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Sales person contract question

by delaiah
5 replies
Hi everybody!

I'm a web developer from Europe trying to find a sales person living in the States. Where I live, commission based sales is pretty much the standard for selling websites, but from the studying I did so far it seems like base salary + commission is rather the way to go when looking for sales people in the US.

My question: Since looking for a sales person over the internet has its limitations, I'm somewhat worried I might get scammed by somebody who just wants to have income for a month or two and won't do any actual work. Is there any way to protect myself from such a case, like a minimum amount of sales one has to do in order to receive the full check at the end of the month or similar? Or penalties for not doing any sales?

Obviously, these aren't really things that one has to think about in an environment which is pretty much commission-only, so I'd really like to hear how people in a predominantly base salary environment deal with this.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions.
#contract #person #question #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Would you work for someone that required "a minimum amount of sales one has to do in order to receive the full check at the end of the month"?

    How are you going to implement this: "Or penalties for not doing any sales?"

    I think your mindset is upside down.

    If I were trying to recruit hard working sales people, I would focus on the incentives and upsides of the commissions rather than being worried about minimum sales or imposing penalties for no sales.

    Why not try straight commission first and see if that works? Lay out your expectations very plainly, compensate very generously with bonuses for outstanding performance . . . and above all . . . have a product to sell that is so full of quality that it sells itself.

    You'll never have to worry about being scammed by one of your sales staff if they are making lots of money selling your product.

    Steve

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    • Profile picture of the author delaiah
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      Would you work for someone that required "a minimum amount of sales one has to do in order to receive the full check at the end of the month"?

      How are you going to implement this: "Or penalties for not doing any sales?"

      I think your mindset is upside down.

      If I were trying to recruit hard working sales people, I would focus on the incentives and upsides of the commissions rather than being worried about minimum sales or imposing penalties for no sales.

      Why not try straight commission first and see if that works? Lay out your expectations very plainly, compensate very generously with bonuses for outstanding performance . . . and above all . . . have a product to sell that is so full of quality that it sells itself.

      You'll never have to worry about being scammed by one of your sales staff if they are making lots of money selling your product.

      Steve

      Steve
      Steve, thanks for your answer. I see what you mean, to be honest, I have the same concern, but I think you might have misunderstood slightly what I meant and I should have made myself clearer. I'm not looking to not pay an honest worker for his work, but rather to protect myself from "scammers", since there's no contact in person. So my question is: what is keeping a "scammer" from just collecting money from somebody who's thousands of miles away without doing any actual work? I'm certain there's a fair amount of people who wouldn't be motivated by rewards and would be happy to just take the base salary and do nothing.

      Also, From my experience, offering only commission based salary isn't effective, so I don't see that as an option. What I rather had in mind is how do companies protect them selves from paying money to somebody who just wants a salary without doing any actual work? Do you check up daily and fire them if you see they're not actually working? Is it a contract breach if it is proven they haven't actually done any work?

      Thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
    If you have a sales person for commission only you have an affiliate, and what's in it for them? There are 100,000,000,000,000,000 commission only affiliate programs they can pick left and right. If you want a full time sales person you need to offer something to answer what's in it for them other then %
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    What is the sales process like? What is the "work" They would be doing?

    If it is simply sales then straight commission, paid after a confirmed sale, is not unusual.

    As it is an Internet service/product it may be possible to use something like JVZoo to offer commissions under an affiliate model.

    If you want a paid+commission model, you could have a "training period". Say the first four weeks, while they learn your product/business they are not paid but keep commissions. Once they have "passed" training- pass a test or make a sale, for example- then they qualify for any base salary or bonuses from that point forward.

    Even just having a small barrier to entry will keep most scammers away who want to do no work. A sample project, a sample proposal, long form answers to typical scenarios.

    It would also weed out a lot of people who are not scammers but just lazy or procrastinators.
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    • Profile picture of the author delaiah
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      What is the sales process like? What is the "work" They would be doing?

      If it is simply sales then straight commission, paid after a confirmed sale, is not unusual.

      As it is an Internet service/product it may be possible to use something like JVZoo to offer commissions under an affiliate model.

      If you want a paid+commission model, you could have a "training period". Say the first four weeks, while they learn your product/business they are not paid but keep commissions. Once they have "passed" training- pass a test or make a sale, for example- then they qualify for any base salary or bonuses from that point forward.

      Even just having a small barrier to entry will keep most scammers away who want to do no work. A sample project, a sample proposal, long form answers to typical scenarios.

      It would also weed out a lot of people who are not scammers but just lazy or procrastinators.
      Brilliant, thank you so much! This is exactly the answer I was looking for and a great idea!
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