When do you hire a sales rep for your screen printing and custom merchandise shop? How do you pay them? What should they actually do? These questions come up again and again. Luckily, Steven Farag from Campus Ink shared his first-hand experience with hiring a dedicated outside sales representative. Steven discusses recruiting, training, incentives, salary, commissions, lead generation, and measuring value with Bruce Ackerman from Printavo. This question and answer session will resolve your questions and give you the best practices for moving forward with hiring your first sales rep. CRM mentioned: Close (https://www.close.com) Try Printavo for free: https://www.printavo.com

1. Shop Talk #1:
Hiring Your First Sales Rep
Printavo – Simple, online shop management software
www.printavo.com

2. Introduction
I interviewed Steven Farag from Campus Ink just before ISS Long
Beach about hiring his first sales rep.
Bruce Ackerman from Printavo Steven Farag from Campus Ink
We talked about hiring your first sales rep because it comes up again
and again in Facebook groups, at trade shows, and in screen printing
and custom merchandise shops everywhere.

3. Why hire an outside sales rep for your
screen printing shop?
It's like bringing the sales rep in is just a fixed cost. A sales rep is going
to enhance your shop as a whole. It's not just sales oriented.
– Steve Farag
o Once your business is established in your community, you have to
do brand management to secure your reputation. The ideal first
sales rep is someone that's interested in more than hard selling –
they're willing to represent the shop and stay in close personal
contact with customers.

4. Why hire an outside sales rep for your
screen printing shop?
o Hiring a dedicated sales rep shifts that responsibility and
streamlines how sales operate. The owner can move from a
dedicated brand representative to actually managing the business.
The sales rep manages and nurtures relationships with customers.
o The first sales rep is the hardest one to hire. Don't worry about
hiring the perfect person. You are ultimately investing in learning
how to hire and manage people.

5. How should you approach training
your sales rep?
o Remember: sales are the first step in the production process. You
want to train your sales rep to make the right sales, not just a lot of
sales.
o Set aside a lot of time to create content for training your sales rep.
o You'll want to create a lot of documentation:
 The specific production process in your shop
 The details of what you manufacture
 An overview of the apparel printing industry's key players
 An exact schedule of the first few days on the job
 Sales playbook and talking points

6. How should you approach training
your sales rep?
o It's imperative that new sale reps spend some time on the
production floor to understand what's involved. An example: if
you're selling 2-color vinyl numbers (a difficult process), you should
have to print a hundred of them to see what it takes. It's essential
that the sales rep knows what the shop is capable of and what's
reasonable for your team.

7. How should you pay your first sales rep?
"[Our sales rep] makes her commission on gross profit. She's vested in
making the business money. I track her overall Cost of Goods Sold. We
have a fixed cost for overhead, and from there I can find out our
profitability. I've got a sales and commission tracker that uses the
Printavo API to keep everything organized." - Steve Farag
If you were interviewing for this position, what would you expect from a
company?
If you want your salespeople to be successful, you have to set them up
for success. That means eliminating uncertainty about pay.

8. How should you pay your first sales rep?
Steven went over his first sales rep's salary collaboratively. He asked her
what she needed to make by discussing her expenses. He built the
target that he hoped she would hit on Year 1. He made it clear he
intended to follow-through on his promises and offer a competitive
salary so she can focus on developing her sales techniques.
The salary should be roughly what an entry-level salesperson would
make before commission. You'll have to research outside corporate
sales salaries to see what sort of target you'll want to set. Be
competitive and aim to retain your talent.

9. How should you pay your first sales rep?
You'll also have to consider exactly what the person will be selling. If
you task your new sales with converting screen printing customers into
promotional merchandise customers, you can set them up for success
by sending them out with promotional materials: mugs, pens, ice
scrapers, mousepads, tumblers – all branded with your logo. They'll
make initial contacts with your clients and bring your brand to the next
level of professionalism. (Side note: Printed Threads does this incredibly
well)

10. How should you pay your first sales rep?
Promotional product sales are the easiest and fastest way to
compensate your sales reps and start them on their development
process. Screen printing is simply harder to price and understand the
margins for. The calculations for promotional products and custom
merchandise are much more favorable and simpler to calculate – there
is lower overhead for production and more certainty for your sales rep.

11. What should your sales rep do if you're a
screen printer?
Start with customer success. Customer success revolves around
creating positive associations with your brand through all stages of the
customer interaction cycle.
Turn current customers into great customers. This is a high-value
activity that builds your brand and creates stronger relationships. The
more often you interact and develop positive bonds, the more likely
you are to convert a customer into an advocate.
From there, begin feeding them leads and new customers once they
show that they understand their role in your process. Your customer
success person can slowly become your first salesperson. Their job is
initially to get reorders, become familiar with your current clients on a
first-name basis, and build relationships throughout the community.

12. How do you help them get leads?
"Subscribe to and make contact with your local Chamber of Commerce
or Rotary Club. Target businesses that are willing to pay-to-play and are
prominent in these organizations – it’s evidence they want their name
out there. They probably want printed merchandise if they’re trying to
market themselves that way." – Steven Farag
Build a model for success. Cold calling is no fun. But it might be best to
start with the hard work and give them a model for how to deal with
adversity. Then, give them opportunities to be present around business
owners. Help them build their pitch and show them how you've had
success in the past. Mentor the person until they understand the
industry and your brand's relevance.

13. How do you help them get leads?
This is where brand advocacy comes in: Steven introduced his new
sales rep during the holidays. She brought customers and leads
cookies. Right from their first interaction with his new sales rep,
customers have a positive association and feel good about Campus Ink.
The sales rep gets to have a great time. Everyone involved feels great.
Those associations are the foundation of brand advocacy.

14. How do you help them get leads?
From there, you need a CRM suite to work with – Steven really likes
close.io. Steven uses Jotform connected to close.io through Zapier. New
leads are manually added and meticulous notes are kept on each and
every lead.
Remember, the most basic high-level activity involved with sales is
identifying the most relevant and important person that can close the
sale. Teach your sales rep to identify leads and categorize them based
on who's most relevant to completing the sale.

15. To summarize:
1. Sales reps can bolster your brand, not just sales. This frees you up
for executive tasks in your business.
2. Sales are the first step of the production and manufacturing
process, so train your salespeople about your capabilities – have
them spend time on your floor.
3. Screen printing is challenging to sell. Only someone with dedication
and knowledge can sell screen printing well – so custom
merchandise is a great place to start.
4. Customer success is the key role of a new sales rep.
5. Lead through your actions and model great sales behavior.