You'll have to get a few things in place before you can hire commission only sales reps. In order for them to work for you they will need some kind of assurance they will hit their targeted income. A good agency person doing a complex sale will probably want to earn $100K+. Figure out a sales process and closing rates for each step in the process. You need to know how likely each new lead will turn into a sale as it moves through the stages. When you have this figured out you can project revenue and assign a commission rate that will yeild the target income. At first its your best guess, but the more you test and refine the process the more reliable it will be and you can stoke the fire by adding more leads into the pipeline and more sales people.
I wrote a book that includes a chapter about this in the context of using equity instead of cash. It's called "Will Work for Pie" you can find it here: https://amzn.to/45CiP3Z
The honest answer most people won't give you: commission-only reps at zero revenue is one of the hardest things to execute well, and most agencies get it wrong before they even post the job.
Here's why — good salespeople have options. They go where there's a proven offer, existing pipeline, and a clear path to income. When you have zero revenue, you're asking them to take all the risk while you take all the upside. That's a hard sell.
That said, here's how to actually make it work:
Hire for hunger, not experience. At zero revenue you can't attract top closers. Look for people early in their career with high coachability, competitive backgrounds, and the financial runway to survive a ramp period. Athletes, former military, and people coming out of structured environments tend to be your best bets.
Your offer to them has to be compelling on paper. Commission structure needs to be aggressive — 15-25% on closed deals minimum. Give them a clear picture of what realistic earnings look like at different volume levels. If you can't paint that picture, you'll keep losing candidates.
You need to be the first closer. Before you hire anyone, close your first 3-5 clients yourself. This gives you a repeatable sales story, objection handling experience, and proof it works — which becomes your training material.
Management at this stage is really coaching. Daily standups, weekly call reviews, and clear activity KPIs (dials, conversations, proposals sent) matter more than quota at the start. You're building the system while running it.
The biggest mistake: hiring before your sales motion is proven. Close first, then hire to scale what you already know works.
Happy to walk through how to build the hiring profile and onboarding structure for your specific situation on a call.
