TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: Sales for a small web consultancy: am I too small to hire a salesperson?

1 pointsby josh_nycalmost 11 years ago
I run a small, &quot;boutique&quot; web consultancy under my own name. Thus far I&#x27;ve done my own sales and project management. I&#x27;m a back-end developer and sub out my design and front-end. I&#x27;ve finally hit my new year&#x27;s resolution of delegating more: I&#x27;m now subbing out most of my back-end dev as well, leaving me to focus on client relations and management. My subs are all remote folks I&#x27;ve coded in the trenches with and trust. My customers are all word-of-mouth and view me as a &quot;developer + team&quot; rather than a Brand, LLC type of firm. I follow the (somewhat risky) model of One Large Client + Several Smaller Clients, and cashflow is usually decent.<p>The sales cycle in my business can be lengthy -- a few weeks of courting followed by a few weeks of estimation, proposals, and contracts. I typically receive leads from my contacts and do the rest myself, but I want to delegate this process as well if possible.<p>Question: how can I leverage a commission-only tech-knowledgable sales-person in this situation?<p>Challenges are:<p>a) I can only take so many clients at once (until I scale up operations), so I definitely won&#x27;t be this salesperson&#x27;s only source of work.<p>b) Beyond procuring the lead and getting the customer excited about the business solutions we can provide, it seems that the bulk of the sales cycle (the in-depth proposals, etc.) is out of scope for most salespeople.<p>Is the occasional mid-4-figures (USD) commission enough to attract a salesperson who can do more than just get me leads? One who can go deeper with potential clients before I have to jump in?<p>Advice and feedback welcome, as I&#x27;m sure I may be overlooking some possibilities here.

no comments

no comments