Commission only sales staff.

[SamHatten1984]

I have been doing freelance website development and design for the past 2 years, and currently get my work from several small companies that outsource to me.

I've decided that i need to get my own sales staff though.

Can you employ sales staff on commission only? My plan was to take someone on, and pay them at least 30% commission on every job they sell, and up to 40% if they reach a specified target in that month.

At the end of the month, i would work out their total commission, but because each job will consist of 2 main payments, the deposit and balance, i would only pay them half of the commission on each job, and pay them the other half when the final balance comes in to me.

This stops sales staff selling rubbish / bad jobs, Grabbing the commission, then leaving me with a bad job that I can't finish without taking a huge loss on the job or re-funding the customer (this is a real issue and i've seen sales staff destroy a company this way), that way if they don't sell to the rules, they wont get ALL their commission, minimizing my financial risk.

Providing the jobs are sold correctly, they will receive the rest of the commission on that job. In total, they will receive 100% of their commission, providing they do their job properly.

Each job, or sale will be worth between £750 to £1,500+ and if jobs are sold correctly, they can be put through in less then a month.

If the sales staff proved they could sell good jobs regularly, i would offer them a salary later on down the line, with a lower (but still reasonable) commission on each sale.

My questions are

1) Is 30%, with a roof of 40% acceptable? Will i have any trouble finding sales staff to work for this commission.

2) Are the rules I've imposed about the commission acceptable?

3) Is this legal? Can you employ people like this? Is minimum wage an issue, as they would be employed as freelancers, and they are responsible for making enough to pay their bills.

If they sell 5 jobs at the minimum price per month, their commission will give them more then minimum wage. But that's the incentive, if they sell more then X amount in a month, their commission (for all jobs) will go from 30% to 40%

Of course, any other relevant information you can provide, even if it's not asked for above would be much appreciated.

 

[foalface]

Minimum wage is not an issue because, like you say, they will be freelancers - they'll invoice you.

I do think you will find this role difficult to fill though. The only commission-only companies I know of that make it work are the ones who can really make the job sound something it isn't. Diamond traders, fine wine dealers, that sort of thing. It's totally cut-throat. They take people in, sit them on the telephone cold calling all day, and spit them out again if they don't hit the targets. But people go for it because they like the job title, the boss' car, and the office.

In your situation, I fear that the people who respond may not be of the best calibre, and may lose interest after a week. I hope not, I hope you get really lucky, but this is what has stopped us from ever using that model for our business.

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

I have also been looking into employing someone on a similar basis.
Having a friend that works at the local Jobcenter I asked their opinion, and the basic outcome was that if a good salesperson is going to work on a self employed commission only basis they will want on target earnings of 40k+

My prices are also similar to yours, so would be about 50% commission with 5-6 sales per month to reach the target. An office would also be an advantage.

I was also told that I could expect a low response rate to a job vacancy like this and also to expect to take on 6-10 people before finding the "right one"

Would be interested in hearing how you get on with this, please pm me if you decide to go ahead with it, maybe by sharing ideas we can come up with a more attractive package that helps both of us hire the right person.

 

[captaincloser]

Have a look on People per Hour (PPH) and Gumtree or anywhere where comm only ads appear. The world and his brother want people to sell website designers' stuff for them. The hard part would appear to be the sales not the designing-but I may have that wrong...but there really have been a glut of these 'jobs' advertised over time.

My opinion is that it does not matter what you offer it will remain a very lowly subscribed opportunity for commission only people. Much better things to be doing for most successfull comm only people and really the only person who can sell your design expertise is you ? If ukbf is to be believed nobody ever wants to discuss such a subject with a 'salesman'. You may have to call them consultants..or bdm's..anything really but dont allow them to call themselves comm only salesmen.

 

[SamHatten1984]

To reach about £40k a year they only need to make 2.5 sales per week, which for anyone expecting a £40k a year income isn't too much to ask for.

I'm not too concerned at the moment about how many people i go through, obviously later on down the line, with a bit more money behind me i only want to employ the high calibre staff. If i am employing on a commission only basis, my costs are the printing of the contracts, and taking a few hours to educate them on what they are selling.

What I don't want to do is pay someone a salary, and not make any money from them. I have had terrible experience working with sales staff and im not willing to give someone a salary (especially £40k) if they can't prove to me time and time again that they can sell jobs properly and honestly.

Sales is a Cut-Throat career, and I completely understand why. If people can't sell properly they are only costing you money, and what's the point in sinking money into these people without getting any profit.

