I am on the sales side of things, building a portfolio of luxury products and services to package as an offer for some clients of mine. Let me tell you this, nothing motivates like an open ended commission. Name your base price and tell salespeople they can put their own commission on top.
Last time we hired a sales guy, he was a recently divorced, middle-aged English man who spent the last 20 years selling financial products in Hong Kong and Singapore. We wanted him to sell electronic gadgets: I kid you not, the gray-hair sat down and did his homework, and in 3 weeks he knew the specs of every gadget we had and those of our competition by heart. He did wonders for us, but he pretty managed to self himself back into the financial industry. People like those are easier to get when they're down on their luck. Since I tended to do the sales myself and started delegating the programming, when I had to choose between the two.
Also don't underestimate the power of network marketing. No, not the pyramid schemes, but your network of friends, acquaintances and fellow HN users. If I know you sell product X and you're charging $Y for it; if I like you as a person and trust your ability to deliver, you can bet I will send someone your way who will pay $Y+N dollars for a unit of X, and I expect N to end up in a bank account of mine somewhere :-)
You were mistaken this time too, it's not there :) Mine is, and I'd like to know what you're trying to sell. Maybe I can help, maybe I'll just have a few lines of advice, maybe I can only wish you luck, but I won't waste your time.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=772567
I am on the sales side of things, building a portfolio of luxury products and services to package as an offer for some clients of mine. Let me tell you this, nothing motivates like an open ended commission. Name your base price and tell salespeople they can put their own commission on top.
Last time we hired a sales guy, he was a recently divorced, middle-aged English man who spent the last 20 years selling financial products in Hong Kong and Singapore. We wanted him to sell electronic gadgets: I kid you not, the gray-hair sat down and did his homework, and in 3 weeks he knew the specs of every gadget we had and those of our competition by heart. He did wonders for us, but he pretty managed to self himself back into the financial industry. People like those are easier to get when they're down on their luck. Since I tended to do the sales myself and started delegating the programming, when I had to choose between the two.
Also don't underestimate the power of network marketing. No, not the pyramid schemes, but your network of friends, acquaintances and fellow HN users. If I know you sell product X and you're charging $Y for it; if I like you as a person and trust your ability to deliver, you can bet I will send someone your way who will pay $Y+N dollars for a unit of X, and I expect N to end up in a bank account of mine somewhere :-)
Put an email in your profile, for starters.