Employing Sales

[colley614]

Hi Guys,

I started my business just under 2 months ago. I've built up a £6000 a year turn over at the moment. I know its not amazing but I've been picking up work steadily since I started. The only problem is that now I'm starting to get busy I finding it harder to get new work so I've been starting to think about looking for a sales rep on a commission basis to help me to start getting people in. Could anyone tell me what the best way is to look for a good sales person?

 

[Homer J Simpson]

How can you be on £6k a year if you only just started two months ago?

People will need a lot more info to be able to advise on if a sales person would be of any use.

 

[Apprentice Guru]

Having some idea of what you do would be a start...

 

[colley614]

How can you be on £6k a year if you only just started two months ago?

People will need a lot more info to be able to advise on if a sales person would be of any use.

I'm not earning £6k a year, I've picked up enough work to turn over £6k a year in repeat business.

I've started my own commercial window cleaning and cleaning support services company. So basically I've been visiting local offices and shops and letting agents and offering my services. The thing is I first started by going in to see the offices and explaining how I worked and stuff and got lots of interest. The problem is if I pick up a new job and for arguments sake a monthly clean would take me half an hour the first clean takes me a good 2 hours to get everything spot on and looking good. So if I pick up 4 jobs then the first cleans can take me all day.

Because it's mainly repeat business I'm thinking that if I could find a good sales rep then I would be happy to pay them the first months clean. To explain how this would work out about 2 weeks ago I had no work so I went out all day visiting local businesses. In that day I picked up £105 a month in new work. I'm not the best at sales either so I'm sure someone with a few contacts and good at sales could pull quite a lot more work than I could in.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Not sure it would be worth it for them. If you picked up £105 in monthly cleans in a day and you'd be willing to give that up the first months cleans. How many new jobs would be required before the sales person was no longer needed? Seems you're doing very well yourself anyway. Maybe just continue as you are for a few more months and just try to drum up more business while you've got spare days. Maybe even offer a free clean as your sales pitch?

 

[colley614]

The thing is. Once I've done first cleans I could easily done £100 worth of work in about 4 hours. If I upgraded my system in my van and then employed I could halve that time. I was also aiming at getting a couple of vehicles on the road before starting to break into other areas of the cleaning industry.

I know how window cleaners come across to people but I was hoping with modern equipment and sign written vans along with uniformed staff would help me attract a lot of blue chip clients. I don't see it as "my round" I see it as my business and I'd like to think that I could build a big reputable company from where I am now.

Don't you thin that a sales rep would be interested in being part of this?

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Maybe, but (and I hate it when people say this), walk before you can run.

I'm not knocking you - in fact, the opposite.In the middle of an ongoing credit crunch/financial crisis etc you managed to secure £6k annual contract. Keep that going and once you're in a position to pay someone out of your profits (as apposed to future profits) is say would be a better way to do it. I could be completely wrong though, your way could see your turnover treble in two weeks, who knows?

How many days/hours/weeks do your current clients (the £6k annual ones) take to complete each month? (considering everything, travel time, paperwork etc, not just the actual cleaning)

 

[colley614]

To be honest the bulk of my work would probably take me around 2 full days a month but then I have odds and ends of work that I'm only earning the fuel I use to go and clean them. But they are in areas that I have targeted and hope to grow for example. I've got a shop front that I earn £10 a week from that physically takes me 10 minutes to clean but it's half an hour away. But it's right in the middle of about 100 high street shops and the shopping centre has a large industrial park behind with office blocks that are worth about £400 each that I'd like to target and now my fuels paid for so I just need to aim at getting some in

 

[Talay]

Pitching to an area outside your geographic base is going to prove costly at first but necessary to get a toehold in a new area. What you need to be careful of is your diary organisation as you may find yourself flitting back and forth when you could perhaps visit one area one day and another area the next.

In fact, adopting this zoning strategy could see you perform cleans in an area when you have jobs but canvassing in the same area once those jobs have been completed. Keep records of how successful your canvassing went and change the approach when one pitch succeeds over another.

 

[easiprint]

Could you not look at this the other way round? Rather than employing a sales person who will want a relatively high wage, employ a cleaning person on a much lower wage, freeing you up to do the sales and actually run your business. Someone told me many years ago, that when you run your own business you should work AT it, not IN it. In other words, you need to be looking at the management of the business and working at growing it rather than doing the manual work and allowing the business to free run as you do not have the time to manage it properly. No one knows your business like you, so with such a good start in sales, it would make sense for you to carry this on.

Just another angle to think about.

 

[captaincloser]

suggest you contact Kate1 on here. Her business is creating new clients for your sector.at the very least she will have the experience to offer you some pointers and advice