I'm writing up a draft of our companies WHT Thread about hiring and I was wondering what skills/requirements should a sales rep. have? My sales reps. will only answer e-mails and live chat requests about our products, policies, etc and possibly persay potential customers into joining us. The requirements I got are:

- Speaks fluent English (Proper spelling and grammar)
- Excellent communication skills are a MUST
- Good Co-Working Skills
- Above 16 please
- Ability to communicate with clients and deal with multiple e-mails and chat requests, regardless of size or length, in a short period of time with as much accuracy as possible
- Knowledge of cPanel / WHM
- Understanding of how hosting works
- Basic understanding of Linux
- Basic understanding of DNS, FTP, HTTP and other protocols

Must user AIM, YIM, ICQ, etc, and provide phone support :)

He should give you all his info just incase anything does go down.

sounds good. Do you think i can take your little notes up there and use them myself eh?

Personally, I would require a at least a highschool education. I would consider younger applicants still in High School on a case by case.

Originally posted by Andrej
I'm writing up a draft of our companies WHT Thread about hiring and I was wondering what skills/requirements should a sales rep. have? My sales reps. will only answer e-mails and live chat requests about our products, policies, etc and possibly persay potential customers into joining us. The requirements I got are:

- Speaks fluent English (Proper spelling and grammar)
- Excellent communication skills are a MUST
- Good Co-Working Skills
- Above 16 please
- Ability to communicate with clients and deal with multiple e-mails and chat requests, regardless of size or length, in a short period of time with as much accuracy as possible
- Knowledge of cPanel / WHM
- Understanding of how hosting works
- Basic understanding of Linux
- Basic understanding of DNS, FTP, HTTP and other protocols
This sounds more like a customer service rep position than a sales postition. I would expect a sales person to actually sell the product. Doesn't matter what business they were in.

Here is an example of sales requirements:

Job Summary:
Generates sales and revenues on shared web hosting products and services from leads provided from database systems and domain registrars through cold calling and referral programs.

Duties:
* Conducts cold calls (over 100 per day) over the telephone to solicit interest and prospect customers with domain names to purchase Zanaweb's shared web hosting products and services.
* Qualifies and utilizes contacts provided from lead generation systems to turn leads into prospects, into customers, and into revenue.
* Assesses customer's needs and makes recommendations on most suitable Zanaweb product and service offerings, quotes prices, and persuades customers to purchase Zanaweb's shared web hosting services.
* Secures and places orders and coordinates with Zanaweb's staff on new customer account.
* Records names, contact information, and purchase information into customer account database system.
* Develops relations with referral agents and maximizes the return on revenue by having agents refer leads/customers interested in web hosting services with Zanaweb.
* Participates in product and service promotions and works to promote these specials in discussions with clients.
* Performs other duties as assigned.

IMO this better describes a sales person position.

A few suggestions... (and I think Dale's post above is a good list)

You may want to require this person to be of legal age (18 or older) in that if you do a contract with a minor, they are often not really enforceable. Especially if this person is going to be privvy to your client list or other confidential information.

You will also probably want to think about setting up a compensation structure that "rewards" them working efficiently, especially if they will be telecommuting.

Best regards,
Chris West
CDGcommerce