Building an outside sales team

[troph 24929]

I need help building an outside sales team. we have a reasonably priced consumer product and good margins and need to build a sales team to sell it into stores - focus areas are outdoors, athletics, wellness (chiropractors, gyms, exercise studios, yoga, etc), boutique retail, and eventually larger stores but that’s not required.

we are also interested in wholesale distribution partnerships. I’ve got a business partner in sales on another company (who is our lead wholesale channel for spa and wellness outlets) that will help me build comp plans, interview, etc., but I’m trying to learn up on dos and don’ts myself.

this isn’t enterprise software sales but the commissions could make for some decent income as the customer base is built.  

any resources here ? 

[DonkeyCigars 143]

3 hours ago, troph said:

I need help building an outside sales team. we have a reasonably priced consumer product and good margins and need to build a sales team to sell it into stores - focus areas are outdoors, athletics, wellness (chiropractors, gyms, exercise studios, yoga, etc), boutique retail, and eventually larger stores but that’s not required.

we are also interested in wholesale distribution partnerships. I’ve got a business partner in sales on another company (who is our lead wholesale channel for spa and wellness outlets) that will help me build comp plans, interview, etc., but I’m trying to learn up on dos and don’ts myself.

this isn’t enterprise software sales but the commissions could make for some decent income as the customer base is built.  

any resources here ? 

Subscribed.

[blacklab 11997]

First thing I would do is find a person who has done this before and hire them as the head of sales. 

Then I'd start looking for someone who has done partnerships with a similar product and hire them.

Set goals and turn them loose. Meet every few days to talk about goals and how they are planning on hitting them. If they aren't showing progress in 1-2 months fire them and find someone else.

[BearSchlong 8139]

Its weed, isn't it?

[troph 24929]

20 hours ago, blacklab said:

First thing I would do is find a person who has done this before and hire them as the head of sales. 

Then I'd start looking for someone who has done partnerships with a similar product and hire them.

Set goals and turn them loose. Meet every few days to talk about goals and how they are planning on hitting them. If they aren't showing progress in 1-2 months fire them and find someone else.

I've white boarded a lot of crap so far and head of sales options are exactly that hire someone (though this is a start up so cash is tight) or I do it (I've managed head of sales - which is much, much different) but with advisors, I have two right now that are willing - one manages a sales team (heh) for  enterprise software sales for a big company and the other is a CEO of a smaller company but was a VP of sales at a larger company selling consumer products.

I like where you are thinking though re that and someone having done partnerships.  we are starting the company based on one partnership (that I brought) and it's going really well.  full of opportunities through the first 4-6 months.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by troph

[troph 24929]

10 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

Its weed, isn't it?

hemp.

[Jerry Callo 8831]

17 minutes ago, troph said:

hemp.

It's hemp until its weed, isn't it?

[troph 24929]

31 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

It's hemp until its weed, isn't it?

not really. it's actually two different plants.  we have a line of spa and wellness products, as well as DTC (direct to consumer) products that are designed for stress/anxiety and pain relief.  stressed out athletes are a perfect demo for us. born out of the pandemic when I started using hemp products, I decided to start my own line.  we are done with branding, have the marketing going, have product that has tested well and everyone loves, we have our first partnership, have 2-3 other active sales channels but I need to build out other wholesale partnerships - one store at a time and one distribution partner at a time.  channels are nearly unlimited. 

anyway, thread is about sales teams, not my drug dealing endeavors.

Edited September 29, 2021 by troph

[blacklab 11997]

2 hours ago, troph said:

I like where you are thinking though re that and someone having done partnerships.  we are starting the company based on one partnership (that I brought) and it's going really well.  full of opportunities through the first 4-6 months.

Yeah, I've had sales guys do direct sales and partnership stuff and it just never quite works out, it's a different set of skills. There's a reason the last two companies I was at had sales departments and partnership departments. 
There are also companies out there that will do the partnership stuff. They already have contacts with many chains and lists of small retailers that they work with they can push you into. Getting a booth or renting a piece of a booth at Dallas Market is the other way to get in front of buyers for retail.

[MissingInAction 25311]

If you are doing conference booth presentations I'm a good front man. I'm incredibly good looking and very outgoing. 

Conferences

Booths

????

Profit

[troph 24929]

50 minutes ago, blacklab said:

Yeah, I've had sales guys do direct sales and partnership stuff and it just never quite works out, it's a different set of skills. There's a reason the last two companies I was at had sales departments and partnership departments. 
There are also companies out there that will do the partnership stuff. They already have contacts with many chains and lists of small retailers that they work with they can push you into. Getting a booth or renting a piece of a booth at Dallas Market is the other way to get in front of buyers for retail.

there are a ton of events we can do that make sense to grow DTC and we would do those too.  I lean toward these sales positions being our first hires.  we already have outsourced CFO/CMO (and a team)/Logistics is done/one distributor/me and my partner which really puts us at about 12+ folks working it.  what we need is the sales solution.

Edited September 29, 2021 by troph

[ZB'Tejas 594]

Find someone that has been in Sales for a while and ready to make the leap but ideally someone that has managed teams. If you don't have anything prebuilt you need that person to know how to segment the market and put together a sales methodology, tactics and content that you can drop in the hands of subsequent sales people to help ramp. Also for outside that first person you bring in better be comfortable going outbound (sans SDRs) and grinding for a while to prove out those methods they are building while driving home deals.

Fyi, I'm looking for CSMs, AEs and SDRs for my team in Austin if anyone knows of someone