# Hiring first sales rep - tips and advice needed!



## odil1372 (Aug 15, 2009)

Our screen printing company is getting ready to hire our first outside sales rep. Other than training them on all services offered and pricing, can you guys give us advise on the best way to train them and mistakes to avoid? What salary and sales goals, etc us best?

Thanks!


----------



## WorthDesigns (Mar 16, 2011)

Good question! BUT.... Would it not work out better to start the sales round yourself? Get an idea of how it will work and get some customers from outside before splashing out on wages ect.......

I guess as with most sales jobs you will pay a commission to the rep, Look at the worlds leading door to door sales companies for idea's 

Avon, Betterware and so on, I know they dont sell t shirts and stuff but it wil give you an idea of how to setup and run the business

I will be watching this thread as we are also at this stage and in the middle of designing our sales catalogue.


----------



## odil1372 (Aug 15, 2009)

Maybe but I already have five employees. I'm ready to increase our sales volume in a big way and have goals of opening a production facility. Right now we have a "retail" location and do our printing in the back. There is no way I would be able to do outside sales myself. I already work 10 hour days. ;-)


----------



## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Do you have an automatic press?....


----------



## odil1372 (Aug 15, 2009)

Not yet but I am looking at them. Most of our business consists of 100-300 piece orders and I want to justify being busy enough to keep an automatic running. Only one of my employees screenprints. We also do rhinestones, vinyl for garments and banners, etc and graphic design.


----------



## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

With 5 employees and no auto you are wasting money and will not have enough margin to pay a sales rep and / or will not be able to keep up with the sales that rep makes....


----------



## odil1372 (Aug 15, 2009)

Only one of my employees is a printer.


----------



## AtkinsonConsult (May 2, 2011)

Amy:

Before you hire an outside sales person I'd recommend that you hunker down and write some goals for your company. If you don't already have a business plan, now is the time to write one. This should include some short and long term goals, as well as a healthy look at your local and area competition in your market.

There are plenty of online tools and reference materials available for this type of research. Once you have your plan together, you will better understand your direction and have the ability to focus on what you want to achieve.

100-300 piece orders are achievable on an auto, and also due to the economy you can pick up plenty of used equipment. On a manual, an average printer runs at about 60 pieces an hour for most multi-color work. One color left chest images you can print probably about a 100 per hour. On an auto, you can crank these out somewhere between 500 - 750 per hour easy. The set up is about the same amount of time, where most press operators should set up in under five minutes per screen. What this means is that with and auto, you can crank out more orders per day than with a manual press.

So what's this got to do with hiring a sales person? Booking more business than your shop can handle will erode any sales gains you might make. You can increase your capacity by moving to a night shift, but chances are that will be harder to manage as finding the right person to work at night is difficult to say the least. 

This is why getting some time under your belt and focusing your attention on developing a good strategy for the short term (one year) - mid term (three to five years) and long term (up to ten years) will help.

In the short term, before you invest in new equipment or any hiring...you may want to look into developing a network of contract printers that can help you broaden your capacity. Screen-printers commonly outsource orders to other companies. Finding those companies can be a challenge, but there are plenty out there. Get networking and find some.

Sorry to be so long winded.

Good luck,

-M


----------



## odil1372 (Aug 15, 2009)

Thanks for the advice so far. Im actually trying to put together a package for an outside sales rep. 

A large portion of our business (and what we have been doing for 6 years) is custom embroidered patches. We began as a home based business and expanded into screenprinting, banners, small signage, and vinyl decals a little over two years ago when we opened a retail store locally. Our patches are still mostly internet based and everything else is mostly locally based but we are working to expand marketing through ecommerce and in our local store. Our screen printing is about half spiritwear and half business to business. 

The biggest issue is we are located in a small town next to a larger city with several printing companies who have been in business for longer than us. We are growing slowly (sales have doubled since last year) and I want a bigger piece of the market. But, i'm not naive to believe I will hire a salesman who will bring me $10,000 in orders overnight. Nor do I believe we could handle that volume if they did. We currently do some advertising but most of new customers come via word of mouth. 

I understand the difference between manual and automated machinery, pricing, profits, project management, etc. My questions are more along the lines of how outside salespersons are normally paid (salaries or commissions - industry standards and what works best), etc. Since salesmen potentially carry around large deposits, how do you qualify new salespersons? Background checks? Etc.

I'm pretty intuitive and trust all of my current employees but there are still only a few that I allow to handle money. lol

Oh, and we pay cash for everything. I understand business finance but we dont like paying on notes so I only grow as fast as my cashflow goals allow. 

How did you decide when to hire outside sales and when did you decide on the auto?


----------



## GN (Aug 1, 2011)

odil1372 said:


> Our screen printing company is getting ready to hire our first outside sales rep. Other than training them on all services offered and pricing, can you guys give us advise on the best way to train them and mistakes to avoid? What salary and sales goals, etc us best?
> 
> Thanks!


I've been in Sales Management for over a decade and train sales people on "how to sale" for corperations. I've never sold printing stuff though, but sales is sales no matter what your selling. 

