Commission only rates?

[ia2o]

Hi,

I'm looking to advertise for some freelance sales agents on AgentBase, as I understand it these people will have a list of clients to which they sell commission based products to so have good in-roads into specific sectors.

Now, my product is a pay monthly subscription, so how would you pay commission? An upfront payment? Or an ongoing percentage for the lifetime of the subscription? Or would you pay a higher rate of commission for the first 6 months, then a smaller amount for rest of the subscription?

I appreciate that to get good agents, I'll need to pay good rates, however I have no idea what that would be!?

Many thanks,
Mark

 

[jdluckhurst]

My business also works on a monthly subscription, so for what it is worth I have always offered sales people a certain percentage of the fee for the first 4 months. to give you an idea most clients are with me for 9+ months. Offering them commission for the lifetime of the subscription is definitely attractive to them, but could severely hamper your own figures. I also think the percentage will have to discretionary depending on your margins.

A one off fee is also attractive to a lot of people although again this depends on your cash flow.

 

[ia2o]

Thanks for the info.

I hope my clients will be with me for quite a number of years, so a lifetime commission would be a problem for me, however if it attracts quality agents and gets more sales then that's ultimately the better thing.

On this basis, if they were to receive a lifetime commission could you expect them to maintain the relationship as well?

I could probably stomach the one off fee, again if it would garner quality agents... At the moment, I'd rather attract decent agents and get solid clients as there's a bit of hand holding required for the first few months.

 

[HazelC]

I am looking at the same thing, I had not heard of AgentBase but will be looking into this.

I charge one off or monthly fees (dependant if client wants one blog post or regular blog posts). I was considering a small payment on one-off posts and then a set amount a month for three months if they go monthly.

Sorry to hijack your post but any thoughts on that?

 

[ia2o]

Reading around, you need to think that they need to be rewarded realistically... So if it's an ongoing writing assignment per month, then would the agent feel that only 3 months payments isn't fair given it's "their" client?

Interesting, speaking with AgentBase yesterday, you simply advertise with them, then the freelance agents contact you directly - as they're self employed like us, it's then a process of negotiation. So if they liked what you could offer, and had 50 clients they could sell to immediately, they can ask for higher commission on that basis.

Also, the chap at AgentBase said some do prefer bigger one off payments, so it could be you'll need to lose a couple of months income per sale if it's ongoing!

Hope that helps a bit, and I'll keep this thread updated with how I get on.

 

[DexSmart]

Usually high commissions attracts people. Though many times business got down, because of this fact, so i suggest not doing it. Also, think that you need to have sales in order to support all the big commissions!

 

[patientlady]

Hi pure cygnet
May I ask what you charge for your annual subscription? How many do you sell per week?
There are a lot of aspects to this that you need to consider
Will they have a territory or is it a scatter gun approach. Can the sale be made on the day or is it something they need to consider? Can they sign up online, In other words will the sales person still get the commission if they do?
As a guide I would think 50% of 1st years subscription if a one off payment and therein possibly 10% of sub to keep the cancellation rate lower. Hope this helps p/l

 

[ia2o]

Hi PatientLady,

It's a monthly subscription for a fully managed, cloud based, paperless system. Currently it's targeting (and setup for) Mental Health Care and Respite care. The cost depends on the number of users, but will be from £150 per month to £400 per month. That's with everything taken care of, servers, upgrades, all the programming and development that's gone into the system, along with nightly backups and support.

The system could be used for any business but I'm trying not to spread too thin!

Currently I only have two clients, happily using the system but as I'm development I'm struggling to get the time to sell it. I'd happily pay those commission rates if the agent maintained a good relationship.

Cancellation shouldn't be too much of a problem, as the system is to move a lot of their paperwork online, and so far the two clients are more than happy to keep going as it saves them a lot of time and effort. Also, once someone has been using it for a while, like any system migration, it would be significant effort.

However, if the agent would do basic support and client relations then I'd be happy to continue to pay an on-going commission.

Does that make sense? Sound reasonable?

