I used to think sales was a yucky thing that men in suits with slicked back hair did. Really, every time sales came up I’d fight the urge to gag, but would then go on to do exactly that. Sales. Getting people using our platform, educating our users and the public, and gently bringing our view of the world and their view of the world together.

Sales can be genuine, sales can help people, and sales doesn’t need to make anyone feel used (or abused). And, you don’t need to call salespeople ninjas.

(We promise you don't have to look like this. Photo cred: Ryan McGuire)

The thing that really got me thinking differently about sales, was this article about Adam Grant’s study on salespeople. In the study, Adam Grant shows that extroverts don’t come out ahead in sales, ambiverts do. You have to be equal parts talker and listener, to really solve the problems of your customers. Adam also wrote two of my favourite books of all times (Give and Take, and the Originals) so I listen when he blogs. Which made me realise what I thought I knew about sales was probably wrong. 

In the last few months, we’ve realised that while we were doing sales pretty well on our own, we needed someone to come into the team to own (and drive) the whole sales process. So we’ve been tweaking our thinking on how this could work, and what you’ll find below is our plan. The role will be part salary / part commission based. How much you make is really up to you, but here’s the main points:

• $40,000 base salary
• $100 for every CrowdfundingU paid for
• $900 for every launched equity or lending campaign
• 0.5% of the total amount raised by a campaign
• 20% sales bonus (of your base salary) if you make your sales target in the first year.

Are you interested in working with us? Read the job description below, and then send me an email by 5pm Friday 30 September with:

• your take on how crowdfunding will change the world,
• why you’d like to work with us and
• a bit more about your approach (and success) in sales.

We’ll be setting up interviews for the first week of October, and hope to have someone on board from early November (if not sooner!).

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PledgeMe Sales Manager

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Role: Sales Manager (though: you can set your own title)

Location: Auckland

Rate: $40,000 base salary + commission

PledgeMe is a New Zealand focussed crowdfunding platform, that launched in 2012 and offers project, equity and lending based crowdfunding.

What we do

Crowdfunding is as simple as it sounds, you go out for funding. You set a specific goal, a deadline, and offer your crowd something in return for their pledges. We have three types of crowdfunding: project, equity and lending. Project campaigns offer rewards, equity campaigns offer shares in a company, and lending campaigns offer loan notes from companies or organisations. Campaigns need to meet their goal by their deadline to be processed, this pushes the campaigner to share and their crowd to pledge (or it doesn’t happen).

Mission

To help Kiwis fund the things they care about.

What it means to be our Sales Manager

PledgeMe has a great market reputation and attracts a regular stream of Equity (and increasingly, Lend) leads, but dedicated resource is needed to convert those leads into committed campaigns. Our Sales Manager is responsible for nurturing Equity and Lend leads so we have more campaigns launch and succeed, ultimately growing PledgeMe and helping more kiwis fund the things they care about. 

Part of the nurture process is signing leads up to participate in CrowdfundingU. CrowdfundingU is an important revenue stream and organisations that participate in CrowdfundingU are more likely to run successful campaigns.

From CrowdfundingU we need leads to make a contractual commitment to campaign with PledgeMe. But we also want to maintain our 50% campaign success rate. We’re looking for quantity and quality.

To achieve PledgeMe’s objectives, our Sales Manager will:

• Generate leads alongside our Chief Bubble Blower, Rad Debtor, Board and PledgeMe Friends.
• Work with our Chief Bubble Blower to prioritise leads based on likelihood to commit and run a successful campaign
• Create design collateral with our in house designer
• Nurture leads through the sales process, including selling in CrowdfundingU as a critical step to becoming campaign ready
• Engage the Chief Bubble Blower and Rad Debtor when needed to provide expert guidance to businesses through the sales process
• Identify barriers to organisations committing to campaign and work with the lead and Chief Bubble Blower to find innovative solutions to help close the deal
• Secure commitment from leads to campaign with PledgeMe
• Ensure businesses that commit to campaigning with PledgeMe complete all of the necessary contractual documentation
• Identify improvements in the sales process to enable more businesses to commit to campaigning with PledgeMe.

What you’ll need in your hipster tote bag

To be successful as PledgeMe Sales Manager you will need:

• Enthusiasm for crowdfunding and be able to communicate what crowdfunding has to offer effectively to leads
• Superb people skills – ability to nurture leads through the sales process (rather than hard sell them!) but still drive outcomes
• Broad understanding of and interest in businesses of all shapes and sizes, including business financing
• Ability to close a deal.
• To back yourself! Your remuneration is tiered based on a successful sale and campaign so you’ve got to be confident you can do the job!

How we’ll pay you

Our Sales Manager will receive a base salary of $40,000 plus sales commission structured as follows:

And if your sales targets of $6 million for the year are met, you’ll get a 20% (of base salary) bonus too.

One more thing…

We hold our values pretty close to heart in the office, and they are:

1. Support transparency and trust
2. He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
3. Be seriously fun(ding) humans
4. Do good and do well
5. Be constantly evolving

We want someone to come into the team who resonates with those values, but brings their own perspectives and skill sets. We don’t all need to think or act the same way, but we all need to be care and pushing towards the common mission of helping Kiwis fund the things they care about.