84 replies to this topic

[jmlader]

Our three year old company is ready to expand. What's the best way to find and hire sales professionals? Thanks in advance for your advice. JML

[Chris Miller]

Hi there,

You may want to start out posting the job opening in the employment forum with information such as your location, and any other info that is important to the job.

DistributorTalk.com Employment Forum

The best place to find sales professionals is to find them within the industry and the best place to find them within the industry is right here :)

We tend to get a lot of calls from having a large ad in the yellow pages. You could also just post a sales opening in your local paper, but then you have to remember that you'll be teaching this person the ropes of the industry if they are not familar with it.

We haven't hired yet but we will definitely be seeking someone familar with the industry when we do. Don't forget the no compete agreement!

[jmlader]

Hello Chris -- thanks. Has anyone tried postings on Monster.com? JML

[DBeavers]

JM,

I've had great results by posting to various business forums. I've only picked up a couple experienced industry sales people, but I'm not opposed to sponsoring and training my associates.

I'm not a distributor. I'm a dealer, and receive compensation for sponsoring others to sell for my company.

This industry is mostly invisible as a career field for sales people. I don't imagine many guidance counselors have ever suggested promotional advertising sales, even to those looking at advertising/marketing as a career.

I have an opportunity page on my site, and will post it instead of the home page from time to time. It has drawn a good amount of interest among people looking for part-time sales, home-based businesses, as well as full time sales professionals.

Posting on forums has been my number one source for traffic to my opportunity page. I never try to include more than 2 or 3 points on the business, and let their curiousity draw them to my page.

I don't paint a rosy picture of easy or instant riches either. I believe in using my opportunity post to discourage at least half of the visitors. I still have a number of inquirers who sign up and never write the first order.

And, the cost for posting is just a few minutes of my time, compared to the $$$ charged by Monster and most of the other onine job sites.

Are you looking to recruit local salespeople only? That can be a very different propostition, and may require different methods to reach prospects just within your region. My posts are effective, as I can sponsor dealers from Coast to Coast, with only a few closed markets in the entire country.

Best of luck in growing your sales team and company.

Dennis Bevers
BASSCO, Inc.
www.CuttingEdgeAdvertising.com
Sulphur, LA

Dennis Bevers
BASSCO, Inc.

[jmlader]

Thanks JML

JM Lader
i.d. clare & company

[beegee]

Develop a partial territory of established accounts and hand it over to a good candidate, with a guaranteed income for the first 1 or 2 years.
Make them aware that this is not, strictly a sales job! Nobody wants to sell anymore.

[DBeavers]

I would be cautious in giving them a mass of established accounts. You risk the relationship you have already built up, as well as your reputation in that territory. I would provide some clients as well as leads in that area, but over a period of time. As they show results in bringing in new customers, I'd add more to their list.

If you start them off with a list of 50 or more, they may do well with them, and not develop their skills at cold colling and prospecting for their own customers.

If it's too easy to sell the repeat customers and too hard to add more, they may get discouraged.

Dennis

[Dlimes]

Ah, recruiting. Finding good people is a real art. This is not a hard business to get in so many who are not serious tend to apply. For a local distributorship I would ask current clients who else calls on them that is good. Then meet your friendly area competitors in a relaxed atmosphere over a lunch and don't recruit, just discuss business. The opportunity will present itself if the time is right.
I would stay away from green apples. However, someone who is well connected in your community is worth looking at.
We have 600 salespeople in the US an that took a long time!

[DBeavers]

Dlimes,
You can send any green apples you don't want my way. I have no aversion to working with rookies. I have over 20 years in this industry, and have been sponsoring & supporting new dealers for 12 years.

Dennis

[Tom Aufman]

DPI-Chris said:

Hi there,

You may want to start out posting the job opening in the employment forum with information such as your location, and any other info that is important to the job.

DistributorTalk.com Employment Forum

The best place to find sales professionals is to find them within the industry and the best place to find them within the industry is right here :)

We tend to get a lot of calls from having a large ad in the yellow pages. You could also just post a sales opening in your local paper, but then you have to remember that you'll be teaching this person the ropes of the industry if they are not familar with it.

We haven't hired yet but we will definitely be seeking someone familar with the industry when we do. Don't forget the no compete agreement!

