[andrewstuart]

You should have a very high expectation of sales results from them, and you should give them a guaranteed commmitment that you will measure their results, and you should follow through on that commitment. Salespeople are notorious for giving excuses when they don't meet the sales targets they agreed to.

Fire them if they haven't got results within a reasonable timeframe which you both agreed to.

Offer nothing you can't back out of (like equity) until they have been on board 12 months at least and proven themseves invaluable.

There are lots of salespeople out there who can sell themselves to prospective employers better than they can sell your product.

You must learn how to be a good manager of salespeople rather than trying to "find a good salesperson" who will magically start bringing in the sales for you.

Probably you should do it yourself - you need to know first hand how hard it is to sell your own product, and you know how to succeed selling your product. Only with that knowledge can you effectively manage someone else to do the same job.

[CyberFonic]

Agree about many salespeople being good at selling themselves to prospective employers. My experience is that there's more of those than genuinely good ones. My trick is to offer very low retainer and high commissions. The best ones will go for it. Anyone who wants a high retainer might be better at making up excuses for lost sales.

I'm seeing two other problems.

1. You say that you are not in the US and you are hiring salespeople in the US. Have you looked at the company trading and legal issues?

2. Selling to big organizations can take a long time. There is more to selling your product than solving a big problem cheaply. There's politics, turf issues, vested interests, incumbent suppliers, etc. Lots of people who can nuke your sale but few that can push it through.

Since you are not on the ground have you considered seeking out a distributor / established co as joint venture partner? They might be better resourced to do what you require especially with regards to managing territories. Constantly flying coast to coast is not only expensive, but draining and unproductive.

[farout]

Haha - you are so right on several accounts:

1. Any good sales rep should be able to sell self, their best product.

2. When I went for jobs I was mainly interested in commission. However if the sale took long that is not good enough. You can have the commission stagger - matching the sales pipeline stages. This meaning - they get x for number of potentials in that have been qualified, y percentage for that have been demod, z for starting eval, p for finished eval, q for proposal, w for closed, and t for getting referrals. You get the idea.

Selling to big orgs is painful and time consuming. However if you can find something that they already are buying, partner with those folks since their sales reps are already in.

Always look for a personal stake when selling. The best way someone described it is like buying like you would do for yourself except it is someone else's money so even less diligence is needed. You have to work on literature to answer all the thoughts in their head that makes this a near risk free proposition. This means answering concerns from the CFO and how it compares with existing solution, and how to incorporate it so they get the full benefit.

I hate distributors in general. They do very little to make sales. Instead go with a value added reseller. They have the feet on the street. Plus if you treat the valued added resellers are you sales rep clones, they will sell and sell. Go for a reseller that is number 3 or 2 in the industry. They have something to prove. Then train the sales staff yourself. This means real practicing and providing excellent marketing collateral and support for questions. The marketing collateral does always ned to be fancy - remember they will not be fired for not using your product. Most places have inertia and they have more to lose than gain by switching to you no matter how much they save the company or make the company. Always find out how the switch will personally impact them - now they have real motivation.

PS in terms of English, I liked "Niches to Riches" book about benefits pieces. it is more B2C but remember folks are folks. It helped me tremendously. She is PR consultant.

Another sales book recommendation if you in a established market: The Wedge: How to Stop Selling and Start Winning It talks how one goes about replacing the existing competition that already has the business.

I worked in both greenfield and established markets - they both have unique challenges. If you want to talk more let me know, [e-mail]. I am in the middle of product coding so...

[CyberFonic]

Great collection of info. I especially liked your bit about "looking for a personal stake ... someone else's money so even less diligence". That's how Apple sold so many IIe's with VisiCalc.

[spiggytopes]

Thanks - that is excellent advice. I particularly appreciate the warning about salesmen being better at selling themselves than the product.

I have sold related systems quite successfully in the past and will likely continue to do so. My view of the sales-person's role is to get an initial meeting in the door and to close the sale - I certainly expect to be involved at some point. The main problem for me is the time and effort in chasing potential sales leads from the other side of the Pacfic.