Most owners hire the wrong type of salesperson.
Then, wonder why their sales suck.
Here’s the problem: You’re treating all sales roles like they’re the same.
They’re not.
There are two completely different types of sales reps
Cold Sales Rep = Hunter
- Generates their own leads
- Drops in on referral partners
- Works old customers to find new ones
- Hits community events and trade shows
- Wakes up hungry to find new work every day
Warm Sales Rep = Gatherer
- Services digital leads that come to you
- Nurtures prospects who are already interested
- Handles people who found you through Google reviews
- Focuses on relationship building for warm introductions
Even though they both sell, these are completely different people.
The math is completely different too.
With a cold rep, we spend $0 on marketing.
That means I can pay a bigger commission.
In our painting business, I would pay a 100%-commission reps 10-12% of what they sell
How do I get to that number?
We target our “gatherer” sales reps at total payroll of 8% of revenue + 4% advertising spend = total cost of sales at 12%
It’s the same bottom line to me either way
Here’s the biggest mistake owners make (including me)
They hire a gatherer to do hunter work.
But a gatherer doesn’t have those skills
Some could learn but it will take time.
Or they hire a hunter and feed them warm leads which reduces their drive
It’s like domesticating a wild animal, diluting their drive to kill
You can’t expect people to be unicorns and do both extremely well.
Hire for a specific role, set those expectations, and compensate accordingly
Pay your hunters a low guarantee plus a high commission.
Gatherers get a higher guarantee but lower commission.
I’ve found using a profiling tool like Predictive Index or Culture Index to be very helpful:
More on this tool later.
Cheers!
Brian
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