I don't think i would be willing to pay someone 50% commission on a job, when all they are doing is selling it to the customer, I will be the one doing the skilled Design / Development work. It does not work out profitable enough for me.

Does anyone know of any good places, other then the job centre to advertise for sales staff?

 

[MBE1]

As a former commission only salesperson who used to earn £80k plus PA, I wouldn't touch your offer with a barge pole.

Commission only people are not after minimum wages, and the idea you withold commission soley at your descretion is laughable. Sorry if it not what you want to hear, as usual you have the horse before the cart when trying to employ the right people.

Ask yourself, would you do it under such conditions, working for a month ahead, using your time, petrol, vehicle etc, to find out a large portion of your income is withheld?

 

[MBE1]

I'm not too concerned at the moment about how many people i go through, obviously later on down the line, with a bit more money behind me i only want to employ the high calibre staff.

You should be concerned, time is money, as is recruitment, training etc.

What I don't want to do is pay someone a salary, and not make any money from them.

Understandable, but then again no-one wants to work for someone else and not earn either.

Sales is a Cut-Throat career, and I completely understand why. If people can't sell properly they are only costing you money, and what's the point in sinking money into these people without getting any profit.

Can you prove you can design perfectly, and turn the jobs out bang on time everytime?

I don't think i would be willing to pay someone 50% commission on a job, when all they are doing is selling it to the customer, I will be the one doing the skilled Design / Development work.

Without the job being sold, no-one does the other part or make any money.

Believe it or not, most salespeople are far more let down by poor training, poor support etc from the company they work for, than being poor salespeople. Companies should ask themselves why they constantly have to recruit, to replace lost staff, rather than simply blame it on the staff they were totally happy to take on in the first place.

Just out of interest, how many jobs have you sold yourself over what period of time, just cold calling yourself?

 

[captaincloser]

To reach about £40k a year they only need to make 2.5 sales per week, which for anyone expecting a £40k a year income isn't too much to ask for.

I'm not too concerned at the moment about how many people i go through, obviously later on down the line, with a bit more money behind me i only want to employ the high calibre staff. If i am employing on a commission only basis, my costs are the printing of the contracts, and taking a few hours to educate them on what they are selling.

What I don't want to do is pay someone a salary, and not make any money from them. I have had terrible experience working with sales staff and im not willing to give someone a salary (especially £40k) if they can't prove to me time and time again that they can sell jobs properly and honestly.

Sales is a Cut-Throat career, and I completely understand why. If people can't sell properly they are only costing you money, and what's the point in sinking money into these people without getting any profit.

I don't think i would be willing to pay someone 50% commission on a job, when all they are doing is selling it to the customer, I will be the one doing the skilled Design / Development work. It does not work out profitable enough for me.

Does anyone know of any good places, other then the job centre to advertise for sales staff?

As soon as you start referring to salesmen as 'these people' you give away why you are never going to establish relationships with sales guys ..and the line 'they only have to make' is another giveaway. Its patronising.

As I have said before on here when commenting on this attitude, surely it would be better for you to employ a designer and go out and do these easy sales yourself ?

Business is all about attitude.

 

[SamHatten1984]

captaincloser

Just seen your post, i've tried Gumtree with no luck, may try PPH though, i agree the staff can't call themselves Commission Only salesmen. Would Sales Consultant be a more attractive title? They can call themselves what they want as long as they can sell. In my experience sales staff when employed with a salary are lazy, poorly educated on what they are selling (and have no motivation to learn about what they are selling), and don't make enough sales to cover their income and still expect their commission. If they only got paid commission and had to sell every job correctly they would have to do their job properly.

MBE1

Their commision would not be witheld from them, as soon as the deposit payment has cleared in my account, they will be paid the first half of the commision before the work has even started.

Secondly, as long as they didnt sell the job in-correctly they will see the rest of that commision in less then a month. It's not being 'with-held' for whatever reason i choose that day, it's to protect myself, and my own interests. Why would i ever put the sales persons interests in front of my own IF they could not do the job i've asked them to do properly.

So they aren't working 'a month ahead', and no income is going to be with-held as long as they don't mess the sale up. If someone goes out and sells a complete clone of ebay, with all the bell's and whistle's with 2 years free hosting and Number 1 position on google SEO wise, for £750, i have to refund that job and im 100% sure the salesman isn't going to give the commission he earn't back to cover my loss.

How is that un-reasonable?

Just out of curiosity, you say you were earning £80k a year commission only, what made you stop, and what were you selling? Didn't the fact that, if you didn't sell anything you would not get paid keep you motivated to do a good job?

