I'm looking to hire a friend part time to cold call on businesses on the phone. He can only work part time at the moment and wants to do the work. He's not the entrepreneurial type of guy, but has some sales experience and knows how to deal with people. He was a teller @ the local bank, sales @ Nordstroms, and is now a cashier @ a CVS Pharmacy. He has helped me with some cleaning jobs in the past.

Once his car situation is resolved, I might move him into a sales commissioned jobs where he would meet the clients as well. This is the goal being him or someone else.

My questions are simple:

Do I need to have him sign a non compete agreement? If so, will I need to have an attorney do one for my company or can I just get a sample online and do it myself. Is it even necessary?

I was thinking of paying him $25 per appointment. Is this what most of you would pay for someone that will just be cold calling on the phone(not in person), following up, and sending direct mail to decision makers? I'd be the one meeting the clients, he can come as well but he doesn't have a dependable car at the moment.

You guys that have experience with this, please share your views and knowledge.

I'm meeting with him this week, we'll start on Wednesday.

Thanks,

Bill

My experience in working with salespeople and having been in sales myself for a number of years is that commissions are paid when one produces either (a) a contract, or (b) a valid demo appointment. People in dire need of money will stretch the truth when it comes to reporting sales call results. If this guy is a friend have a clear understanding of the process or you could end up losing both his friendship and money. $25 a call sounds awfully high to me. Good salesmen can easily make in excess of 25-30, one-on-one sales calls a day. Potentially, a lot of money for both of you, but always dependant on the quality of the call! Good luck!

I think that a salery/commision would be best. Figure out how many hours he is going to give you. If you would rather pay by the hour, try that. Maybe 10% commision for each job would be better because paying $25 for a $250 seems fair but $25 for a $1200 job isn't.

Hi James & Fred,

It was $25 per booked appointment not per call.

I thought about the salary/commission as well, but he is not meeting clients and driving anywhere, I can see it working out like that if he was actually doing sales, demo/closing them?

Just my thoughts.

I would only pay him for the demo's he produces or followups , such as meeting with decision maker, etc. I can easily visit 10 or 15 places a day driving around and would love to get $25 per visit.
Sales is a real art that most people in our profession don't appreciate. We spend all our time doing technical stuff and hiring technical people but when it comes to a Sales person we hire our cousin or sister in law rarely works out.
The people that really make the money in this business are the people who do marketing and sales extremely well.

He's not doing any demos since he doesn't have a car at the moment. He would be working from home. He's not getting paid to visit, and in my area it is very hard to get into certain office buildings. Most of the buildings here are high security even for doctors, dentists, etc. The offices close their doors and you can only get in if you have a scheduled appointment. That right there has become a huge waste of time, because we would take a few days a week cold calling, go to 10 buildings each with 10-30 offices but 90% of the doors would be locked.

Maybe I should just look for a good looking woman to do sales and pay her on a commission basis, my girlfriend was doing just that but now she has a full time job.

I was actually thinking he could set up the demo's for you or one of your people even make any actual delivered result such as meeting, presentation, etc could result in some pay. But be careful cause how you compensate a sales person is how they will deliver. I managed a large sales force for many years and the key is in the goaling.