Searching For Sales Agents

How to search for sales agents and tips to increase response rates

Ryan Mattock avatar
Written by Ryan Mattock
Updated over a week ago

By now you should have a complete sales opportunity and company profile. Now It's time to find the right people to work on your opportunity. You can search by clicking on the 'Find agents' button at the top of your dashboard.

Understanding how to optimize your search criteria will give you a considerable advantage when building your sales team and referral networks. It's not rocket science but is important to get right.

Our search functionality also contains a number of filters to help you conduct more specific searches based on the sales partners you're looking for.

The Types Of Sales Agents You Should Be Looking For

  1. Search for sales agents who currently sell or are looking to sell products or services within your industry.

  2. Search for sales agents who don't specify they sell within your industry, but have a think about who their existing networks might cover (see below).

  3. Search for sales agents that reside within your country of operation using the 'Based In Country' filter.

  4. Search for sales agents who may not be based physically in your country but have networks and actively sell into your world region or target regions. You can do this using the 'Countries Targeted' filter.

Not every sales agent will have experience in your industry or are looking to permanently add products or services like yours to their portfolio. However, there may be opportunities where these sales agents can refer business your way should their existing clients require your services.

When conducting your searches, think about sales agents who don't necessarily operate within your industry, but potentially have contact with existing clients of theirs who might need what you provide.

Example 1: Your company sells POS systems. You might also want to reach out to sales agents that are already selling non-related products or services into Hotels, Gyms and Restaurants.

Example 2: Your company sells cleaning products. You might also want to reach out to hospitality and sports related sales agents but also those who sell into the Medical industry.

Example 3: Your company manufacturers safety clothing for use in the workplace. You should not limit your search to agents that work in clothing sales. You should also be reaching out to agents that already have contacts with your target customers. This means starting conversations with agents in fields such as Construction , Medical or even Aviation sales for example.
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Let them know that you've read their profile and understand what they currently sell and who to. While your company's products or services are unrelated, they may have inroads into potential clients for your business. Let them know you're happy to pay referral commissions for any introductions they can potentially make.

Setting The Tone Of Conversation

When making first contact with a sales rep who knows little or nothing about your products or services you want to make it easy for that person to see the value in adding your offering to their portfolio.

We recommend having a thorough read of that persons profile and taking a conversational approach in which you introduce yourself and explain how you feel that your opportunity would be a great fit for their portfolio.

One of the great things about independent sales agents is that they won't waste your time unless they see a true opportunity to bring you business. We do everything in our power to encourage agents to respond, even a "thanks but no thanks" is better than nothing which is why we've also implemented a quick reply feature into our messaging system.

Remember, the very best independent reps are out and about doing business every single day and building their networks. They simply can't respond to every message. This is why it's important to send well crafted and thoughtful messages to them. You need to capture their attention and show them quickly the benefit you see in potentially working together.

Best Practices For Reaching Out To Sales Agents

You've found the perfect independent sales agent on CommissionCrowd and now it's time to reach out and start a dialogue that leads to a successful working partnership.

Three ways to increase response rates from agents:

  1. Before sending a message, read the sales agent's profile thoroughly to ensure you get a good feel for what they are looking for in an opportunity.
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  2. When sending your first message you want to be personable and build rapport with that person first. Remember, CommissionCrowd is a networking platform, you wouldn't walk into a live networking event and ask someone to work with you without building rapport and becoming familiar with each other first.
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  3. As the conversation develops, ask for the opportunity to set up a call to discuss your sales opportunity in further detail. While you're not interviewing that person for a sales job, speaking on the phone will allow both parties to ask, and have their questions answered before a decision is made to pursue the partnership.
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  4. Follow up! If you haven't heard back from a sales agents after a couple of days, it's a good idea to send a friendly follow up message. Remember, sales agents are out selling every day and represent more than one company at a time. They are generally busy and may miss your message. While that person may or may not respond eventually, following up is a great strategy to increase response rates.

TIP: Avoid copy and paste generic messages to multiple agents. It's very obvious when this happens and it demonstrates that you haven't taken the time to read their profile. Be personal and you'll see results much faster.

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