A commission-only sales job isn’t a job. It’s a dare.

"We're hiring 1099 sales reps. Commission only. Uncapped."

Read that from the rep's side. You're asking someone to work full time for you, for free, until they figure out your product, your market and your objections on their own. Then, if they survive, you'll pay them.

Who says yes to that?

Not the rep with a track record. She has three offers with a base. Not the rep with a family. He can't run a mortgage on a maybe. The people who say yes are the people who have no other option, and you're about to build your revenue on them.

What commission-only actually tells a candidate

It tells them you don't believe your own product sells. If it did, you'd happily pay $4,000 a month to have someone selling it. It tells them there's no training, because you can't train someone you're not paying. And it tells them nobody is managing the pipeline, because a manager costs money and you've made it clear money is the one thing you won't spend.

Good reps read all of that in the first line of the post. They don't apply. You never see them, so you never learn what you're missing.

"But I can't afford a base"

Then you can't afford a salesperson yet, and that's fine. Sell it yourself a little longer, get the pitch working, get five customers who'll take a reference call. Then hire.

What you can't do is skip the step by making a stranger pay for it with their own rent money. That's not a hiring strategy. That's hoping someone desperate turns out to be great.

The version that works

A modest base that covers rent. A payment for the activity that leads to revenue, like a meeting held. A real percentage of what closes, uncapped. And a manager who looks at the numbers every day.

It costs more in month one. It's the only version that's still running in month twelve.