The agent ‘recruitment’ process can be tricky. For a start, technically you are not ‘recruiting’ them as agents are self-employed. Instead you are forging more of a partnership with them. And the whole process needs to be handled in a particular way.
Firstly you need to respond to their initial enquiry in a highly timely manner – delays can be fatal. Next you need to provide them with specific information (the agent information pack) before you can expect them to tell you much about themselves or attend an ‘interview’. And then the ‘interview’ stage is fraught with pitfalls.
To give you a flavour, for a start it is not wise to use the word ‘interview’. Lets call it a meeting instead. Agents are businesses, like you, and so you are entering into a kind of partnership with them. Often the agent is risking a lot more than you are in this arrangement: remember you are asking this other business to sell for you with no fixed fee and no guarantee of success. Many agents are wary of being taken advantage of. And then there is the matter of where to conduct the ‘meeting’? Your place? Theirs? Somewhere neutral? Should you offer expenses? What sort of questions to ask? What questions is the agent likely to ask you? What about commission? Or territory? Or exclusivity? Targets? And so on.
- Key Points:
- Agents aren’t looking for ‘jobs’
- Agents generally don’t have CVs.
- Agents will want specific information from you (via an ‘agent information pack’)
- Agents will want to see that you are prepared and understand their way of working
- Agents will want to vet you as much as you want to vet them
- Agents will want a ‘meeting’ as opposed to being ‘interviewed’
We can expertly handle this process for you. At AgentBase, we have been working with sales agents since 1993. We have recruited teams of sales agents on dozens of occasions. Let us bring our extensive experience to bear to help you through this crucial stage of agent recruitment.