I'm quite interested in hiring some sales staff, and maybe support. I've been thinking how you'd pay sales, do you give them a commision of sales made? Do you pay a fixed salaree?

With support staff do you pay them per client they help? Pay them by the hour...?

Another other information about hiring them would be appreciated.

I will suggest you to look for a franchise instead of recruiting sales staff.

The local franchise have their own infrastructure and sales staff, I think they can give you better sales support.

You can decide the commission for a franchise, giving him sales target load.

Monthly pay.

I don't see how someone could live off commissions or per ticket fees.

Pay them basic monthly salaries and give them bonuses for good work. If you can't afford to hire someone, outsource your work

The question is, how do you know exactly when they are working? The unfortunate truth is that they could fake their hours, and just being signed on doesn't mean they are anywhere near the computer. You don't want to pay people for not working.

I don't see how someone could live off commissions or per ticket fees.

People live of commsions in all kinds of jobs. Cars, travel, etc. I think if this was impliemented they would work for a few companies, thus getting a reasonable amount of commisions.

The question is, how do you know exactly when they are working? The unfortunate truth is that they could fake their hours, and just being signed on doesn't mean they are anywhere near the computer. You don't want to pay people for not working.

You could make a script that randomly send them e-mails with easy questions that they have to work out/reply to....just an idea though.

If you can't afford to hire someone, outsource your work

I'm sorry. Please could you explain it a bit futher?

Thanks for all your replys.

Yash is saying if you can't afford to hire staff, you could hire a company to cover support for you, which is often a lot cheaper. I guess it depends on the number of customers you have.

Edit: I really doubt though that they'd cover sales; most I've seen just cover technical support.

Thanks.

Could you name some companies that do it?

Originally posted by affordahost
People live of commsions in all kinds of jobs. Cars, travel, etc. I think if this was impliemented they would work for a few companies, thus getting a reasonable amount of commisions.


You won't get reasonable commissions in webhosting.

All our staff gets basic monthly pay plus bonuses or perks. Pay is graduated based on experience and responsibilities. We have even paid for relocation and housing for some of our staff.

Hosting is built around experienced people. You pay a price for getting great administrators and staff. All I am saying is that is very unlikely that you get good quality and experienced staff if you plan to pay them only based on commission.

If you can't afford, outsource sales and support. I am sure there are good companies doing sales as well.

Same here for us. Our staff are paid fixed monthly salary with contributions of 20% to the Govt Pension scheme (CPF). There is also compulsory 13th month bonus as well as regular bonuses at the end of the year. I agree with what Yash is saying. To add to his words, I would say loyalty of staff is also very important.

OJT takes a long time, to train up a support is really a lot of efforts. To us losing an employee is like losing part of the company. Everyone counts.

I don't see how you could pay per customer or ticket. Monthl/'per hour is the only way I can see support working. If not you penalize your staff for dealing with more complicated issues that take longer to resolve.

People live of commsions in all kinds of jobs. Cars, travel, etc. I think if this was impliemented they would work for a few companies, thus getting a reasonable amount of commisions.


However, people who are in sales for Cars or Travel Agencies are still being paid by hour or on salary. For example there are some people who work in sales lets say for Acura who are on a 30K salary/YR plus commission. What sort of commission will someone make off a $5 or $10 or even $100 sale? he will need to make 100 sales a day every day just to make some money. Plus, there is no comparison between the sale of a 30,000 vechile and a $10 web hosting plan.

Where I work, staff in our sales department (which are only two employe's) start out at $45,000/YR Salary plus commission. Nonetheless, they are in sales for Fiber Optics. Nevertheless, the people in sales for web hosting ie: dedicated servers, co-location and virtual hosting start out at $40,000/YR Salary plus commission.

For Tech Support, it doesn't seem that pay is high these days. Depending on where you're from the average tech support guy here in Canada makes from $14-18/hr or if you have a head tech $20/22/hr.

You could always start the tech guy out at say $12-$14 an hour and after 3 or 6 months of probation you may increase his pay to $17/hr. Not quite sure how your company works or what your probation period is like.

I wouldn't really out source for support, however, that's just me. I guess I should ask if you have an actual office where you will be with the employe's?

If so then I would hire a tech and sales person. However, I have no clue what the revenue is like so it would be hard to say hire a tech and sales person full-time. You could always start the sales person at 30,000/YR salary etc.

Either way, for tech I would pay them hourly and for sales salary+commission.

I forgot to mention. These people who you will be paying for sales, they shouldn't be doing sales work only. Don't expect them to just sit there and wait for a phone call or e-mail inquiry and give a respone. Make them find prospective clients. They should also do marketing, figure out methods for advertising and also find leads or find leads when they make a sale. They have to do actual work.

Originally posted by Yash-JH
Monthly pay.

I don't see how someone could live off commissions or per ticket fees.

Pay them basic monthly salaries and give them bonuses for good work. If you can't afford to hire someone, outsource your work

I couldn't agree more. Paying someone commisson only works for higher sale items such as real estate, large ad sales, etc. Giving them a percentage of a $10 hosting account isn't worth the frustration.

Perhaps you could consider commission on more expensive hosting plans and salary together.

Best of luck!

For our side, I don't think paying hourly for tech support helps the company in the long run. I think each employee should be given a career path, hourly wage employees wouldn't have much of a motivation.

Originally posted by affordahost
Thanks.

Could you name some companies that do it?

Here are a few:

actsupport.com
bobcares.com
supportresort.com

This is not a recommendation as I have never used any of them.

For our side, I don't think paying hourly for tech support helps the company in the long run. I think each employee should be given a career path, hourly wage employees wouldn't have much of a motivation.


Interesting, may you please elaborate further?

Paying someone commisson only works for higher sale items such as real estate, large ad sales, etc. Giving them a percentage of a $10 hosting account isn't worth the frustration.


Which is basically what I said earlier and totally agree with. If someone in real estate sells a Home for $300,000 and he is entitled to 0.02% he will make $6000 off that sale. So, if he doesn't make a sale the next month it would work out to $3,000 a month.

However, there are some sellers who are able to sell 1, 2 even 3 or more homes a month. Depends on your skills, personality and character. To be good in sales you have to know the product and be a good talker. You gotta tell them what they want to hear even if it's not true. Of course, not to the extent that you are making a false sale.

Either way the Buyer and the Seller are usually entitled from 2% - 5%. Imagine giving someone %2 or %5 on a $10 sale even a $100. I doubt they will make a sale everyday of the week. One day they may produce 10 sales and the next zilch. Also, make the sales people responsible for maintaining a high rate of retention. Have them follow up with the clients once in awhile to ensure that all is going well and that they are happy with the service or something they think the company could improve on as a whole.

Either way, as yash said, if you can't pay the employee a reasonable salaray or monthly amount don't hire someone.

Right,

Unless you discover what really matters your business as a whole in terms of profitability you'll never know it your compensation and benefits outlays to the employee are really working for you.

Originally posted by affordahost
I'm quite interested in hiring some sales staff, and maybe support. I've been thinking how you'd pay sales, do you give them a commision of sales made? Do you pay a fixed salaree?

With support staff do you pay them per client they help? Pay them by the hour...?

Another other information about hiring them would be appreciated.



Don't overpay or underpay to a person whom you are going to hire.

You should undergo with the negotiation process with the candidate as to define, communicate, and achieve what you exactly need and what you are going to pay for it, whether it’s hourly, on commission or with salary.