Commission Salespeople

Hi there,

I just wanted to get some opinions on something I was discussing with Thomas Rice earlier..

I currently own and operate a small company whose primary source of income is in website hosting. Our main appeal are our Standard Plans which are basically an unlimited hosting plan, without restriction, for $30AUD per month.

At the moment, I've decided that our primary goal is to sell more of these Standard Plans. They're appealing to the client and to the company, so everybody's happy.

My problem here is exposure. I started my company, Fifth Dimension Computing, in August of 1998, but it's only within the last six to eight months or so that we've been focusingly aggresively on website hosting. As a result, we don't have the product exposure that one requires to generate decent sales.

I'm current a sole trader. I do a lot of outsourcing and have regular contractors to make sure we can always meet demand. But profits are low at the moment and we can't really afford traditional advertising methods. My experience is in computing and sales, not adverising as such. All the methods of advertising I know of require moderate to large upfront costs with a fairly high exposure but no guaranteed return.

So then it hit me. Why not hire independant salespeople to use their own knowledge and resources to generate sales, and pay them solely on commission? This way, the harder they work, the more they get paid, with virtually no income cap whatsoever, and I only need to pay them based on the sales they make. If they make no sales, they make no money, but if they do well, they can make quite a tidy income.

But then this idea left me with two problems:-

1) Like a viscous circle, the advertising factor. Where do I find motivated, sales-oriented people wanting to make some good money?

2) How do I go about setting this up? Would I be better off paying them as independant contractors, or hiring them as employees? What are the legalities involved? Is there anything else I need to know?

I tried finding information on some of this countries larger employment database websites, like www.careerone.com.au and www.monster.com.au.. but these sites required a $110 and $330 fee respectively just to list one employment position on the website! So once again, I'm having to pay upfront for advertising that may or not may generate a result for me.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I might be able to do? All I'm looking for is some talented people who would be interested in promoting website packages on a generous commission, and some information and suggestions on how to go about employing them as salespeople.

Alternatively, if anybody knows of some successful advertising methods that I could employ to increase my product awareness, that won't require a huge upfront cost with an uncertain outcome, I'd love to hear your suggestions. I'm confident that our packages would be very appealing to potential clients, I just need to bring them to broader attention.

Thanks for your feedback!

- Shannon L.


Fifth Dimension Computing