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

So they aren't working 'a month ahead', and no income is going to be with-held as long as they don't mess the sale up. If someone goes out and sells a complete clone of ebay, with all the bell's and whistle's with 2 years free hosting and Number 1 position on google SEO wise, for £750, i have to refund that job and im 100% sure the salesman isn't going to give the commission he earn't back to cover my loss.

When a salesman comes back with a signed contract you have not even invoiced the client yet, so if there is an issue with anything you can get it sorted out before invoicing client and paying the commission.

I believe it would be more normal, once the contact has been approved by yourself to pay the full commission due.

 

[cts1975]

The only issue I can see is the withholding of the second phase of commission payments. I understand your reasons for covering yourself though.

Would the design and function of the website not be confirmed by yourself before your salesman took the order? Hopefully avoiding any misselling?

So what your offering is 30%/40% of the clients deposit for selling the web/design package and the rest of the commission when the client is happy with your design?
Could the salesman loose out if the client wasn't happy with the design?

I would expect the best of the commission only salesman out there would think twice on this.
Just my opinion.

 

[SamHatten1984]

You should be concerned, time is money, as is recruitment, training etc.

I totally agree time is money, and i would be more then happy to spend most of, if not all of my free time training people up, answering any questions they had, and if they didn't understand it, i would do everything i possibly could to put it in a way that's understandable for a non-tech.

I have had dreadful experiences with sales staff in the past, it could just be my experience with that handful of people (and there was 1 exception), but what really let the whole company down is they just didn't want to know about what they were selling, they would go out, sell what they wanted, answer yes to everything the customer asked for. They had their lines, they had their nearly 50K a year salaries, and 10% commission on every sale, and yet most jobs they sold cost us more to get out (the boss was terrible too, and had blinkers on right up till the end)

...

Understandable, but then again no-one wants to work for someone else and not earn either.

Agreed, but if they hold up their end of the deal, that enables me to hold up my end of the deal, that sounds reasonable, and if they are confident in their skills, and are willing to go through some training there should not be any problems here?

...

Can you prove you can design perfectly, and turn the jobs out bang on time everytime?

I have never had any of my design visuals turned down, i can produce quality work, and get things done on time, if the customer is away for a week there is nothing i can do about that, and this is a situation i have to deal with, the people that chuck work my way at the moment refuse to pay me until they have had the money from the client, even if it's months overdue. If they sell the job correctly, without issues, fully understand the customers requirements and make it clear what is and isn't included in the package, then yes, i'm very confident the sales man will receive the other half of his commission within 4 weeks of selling the job.

....

Without the job being sold, no-one does the other part or make any money.

I can get work from other sources, the only thing's employing a salesman will do is give me independence and not have to rely on other companies for sources of work, i can make my own, and secondly it increases the money i make from each job, having your own clients you can up sell easily to them, charge for hosting etc..

Believe it or not, most salespeople are far more let down by poor training, poor support etc from the company they work for, than being poor salespeople. Companies should ask themselves why they constantly have to recruit, to replace lost staff, rather than simply blame it on the staff they were totally happy to take on in the first place.

Just out of interest, how many jobs have you sold yourself over what period of time, just cold calling yourself?

As i've said above, Training is something that i would do, and i wouldn't not have much faith in someone selling on my behalf without knowing they understand it.

I honestly don't understand how someone can sell a product to a customer without understanding what that product is, training would be a very important step if i were to take on anyone (salary, wage or commission). I agree with you that better trained staff is a much better option to firing and hiring constantly.

I do see the issue here though, in the past, it was always the development team trying to educate the sales staff, the boss didn't care and just wanted them to sell sell sell, this ultimately lead to the destruction of his company, virtually every customer was pissed off, and the development team were miserable (we had to work until 11pm every night, 6-7 days a week for months at a time, because jobs were sold horribly bad, the sales staff rolled in at 11am, then left at 5pm, even though they (and us) were on 9am-6pm mon-fri). I do NOT want to be sales orientated like that, i would much rather provide the customers with a quality service which i can't do if the salesman has no clue what he is selling to the customer.

How many jobs have i 'sold' myself? 1, and that wasn't even really a sale, someone came to be on the verge of bankrupcy because their previous web company had destroyed the performance of her website, and she went from making 10 sales a day, to 1 sale every few days. I offered to re-do the whole thing for her, and give her the support she needed to get things running again. She now makes between 4-6 sales a day and that number is increasing slowly.

