Attract the Right Job or Clientele:
CommissionCrowd is Leading Innovation in the commission-only sales industry by aligning companies with entrepreneurial-minded salespeople.
Note: Today’s Guest Post is from Ryan Mattock, a Co-Founder and CMO of award winning CommissionCrowd
CommissionCrowd’s Story
We identified a gap in the market requiring Innovation. The innovative need seen was for an online service that connects self-employed (commission-only) sales agents and companies globally. Our service also solves the problems that representatives and businesses face upon finding each other and attempting to work together effectively.
Self-employed salespeople are entrepreneurial, and usually, have a long history in an employed position. Once experience is theirs, they have a desire to set up their own business offering sales as a service on a reward-per-sale basis. They typically work with more than one company at a time. The reps build portfolios of multiple products and services that complement each other and sell these to their clientele.
The companies benefit by eliminating the need to provide a salary. Instead, the entrepreneurial-minded representatives already have networks of clients from past years. Potentially, they can introduce the companies they work with to new customers very quickly. Read a recent case study.
Being a self-employed sales professional gives the salesperson the ability to work on their terms and earn more than they would as an employee. An increase in earnings is in part due to being able to sell many products and services from numerous companies rather than being restricted to only working with the one that pays wages.
Our Journey Begins
Back in 2012, we three co-founders were working in the marketing industry. We ran a small yet successful marketing company and soon found ourselves working in partnership with a large and very successful U.S. based Fortune 500 company. The work gave us an opportunity to bring their brand back to the UK. We quickly got to work, but while the services we offered were what the market needed, we struggled to build a sales team. On the U.S. side, they had been successful thanks to their outsourced sales model. The success included a team of over a hundred self-employed (commission-only) sales professionals who saw wages only after a new contract became official.
On the U.S. side, teams were successful thanks to their outsourced sales model. The success included a team of over a hundred self-employed (commission-only) sales professionals who saw wages only after a new contract became official.
The Problem
We set out to replicate our U.S. partner’s success and build our own team of commission-only sales reps. However, it was easier said than done. The problem we found was that it’s incredibly hard to find independent salespeople.
Traditional job websites are not where salespeople usually look for new sales opportunities. We know this because we initially spent a lot of money on them. Most of our time and resources were wasted trying to convince unemployed sales people to work for free.
Not only is finding the people with the right temperament hard, but other factors weigh in as well. It’s highly challenging for both the company and the salesperson to manage multiple relationships when working remotely from another part of the country or overseas.
Why We Started CommissionCrowd
When we looked at the market, there was no one out there innovating in this space. The only options available at the time were outdated. We saw generic job websites and old school recruitment companies all proving to be both expensive and restrictive options. Innovation became a requirement.
No one was offering help or guidance around positioning a sales opportunity in a way that meets with an independent sales rep’s expectations. They also need support, legal compliance or sound advice when forming new partnerships. That’s when the vision of CommissionCrowd developed further. Our minimum viable product was built specifically around solving these immediate problems.
Challenges We Faced
Starting a business is easy, however, seeing it through to the point in which it becomes a success can be extremely difficult. We realized that we had a set of unique challenges to face.
First, CommissionCrowd has two sides to its user base; companies and self-employed sales agents. Ensuring that both components grow in harmony is a massive challenge. It means we have to dedicate significant resources for continuously marketing to two sets of people. Luckily for us, word quickly spread due to the industry’s desperate need for what we were building. By the time we launched, we had a solid number of companies and independent sales experts already in our database.
Luckily for us, word quickly spread due to the industry’s desperate need for what we were building. By the time we launched, we had a solid number of companies and independent sales experts already in our database.
Second, we quickly realized that education would have to play a huge part in the success of CommissionCrowd. Many companies join us and see success right away due to having sales opportunities and previous experience working with outsourced sales partners. However, others need a little coaching to ensure they precisely know what this type of sales professional is, how they operate, and what they can expect from their new business partners.
Our experiences eventually led us to write and publish a short eBook called ‘How To Build Successful Partnerships With Freelance Sales Agents.’ The book is widely regarded as being the blueprint to working with independent sales reps. We also dedicated a lot of time and resources developing our own Customer Success Journey program (CSJ) which is designed to ensure that every company who makes it past our initial vetting process is supported and guided every step of the way until connecting with their very first sales agent.
Future Vision
Our long term primary focus is getting sales agents and companies connecting faster. The goal is to get to know our members and the networks in which they operate. We envision a day where we eliminate the need for sales professionals to have to search for new business opportunities and instead use smart algorithms to present the perfect portfolio of products/services to the right sales agents from the start.
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