CLC
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I'm wondering if anyone here has tried using a commision based salesman for selling managed services and if it's working out, didn't work out?
Anyone Have A Commission Based Salesmen For Managed Services?
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frederick
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This idea has been thrown around the shop as well. Revival of the dead
altrenda
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As a former salesman, I think it would be tough to make it work.
The main problem with a niche product like this is how do you compensate someone enough to make it worth their while but not too much that you can't afford it. The upside is that adding only 5 MSP clients would be considered a win.
If you are talking about cold calling, anyone can make calls, but it doesn't take long for a good call to go off script, and if the caller is not technically or business savvy enough to carry on the conversation, the busy prospect will lose interest and end the call. If all you want is for someone to qualify someone so you can call them back, how do you pay? By the hour, by the qualified lead, for an actual closed sale? A day or so of little or no commissions and they are looking for something else to sell. Its hard to keep people motivated to make enough calls to be successful.
I don't think you can hire someone to go door to door for you, anyone good enough wouldn't be affordable, even if you could find them. Maybe a sales rep with complimentary lines like copiers, phones, even office supplies that calls on similar customers would take it on as a sideline for some extra money while talking to their regular customers.
The only thing that seems to work for me is to put an hour a week in my schedule for marketing, following up referrals and pursuing companies that I've targeted or done business with before. This can be the most profitable hour all week.
The main problem with a niche product like this is how do you compensate someone enough to make it worth their while but not too much that you can't afford it. The upside is that adding only 5 MSP clients would be considered a win.
If you are talking about cold calling, anyone can make calls, but it doesn't take long for a good call to go off script, and if the caller is not technically or business savvy enough to carry on the conversation, the busy prospect will lose interest and end the call. If all you want is for someone to qualify someone so you can call them back, how do you pay? By the hour, by the qualified lead, for an actual closed sale? A day or so of little or no commissions and they are looking for something else to sell. Its hard to keep people motivated to make enough calls to be successful.
I don't think you can hire someone to go door to door for you, anyone good enough wouldn't be affordable, even if you could find them. Maybe a sales rep with complimentary lines like copiers, phones, even office supplies that calls on similar customers would take it on as a sideline for some extra money while talking to their regular customers.
The only thing that seems to work for me is to put an hour a week in my schedule for marketing, following up referrals and pursuing companies that I've targeted or done business with before. This can be the most profitable hour all week.
lcoughey
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I believe it is easier and possibly wiser to hire a tech who can free you up to promote your own business.
seedubya
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I agree BUT you have to be the promoting kind, if you know what I mean. Most techs that I've met would be terrible salespeople.
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There was a keynote on exactly this at ChannelCon. For the life of me I can't remember what they said (probably too busy selling my own stuff). Maybe one of the other Technibblers remembers. Here's their marketing toolkit that may be useful. It's free, but sign up required.
Dunitek
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Also agree with lcoughey,
In the past few years I have worked for two different MSP's.
One with a salesman and one with an owner who has a technical manager (me) and does selling full time. The difference is huge.
One of the very big factors is the fact that a business owner:
1) Cares about making his business grow and is generally motivated by more than just money.
2) Has technology experience and not just knowledge of tech and is able to better answer questions in a customer meeting versus a salesman.
The owner salesman is very greatly supplemented by a sales engineer, a sales guy who has previous tech experience.
In the past few years I have worked for two different MSP's.
One with a salesman and one with an owner who has a technical manager (me) and does selling full time. The difference is huge.
One of the very big factors is the fact that a business owner:
1) Cares about making his business grow and is generally motivated by more than just money.
2) Has technology experience and not just knowledge of tech and is able to better answer questions in a customer meeting versus a salesman.
The owner salesman is very greatly supplemented by a sales engineer, a sales guy who has previous tech experience.
nesrinamb
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It definitely can be done if you where to focus in on a specific industry. A friend works at a EMR company and doesn't know a single thing about the technical side of things.
I have to say that a lot of technicians over complicate things. I don't know about you but I've never sold an nice new server talking about how many cores it has or that it has hot swappable drives. No I sold them one because they wanted remote acces to the LOB software they use. I've also never sold msp to anyone talking about the RMM tool I use or the fact that I can remote in. No I have sold msp plans because I basically become their it department and they want to just get the hassle of dealing with things out of the way. In all those sales pitches not once did I use technical jargon and honestly you can pretty much script everything because the same sales pitch happens again and again. The trick to a sales person is finding someone who can read body language well and can figure out what the client wants. All that is trainable. Only issue is that the good commission only sales people are already making a killing in some other job but their are possibly some that are not happy with their current job and that is who you need to find.
From sales people that I know their are two types those that go out and get that sale and those that don't.
ex: I know two people in credit card processing. They both get about the same commission and they have both been in the same amount of time. The moment a new store opens up in town one of them will say hello introduce and shake hands. If he gets that account he.gets it if not he doesn't. The other one complains about how that store is too small to go after.
