Marinela Gombosev: An Alternate Route for a Startup to Hire Salespeople

Alternative ways to hire salespeople when your company is getting started. Sales are the lifeblood of a company but what do you do when you need to grow revenue but have a limited budget? You get creative. Today we are talking about an interesting alternative to driving sales in the form of Independent sales reps.

Today’s Quote:

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." - Mary Kay Ash

Guest Bio:

Marinela Gombosev   is the President & COO of Evoke Neuroscience, a commercial-stage diagnostic company focusing on early detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementias with a vision of ultimately eradicating dementia. Marinela is a roll up the sleeves leader who strives to work across all levels of the organization, lead from a place of authenticity, and effectively represent the company to its clients, partners and investors.

Over 50,000 patients have been assessed using Evoke’s technology and under Marinela’s leadership, the company has twice been ranked in the Inc. 500|5000 fastest-growing private companies. 

 Show Highlights:

• The good bad & ugly of hiring independent sales reps
• How to hire them in the most efficient manner

Problem:

Why hire Independent sales reps?

Independent manufactures reps?

• Upside
  • No money to spend, a great way to get growth
  • Don't pay anything until they close a deal
  • Fast
  • Rephuner.net
• Downside
  • Control or visibility
  • Way to monitor, don't want to be managed
  • Misunderstand the product, regulations, Get burned a lot
  • Can put you in a legal liability
  • Misrepresentation of contacts & skills

Solutions

How do you hire them?

• Dirty secret: You are buying their relationships
• Hiring because they are trained. Many are pretty bad. Where she has been successful are the ones with relationships. Once they sell their relationships.
• Similar types of products.
• Who are your call points? Personal network? Other reps that work with you?
• Place an ad and make sure profile is written for reps
• Who are you selling to, what are you selling, how much $ am I going to make

Schedule call

• Evaluate call points
• Level of interest
• Product Understanding
• Amount of time they can invest
• How many other clients they have
  • Where am I on the priority scale

Hire

• Sign NDA
• Disclose comp plan
• Sales rep agreement

Comprehensive Training Plan

• On boarding program & test
• Access to all the training materials 

Rules

• No exclusive territories
• Lead registration program / lead protection
• Demo product
• Short term play once the network is exhausted they usually burn out
• Internal expertise helps to close leads
• *One to Two phone call hire
• 3-4 hour time investment per person
• Product margins to support it
• A revolving door of recruiting. Have to constantly recruit
• Need 50 because most of them are not selling
• 80/20 rule
• *** Prepare for a love/hate relationship