I have found the best prospects are working for people I call on. Life Insurance wash outs are excellent prospects. They have been trained to sell.
Tom Aufman

[Tom Aufman]

Dennis,
What kind of a dealer are you?
Tom Aufman

[Tom Aufman]

DBeavers said:

JM,

I've had great results by posting to various business forums. I've only picked up a couple experienced industry sales people, but I'm not opposed to sponsoring and training my associates.

I'm not a distributor. I'm a dealer, and receive compensation for sponsoring others to sell for my company.

This industry is mostly invisible as a career field for sales people. I don't imagine many guidance counselors have ever suggested promotional advertising sales, even to those looking at advertising/marketing as a career.

I have an opportunity page on my site, and will post it instead of the home page from time to time. It has drawn a good amount of interest among people looking for part-time sales, home-based businesses, as well as full time sales professionals.

Posting on forums has been my number one source for traffic to my opportunity page. I never try to include more than 2 or 3 points on the business, and let their curiousity draw them to my page.

I don't paint a rosy picture of easy or instant riches either. I believe in using my opportunity post to discourage at least half of the visitors. I still have a number of inquirers who sign up and never write the first order.

And, the cost for posting is just a few minutes of my time, compared to the $$$ charged by Monster and most of the other onine job sites.

Are you looking to recruit local salespeople only? That can be a very different propostition, and may require different methods to reach prospects just within your region. My posts are effective, as I can sponsor dealers from Coast to Coast, with only a few closed markets in the entire country.

Best of luck in growing your sales team and company.

Dennis Bevers
BASSCO, Inc.
www.CuttingEdgeAdvertising.com
Sulphur, LA

Dennis Bevers
BASSCO, Inc.

Dennis,
If you are not a distributor, Why are you listed as such?

Many Universities are teaching Specialty Advertising in their business courses, Baylor Univ. TX is very big on our industry.

[DBeavers]

Hello Tom,

I'm an Authorized Dealer for Kaeser and Blair, Inc. If you don't know about them, they are a family-owned and operated, Top 20 Distributor, with a long history in this industry. Their $75 Million+ volume for the last year, was all from sales by their free agent sales force.

Every dealer is guaranteed the ownership of their customer accounts. No non-compete clause. If a dealer believes they have found greener pastures, they can advise K & B of their decision, go their own way, and take their customers with them. K & B closes the files, not accepting orders, not referring them to other dealers, and not competing with the dealers for them.

I have a little over 20 years in this industry, and switched to Kaeser and Blair 12 years ago. I doubled my income my first full year with them.

I won't post the details on this site, but as a dealer by choice, I found K & B to be the best option for me.

I may never get rich, but at least I don't have to work for a living. Sure beats having to get a job.

Dennis

[DBeavers]

Tom Aufman said:

Dennis,
If you are not a distributor, Why are you listed as such?

Many Universities are teaching Specialty Advertising in their business courses, Baylor Univ. TX is very big on our industry.

Hello again Tom,

We were posting at the same time.

DistributorTalk doesn't distinguish between distritubors and dealers. So, I guess I'm a distributor as opposed to a supplier. If they offer the choice of dealer, sales rep, or agent, I'll switch. It wasn't my decision, there just wasn't another option that I could see.

Dennis

[jmlader]

Tom Aufman said:

Dennis,
What kind of a dealer are you?
Tom Aufman

i.d. clare & company is having its third anniversary on April 2nd. We're a full service promotional distributor who specializes in CPI implementations. JML

[Tom Aufman]

CPI Implementations? What is that in English?
Tom Aufman

[biggerfish]

Tom Aufman said:

CPI Implementations? What is that in English?
Tom Aufman

Sounds like "Cost Per Impressions" - every time somebody looks at a logo on an imprinted item, it's an impression.

[gil levitch]

DBeavers said:

Hello Tom,

I'm an Authorized Dealer for Kaeser and Blair, Inc. If you don't know about them, they are a family-owned and operated, Top 20 Distributor, with a long history in this industry. Their $75 Million+ volume for the last year, was all from sales by their free agent sales force.

Every dealer is guaranteed the ownership of their customer accounts. No non-compete clause. If a dealer believes they have found greener pastures, they can advise K & B of their decision, go their own way, and take their customers with them. K & B closes the files, not accepting orders, not referring them to other dealers, and not competing with the dealers for them.

I have a little over 20 years in this industry, and switched to Kaeser and Blair 12 years ago. I doubled my income my first full year with them.

