{"id":1319,"date":"2014-06-25T18:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.comblog\/hiring-sales-people-on-full-commission\/"},"modified":"2018-07-27T19:41:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T19:41:57","slug":"hiring-sales-people-on-full-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/hiring-sales-people-on-full-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hire a Great Sales Person on Full Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to hire a great sales person on a full commission sales compensation plan or with a very low base,\u00a0here\u2019s the short answer on how you can: <em>You can\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We get literally hundreds of requests from companies each year that want to hire sales reps on full commission. \u00a0The requests often sound something like these (all details have been modified):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Seeking a superstar\u00a0sales person.\u00a0We are\u00a0a startup so need commission only, but the\u00a0right person can easily achieve six-figures.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>We need an experienced sales person, with strong contacts. Commission only with other incentives.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Need commission only reps who can sell.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Looking to expand our sales team \u2013 commission only, but payouts can be significant.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>We need to hire\u00a0100% commission sales people\u00a0that are hunters and can close\u00a0sales on the initial visit.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I love the clarity on\u00a0needs, and I wish hiring capable sales people was this easy, but think about it \u2013 why would someone who can sell work strictly on commission, where they assume all of the risk in building someone else\u2019s business? Why would someone with a strong track record of sales performance join a company that makes no commitment or investment in the sales effort? Why would a superstar join a company that can\u2019t afford to pay them a base salary? <em>They wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They wouldn\u2019t because reliable, top performing sales people are a rare breed. They represent a small percentage of the total sales population (5-10%) and are in high demand, which consequently allows them to\u00a0choose which employers they work for. And when they choose, they consistently choose employers that pay them well and set them up to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>In fact there are only\u00a0a few business sectors such as\u00a0office products or retail sales where it is commonplace to attract talent by offering a full commission compensation plan, but even in those sectors, the best reps are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to migrate\u00a0to better sectors where they will receive a more favourable return on their effort (<em>we know \u2013 they call on our recruiters for help<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>In most sectors,\u00a0an employer that does not\u00a0pay its sales people a premium over competitors, cannot expect to attract the best talent available and will more likely be building a\u00a0sales team with under-performers that maybe wasting time, opportunities and money.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that if you\u00a0want people who can sell, you will have to pay to attract them.<\/p>\n<p>To your success!<\/p>\n<p> relpost-thumb-wrapper <\/p>\n<div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><\/p>\n<div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\">\n<h3>Related posts<\/h3>\n<div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div>\n<p><!-- relpost-block-container --><\/p>\n<div class=\"relpost-block-container\"><a class=\"relpost-block-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/sales-compensation-failing\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 215px;\">\n<div aria-label=\"6 Reasons Your Sales Team Compensation Plan is Failing\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" role=\"img\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/g9d6c5a5.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/6-Reasons-Your-Sales-Team-Compensation-Plan-is-Failing-150x150.png) no-repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 150px; height: 150px;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\" style=\"font-family: ProximaNova, sans-serif;;  font-size: 15px;  color: #6eba57;\">6 Reasons Your Sales Team Compensation Plan is Failing [Infographic]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"relpost-block-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/new-york-sales-salaries-compensation\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 215px;\">\n<div aria-label=\"New York Sales Compensation\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" role=\"img\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/g9d6c5a5.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/New-York-Sales-Compensation-150x150.jpg) no-repeat scroll 0% 0%; 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font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; width: 85px; margin: 0 0 2px auto; line-height: 20px;\">Connect:<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"abh_twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eliotburdett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\"><\/a><a class=\"abh_google\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+EliotBurdettPeakSalesRecruiting?rel=author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Google Plus\"><\/a><a class=\"abh_linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/eliotburdett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"LinkedIn\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"abh_text\">\n<h3 class=\"fn name\"><a class=\"url\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/author\/eliotburdett\/\">Eliot Burdett<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"abh_job\"><span class=\"title\">CEO<\/span> at <span class=\"org\">Peak Sales Recruiting<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"description note abh_description\">Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.<\/p>\n<p>Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.<\/p>\n<p>He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"abh_posts_tab abh_tab\">\n<div class=\"abh_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" src=\"https:\/\/media.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1cfb2152f763e6118839d97c16339339s80ampdmmamprg.png?strip=all\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1cfb2152f763e6118839d97c16339339s160ampdmmamprg.png 2x\" width=\"80\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"abh_social\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; font-size:12px; font-weight:normal; width: 85px; margin: 0 0 2px auto; line-height: 20px;\">Connect:<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"abh_twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eliotburdett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\"><\/a><a class=\"abh_google\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+EliotBurdettPeakSalesRecruiting?rel=author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Google Plus\"><\/a><a class=\"abh_linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/eliotburdett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"LinkedIn\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"abh_text\">\n<h4>Latest posts by Eliot Burdett <span class=\"abh_allposts\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/author\/eliotburdett\/\">see all<\/a>)<\/span><\/h4>\n<div class=\"abh_description note\">\n<ul>\n<li> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/books-about-sales-management-and-sales-leadership\/\">20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership<\/a><span> &#8211; October 20, 2023<\/span> <\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/how-to-make-progress-on-your-sales-goal-without-a-sales-leader\/\">How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader<\/a><span> &#8211; September 15, 2021<\/span> <\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/how-cmos-can-retain-talent-during-the-great-resignation\/\">Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During \u201cThe Great Resignation\u201d<\/a><span> &#8211; July 26, 2021<\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"et_social_bottom_trigger\"><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to hire a great sales person on a full commission sales compensation plan or with a very low base,\u00a0here\u2019s the short answer on how you can: You can\u2019t. We get literally hundreds of requests from companies each year that want to hire sales reps on full commission. \u00a0The requests often sound something<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"text-primary mt-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/hiring-sales-people-on-full-commission\/\">&#8230;continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;How to Hire a Great Sales Person on Full Commission&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-compensation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/wp-json\/\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}