AS HN: How do I build a sales team with little-to-no funding?

Let's call it what it is: it's a 1-person company that sells a $75 item. I understand how you might think you need a salesperson but I don't think that's feasible yet. Put yourself in a salesperson-who-is-looking-for-work's shoes:

* Here's a company that sells a $75 niche/boutique item

* They aren't offering a salary

* You will probably make $15 per board sold (20% of gross)

* You need $3000 per month to live and $6000 per month to thrive

* That means you need to sell between 200 and 400 boards per month

* They don't have any customer lists/base to offer you (which means you have to come up with your own customers)

* Founder has no history managing sales team or doing sales

* Founder isn't able to make a full-time living yet

Would you do it?

How about if you gave them a 50% commission? They still have a $3000 nut to contend with which means they'd have to sell 80 boards a month. Where are they going to sell 80 boards a month? Do you have any ideas for them? You have to sell them on being a salesperson for you - you need to have the vision first for the "How?" and then find people that buy into your vision.

I think that most founders in your position are going to be the salesperson, the designer, the builder, the stocker, the mail room guy, the IT guy, the programmer, the financial person, the biz dev guy, the marketing guy, etc. Build up sales, build up stock, and learn how to do it all. Nobody said it was easy.

Some other things to try:

1. List the parts needed to build X and sell them as a kit.

2. A/B test showing and hiding your stock levels

3. Get engaged (if your'e not) in websites and blogs with communities of people that buy this kind of stuff. You're likely to meet someone that may be interested in coming aboard on one of those sites.

4. If you get a decent-sized community of customers, hold a contest to build the best thing using your parts. Winner gets a prize of some sort and their parts-list/instructions featured. You reap the rewards from sales of components to compete. (This one may not be feasible if your user-base is small)

Try posting this on Quora (more business types) or a site like founder2be.com.

As somebody else said, the key is finding somebody who shares your vision, not just somebody who can sell.

You could also create an affiliate program and put it on a site like cj.com or clickbank.com who manage the affiliate relationship for a cut and send you lots of affiliates. Affiliates are basically the internet version of commission only sales reps.

Another option would be AdWords. If you can convert traffic that should be profitable. You can get longtail relevant keyword traffic for $0.05-$0.30/click if you bargain hunt+spend a lot of time w/ the keyword tool. Doesn't take a whole lot of signups/click to make that profitable at $75.

Good luck.