Hire a Salesperson?

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
1

Has anyone ever thought about hiring someone with selling skills to pound the pavement and get steady business orders?

I’ve been thinking about it lately as my partner and I both work full time at other jobs and have very little time to do this ourselves. Plus, we are far from salesmen.

We currently have one of our managers going out (splitting time between 2 stores) to businesses and doing some regular residential doorhanging.

We have loads of businesses, industrial parks, car dealerships, etc. that I feel we are just not getting a “fair share” of.

We have spent a lot of money and time on marketing (flyers, doorhangers, advertising, etc.) and really don’t seem to be getting a great bang for our buck.

Thoughts?

2

it is a great idea. you may want to go to your univercity and talk to marketing dept for students who want to do internship and project as sales marketing for your store. you pay them minimum or free and they get class credit for project.

if that does not work still hire sales person who goes out to local bussiness and sale your restaurant and catering… involve some free coupan for a mini or 1 topping pizza for them to try you out first…

3

That is my job.

I do not wear a apron anymore and found when I finally made the move to over see the business and focus on marketing, my income went through the roof.

It’s hard to transition if you are a control freak.

4

So tell us - who do you go to as prospects?
I’ve done some of this, with some sporadic results - but I’d love to hear some ideas of businesses you’ve approached that turned into great accounts…

5

We have a full-on business program at our shop. We allow them to order 24/7 with enough advance notice (for companies feeding a 3rd shift), volume discounts, 30 day terms, etc…

I’ve hired a sales person twice and so far it hasn’t worked out. It’s not really the type of position you can pay hourly, because it’s tough to get results that way. On the flip-side, a salesperson probably will never to enough on commission to justify them keeping the job.

We paid 15% of the gross before discounts. To make $30k per year they have to do almost $4,000 per week in business sales. That’s a lot of sales week in and week out to achieve. They’d have to build a pretty big book to do that, and it may take a while. Meantime, they’re not making enough money to survive.

Even if you get $1,000 orders, you’re salesperson needs 4 every single week. And that’s if your rep is OK with making $30,000 per year. For somebody in sales, that’s not much money… you’ll probably be faced with a lot of turnover in that position.

Anyway, those were our problems. I’d love to hear input on how to make it work; because I’d like to try again in the future.

6

Bump.

If any body has had success leaving the store and getting some good business accounts please share your experiences and ideas.

Thanks !

7

Here is hoe I do it I bought my tires from the local tire shop (Jim), I bought my car from the local Ford dealer (actually they gave me a car and I advertise for them) (Bob) But i get it serviced there, I buy gas at the guy down the street (Harvey) I buy from the hardware store on mainstreet ((Ron), I get my haircut at the local salon ((Michelle), I get my groceries for home at my local independent grocery store (Chad)… and the list goes on. If you didnt get it I know all these people I have become friends with them It is about building relationships people want to do business with people they know so get out there and get to know them.