Two very different models
When your business needs to grow revenue, you face a fundamental choice. Do you hire salaried sales employees, or do you engage commission only agents? Both approaches can work, but they suit different situations and carry different risk profiles.
The true cost of a salaried sales employee
In Australia, the fully loaded cost of a sales employee goes well beyond their base salary.
Base salary: $70,000 to $120,000 depending on experience and location.
Superannuation: 11.5% on top, adding $8,000 to $14,000.
Equipment and software: Laptop, phone, CRM licence, typically $3,000 to $5,000 per year.
Recruitment costs: Agency fees run 15% to 20% of salary. Internal recruitment still costs thousands in job ads and interview time.
Onboarding and training: Two to four weeks of unproductive time while they learn your product.
Management overhead: Someone needs to manage them. Performance reviews, one on ones, and coaching all take time.
A single sales hire can easily cost $100,000 to $150,000 per year before they close a single deal.
The cost of commission only agents
With commission only agents, your cost is a percentage of revenue generated. If an agent generates $200,000 in sales at a 15% commission rate, you pay $30,000. If they generate nothing, you pay nothing.
There are no recruitment fees, no super obligations (they are independent contractors), no equipment costs, and no management overhead in the traditional sense.
When employees make more sense
Salaried employees suit situations where you need deep product knowledge that takes months to develop, where the sales process requires extensive internal collaboration, or where you are selling enterprise deals with 6 to 12 month cycles that no agent would pursue without guaranteed income.
If your product requires consultative selling with extensive technical demonstrations and custom proposals, a dedicated employee who lives and breathes your offering will likely outperform an agent who splits their time across multiple products.
When commission only agents win
Commission only agents are ideal when your product has a clear value proposition that can be communicated quickly, when sales cycles are days or weeks rather than months, and when you want to scale across multiple markets simultaneously.
They also win when you are testing new markets, launching new products, or operating with limited capital. The zero risk nature of commission only lets you experiment without financial exposure.
The hybrid approach
Many successful businesses use both. They keep a small core team of salaried reps for their most complex accounts and use commission only agents through platforms like Zepys for volume sales, new market entry, and geographic expansion.
This gives you the deep knowledge and dedication of employees where it matters most, combined with the scalability and low risk of commission agents everywhere else.
Making the decision
Ask yourself three questions. Can an agent learn to sell my product in a day or two? Is my commission rate attractive enough to motivate independent sellers? Am I willing to invest time in creating good sales materials and support?
If the answer to all three is yes, commission only agents are likely a better starting point than a salaried hire, especially if you are watching your cash flow carefully.