What to offer my first salesperson?

This is the sister argument for "developers are notorious for giving excuses when they miss deadlines they agreed to"

The key point about metrics is having something to base them off; difficult with a new product unless you know the competition (and the basis on which their clients switch) very well. A better starting point would be to agree upon how the rep intends to make 5 sales. If they make them, all is well; if they don't, you look at a simple measure of performance like whether they attended the meetings expected of them and ask what the feedback was. Resist the temptation to micromanage KPIs if things aren't going so well: if you suspect your salesperson is failing due to laziness then either you're wrong, and you'll drive them away faster or you're right and you still won't make things any better.

There is no such thing as an easy wins. Most companies do not realize a customer is not a sale. A customer is a customer that renews, tells others (referral aka word of mouth), or comes back as repeat business.

P&G has 4 moments of truth: First that the customer knows about you, second customer buys you, third customers accepts that you did what you claimed, and fourth customer tells others or buys again.

The more customers that are using your product the more sales you will get; kinda like network effect. They each can talk to each other about their experience and how it improved their lives/company. Since more people are using it, it is easier to get internal buy-in and sales on new accounts.

I agree with the person that said sales are hard initially. You have no brand awareness. Make it easy for your rep to sell. Sales is hard. Ask any CEO who has done it. I would pay the person for the numbers in each of the stages in the sales pipeline since that is how sales are made: step by step. vary the commission rates. Like the other person, focus on the process and then conversion rates for each stage.

My questions to you: How much profit will you make on 0 sales? What are you waiting for? Either close the business yourself or let a professional who has vested interest do it. In the beginning it is not about profit but market share and building brand equity.