If you can afford to pay a salary and a commission then you will get the better salesman at your door. DONT choose the salesman that will do this as a part time job or one that is retired and has income coming in..otherwise they wont sell and will just draw up your salary. Give them a comission on what they sale and a bonus if they achieve certain goals. Sometimes, comissions are not paid unless they reach thier goals. I'm not fond of that type of pay structure. Sales people are competitive so if possible hire two sales people then they will compete against each other naturally. 

Ask your potential Sales guy, "What's the most important aspect of selling?" The one that answers, "trust" is probably the best salesman of the bunch. Stay away from the ones that come across too strong in the interview. The ones that try to "sell" you on themselves so much that it becomes obvious. You want the one that is confident. Cocky is even ok to a point esp if they have a sales record to back it up.

I could go on and on but I'm not entirely sure if this answer is close to what you were asking for?


----------



## AtkinsonConsult (May 2, 2011)

Amy:

Every shop I've ever worked (with over 18 years in the business) had autos already so I can't comment on when to buy one.

However, having an auto is night and day as to the amount of orders and production you can produce daily. The parameters of that jump, really depend on the press you purchase, skill of the operator and type of order being printed.

GN is right about finding the right type of salesperson. You need someone that is competitive and has a hunger to succeed. Don't just give them a commission on what they sell, but also a little extra if they build more profit into the sale. This is more money in your pocket.

However, word of warning, I'm in operations...so I know first hand the mess that a sales person can generate if they promise the moon and the order isn't set up right, not enough time to produce, goods don't come in, or agrees to a ridiculous quote. Don't set yourself up for failure, and make sure you are managing your outside sales staff with a firm hand. 

Set sales goals, with a bonus based on overreaching them by %'s. This can be in overall sales volume, but it's better if it's based on the profit of the job more than anything else. Apparel decorating has some big money in Cost of Goods Sold, so it's important to handle your cash flow wisely. 

You know your business and what would work. Are you setting up a pricing guideline for them with what you are currently charging? If so, you may be setting yourself up for failure as you are reducing the overall profit of a job that you currently take by paying the salesperson's commission out of that chunk of money. Be wary. Do the math. Let's say you agree to pay the sales person 5% of the job as commission. Can you afford to reduce the money coming in on the jobs you have booked right now by that amount? Is that sustainable?

Another way to skin this cat is to look at aligning yourself with organizations that have a lot of sales people and become the contract printer for them. Basically their sales team becomes yours as they funnel work to you. You don't have to pay them anything, and you aren't making less on the jobs (hopefully).

This is a tricky situation, which is why I recommended that you do your homework and determine if this is the right move for you long term. BTW, a $10,000 order is easy achievable. That could be one 2000 piece order at $5 each. That's an afternoon printing on an auto. How long would it take you to print that on your manual?

Good luck,

-M


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

commission only, 10% up to 100K/mo, 15% after that. Fired below $50K/mo


----------



## clclothing (Jul 27, 2011)

Just a thought - it may be cheaper and more successful to hire an office manager or a bookkeeper or a full or part time CFO to do the things you are bogged down in and do the selling yourself. NO ONE will represent your company better than you and you will always be confident that you can deliver what was promised. Then, after you have a sales process in place, you can expand the sales team based on a proven formula of what production can be achieved and what parameters are acceptable and what business you can handle.


----------



## GN (Aug 1, 2011)

clclothing said:


> NO ONE will represent your company better than you ...


I understand the premise of this statement..but in my experience it is usually not true. Most business owners/operators are not salemen and cannot do a great job selling the product. So they hire trusted salesmen to represent thier companies. I've worked for many bosses that just didn't have any people skills for example but was really good at creating the product. 

Just food for thought.


----------



## clclothing (Jul 27, 2011)

That can certainly work at some point, but most of the companies I have worked with would have done better at the outset if the owner had gotten out of the grunt work and hit the pavement rather than using limited resources to underfund a slightly trained sales person. I have seen too many people use their involvement in the day to day as an excuse not to get out and do something that, admittedly, they may not be totally comfortable with but is critical to their success.

It is a part of a larger discussion about who is truly best suited to start and run their own company. You have to love running a business as much as you love T-Shirts or XYZ widgets. What needs to be done other than the product or service is far underestimated by most people. In my experience, owners who do not love, or who are not suited to, the marketing of their company are not long for the business world. Sure, there are exceptions, but on the whole I still think it is true that you are in the best position, with the greatest motivation and commitment to represent your own company until resources are available to allow you to hire truly top notch people.


----------



## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

If you are not able to offer a sales person a base salary you are better off just waiting. There few if any talented professional sales people that work on commission only - they do not need to as they are very hard to find. Having some clown work on commission only is dangerous to you and your business. The last thing you need is someone out in the field that is not representing your company in a professional light. They can do a lot of harm to your reputation. It is easier to find qualified people for niche markets versus generic printing. Before interviewing candidates you need to be able to provide them the vision you want them to provide the prospect. With the 1000's of screen printers with brick/motar and web based shops why chose you. You have to have a compelling story for the sales person to embelish and believe.


----------

