Seems like a cool service, but I don't understand the quality of the sales people. What experience do they have? What have they sold before?
SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#32As one of the few full-time sales people that hang out on HN...
Business to business sales (which is the usual code for high volume cold calling jobs) is a slog. It takes a certain kind of person to do it. I've done it, but never really liked it. I'm more of an enterprise sales guy for start ups. Maybe the variety of different pitches every week is a selling point for potential staff? I really don't know. I do now that you couldn't pay me enough to do the job :)
Outsourced cold calling (phone) is a pretty major industry in the enterprise space. It'll be interesting to see if this scales down to a feet on the street model.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#33We took "Show HN" out of the title because Show HN implies something you've made that users can play with. Things like landing pages, fundraisers, and email signups don't meet this criterion.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
To add to the feedback of others, this was confusing to me as well. I saw repeated use of "call" and "calling," and understood that to mean using the phone, which was inconsistent with "feet on the ground." Doesn't matter what you think it means - if it confuses everyone, just change it.
To be fair, it's actually quite correct, as in "to call on someone at their doorstep". That usage is a bit archaic, but the terminology is pretty standard in sales. I'd suggest rather than change it to something nonstandard, just clarify what packages may include with a bit more copy.
I second this.
It may seem archaic here, but it is standard terminology in sales to refer to a physical stop-in as a 'call'.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#35So, anything else to add? The 1 page site is short on details.
The call us button shouldn't be a hard link. Not everyone has VoIP integration yet...
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#36Local businesses, particularly restaurants, bars and nightclubs, are extremely difficult to sell to these days, particularly in major cities like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, etc.
These folks are pitched on new "apps" all the time and unless you have a really compelling proposition, standing out from the last 10 people who walked in trying to sell a new technology-based service is tough. In fact, one of the first things you're likely to be asked selling to restaurants, bars and nightclubs is the size of your audience. If you don't have a meaningful enough number, drumming up interest is all but impossible for most.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#37I am a developer, several years back, a couple friends and I wrote a loyalty app/saas. The site, allowed a restaurant/shop/bar owner setup a couple types of deals ie "Buy X get Y Free" among others. Each restaurant had a QR code, and when someone would purchase something, the customer would scan it and get a "punch". The owners could track everything via the web. Due to all of us having a 9-5, and this being our firs…
I think its a really great idea, my only concern is that the sales staff you hire won't be as dedicated, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about my product as I am. Sales is a core aspect to a company, and while it may be possible to outsource sales in an existing company after you've established processes, a young start up won't have that yet. Its a job the founders SHOULD be doing because you're still trying to get a…
This is a valid concern. Another issue with outsourced sales people is the fact they are out for themselves first. Sales people are coin operated... and you want them this way. However, you must be careful and shape the way they are paid to align with your business goals.
As a start up, you may be better off hiring a direct marketing company where you can align their focus to your ideal customer profile (assuming this grows as your product develops). You pay them to set appointments at the correct title/level (which is 90% of the work in sales) and you use your dedication, enthusiasm and knowledge to get the deal closed.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#38From your site:
How much does it cost?
We have packages starting at $1000, depending on your needs, we can pitch up to 100 customers in your vertical. ---------------------------
So you are going to visit 100 customers for me, for the price of $1000? This seems to be quite low. From my experience (10 years, outside sales B2B, full commission) a sales person can only visit about 10 locations a day if they are actually talking and not just pitching something for 30 seconds. If you get any traction with the customers, that will drop to 5 per day.
By my numbers you would work for 10 days for $1000 and have the traveling expenses as well. Sounds good for me, and bad for you. I am also curious about performance. How will I know that your sales person did cold calls? How will I know if they are any good, or if your guy is out there damaging my companies reputation?
We currently use manufacturer reps, about 16 of them. It is a continuous challenge to understand the actions that they are actually taking (not what they tell me they are taking) and hard to track direct results because many of our products are sold through multiple tiers of distribution. These reps are old school, with companies that have been in business for 20+ years.
I hope it works, it would be a great service to use. Feet on the street are hard to manage. Good luck.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#39Cool. You mention restraunts/salons/dog groomers. Any plans to move higher up the chain to SaaS enterprise type sales?
I haven't formalized my process enough to hand off sales to someone else, but I am champing at the bit to try something like this once I get there.
Re: SaleInvaders: Rent-a-sales organization
#40From your site: How much does it cost? We have packages starting at $1000, depending on your needs, we can pitch up to 100 customers in your vertical. --------------------------- So you are going to visit 100 customers for me, for the price of $1000? This seems to be quite low. From my experience (10 years, outside sales B2B, full commission) a sales person can only visit about 10 locations a day if they are actually…
Can I ask a noob-ish question?
For the outside B2B sales you mentioned, what the compensation structure is like? Purely commission or with a fixed part / retainer? If it's a high-tech software sales, do you have an idea of what's the going commission rate is?
The only experience I have is with salaried sales with tiered commission, so I just want to understand how the alternatives work.