# Picking And Training A New Salesman



## Ed the Roofer (Sep 15, 2008)

Well, I haven't had anyone else do sales for me for about 5-6 years, mostly because I could handle it, but also because of a lack of trust from being burned a few times.

I hired a new guy as a worker, who has shown me more talent than I initially counted on and am having him go along with me on measurement calls, to see My Way of measuring a roof precisely.

Next, I had him doing the measurements, along with taking plenty of digital photos and bringing the information back to me for me to write up.

Now, I have him sitting in with me, while I am figuring out the calculations and picking the phrases to be used from my script, to create the descriptive proposal.

3 jobs that I have never seen before, that he has measured turned into sales for me over the past 2-3 weeks, so this is working out quite well.

I am showing him items that he slightly has missed while taking photos, so that I can get a clearer picture of the job in my mind and he is adjusting very well.

The next step, after he has a full grasp of why certain phrases need to be implemented into the proposal will be to let him loose and follow up with the sales presentation appointment.

I will go with him for the first few and then let him handle a few on his own and critique his effectiveness and thoroughness. I anticipate that this slow hand holding process will develop him in an efficient manner.

How do you guys train a new salesman?

Ed


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## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Ed I am very much doing the same thing with my repair man. I've had alot of sales guys through the past 4 years and only one was worth a damn and he passed away. I find anyone who makes sales their specialty is already employed and secure in their employement or not worth a damned! Therefore you gotta train them, plus the new trainees don't have bad habits you need to break them of.

However it is very hard for a someone making the jump from being paid hourly and probably making 30-60k per year doing it, to being paid a commission and maybe not getting paid very much the first few weeks or months. I do however beleive there is more money to be made on the sales side vs production if you are good and can convince the customer of that fact... however I digress. The point I was trying to make is that there is a starting hump that new sales guys in training need to get over in terms of minimal earnings. 

I find that it'll be 2-3 months before a new sales guy sees any steady income. I find on average our sales cycle to be a 2 month thing where you meet the customer, follow up with the customer a few times and then make the sale. We are not high pressure one sit closers. So I think the only way to make the transitition from production to sales is either pay draws or a salary or have them working part time production and part time sales until they get a good steady income from the sales. 

Since I refuse to pay a salary to a sales person and I really can't afford to pay draws after being burned so many times, I am now teaching my repair guy to inspect jobs when he is at them and find other work that needs to be done and sell it. If I were the estimator I allow him to "go behind my back" and sell what ever. If he is servicing a call from one of my other estimators then they decide who will write it up etc and they usually split the commission 50/50. 

So far so good. I'll be using the winter to better train the repair guy although the informal training has already begun. I figure we are both a little slower then so it's perfect for the both of us. My only one wish is that my repair guy were a little bit more mature  We call him the man-boy. He acts very much like I did when I was 17. But he shows up for work almost every day which is hard to find in this business and he's a pretty good roofer so we deal with it, although it's not that big a deal.


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## Kanga Roofing (Jun 8, 2011)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Well, I haven't had anyone else do sales for me for about 5-6 years, mostly because I could handle it, but also because of a lack of trust from being burned a few times.
> 
> I hired a new guy as a worker, who has shown me more talent than I initially counted on and am having him go along with me on measurement calls, to see My Way of measuring a roof precisely.
> 
> ...


How did you go about finding the new worker in the first place?


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## AnyMonkey (Nov 26, 2012)

personally i do not believe in commission sales staff as the opportunity to get burned is far greater than a salaried employee that is treated well. you can bonus out that same employee at the end of the year based on your years profits if you like instead.

commision staff will not make any money unless they get work so their first priority is to get the job and not always at the money you want it. or they may try and hide some of the figures from you ( I guess it all depends how well you job cost but most roofers that i have met do not do that well)


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## AnyMonkey (Nov 26, 2012)

also... my training was quite simple... I went out with all 3 of the estimators in the company for 1 week to see how they did things. Aftr that i was sent out on my own but i had to have every estimate checked by the senior estimator until he felt i was good enough to run loose. Now i am the senior estimator and i still like to talk about the bigger jobs with some of the other guys.... just to get some fresh input before it goes out.


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## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Friggin damned forum ate my reply. I had a lengthy reply posted addresses hiring recruiting, training and payment structure and when I hit enter the forum said oops! 



ARGH!


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## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

AnyMonkey said:


> also... my training was quite simple... I went out with all 3 of the estimators in the company for 1 week to see how they did things. Aftr that i was sent out on my own but i had to have every estimate checked by the senior estimator until he felt i was good enough to run loose. Now i am the senior estimator and i still like to talk about the bigger jobs with some of the other guys.... just to get some fresh input before it goes out.


I do the same thing still on the bigger jobs I have the boss look it over before the #'s get sent out. The smaller and private stuff just gets sent out with out him going over it.


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