Hi,

I've been struggling to get a sales professional. I had two who showed up, did the training and then left without ever getting a single appointment. They seemed more interested in training me to do sales than actually doing sales. I found them on LinkedIn. They were both older and I value experience but not inaction.

I then tried Fiverr however I've only gotten responses from blatant bots. So: no.

I've looked at other Reddit pages and they are hostile to competent businessman like me because people don't take any time to make distinctions between there are so many scammers.

I build websites and platforms and every website has increased verified human traffic from between 220-380% with an example client getting 318%. I only deal with real numbers, do all of the code (no outsourcing in development means not using frameworks and libraries). I have clients who went from solo to hiring three people in 36 months. I do not want to work with independent contractors for my clients, they tend to be ingrates, so I want to work with S2M sized businesses where people are actually paying attention though the starting process of sales is the most difficult part.

I reviewed my offering which is a baseline of 20% with opportunity to go up to 25% on $2K-50K sales. Then with additional execution bonuses such as 10% of all revenue generated from any business partnership for a full year. No equity nonsense, month-to-month contract to be able to quickly pivot, business-to-business. I've seen other people make offers of 2-4% sales commission so I don't believe my offer is middling-to-low. I won't do wage/salary because I'm not paying lazy slackers and I'm contractually obligated myself to pay within minutes of confirming my lead paid and became a client. I figure once I get someone who is actually competent and executes that it should be fairly easy to keep them happy because I do not want to repeat this entire process over again.

So if what I'm offering is a least above average then am I simply looking in the wrong places? Am I simply having terrible luck? I'm grateful for any constructive/insightful responses, thank you in advance.

I went on Fiverr to find a commission based sales professional. I'm concerned I've been messaging bots after I kept seeing: "I speak the following 217 languages fluently: ..." and *** all *** of them live in the UK?🤨︀ *English accent* I hope they're not all rubbish bots for that would be a travesty!

Someone in another thread said real people won't ask for your email address though I'm messaging people trying to find my rock star sales professional.

Hiring people on Fiverr is a new experience for me and I know most platforms have problems with bots. I'd be grateful for any constructive/helpful input about being able to find legitimate people to work with. For me, at this moment, would be a commission based sales professional. Thank you in advance for helpful responses!

I keep seeing people get screwed on contracts. I used to hate them but I just kept refining them and now I've got nine standardized contracts with years of experience behind them.

What real problems have people had that "oh, all you need to do..." explanation would make someone's life much easier? Thank you in advance to constructive and thoughtful replies!

I'm interested in legitimate digital marketing podcasts. However I absolutely hate hype and BS. I keep coming across the same blind copy-paste BS and it's basically gotten to this point:

"This banana is AI powered!"

No. There is fine software out there, I don't disagree with that. But use the correct terms. It's called machine learning, large language models, image generation but we're at least five decades away from an actual AI the way things are going.

So, for the people with integrity who'd rather flip the AI bus on it's side then sell out, please suggest digital marketing podcasts that focus on results and interviewing people with experience. Thank you in advance to those awesome people making a legitimate effort!

I've spent years building a business platform focused on helping businesses grow through better organization, market reach and operational decisions. For example, one small business grew from 1 to 4 employees after increasing website traffic by 318% through my platform and strategy. I help businesses reach thousands of people they otherwise would not reach and provide consolidated analytics businesses can use confidently.

My messaging focuses on business growth and sales outcomes rather than technical details. I've connected with CMOs, COOs, CBDOs, owners, presidents, etc. I've been posting daily using business and sales related hashtags. I've also used an LLM to help refine wording and improve clarity.

I consistently create articles, videos and visual content to build credibility and increase awareness. I also recognize that trust and buyer hesitation affect sales so I've adjusted my messaging accordingly. Many businesses seem hesitant to act even when growth opportunities are clear.

I'm focused mostly on LinkedIn and a little on Facebook. X has been difficult to gain traction on. I also post on Instagram. I previously tried Nextdoor but its audience is not business-focused.

They say, replicate what works but my main challenge is turning attention into serious business conversations. I have over 500 LinkedIn connections. I recently started reaching out to people directly. I did have a business owner reach out yesterday but he's looking for bids and I'm concerned the prospect may evaluate providers primarily on price rather than measurable outcomes.

I had two salesmen who I trained and neither of them got me a single appointment. One salesman encouraged cold calling but I determined the chance of reaching an owner directly was exceptionally low. Social media has produced significantly more exposure and engagement for me than cold outreach. I also found cold outreach highly inefficient and difficult to scale.