One drives a bmw and the other can't make the house payment. Yet they go after the same market and one is super successful after 15 years while the other complains about how it's not worth his time to go after mom and pop stores.
Honestly I say interview 20 of them then weed out the ones that might make your company look bad and keep the good ones that are far and few in between.
if their are spelling errors it's because im terrible at grammar and spelling and because all this was done on my phone.....I need a bigger phone.
I have to say that a lot of technicians over complicate things. I don't know about you but I've never sold an nice new server talking about how many cores it has or that it has hot swappable drives. No I sold them one because they wanted remote acces to the LOB software they use. I've also never sold msp to anyone talking about the RMM tool I use or the fact that I can remote in. No I have sold msp plans because I basically become their it department and they want to just get the hassle of dealing with things out of the way. In all those sales pitches not once did I use technical jargon and honestly you can pretty much script everything because the same sales pitch happens again and again. The trick to a sales person is finding someone who can read body language well and can figure out what the client wants. All that is trainable. Only issue is that the good commission only sales people are already making a killing in some other job but their are possibly some that are not happy with their current job and that is who you need to find.
From sales people that I know their are two types those that go out and get that sale and those that don't.
ex: I know two people in credit card processing. They both get about the same commission and they have both been in the same amount of time. The moment a new store opens up in town one of them will say hello introduce and shake hands. If he gets that account he.gets it if not he doesn't. The other one complains about how that store is too small to go after.
One drives a bmw and the other can't make the house payment. Yet they go after the same market and one is super successful after 15 years while the other complains about how it's not worth his time to go after mom and pop stores.
Honestly I say interview 20 of them then weed out the ones that might make your company look bad and keep the good ones that are far and few in between.
if their are spelling errors it's because im terrible at grammar and spelling and because all this was done on my phone.....I need a bigger phone.
SkySoftTech
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This is something I've been interested in for quite a while. I'm not a natural salesman and much prefer working on the back end technical and administrative functions than in the sales channel.
I think the biggest hurdle is finding someone who is already earning a livable wage, is embedded in a vertical industry you happen to be targeting, and is not subject to a contract which prohibits the sale of other services. I've been looking for this unique individual for a few months with little success. It's sort of like searching for a needle in a haystack.
I think the biggest hurdle is finding someone who is already earning a livable wage, is embedded in a vertical industry you happen to be targeting, and is not subject to a contract which prohibits the sale of other services. I've been looking for this unique individual for a few months with little success. It's sort of like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Here's some of the problem.
First, the moment you stop working at your job, you cease to be the computer guy. You are now the boss which means you are now in the business of running a business. The stuff you love, the computer stuff, is probably best left to the in house talent.
If you are going to be business owner / ceo, you better learn how to sell. It's your primary job. No sale = no business, you'll be right back to work for someone else before you know it. Learning to sell is a skill and takes practice. You could accompany a salesman on sales calls and be technical sales, the guy who answers the technical sales questions the primary sales guy can't.
If you don't want to sell and want to stay technical, your best bet might be to hire a manager to run the day to day of the company.
About finding part time salesman. First, if the salesman is good, he is going to be employed full time already making decent dollars. He probably works for an integrator and sells enterprise IT offerings. When would you expect this person to work? Most sales are done during business hours.
Your problem is not unique. Many small businesses are trying to figure out how to hire decent sales people without having to pay a salary, only commission. That rarely ever happens. What I've seen in the past for some IT integrators is a new salesman will get a small salary for a few months plus commission. After a few months, he is commission only. But many of the folks I've seen sometimes bring a 'book of business' with them and I would watch for that if you do hire, that's a big positive.
2-3 years ago was an ideal time, lots of people out of work who would have nothing to lose by signing up with you. Another thing that just crossed my mind is Microsoft just layed off 18000 a few weeks back and Cisco layed off 6000 2 weeks ago. Some of them might be sales you could have a chance of attracting a quality salesman.
Sorry so scattered, I'm doing three things at the moment.
SkySoftTech
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You've made some very good points. What I'll say is that there are plenty of companies and industries where the sales function is treated as a completely separate entity. If you have time, take a look at Google. There's an example of a company run by technical people (engineers) who treat salespeople as second class citizens and yet still manage to make boatloads of money. Another example is the automobile industry where engineers make desirable cars and still manage to sell them through salespeople who are basically entirely commission-based.
I know these are monstrously large businesses who provide goods and services which are far beyond what a small IT consultancy could ever hope to offer (or are they?). You are certainly right that as a sole owner of a business you "should" be a good salesman, but I don't think that it is necessarily a necessity.
I think if you have no competition or are a monopoly or near monopoly, you can pretty much do anything you want without regard to what employees or customers think.
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