I won't post the details on this site, but as a dealer by choice, I found K & B to be the best option for me.

I may never get rich, but at least I don't have to work for a living. Sure beats having to get a job.

Dennis

Being a dealer for K-B is still being a salesman. They like the fancy wordage, which doesn't mean anything. Everyone is an independent contractor, which means you can either sell for them or sell for yourself using anyone. I'm completely aware of K-B and they are entitled to do their own thing, but I hate to see someone mispresesent themselves or to others who are not as aware of this industry as you obviously are.
There are good things and bad things in everything. K-B has a niche. You took it and good for you. For me, I would nevery consider them personally.

[DBeavers]

Gil Levitch said:

...but I hate to see someone mispresesent themselves or to others who are not as aware of this industry as you obviously are.

There are good things and bad things in everything. K-B has a niche. You took it and good for you. For me, I would nevery consider them personally.

Gil,

An Authorized Dealer is a salesman. No argument.

Every dealer is an independent agent. They clearly spell that out in the applicant's contract.

Many independent distributors with ASI are salespeople who are also distributors. They have no salespeople, so what's the big difference. They get 100% of the profits, carry all the overhead, take all the risks, handle all the administrative burden, etc. But to their clients, many of them are still their salesperson.

I could call myself an account executive, but it wouldn't change who I am and what I do. I just choose to outsource all the credit, billing, tax collecing and reporting, which allows me to focus on sales and customer service.

The average ASI Distributor sales volume was reported sometime back as being $75K annually. My personal sales volume is nearly triple that, partly because I have more time to spend with customers. In addition, because some ASI distributors are undercapitalized, at times they may be forced to collect on one order to have the capital to place other orders.

My question is, what are you calling mis-representation? Every applicant knows they are an independent agent, or else they shouldn't be signing the contract. My customers know I sell for K & B, and expect the bill to come from Ohio, instead of me. The sales taxes are collected on every order, for those 46 states plus Washington, D.C. and remitted to the state where the order is delivered.

Every K & B dealer selling online who uses the Kaeser and Blair, Inc. name and logo on their site, is required to post it clearly that they are a K & B dealer. They are not allowed to mis-represent themself as anything other than a dealer. If notified to correct their site or remove the K & B identity, they risk losing their dealership if they fail to comply.

If DistributorTalk adds a new title for distributor rep, salesperson, or dealer, I'll be happy to modify my registration. I used the only category (not title) they offered. But, from my first posts, I have indicated that I was a dealer.

Dennis

[Tom Aufman]

DBeavers said:

Gil,

An Authorized Dealer is a salesman. No argument.

Every dealer is an independent agent. They clearly spell that out in the applicant's contract.

Many independent distributors with ASI are salespeople who are also distributors. They have no salespeople, so what's the big difference. They get 100% of the profits, carry all the overhead, take all the risks, handle all the administrative burden, etc. But to their clients, many of them are still their salesperson.

I could call myself an account executive, but it wouldn't change who I am and what I do. I just choose to outsource all the credit, billing, tax collecing and reporting, which allows me to focus on sales and customer service.

The average ASI Distributor sales volume was reported sometime back as being $75K annually. My personal sales volume is nearly triple that, partly because I have more time to spend with customers. In addition, because some ASI distributors are undercapitalized, at times they may be forced to collect on one order to have the capital to place other orders.

My question is, what are you calling mis-representation? Every applicant knows they are an independent agent, or else they shouldn't be signing the contract. My customers know I sell for K & B, and expect the bill to come from Ohio, instead of me. The sales taxes are collected on every order, for those 46 states plus Washington, D.C. and remitted to the state where the order is delivered.

Every K & B dealer selling online who uses the Kaeser and Blair, Inc. name and logo on their site, is required to post it clearly that they are a K & B dealer. They are not allowed to mis-represent themself as anything other than a dealer. If notified to correct their site or remove the K & B identity, they risk losing their dealership if they fail to comply.

If DistributorTalk adds a new title for distributor rep, salesperson, or dealer, I'll be happy to modify my registration. I used the only category (not title) they offered. But, from my first posts, I have indicated that I was a dealer.

Dennis

IMHO, A Dealer is a far different catthan a distributor. $75,000 is the average sales of a distributor? Or Dealer? If you can't do at least 300,000 K, You are not making a living that is worth the risk involved. ( I am referring to someone beoing in this business 3 or more years)
Tom Aufman