I'm not a sales man, i do not 'sell', im a Developer primarily, and a Designer (i have many other skills but these are the main 2 that make money). I could ask you how many websites you have built, to a commercial standard. I'm sure the answer will be Zero. I have tried selling and not had much luck with it, but that's just not what im good at. If i could sell well, this forum post would not even exist, i'd be out making leads and closing sales.

 

[SamHatten1984]

The only issue I can see is the withholding of the second phase of commission payments. I understand your reasons for covering yourself though.

Would the design and function of the website not be confirmed by yourself before your salesman took the order? Hopefully avoiding any misselling?

So what your offering is 30%/40% of the clients deposit for selling the web/design package and the rest of the commission when the client is happy with your design?
Could the salesman loose out if the client wasn't happy with the design?

I would expect the best of the commission only salesman out there would think twice on this.
Just my opinion.

It would be 30%/40% of the deposit payment, and the same with the balance payment. So once the job has gone through without problems they will receive 100% of their 30/40% commission, spread across 2 payments, one when the job comes in, and one when the balance is paid.

I would personally speak to the customer before i started the work, and confirm everything they are getting. This however isn't enough, because people keep quiet about things they know will be an issue, and once i start asking for the balance payment, they will come back and with something like "im not paying the balance until X,Y and Z functionality is implemented, your salesman promised me this stuff", then i'm in a difficult situation, because if what they are asking for is £100's worth of work, i can't pick up that balance without taking a loss, meanwhile the sales man has his commission so it's not his problem. The only way i can see to reduce this risk is not to pay them the other half of their commission until the customer pays the final balance.

I agree there is a risk for the salesman if the customer isn't happy with the design, but i have never had a design dis-approved, and usually it's easy to work with the client to come up with something they are happy with, however this would be a fault on my part not theirs, and providing i didn't suspect any foul play on the salesman's part, he would get paid his commission.

 

[cts1975]

I recon we get 3-6 seo/website/TOG's (TOG= Top of Google) cold calls per week. Last month we launched a new website for our taxi/minibus company. The company that ended up designing and building the new website did not sell the website to us - more likely that we bought it. Purely based on the way our initial enquiry was dealt with. IMO a good designer with a little sales technique would get better results than a salesman with a little design knowledge.

Would they be cold calling ?

Based on the concerns you have a would think a detailed project spec order with all details of the site functionality etc would be the way to go. Maybe the salesman could 'get this signed off by the boss' as part of his sales close?

 

[SamHatten1984]

As soon as you start referring to salesmen as 'these people' you give away why you are never going to establish relationships with sales guys ..and the line 'they only have to make' is another giveaway. Its patronising.

As I have said before on here when commenting on this attitude, surely it would be better for you to employ a designer and go out and do these easy sales yourself ?

Business is all about attitude.

I can't employ a designer and make the sales myself, because a designer is not enough, they can't program, develop, and i've yet to come across a designer that has a well grounded technical knowledge of how the web works, and how websites are put together, how servers work, can program things from scratch etc.. taking a PSD and putting it onto a pre-existing word press template does not count as being technically competent at development. Before i ever let a designer do development work they would need to be at least as good as me at development, and be a kick-ass designer.

At the moment i do BOTH the Designers job, and the Developers Job. If i was going to make these sales myself i would have to employ 2 people to make it work, not to mention im not a salesman, and i think it's futile to expend resources and time on something i know im not good at, and will only cost me money.

It's far more efficient and practical to play my strengths rather then my weaknesses.

If i stick with the job roles im doing at the moment, i only need to employ 1 person to do sales, rather then employ 2 people to do design / dev.

I think the attitude of sales staff i've had the... 'pleasure'.. of working with in the past has been substantially worse then my attitude of expecting them to do a job properly, while making sure i can still pay my bills and afford to eat.

IF they could prove to me they can sell properly, time and time again, and they make enough money to cover their salary each month, i would have no problem putting them on a salary. If it makes them even more motivated, i'd be stupid to NOT offer them a salary, im just not willing to make that kind of commitment to someone i have no faith in at the moment unless they can prove themselves first.

I don't expect EVERY single job they sell to go through easily 100% of the time, that's totally un-reasonable. You can't please every customer and there are just some people out there who will never be happy, will always complain, and expect far too much for the money they are paying. If a job went down hill because the customer is a difficult person, and it is no fault of the salesman then there is no reason why he SHOULDNT get paid, and in situations where ive done my part, the salesman has done their part, but the customer is a time waster, then it's only fair to pay the salesman for the job he did, in all fairness do properly. Even though it sucks for me, i don't have a problem taking a loss in this situation.