My Main Question

What am I failing to communicate that causes hesitation despite measurable results?

I know I can’t be the only business owner producing measurable results while struggling to gain traction. Even measurable results have not generated much interest yet despite building rapport and focusing heavily on business outcomes.

How do you identify businesses that are genuinely prepared to invest in measurable growth?

I figured business development and owners were probably the best titles to connect with on LinkedIn based on my research. I also approached fractional C-suite executives because one relationship could potentially connect me with dozens of businesses.

For anyone who went from invisible to successful, what helped you finally break through?

I've had a few people invite me to Alignable and it's one of the websites I started posting to each day. That being said, I've noticed a few things. I would love it if someone would constructively point out what I'm missing but here is my current take-away from Alignable:

• Tiny thumbnails from website meta images or directly loaded images unless premium.
• Hash #tags don't link.
• Two invitations per month!
• I'd call skeleton "fat" for the feed I've got on there.

I agree - you get out what you put in to something though it seems Alignable, while attempting to compete with LinkedIn - doesn't want people to grow with free accounts.

Am I missing something here? Should I keep posting to Alignable or have I come to a conclusion generally shared by most other people? Thank you in advance to people who leave constructive replies.

My current host's (hosting (dot) com) technical and migration teams have failed for the last time. I need * American * technical support or at least support in non-business hours from countries that are appropriate to be providing technical support!

What I need:

• VPS, currently paying $70 a month, reasonably flexible.
• Bandwidth monthly bottom double-digits.
• Typically 2-5 hours a year of call time with my current/previous hosts but when I do talk with a host competence is exceptionally important.
• American Physically located, Owned and Supported!
• I host custom software on a LAMP server.
• Managed + I need root user access, non-negotiable.
• TLS Let's Encrypt for most of my users.
• 100GB looks standard, something in the general "area" is fine.
• Bandwidth usage is low double-GB-digits so I'm not concerned there, I'm not a file host.
• Apache
• SFTP
• PHP
• MariaDB (not MySQL)
• Non-SATA SSD RAID for storage.
• Working chat for sales and support without having to sign in.
• Respectable response time (2-10 minutes, subjective to time of day) when chatting or calling.
• No fake "AI" services.

Before hosting (dot) com got as bad as it is now I had a lot of respect for their tech team years ago. I learned a lot and am very modestly capable of managing my root access VPS that is still fully managed because a 4 / 10 on skills on something is still not going to solve all my problems.

I run an all-American business and I haven't outsourced, I want to support other American businesses that pride themselves on quality of service and support.

I will be verifying who answers at 11AM, 3PM, 11PM and 3AM because I don't trust and I always verify. Thank you in advance for all constructive and thoughtful suggestions below (no direct messages). If you disagree for any reason please do so with respect. Also, I will still check out services recommended via email if your comments get burned by Reddit, I get it.

I started watching 'The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat' and really enjoy it's dense story telling.

• Forward movement, not wasting time on back-story.
• Dense story-telling, zero filler or even "slow" parts, dense doesn't mean short.
• Characters work to grow strong, no one is drowning in a pool of tears.
• Mature characters focused on goals, not aloof.
• Creative (in this case, magical world of sorts) instead of typical high school.

I'm looking for more shows with this general format. This show is very non-typical and I'm really enjoying it in large part for that. Also zero back-story and just focusing on forward momentum is wildly refreshing after a couple recent series I dropped. When I say mature I don't mean dark, I mean the characters are mostly well developed, no one-dimensional throw-aways. Oh, suggestions don't have to be about assassination or a perfect/near 1:1 like-for-like. I just want some decent shows.

Thank you in advance for constructive and insightful suggestions.

Extreme over-correction is getting very tiring. Yes, I acknowledge that before adblockers having videos automatically blast audio was as obnoxious as much as all-white blinding background websites.

The new problem, because of over-correction, is that now I have to intentionally unmute and increase the volume of videos that I do need or want to watch every - single - time!

Now I'm a developer and I've gone through the browser permissions of Waterfox (Firefox), Vivaldi (Chrome). Firefox doesn't even have an audio option, lame! Chrome does however setting it to allow and reloading an Instagram page does not unmute the video, lame!

Having to unmute a video every-single-time requires several more clicks and detracts me from getting my work done.

So is there an extension that will slap a website in the face, unmute a video element and spare me this pointless hassle? My gratitude in advance for constructive/helpful replies.