call.  You may have a high closing ratio on inbound leads and expect the contractor to do just as well with colder outbound leads, which would be a big mistake. .

Make sure you take time in the training of the sales person on your offer or product before cutting them loose in the marketplace.. Realize that this person is going to be representing you to the market so you want them to be able to do this with composure and confidence.  Pros don’t “wing it” and generally will want to be well versed in what they are selling before starting to work, so make sure to let them know how you are going to compensate them for the training time.

Attracting the right sales talent  will benefit your business greatly as long as you make sure your offer is appealing. Be very clear in your expectations and generous with compensation and you’ll have the top applicants competing to work for you.