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Hiring Salesman to locate?


spdydre

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Has anyone tried hiring a salesman to do locating for them?  I am going to try this and see how it turns out.  I have alot of salesmen interested in doing business to business sales and if I pay them as much or a little less than most locators are charging say for a days worth of work they would still get a good amount of money and I end up with more potential locations than just one.  Has anyone tried this? Any pros/cons?

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Has anyone tried hiring a salesman to do locating for them?  I am going to try this and see how it turns out.  I have alot of salesmen interested in doing business to business sales and if I pay them as much or a little less than most locators are charging say for a days worth of work they would still get a good amount of money and I end up with more potential locations than just one.  Has anyone tried this? Any pros/cons?

The questions I have after reading your post:

If the sales person will be paid the same for a day's work regardless of how many locations he/she gets you that day, what is their incentive to get you more than 1 location?

What about the days when they are unable to find even 1 location...will they still get paid?

From my personal experience (limited though it may be), sometimes there can be several days back-to-back where I am unable to get even ONE location. Those would be days you'd be paying your sales rep and getting NOTHING in return.

What kind of safety-net are you putting in place to make sure the sales reps are not getting you into dud locations just for the sake of producing location numbers for you? Need to make sure their looking for quality and not quantity....and again, this needs to MATTER to THEM. If they get paid the same regardless...it WON'T matter to them (trust me).

There's got to be a "best" way to do it.

None will be perfect.

But, addressing some of the issues above will help towards finding that "best" way to do this.

BEST OF LUCK!!

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Just wanted to throw in my .02.

I am in sales and am paid by commission 100%.  If I don't sell, I don't make anything.  And I wouldn't want it any other way. A good salesperson will work for a certain percentage of the sale a lot harder than a set amount by the hour or day.  You may be able to pay a commission on the first 3 or 6 moths of sales.  That would motivate them to find better locations.  Better locations =better pay.

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Hiring a sales person is a great idea.  I would do it by paying them a set fee per location.  Of course you will need to take the risk on the locaiton income but I think it would be worth the risk.  There are too few locators available for all of the folks needing the help.

I have always believed it is best to have several things working for you each day including having your own sales person and a locating company looking for you too. 

My two cents...

Blue Moose

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I agree. $25 per location is a fair amount.  I would even qualify it by stating something along the lines of "machine must remain on site for a min. of 30 days". 

A good locator can find 4 or 5 spots a day.  Be sure you can keep up with that amount before you hire someone full time.

Bev

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This has worked for me really well with full line. I have a location that sells bottled water to homes and businesses. I've gotten to know a couple of the route drivers and pay them for leads. If they see empty or broken machines at a location they give me a heads up and I make a cold call on the location. If I get to deliver a proposal they get $20, if I close a deal and set machines it goes up to 100.

All types of B2B service providers can provide this kind of info to you, bottled water, copier techs, a/c guys, plumbing guys etc. Who do you know that works in a B2B environment?

I don't see why this wouldn't work for bulk as well, you just to have to  come up with an appropriate compensation schedule.

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I used a local telemarketer at one time.  I paid her $30 per spot.  She only got paid after I inspected and placed the machine.  I also gave a $10 bonus per location after I placed 3 spots with her.  I felt that the extra bonus help motivate her to get that 3rd spot.  Many rookie locators will give up after getting just 1 or 2 spots due to the (unexpected) difficulty of locating.

Jax

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  • 2 months later...

Well I finally have my sales person its actually a friend of mine and she already does door to door sales for a roofing company.  I am thinking of paying her $25 per location and a % of the first 3 months gross on the locations.  Should I also pay her hourly or leave it at that?

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