 

[SamHatten1984]

I recon we get 3-6 seo/website/TOG's (TOG= Top of Google) cold calls per week. Last month we launched a new website for our taxi/minibus company. The company that ended up designing and building the new website did not sell the website to us - more likely that we bought it. Purely based on the way our initial enquiry was dealt with. IMO a good designer with a little sales technique would get better results than a salesman with a little design knowledge.

Would they be cold calling ?

Based on the concerns you have a would think a detailed project spec order with all details of the site functionality etc would be the way to go. Maybe the salesman could 'get this signed off by the boss' as part of his sales close?

The jobs would primarily consist of packages, An e-commerce site with an initial product data import would be X amount, and the salesman would have a little bit of flexibility in terms of knocking the price down a bit if needs be, but there would be a limit on how much they could knock off.

The contract would include a full spec with every bit of included functionality, and everything else included in the service. If it's not on the contract the customer needs to be quoted for it separately.

They would have a separate contract for the website,hosting and tech support, one for SEO (if they chose it), one for any bespoke / one-off work they wanted.

It's up to them how they go about getting their leads, initially they would have to make their own, whether they go about cold-calling is up to them, i would prefer they do whatever they know works best for them, later on down the line though, when things pick up a bit, i would look at employing a telesales team member, who could feed their leads to the field sales staff.

I would also want to sign off contracts before anything was paid out, banked, or started.

Legally where would i stand, if the customer demanded something that wasn't on the contract, but was promised by 'my sales man'. If they wanted a lot of work done for free in this situation, and i refused to do it for free, and refused to refund the money they have paid, then the customer turns around and says he is taking me to court, What would hold more weight in court, the contract the customer signed, or the verbal agreement made with the salesman, but isn't on the contract the customer signed?

 

[S-Marketing]

The whole idea of employing a sales person in your position is flawed and is the worst possible idea from a marketing perspective. You are essentially just going to completely sabotage your own business and dramatically reduce your earning potential.

If you pay commision for sales in any service business you are giving away a chunk of your income for nothing.

 

[patientlady]

Hi Sam
I am afraidthat you have zero chance of succeeding with commission only sales people. Your negative attitude, manner and lack of commitment is enough demotivation in it's self for anyone that would even consider your offer.

Without the sale you have no business

Sorry but I have taken your rubbishing attitude to sales people personally...

 

[SamHatten1984]

If you pay commision for sales in any service business you are giving away a chunk of your income for nothing.

I was always led to believe that regardless of what sales position you took, whether it's telesales, fieldsales etc.. that it's industry standard to pay that person commission, is this not the case? How do you keep sales people motivated without commission?

 

[S-Marketing]

I was always led to believe that regardless of what sales position you took, whether it's telesales, fieldsales etc.. that it's industry standard to pay that person commission, is this not the case? How do you keep sales people motivated without commission?

In your line of business its having sales people that is the mistake. All you do is either make yourself much more expensive than the competition, or severely limit your earning potential. Either way, its a mistake.

You are essentially just selling your time, which is a valuable but finite commodity. If you can't get 40 hours a week of billable work you need to think about your marketing, not sales staff.

 

[SamHatten1984]

Hi Sam
I am afraidthat you have zero chance of succeeding with commission only sales people. Your negative attitude, manner and lack of commitment is enough demotivation in it's self for anyone that would even consider your offer.

Without the sale you have no business

Sorry but I have taken your rubbishing attitude to sales people personally...

I don't have a negative attitude, my poor attitude towards sales people has come from 6 years of working with them on a daily basis, and as such I've learnt a lot of the tricks and scams they will try to pull. Maybe sales people would not have such a bad reputation, if there wasn't so many bad apples.

How do i lack commitment at all? I'm fully committed to my own plans, and i have already stated i would be committed to worthwhile staff, just because im not willing to make a (large) monthly financial commitment to an individual who has not proved themselves?

So you think that because i am primarily focused on looking after my own interests, and making sure im financially secure against bad staff, that makes me not committed to my business?

I think you'll find most people are like this, especially today. If you had a member of staff, who you paid on a commission only basis, and they messed up a sale big time costing you a lot of money, would you pay them if it was a choice between feeding yourself and kids for a week, or paying them for doing a bad job?

And yes, my attitude and 'manner' is demotivating if your a cow-boy salesman / scam artist, looking for the next 'sucker'. Anyone who could do the job properly, honestly, and without bad intentions would make a decent amount of money, and most likely end up on a salary, why would i NOT want to employ good staff?

