Hiring salespeople for a small business is always a tough gig. There are soooo many duds, and unless you have systems and processes in place for them, you're going to be treading water for a while. Sitepoint had a great article today on The Care and Feeding of Sales People for web design businesses, which covers how to get them, and how to keep them - productive. It's a great piece overall, and applies to much more than web design businesses.

[via SitePoint - The Care and Feeding of Sales People by Andrew Neitlich]

I kept meaning to write that article - never got around to it! Doesn't matter now, I'm 3 days from being an ex-web design salesperson. Joining a software startup.

The only point I think he is way off on is the straight commission stuff. The sales person he is describing is experienced and a bit older - not a 25 year old kid. That person has a life, mortgage, maybe kids, etc. He isn't going to absorb 100% of the risk by going straight commission. Especially in web design, which is typically a 3-6 mo sales cycle, longer on big projects.

I forwarded the article to the boss though. he is real concerned about how he is going to find another me :)