New sales hire goals

At least 20 calls per day.  For a new hire, the challenge will be to keep them from getting discouraged in the first six months and leaving for work elsewhere.  The first three months the rep will produce little sales and hopefully bring in 6-8 new accounts over that time.  You will need to keep a good database of the info that person collects.

You will get many ideas here from P4P'ers.

Will the newbie have sales experience? 

If not I would make them do at least 20 calls in the field everyday.  If they run across something that is hot, then you step in to make the presentation/recommendation to the client. 

• No phone calls for at least a month
• Incentive for finding a prospect that is interested in buying now $25-$45
• Bonus of $25-$45 for cold calling more than 25 in a day. Keep in mind that you want them to cold call quality accounts. Personally, I would spend a couple of hours per week and give them the list of accounts you want to them to cold call
• Incentive them for excellent prospecting, if a cold call turns into a sale, then throw them what you think is right.
• Check their results daily by viewing business cards that they have gathered (or envelopes with the companies name on it), I would also go as far as giving them a company phone, so you can track where they are.
• Above all stay on top of what they are doing on a daily basis.

Great advice.

I was thinking about setting a goal of 30 cold calls a day. I really hope I can keep him interested long enough to start making some good money.  He is new to sales, but so far seems very motivated.

I don't like daily goals at all unless they are just pie-in-the-sky...see-what-you-can-do goals which are largely worthless because every excuse to not make it becomes valid. I had to do a proposal, I had a demo, i had to pick up my laundry, whatever. I believe a goal should be weekly and minimum acceptible such as 100/week. A number that is easy enough to attain that there is no valid excuse for EVER missing it. No excuse for not reaching your 100, not even a four day work week due to holiday. 100/week should be so important that a flat tire late on Friday makes you leave your car and make calls to fulflill your 100 obligation before going back to change the tire.You miss lunch or work on Saturday if you have to to reach your 100. That kind of important. Everything else will take care of itself.

I agree with Old Glory that a weekly target should be set instead of a daily target.  I don't believe, however, that cold calling in the field should be the sole means of prospecting if you want to get the rep ramped up quickly.  At a certain point, he will need to follow-up via phone and email based on the data that he captures in the field, so time and activity targets need to be setup for these as well.  

Something you could also do that would be huge for him is to sign up for a service that provides UCC filing data that can allow him to know when leases began on competitive equipment that has been installed in his territory.  Using that, he can make more of a warm call to businesses about how things are with their current vendor & schedule contacts based on the assumption that leases were signed for 36 months.  Some leasing companies also have tools that can be used at little to no cost and provide company information such as executive-level contacts and contact information (including direct #'s and email addresses) to allow him to understand the businesses he is contacting.  

Lastly, take a look at your existing client base to understand what size companies in particular vertical markets you have the greatest chance of success in, & have him make gaining entry into similar businesses a priority.  Educate him on WHY you have experienced success in these client accounts as well as the business value that your company means to them.  This will help him develop a solid talk track & give him a focused approach that he can yield better results than a shotgun approach. 

This is really great advice! Thank you so much.

awesome info!!

I would challenge a new sales rep to get net new sales without doing a single cold call. Everything to be done via referrals, networking and advertising.

The New Rep should make at a minimum 15-20 Cold Calls per day.  However with that said if after the 15-20 Cold Calls he has not gotten a good Lead then he has to keep going.  Ultimately his success and your Businesses success depends on filling a Pipeline and filling it with good quality info.  Remember that you're the new guy (Business) in town others have already built relationships.  People buy on relationships.  Have your new Rep discover pain that the Customer may be experiencing. i.e. ask about response times, downtime, quality of service.  He needs to ask lots of good questions in an effort to gather info to fill your Data Base. i.e. Make & Model, Leased or Owned, Annual MA or CPC (MA Inclusive) type of Lease this helps for future follow up. 

Any former Sales Rep can tell you there are some cold Calls he will be in and out of the Office in under 5 minutes then there are some that take a little time so figuring 5-6 Cold Calls and hour is not unreasonable.  Have the Call info entered daily.  There are ways to keep the Rep interested. i.e. incentives!!! as Art put Bonuses for additional calls, added incentives to hit basic Quota's.

You must also understand that the Sales Cycle is between 6-12 months so don't expect miracles to happen within the first 6 months.  If you're using a Sales Program (Compass / Sherpa) this really helps with Notes, Creating Activities, Follow Up, Proposal Generation then there is EDA Data this is a UCC provider this too helps for Equipment coming off Lease or New Leases.

Moving into a New area you will need competitive resources...