 

[kate1]

Hi Sam

Ive sold web design, and its notoriously difficult, I think you will struggle to find a comm only person for this, Comm only people normally work on high value products.

Could you not put one day aside and maybe make 100 calls yourself - then you will have an idea, its not an easy sell.

 

[captaincloser]

Kate is correct.

The sales world is full of offers like this and an owner like this. He needs to get out there and prove his point and himself.

After that it will be a cinch to get others to come in and earn the vast amounts he is generating . He needs to become one of 'these salemen' and that seems unlikely to happen.Sad truth is that most of these 'business' owners are far too 'bizzy doing stuff' to enter the side of the business that matters...and then to suggest its the salesman who will screw up and not the person providing the service is arrant nonsense.

Over time there hae been 101 threads on here all exacrly the same. Sorry, ...unless you get out there and bring back a whole side of bacon this month nobody except the terminally useless will fall for this. Certainly not anything that anyone will stick at for more than a few days unless you are personally brining in huge amounts of new business and truly leading . This has little do with how you pay them bit a lot to do with your expectation and attitude and the swamped market,

I would never buy any website from anyone other than the guy who is going to build it, and I will not be alone.

 

[cts1975]

Hi Sam

Ive sold web design, and its notoriously difficult, I think you will struggle to find a comm only person for this, Comm only people normally work on high value products.

Could you not put one day aside and maybe make 100 calls yourself - then you will have an idea, its not an easy sell.

Hi Sam
I would imagine selling web design is very difficult. Did you have any design background prior to selling? Would or does that help?
How did your selling role compare to the one the OP is hoping to create?
Just though you may be able to provide the 'sales' side of things for the OP.

Sales can be a funny thing as the best 'performing' sales people in terms of figures very often are the people you may not want working for you, naturally the most experienced sales people my bring you the most orders and the most problems at the same time. Its a tuff on thats for sure.

 

[kate1]

cts do you mean me? or Sam?

 

[captaincloser]

Sales can be a funny thing as the best 'performing' sales people in terms of figures very often are the people you may not want working for you, naturally the most experienced sales people my bring you the most orders and the most problems at the same time. Its a tuff on thats for sure.

Tough one ?

Sales is not a tough one. What happens that gives salespeople such a bad name is the culture of a company. Only when the grit hits the fan do management throw their hands up in horror and pretend they are Snow White.

Think Rupert Murdoch and think of door to door utility sales as just two examples of the phoney horror that appears when ingrained bad selling techniques and skullduggery are employed by business owners and newspaper proprietors alike. If you hire cowboys expect gunfire and if you train people up as cowboys exepect gunfire. But please do not blame a cowboy for being a cowboy when in fact its the business owner is the real bandit. Happens all day, every day.

Here is an example of an unscrupulous business owner about to run a sales meeting telling the boys how to dress and round up the cattle.I particularly like the boots...very George Bush.

.


Whilst here we have the same business owner talking on a Sunday morning.

Its life. Get used to it....Ethical, green, sandal wearers are in short supply in a serious business recession.Tripe about salespeople on forums is fine and dandy but ultimately bad practice comes from the top...and we all know that so give the sales guys a break and look in the mirror. You reap what you sow in this life...ask any vicar.

 

[MBE1]

Just out of curiosity, you say you were earning £80k a year commission only, what made you stop, and what were you selling? Didn't the fact that, if you didn't sell anything you would not get paid keep you motivated to do a good job?

I've sold many products and services over the years, I stopped after twenty five years to be closer to my family. Strangely enough although I work for money it is not my only motivation, but it is down to the individual.

Although you might not realise this you do have a very poor attitude towards potential staff, you should be looking to forge a good relationship, not starting off on negatives blaming others for previous mistakes.

I used to have up to 300 guys working for myself, and I had a simple rule, either they worked my way or they left, everyone, even best friends had a 25% audit on their sales each and every week, and this ensured potential bad apples were gone before they started.

 

[cts1975]

Sorry I meant Kate :|

 

[Anita_kt]

I have just posted in another forum! I would strongly recommend if you are going to operate this type of employment structure you get some kind of employment law protection in place. It is common that you will be hiring & firing quite often but you need to ensure you are compliant with the current laws of the country. If you consulted a solicitor on an Ad Hoc basis this would end up costing you the earth! you can get protection from as little as £99.00 per month. to find out more call 0116 2665394 about the employers legal life raft

Thank you