What a sales agent really costs, counting everything

When a company weighs up an agent, it looks at the commission. It is the most visible item and almost never the only one.

A multi-mandate agent in the dental sector typically sits between three and six per cent. A single-mandate agent asks for more, because they work only for you and cannot spread their risk.

On top of that percentage sit other items, and they are worth listing because they all end up in the accounts.

Mandatory social contributions run at seventeen per cent of commissions, split evenly between agent and company: eight and a half per cent that you pay, calculated not only on commissions but also on bonuses and expense reimbursements.

Then there is the end-of-relationship fund, accrued throughout the mandate and paid out on termination, and the customer indemnity, worth around three per cent of the sums accrued, which compensates the agent for the client base they leave behind.

And there is a detail that often escapes notice: a minimum annual contribution is due even when commissions earned are negligible. An agent who sells little still costs.

Added up, a nominal five per cent commission comes to around six, before any expense reimbursements or performance bonuses.

That said, the other half deserves saying too, because an article that paints the agent as a pointless expense would be written by someone who has never sold anything.

A good agent does not bring orders: they bring relationships. They know the practice owner, they know which material is being considered, they notice when a supplier is about to be changed. In equipment and in materials where advice is needed, no catalogue replaces that work.

So the point is not whether an agent costs too much. It is that they cover one territory at a time, and that below a certain revenue threshold per area the arithmetic works for neither party.

Those areas are the real problem: the ones where an agent is not sustainable and where, quite simply, you do not sell.

That is where a variable-cost channel makes sense — not as a replacement for the agent, but where the agent cannot reach.

In summary: the commission is not the total cost, social contributions add eight and a half per cent on the company, the end-of-relationship fund and customer indemnity accrue for the whole mandate, a minimum is due even at low sales, and a good agent remains irreplaceable where advice is needed.