Today’s employment market is a harsh one. With increasing running costs and consumers rushing to find the lowest prices, many businesses are taking the tough choice to reduce their workforce – putting many skilled and long-serving employees out of work and with few prospects for new employment.
But the fact is, with this trend of in-office downsizing, the freelance scene is more prosperous than ever. In fact, according to Forbes, the freelance economy in the US increased from 3.7 million freelancers to a staggering 56.7 million Americans in 2018. That accounts for close to a third of the US workforce, so it's clear that the rising popularity of self-employment isn’t going anywhere soon.
So for salespeople who have recently been made redundant, or feel that their job is at risk, there’s an entirely new opportunity to grasp in the form of working from home. One of a salesperson’s best strengths is in their list of contacts, and they can leverage this invaluable information to bring in a dependable flow of income.
In this post, we’ll analyse the pros and cons of turning to the life of a freelance sales rep, and outline the potential benefits as well as the challenges you could face, and how to overcome them.
This one is music to the ears of anyone feeling concerned about taking the leap into freelance sales. By becoming your own boss, you get to take home all of the money you make directly (tax aside), instead of it going into the pocket of your manager. And this also means that the more time, effort and skill you can put into your endeavours, the more you stand to make. There’s no fixed limit like there would be with a salary.
Another sizeable benefit is that as a freelance sales rep, you can pick and choose your clients. You’ll have the autonomy to research your potential clients, and only work with those you believe to be reputable and worth your time. That’s not to say that there won’t be some unpleasant experiences, but it does make it much more likely that you’ll be working with a great selection of clients that you enjoy.
And last on the list of the key positives, you’ll have the freedom to work how, when and where you like. For many freelancers in sales this means more time with the family or with passion projects, and also lower commuting costs without the need to trek into the office every day. And as an extra bonus, no-one is going to care if you choose to spend the workday in your pyjamas.
So, on to the pitfalls. As a freelancer, you won’t have access to the same dedicated onboarding or lead generation team that a large company would. Instead, it’s all down to you to go out, research the market, chase leads, and seal the deal. This means that a large amount of your working time needs to be spent doing these things, in order for you to have proper work to do.
But as we mentioned before, one of your greatest strengths is in your list of contacts. You can leverage the client relationships you’ve built over your career to your advantage, and use the people you know to build a strong network of reliable sales opportunities.
Without a comfortable salary to depend on, the income situation for a lot of freelancers (especially those just starting out) comes in ebbs and flows, with some months bringing in a huge flow of work, and others slowing to a drip. It’s important to remember that these dips aren’t necessarily a sign that you’re doing something wrong, but as with any business, there are different times of the year in which the work simply comes in slower.
The benefit of being a freelance sales rep is that you can use these calm periods to network and grow your list of leads, so that you’ll soon have a new influx of sales opportunities to close.
As we’ve seen, unpredictability is a common theme in freelance sales, and nothing is as unforeseeable as falling ill at the wrong time. And as with the lack of a set salary, it’s obvious that any time you’re not actively working, you won’t be getting paid. To mitigate this, many freelancers have multiple revenue streams from things like investments and other passive forms of income, so that if you fancy a holiday or get the flu, you’re not going to be hit quite so hard.
In our opinion, absolutely. The greatest risks typically come in at the start of your journey into freelance sales, however the ability to earn much more than a typical sales job salary, and the added benefit of having your own freedom and flexibility, can make this shift in career a very lucrative one.
If you’re looking to enter self-employment in sales but aren’t sure what to sell, Exceeders offer top-tier business software and technology to large organizations, and we’re looking for talented salespeople like yourself to join our network.
You’ll be able to use the contacts you’ve nurtured throughout your career to pitch them our partners’ services, and you have the option to either pass us the leads directly, or close the deal yourself.
And for every completed sale, you’ll earn a generous incentive of up to 12% of the transaction. Our partner products vary in price from $30,000 - $300,000, so you could stand to earn up to $36,000 from just a single successful deal.
Interested in working with us? Check out our job openings.