 

[patientlady]

Sounds like a cool product. What immediately strikes me is, can you fund a salesperson six months commission up front. It might be worth you setting some time aside to sell this yourself so that you have more reference accounts for a sales agent. It does seem pretty specialist area and not a quick sell? Maybe ask yourself how long it took you to get your two clients, it would be the same for someone else. Salepeople are renowned as not good account managers, once signed move on! p/l

 

[Paul Brooke]

You have to be careful with Agentbase in my opinion. There are ads that you can reply to directly just by going on the advertisers website and getting the phone number of the company. However, on many occasions there are many ads on there with no company name and you have to apply direct via Agentbase. Now when doing this is does not allow you to ask more questions that could be relevant to the role nor anyway to express your experience. All they wish to know is are you in the market and what areas do you cover. All in all I find it a complete waste of time for both advertiser and applicant. And please don't start me off on the price ............

 

[ia2o]

Sounds like a cool product. What immediately strikes me is, can you fund a salesperson six months commission up front. It might be worth you setting some time aside to sell this yourself so that you have more reference accounts for a sales agent. It does seem pretty specialist area and not a quick sell? Maybe ask yourself how long it took you to get your two clients, it would be the same for someone else. Salepeople are renowned as not good account managers, once signed move on! p/l

Thanks, it's taken quite some time to get up and running! I could suffer paying 6 months up front for a solid sale, I guess some kind of claw back clause should they cancel within that time?

The trouble is, I'm not much of a sale person, however when it comes to technology and data, I'm your man! Hence being able to create the product I've consulted with an ex-CQC inspector as well, to make sure everything lines up with what they would expect to see so it's pretty solid from that angle. My two sales did take a long time, as the problem was trying to get to the decision makers, once there it was OK but my hope would be the agents would already have these contact? Wishful thinking but I guess that's the advantage of commission only?

Good tip about them not being good account managers, if that's the case more than happy to pay a single decent commission and be done with it, but I guess that leads onto Paul's reply.

I'll make sure my advert has my contact details directly, as that's what I was told about AgentBase and it's what I'd want, as it's a smaller business (at the moment) I'd want to have a good working relationship with the agent in question.

Paul, is there anywhere else like Agent Base or is that the defacto source?

 

[HazelC]

Reading around, you need to think that they need to be rewarded realistically... So if it's an ongoing writing assignment per month, then would the agent feel that only 3 months payments isn't fair given it's "their" client?

Interesting, speaking with AgentBase yesterday, you simply advertise with them, then the freelance agents contact you directly - as they're self employed like us, it's then a process of negotiation. So if they liked what you could offer, and had 50 clients they could sell to immediately, they can ask for higher commission on that basis.

Also, the chap at AgentBase said some do prefer bigger one off payments, so it could be you'll need to lose a couple of months income per sale if it's ongoing!

Hope that helps a bit, and I'll keep this thread updated with how I get on.

Thanks very much - very interesting!!!!

 

[telemax]

Currently I only have two clients, happily using the system but as I'm development I'm struggling to get the time to sell it.

Hello,

Firstly it does sound like a great system, and ongoing commission is always very attractive.

However, you're really going to struggle finding anyone who committing to a product with only 2 customers. Who would risk it? Is it even fair to ask anyone to take that risk? Do you have any evidence of a pipeline with 10 or 20 more people interested in the product? As a salesperson that's what I'd be looking at. No pipeline = 3 months of me not eating.

You struggling to get time to sell the product is a terrible excuse, I don't understand, what's pressingly more important than selling your product?

You need to sell it yourself, when you have a good number of customers, then you will find agents willing to work for you.

 

[prjbicell]

Have a look at the latest Agentbase Magazine. Many ads in there where you cannot contact directly as PB states. You have to contact Agentbase yourself and then they play God as to who they consider the best applicant to put forward. So no negotiation takes place. No chance of selling yourself based on past experience in that field.

 

[ia2o]

Hello,

Firstly it does sound like a great system, and ongoing commission is always very attractive.

