Q1. Is your company established or are you a startup?

Yes, our company is established, we have happy and solid client base and our products/services sell well in the marketplace

Excellent! Independent sales agents love to work with companies that have a proven track record of success. Being able to supply customer testimonials, case studies and proof of market will also inspire confidence in your new sales partners.

10 points if you answered yes

No, we are a startup and need sales agents to help take us to market

While independent sales professionals are willing to explore partnership opportunities with startups, you'll need to be able to demonstrate and prove that a solid market for your products or services exist. You'll also need to have strong USP's and be able to demonstrate what makes your company stand out from the competition.

Having absolutely no presence or customer awareness in the Market can be seen as a disadvantage over working with companies who already have a presence and customer base. Essentially it increases the effort to reward risk for the sales agent.

This is true for a number of reasons:

● They won't be able to provide testimonials or case studies

● They will be competing with other companies who spend on Marketing and Advertising and have consumer awareness

● They will be unsure of the potential market size or demand for your products/services

● Startups often fail

● They may be unsure whether your company will be able to fulfil orders and support the their clients

Here are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of attracting sales agents to work with you as a startup:

● Have an Advertising and Marketing strategy in-place and let the sales agent know you'll assist them by focusing a proportion of your spend within their territory. You'll find that sales agents are often very happy to help with Advertising and Marketing planning, strategy and implementation so this can work to your advantage also.

● Demonstrate your capability to fulfil orders and be open and honest about your capacity

● Demonstrate a solid understanding of your Market, Demographics and demand for products/services like yours.

● Above all else, you must demonstrate to the sales agent that they aren't going to run your business for you and that the success or failure of your company doesn't solely rely on their ability to bring in business.

0 points if you're a start-up without funding, strategy or go to market plans

5 points if you're a start-up with all of these things in place already

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Q2. Can You Achieve The Minimum Deal Values That Sales Agents Require?

Yes, our clients typically place orders whereby the value of the sale exceeds £5000 (or equivalent currency) per sale or alternatively will place repeat orders worth a minimum of £500 per month on a subscription or recurring basis

Great! We surveyed a large number of sales representatives on our database and asked them what the absolute minimum deal value a company must be able to achieve when selling their products or services. You meet those requirements.

10 points if you meet this criteria

No, our average sale values fall below either £5000 (or equivalent currency per sale or £500 per month on a subscription or recurring basis

Please note: The minimum sale value is not always your per-unit price. For example: If your company sells widgets at $0.30 per piece however, your clients typically place orders valued at $5000+ or re-orders of at least $500 on a regular basis then you do meet the minimum requirements stipulated by sales reps.

Minimum deal values are vitally important to self-employed sales agents who work on a commission-only basis and incur their own expenses while prospecting for business and developing their territory.

Ask yourself this question.

Would you spend time and money calling or travelling to meet prospects when the sale could also potentially take some time to close, only to be rewarded with an insignificantly small commission remuneration at the end?

0 points if you don't meet the minimum at all.

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Q3. Do You Understand How Self-Employed Salespeople Operate?

No, we're looking for free or cheap labour until we can afford an in-house salesperson or team

The single biggest mistake a company can make is failing to understand who self-employed sales professionals are, how they operate, why they chose to become self-employed and ultimately the benefits they can bring to your company above and beyond those of in-house employees.

Independent Sales Agents are your strategic partners

One of the most important benefits of working with independent strategic sales partners aside from the up front savings you'll make when compared to hiring, training and paying a regular wage to employees, is the fact that independent reps typically have networks of contacts they are already doing business with on a daily basis. This gives you a potentially very quick route to market for your products or services.

Reps can also work remotely and give you a presence in areas you're trying to establish a presence in.

They build portfolios

Freelance sales reps build portfolios of products and services that compliment each other and fit with the needs of their clients. Very rarely will your company be the only one that a rep focuses on however, by ensuring that your products or services make up a part of their portfolio, your company will be presented to multiple clients and sold up/cross sold more frequently as multiple opportunities for a sale arise.

For Example:

Imagine your company manufactures cleaning products for the automotive industry, and you connect with a sales agent that already supplies a non-competing product line into car dealerships and gas stations across the country, you can see how this would give your company instant access to a whole new customer base very quickly.

They Expect To Be Paid Recurring Commission For The Life Of The Client

By rule of thumb, independent sales reps who have invested time, money and potentially even introduced you to one of their existing contacts in order to bring your company new business, will expect to be paid a recurring commission for the life of the client. That applies to repeat orders placed, subscription based sales or up-selling opportunities.

0 points if you're looking for temporary, free or cheap labour

Yes, we understand the benefits of working with independent strategic sales partners and are either looking to run an external sales team alongside our in-house sales team or operate solely using independent strategic sales partners

Fantastic! You understand that self-employed sales reps should be treated as strategic partners and are not your employees. Your products or services will make up a part of their portfolio and they can potentially open doors much quicker utilising their existing networks than employees can. By operating on a commission-only basis, you'll also save money upfront on the costs associated when direct hiring, training and paying a regular wage to employees

10 points if you're looking for long-term strategic sales partnerships

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Q4. Do you sell Business to Business (B2B) or Direct to the consumer (B2C)?

Independent reps typically prefer to sell products or services to other businesses (B2B)

The reasons being:

A). The rewards are much higher when selling into companies who have greater buying power and higher budgets

B). Selling direct to the consumer is much harder, slower i.e. selling small products or services individually and yielding significantly smaller sales values

C). The scope for regular repeat business up or cross-selling is minimal

Note: The majority of CommissionCrowd's database is made up of B2B sales opportunities for the reasons mentioned above. If you're looking to sell direct to consumers then more often than not an affiliate marketing strategy or paid ads are a better channel solution.

10 points if you're looking to sell B2B

0 points if you're looking to sell B2C only

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Q5. The Length Of Your Sales Cycle

Many agents like to build a diversified portfolio. The modern self-employed sales representative is looking for a mix of short term "bread and butter" lines as well as potentially some mid/long term deals with slightly longer sales cycles but yield greater rewards when the deal closes.

If your products or services are extremely complex and have a very long sales cycle you may not attract as many agents to your opportunity initially. This isn't always a bad thing, as it will likely mean that the agents you do attract will be very well connected in your industry and be able to dedicate the time needed to nurture a relationship with the prospect for a longer period of time while still being able to sustain their existing business.

10 points if your sales cycle is typically less than 3 months

0 points if your sales cycle is 4 months or more

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Your score is :

0

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