Hiring a van salesman: what to look for, and the first week of training

A good van salesman is the face of your business to every shop he visits. He handles your stock, your cash and your credit, often alone. A bad hire costs more than his salary: it costs shops, money and months of cleaning up.

What to look for

1. Honesty and reliability. Call his last employer. Ask one question: “Would you hire him again?” Listen to how fast they answer.
2. Comfortable with shop owners. He will ask busy people for orders and money every day. Watch how he talks to you in the interview.
3. Basic maths. Give him a small test: a bill of a few lines, a discount, the change from ₹2,000.
4. Knows the area. Local knowledge saves weeks of learning routes and shops.
5. Can use a smartphone. WhatsApp, calls, and a simple billing app. Ask him to show you something on his own phone.
6. Has a licence, if he will drive the van himself.

Experience in FMCG helps, but it is not everything. A person who learned bad habits elsewhere can be harder to train than an honest beginner.

The first week

• Days 1 and 2: ride along. He travels with your best salesman on a real beat. He watches how orders are taken, how money is asked for, and how the van is closed at night.
• Days 3 and 4: he sells, the senior watches. Same beat. The senior only steps in when something goes wrong, and explains it after the shop, not in front of the owner.
• Day 5 onwards: a small beat of his own. Start with friendly shops and a short route. Grow the beat over the next few weeks.

Teach the money rules on day one

Before he collects a single rupee, he should know:

• Every payment is written against a specific bill.
• Every shop gets a receipt, every time.
• Cash and UPI are counted separately.
• Expenses from collections need a slip, within a limit you set.
• Cash and van stock are settled every evening before he goes home.
• No credit beyond the shop’s limit without the owner’s approval.

Clear rules protect an honest salesman as much as they protect you. See salesman cash shortage for the daily routine.

The first month: what to check

• Is he visiting all the shops on his beat?
• Does his cash match every evening?
• Is credit on his beat growing faster than collections?
• What do two or three shop owners say about him?

A simple daily report makes this a five-minute job. See the salesman daily report format.

When a salesman leaves

This is when money goes missing, so do it carefully:

1. Settle his cash and the stock on his van.
2. Get the balance of every shop on his beat confirmed, by phone or in person.
3. Collect anything he holds: receipt books, cash bag, phone if it is yours.
4. Ride the beat with the new salesman and introduce him to every shop owner.

Shops that owed money to the old salesman will sometimes say “I already paid him”. Bill-by-bill receipts are what settle that.

How Mulberry Sales helps

The salesman app runs on Android 6 or newer, so a new man can use the phone he already has. The screens are in English, and we train your salesmen at your godown. One login works on one phone at a time, so a login cannot be quietly shared between two phones. His day starts and ends with a clock-in and clock-out (Starter plan and up), each weekday has its own shop list, and a bill that would cross a shop’s credit limit is refused on the phone, so a new salesman cannot overextend credit by mistake. See van sales software.

Questions people ask