how to work with self-employed sales agents
DESCRIPTION
How to grow your business by utilising professional self-employed sales reps, independent sales reps, commission-only sales agents who are looking for job opportunities to add to their professional self employed sales portfolio. Learn how to work with this type of sales professional, how they think, what they expect from a job opportunity as well as how to properly structure your opportunity so that it is appealing when you are looking to build your outsourced sales team.TRANSCRIPT
CommissionCrowd
By
Laura McGregor, CommissionCrowd Co-Founder
Example Industries
Example Companies
Business
Services
Consumer
Goods
Financial
Services
Health
Care
High
Tech
Manufacturing
Fact: Over 35% of Fortune 500 companies will utilise at least some outsourced sales in their businesses between now and 2015.
Industries & Companies that work with self employed sales agents
Benefits of working with self employed sales agents
• Reduced up front costs and risk associated with taking on new paid employees
• Being able to utilise sales professionals that have pre-existing contacts based on years of experience within a particular industry(s)
• Not reliant on local talent. Expanding your search can lead you to truly great sales people
• Enter new markets with the help of agents who already understand key players, culture, issues, competitors and opportunities
• Professional self employed sales agents usually share the same business objectives as the companies they have working relationships with.
- Bob Alesio, Director of Sales and Marketing at AMCI -
www.commissioncrowd.com
What is a self-employed sales agent A self-employed sales agent is not
• Someone so desperate for work they forego a wage
• Someone that will represent a company with poor products/services
• Willing to work for low levels of commission
• Looking for short term/get rich quickpartnerships
• Is NOT an employee
• Entrepreneurs that choose to work
for themselves
• Have vast sales experience and an existing
database of industry specific contacts
• Looks for product/service lines that
compliment their existing client base
• Wants to break away from the constraints
of employment
• Has drive, ambition and focus
• Aims to build a portfolio of companies they
work with
Keith Crispin, Self-employed sales agent for 30 years
Rob Leslie,Self-Employed sales agent for 20 years
www.commissioncrowd.com
Top 10 Factors Sales Agents Consider When Deciding Which Self-Employed Sales Job Opportunity To Take On
www.commissioncrowd.com
CommissionCrowd surveyed a number of professional Self-employed
sales agents and independent sales reps on our database and asked
agents to rank the factors (excluding product/service type) they
consider most important when deciding whether to work with a
company principal or not.
www.commissioncrowd.com
The following 10 points will help you think in the same way
a professional independent sales rep thinks, and will help you
to better understand how to structure your company’s opportunity
within your CommissionCrowd company profile.
www.commissioncrowd.com
1. Honesty & Integrity
2. Communication
3. Management Attitude
4. Reputation
5. Commission Structure & Offering
6. Attitude Towards Sales Reps
7. Marketing & Samples
8. Professionalism
9. Payment
10.Customer Service
Note: It’s strange that commission structure only makes number 5 on the list don’t you think?
There is much more to this list than meets the eye! Watch our free recorded webinar
here and learn how to think like a commission-only sales agent
Watch Nowwww.commissioncrowd.com
Getting your commission structure right is essential! You can have the best product or service in the
world but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
In order to attract the best self employed sales agents and stand a chance of growing your business,
you must be willing to compensate your agents adequately.
Residual Commission Structure
Probably the most effective commission structure is the residual commission model. This is when your
sales agents are paid a percentage of any repeat orders that come around due to initial business which
has been closed by your agent. This is also the case if your services are billed to the client monthly.
There are three reasons why this structure works well:
1. Your self employed sales agents will work very hard to close new business and add to their existing
commissions. Their earnings have the potential to grow rapidly and it acts as a guaranteed income
after a while.
2. Your sales agents will be more willing to manage their own accounts as they will want to keep their
commissions coming in for a long time. This frees up more time for managers to concentrate on
other areas of the business.
3. You stay top of mind (so long as they also like to work with you)
Thinking About Your Commission Structure
www.commissioncrowd.com
Current Industry Challenges
www.commissioncrowd.com
There is a lack of understanding
Fragmented Industry Expensive and not targeted enough
Uncertainty around sales agent/company
track records
Connecting
www.commissioncrowd.com
Existing technology is obsolete or fragmented
Remote working relationships are
complex
Unsure of pipeline status. Losing leads
No oversight on schedule, activity,
training
Managing
www.commissioncrowd.com
Company Information slow to distribute and share
Difficult to share learning across all
sales agents
Difficult and timely to share feedback from customers
Control over access permissions and
shared documents
Collaboration
www.commissioncrowd.com
Multiple reports in various formats are time
consuming
Bad first impressions lead to bad relationships
Slow sales due to endless reporting and other tasks
that take away from selling
Poor management stunts growth
INCREASING SALES
Knowledge, Trust &
Communication
Financial risk & pressure
Managing multiple
lines/companies
Need to spend more time
selling and less time reporting
Commission payments slow, reconciliation
difficult
Top Sales Agent Challenges
www.commissioncrowd.com
Who Are ?
CommissionCrowd is a revolutionary global platform for self-employed sales agents and
companies that enables you to connect, manage your relationships and work more efficiently to grow your business
www.commissioncrowd.com
Laura McGregor
Co-FounderProduct Development,
Visionary/Architect, Project
Manager, Marketer
Ryan Mattock
Co-FounderProduct Development,
Customer Support,
Marketer, Growth Hacker
Alistair Robinson
Co-FounderLead Developer, Sys admin,
Toolsmith, Designer
We are on a mission to change the way that companies manage remote sales teams and salespeople build their independent careers.
Our cutting-edge online sales platform enables greater connections, task management, and overall productivity for everyone. It effectively eliminates the wasted time and resources that usually accompany remote working relationships. The networking and portfolio-building features of CommissionCrowd neutralize the risk of partnering with freelance sales agents without any guarantee in their ability to perform. Using CommissionCrowd means that the best self-starters are also able to take their careers into their own hands better than ever before.
Founders
The Solution
Connect – Attract the best, expand and grow
your business
Manage – Save time, resource & money
Collaborate - Eradicateconfusion, save time &
sanity
Sell More - Better processes, opportunities
& relationships
View Sales Agent
Features
View Company
Features
www.commissioncrowd.com
Contact Us
Laura McGregor
Email:
Phone: 0131 618 2300
Ryan Mattock
Email: [email protected]
Alistair Robinson
Email:
www.commissioncrowd.com “The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!”
- Marvin Phillips