However, you're really going to struggle finding anyone who committing to a product with only 2 customers. Who would risk it? Is it even fair to ask anyone to take that risk? Do you have any evidence of a pipeline with 10 or 20 more people interested in the product? As a salesperson that's what I'd be looking at. No pipeline = 3 months of me not eating.

You struggling to get time to sell the product is a terrible excuse, I don't understand, what's pressingly more important than selling your product?

You need to sell it yourself, when you have a good number of customers, then you will find agents willing to work for you.

This is excellent advise, just what I'm after as I'd not want to waste precious funds on an advert that wouldn't garner any use and waste both the agents and my time.

Just as a defence to myself (I know!), I'm not a salesman by any stretch and come purely from a technical background, hence minimal costs as I've done all the development, database design, security, backups, server hardware and whilst I'm still integrating feedback from the two clients into the system it's a juggle between trying to get the word out there and keep the product moving forwards. So currently, a lot of my time is taken up with development still, and I think a good product needs to continuous development and innovation - perhaps I'm not quite ready to lunch in that respect...? But then there's always more development and polish that can be applied, so you need to start reaching out at some point?

I've got some more leads that I'm following through but it takes me some time to get to the people who can make the decisions - which is where I thought agents may have the upper hand. If they already sell different product lines into the same industry then they have direct access to the buyers, hence not much of a risk? Just an additional source of income? Or have I misunderstood the point of how the independent sale agent is represented?

prjbicell, that's an interesting point... I wonder if that's at the discretion of AB or the advertiser? Could it be that they don't want to be swamped with requests so use Agent Base as the filter? From my contracting days, that's what the recruitment agents would do, and often send the completely wrong candidates...[/SIZE]

 

[prjbicell]

I am sure it is a way of AB making more from the advertiser by adding this "so called service". The ads themselves are quite definitive and ask for a select candidate to respond. I do not see the use of a filter. Like I say... AB make more from the deal. And by doing so possibly lose ideal candidates for the advertiser if he/she were allowed to contact direct.
Just my take on things that's all

 

[ia2o]

Absolutely, and very good information... If I do go down the AB route, then I'll certainly make sure that I get contacted directly, but you make it sound like you'd rather not use AB if possible?

How else can sales agents be found? With specialities in specific sectors? I've seen Commission Crowd... But that's not launched yet. Is there a spot on here if you're a full member?

 

[prjbicell]

Sorry. I did not mean it to sound I was anti AB. I think it is a case of horses for courses. Should you decide to use AB I was just merely pointing out the pro's and con's that you should consider. If you make sure in your ad that you have your web address at least you will get interested people first check out your product/service and if interested further they call you direct.
I say this as I had call to apply via AB to an ad last month. The advertiser was looking for people with contacts in hospitals, care homes, hotels etc. During the next 6 months we have been invited to NHS Seminars where all the Faculty Managers will be present all over the UK. We have been offered a 15 minute pitch by the Health and Safety Executive within these seminars. Therefore being in front of all the right people who would be in a position to speak to us and make decisions. Using AB I have tried to make the advertiser aware of this fact but have yet to receive and reply back whatsoever. I am sure that if I had a direct number to call and made the advertiser aware of this fact then they could have been very interested indeed. As it stands they have no idea I exist and I have no way to find out who they are. That's the point I am making. I am sure that AB is a very good tool in other aspects. Just not in my case.

As regards to other places to ask I do not feel I am the right person to ask as I do not recruit on a regular basis. I am sure there are many more on here he would be able to offer you more valuable advice on how to reach out. On here there is the Start Up Forum maybe, certainly the Sales, Marketing and PR Forum. And just keep getting general exposure on this one and maybe you will find someone who would be ideally placed to help you progress. Good luck

 

[ia2o]

Sounds pretty painful... All very good to know. I guess if you were looking for generic sales bods then you may want AB to stop the torrent, but for something so specific it would surely make sense to want people to get in touch direct!

If I do go with AB, I'll certainly update this thread with my experience.