Hiring Good Friend Of Mine To Be A Salesman - Advice Needed!

Get her more sales training and make sure she understands what she is selling. It seems that most go into sales without studying how to sell.

How good would your mechanic really be if they were self taught. Would you want them learning from experience on your car?

Now I'm probably prejudiced because I have trained dozens of sales people over the years. I spent thousands and years learning what little I know. But I can sell as a result.

Old Dog..

P.S. If you join a sales organization they will train you more than likely before they cut you lose on their valuable prospects. If you own your own business, you need to get training yourself and for those that work for you. Without some instruction whether she is bubbly or not she will get discouraged more than likely.

Old Dog

There was a WSO awhile back that had a number of PDF premade flyers that were editable in Adobe Reader. I use those for independent sales reps and "brand" them with their contact details.

I grab a local number from Twilio, and assign each "rep" a local phone number, then use OpenVBX to forward the calls to their cell phone, and at the same time, it alerts me via text when they get a call and who the call is from.

that way I can give them freedom to go out with branded marketing materials, but if they do get a call, I'm alerted to exactly the number that called them from the marketing materials. Hope that makes sense.

if you are doing this with a friend, make sure everything is spelled out to the the letter so that there are no misunderstandings.

Set clear goals, expectations and timetables. You don't want them to to ever say they didn't know what was expected of them.

If you are all ready making sales calls yourself and having some success I would just have her ride with you on a few calls for three or four days. Once she gets the hang of it and has the product knowledge turn her loose.

I have found over the years that female's make some pretty affective sales people just for the fact that they can get away with more. They can get away with more enthusiasm, and not being as well organized, and can even cry if they have to to get their point across.

Yikes... not a good situation if you ask me.

You say she has a bubbly personality but what happens to the bubbly after getting shut down 20-30 calls in a row? Cell phone companies are okay, but that is mostly inbound sales anyway. Does she have experience cold calling?

Dangerous situation. Very possible that this ruins your friendship. Difficult to manage your friends, too.

I would say give her tons of examples of the value you give to a business.

I've had mixed experiences with friends/family as sales people. Some just don't get into the groove of it and others rocket with it.

As Jay said, approach lightly as there are PLENTY of sales people out there you can train probably better than a friend/family member and with less attachments.

Hiring a friend is always tricky anyway. So to save yourself possible grief and upset later, get the entire agreement in writing of what you expect her scope of work and results should be and make sure you are both on the same page as to what is expected daily.

As for training---if you feel that you know how to do this well, then "role play" with her starting out as you being the salesman and she being the client.

Have her start out by being an easy sale and then to get tougher and tougher each time so that she can see how you handle different situations.

After you have gone over this several or many times, maybe even role playing as different types of clients, then reverse the roles and have her be the saleman and you be the client.

Then you do the same thing---start out being an easy sale and then get tougher and tougher. If she is not doing well or screws up, stop her right then.

Don't let here continue once a mistake has been made or some direction or correction is needed. Make the correction or give her the advice and then go back to that point and pick it up from there. Then start that one over and do it until she can get through it to your satisfaction.

Of course, role playing will never be the same as real clients, but the body and the mind do well with practice and it will also help her to feel comfortable.

Then, when you first send her out, send her to some clients you don't expect to get or to friends. In other words, don't send her directly to the clients you really want to get right away. Then, at the end of each day, go over how it went, what happened and where she had difficulties and then role play those type scenarios again and again.

Also, if you can put any of the training or possible scripts in writing for her to study, that can be helpful, too.

Good luck.

Video tape (if possible) yourself during a sales pitch. You'll probably need to have someone else there doing it discreetly.

Then take that video and use that as training and you can break down exactly what you are doing. Your thought process, etc.

Also be sure to give a list of common objections and ways to get around them.

And be sure she has all the details of your product down. And your competitors. I've found the best salesman know their product and the competitors inside out. The ones that don't just fling enough poo to B.S. their way through it.