How to Ramp Up Sales Using a B2B Commission-Only Sales Team during a Global Pandemic

We talked to Laura McGregor of CommissionCrowd about commission-only sales professionals and she had the following to say about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Laura McGregor: Thank you for asking. We are blessed to have our health during this challenging time. The entire team and I work remotely, so the day-to-day hasn’t felt much different. We try and stay in close contact with friends, family, staff, and clients. As someone who’s worked remotely for over ten years, it’s been quite refreshing to see so many friends and family embrace Zoom and other technologies that I’ve been using for a long time. 

As is to be expected, there is a lot of heaviness and grief in the Zeitgeist. It’s important to remember that collective weight when times feel strict with quarantine restrictions and the changes we’ve all had to make to the way we live, travel, and socialize. 

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded CommissionCrowd.

Laura McGregor: Before starting CommissionCrowd, we had a digital marketing agency. We experienced colossal frustration and expense building our own external commission-only sales team. We didn’t understand how independent reps worked, where to find them, or how to manage a remote working relationship with our sales partners. We wasted a fortune advertising on generic job websites, and the agents we did find left us quickly because we didn’t understand how to manage our working relationship effectively. In the end, with much hard work, we got it right and felt we had a lot of experience and value to bring to the market for both companies and commission-only sales agents.

My two co-founders (Alistair Robinson & Ryan Mattock) and I started CommissionCrowd to solve a genuine problem we had in our business. We’ve built a global B2B marketplace that helps companies and freelance sales professionals achieve their mutual goals of finding each other. Our functionality allows Companies and commission-only sales professionals to connect and manage their partnerships, amplifying their success while protecting their autonomy.

One of the things we’re most proud of is how we’ve helped educate so many Companies on successfully building strong working relationships with commission-only sales agents.

How does CommissionCrowd innovate? 

Laura McGregor: We won the ‘Overall Innovation For Sales’ Award at Sales Innovation Expo. The judges understood how our sophisticated search engines help companies and commission-only sales professionals connect and get to trust faster. Our platform revolutionizes sales agents’ earning potential and lifestyle across the globe and provides functionality that allows both parties to have full anatomy. 

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Laura McGregor: We identified early that our platform would be in a great position to help companies adjust to working with remote sales teams. We wanted to stand in solidarity with Companies and Agents during these challenging times we’re facing. We made a public commitment to deliver as much value as possible for those looking to adopt new remote working commission-only sales partnerships. We also set up new Covid relief pricing, which incorporates a monthly, bi-annual, and discounted annual membership option and automated the sales process to help companies make a decision quickly.

Our global platform provides companies with a remote sales technology infrastructure to manage a remote working sales team, and often (most importantly) support them in best practice for creating thriving remote working sales partnerships with agents through 1:1 support and training programs.

We have been lucky to help even more companies and sales agents during these challenging times. 

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Laura McGregor: As a bootstrapped startup, we are used to making difficult choices and managing a very lean and tight ship. Luckily, we didn’t have to make any staff changes or cut many costs because of this. Our company was recession-proof because we run our business like it’s always in a recession; this is what it means to be a bootstrapped startup. We invest in our people, our technology, and our client’s success and always have. So the lesson for us is that even though it’s a challenge to maintain self-sufficiency, we are on the right track. It’s been great to know we have a service that helps companies grow, even in these hard times. 

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Laura McGregor: I am a lifelong student of personal growth and development and have studied as an Aromatherapist, Reiki Practioner and Clinical Hypnotherapist, so I have many tools for keeping my internal game healthy and positive. I also have a wonderful dog that keeps me active and connected to nature.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Laura McGregor: There is no other global b2b commission-only sales platform that allows you to recruit, train, and manage your remote working sales team.

We are committed to innovation, getting companies and sales agents to trust faster, and focusing on their success and growth. We will continue to thrive because we are investing in things that are most important to our market. The sales industry is about relationships, which is never more true than when we talk about commission-only sales. We feel strongly that, more so than ever, commission-only sales will thrive during this economy. 

We have many types of agents within the platform, from Closers to those with existing clients and contacts. We know our market needs to find strategies to increase their company’s revenue and create systems for success and that they take their responsibility seriously. That’s why our proven commission-only sales recruitment process and system will stay ahead of competitors. 

Your final thoughts?

Laura McGregor: Like all the other skills a business has to master, working with commission-only sales professionals takes dedication and commitment to learning how to be a competent sales partnership recruiter and a sales leader.

Our platform is free to register for both sales professionals offering their services on a commission-only basis and for companies to get their opportunities set up, search for agents, and check out our sales platform infrastructure. When they want to reach out to agents or publish an opportunity, we recommend getting in touch to discuss a membership offer that best supports your needs at this time.

It is over five years since we launched CommissionCrowd, and we’ve learnt a lot over that time about what kinds of sales opportunities are most attractive to the sales professionals in our database. We find explaining this eliminates any risk of not finding interested agents within our global platform. The critical heuristics that make a great sales opportunity are as follows:

● Have you been in business a few years and have clients who know, like, and trust you and a sales process tried and tested to get results?

● Have you invested in your brand and marketing and have sales tools ready to go like a website, resources, presentations?

● Do you have deal values of over $5K or a monthly recurring income of $500 or more?

● Do you have a win/win partnership mentality when it comes to sharing new business successes?

If you’re struggling during COVID, we would recommend considering a global or local commission-only sales strategy. Discover if your sales opportunity will attract our top independent B2B sales professionals by taking our quiz https://www.commissioncrowd.com/commission-only-sales-growth-accelerator/refagent/euro/?ref=lauramcgregor2v

Your website?

https://www.commissioncrowd.com/commission-only-sales-growth-accelerator/refagent/euro/?ref=lauramcgregor2v