Find sales agents or sales representatives in France

For a lot of products working with a local sales agent or with a dedicated sales representative can be a good solution.

Especially if you have a customized product or service, or you want to work with a number of resellers in the country, an agent can be the one connecting these parties to your organization abroad.

Agents can be individuals, but I often recommend to work with established companies who already have a good network and where you are not dependent on just one person.

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    Set up your sales force in France

    France and the United Kingdom have been alternating each other as the second economy of Europe. France is a highly centralized country where mostly in Paris the decisions are made. Other major cities include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, and Nice.

    As of 2024, France’s population is projected to be around 64.88 million. The country experiences a modest population growth, with a growth rate of approximately 0.15%.

    France has one of the world’s largest economies, known for its diverse industrial sectors, including aerospace, automotive, and luxury goods. It is also a leading agricultural producer within Europe.

    France’s intelligent economical framework sees diversification across all sectors with the government either partly or entirely privatising larger conglomerates. These include companies such as Renault, Air France, France Telecom and Thales among others. The government’s strong hold however is predominantly found in the power, defence and public transport industries.

    Travel to France for a better impression

    The best preparation for doing business in any country is visiting it. This way you can experience the culture, check the shops and build your network.

    Where it comes to hotels, research shows that if you check these platforms, in 80% of the cases you have the lowest room rates.

    Alternatives for working with agents in France: local offices or distance selling

    If you don’t want to work with agents, you can always set up a local office yourself or try to sell your product from abroad. This all depends on the product or service and the ease to reach the right buyers. Be careful with the contracts that you close with agents. In many countries their status is well protected and you can’t take their recurring income easily away from them.

    Agents

    • Agents represent you in the country and have a limited negotiation room.
    • They often sell not only for you, but also for other parties.
    • A good agent already has a network in your target market and can start selling directly.

    Local offices

    • Local offices are a costly option, but give you full control on your sales.
    • You have to send someone over and hire local staff and office facilities.
    • This gives the opportunity to do local marketing and business development from within the country.

    Distance selling

    • If you product can easily be delivered and serviced from abroad (like software) this may be a good option.
    • Video conferencing is more accepted now and can limit travel.
    • Lead generation may be done with SEO, advertising and email marketing.

    How to convince an agent to work for you?

    I always put a lot of emphasis on drafting a good distributor pitch. Even if you already have great sales materials for your end-users, this often does not make clear what the benefits are for a potential agent, distributor or retailer to work with you. 

    When you approach potential sales channels with your standard documentation, chances are high that they are holding of. If you make it crystal clear what are the benefits for them, like in the example presentation, you will get a much higher response rate.

    Please note that it helps to put concrete data in your presentation. You may think it is sensitive, but just know the secret is in how you achieve the rotation or the low returns level, not in the data itself. So share it here, in order to get the right attention.

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    Frequently asked questions

    First check whether your product normally is sold through an agent in France, or that other distribution structures are more common. Then determine the characteristics of your ideal agent, and find a number of these, or outsource this search. When you approach the first few, you will learn what they find important and who your competitors are, and you can get a feeling of the commissions they want.
    As in any country, convincing a a company with a good salesforce to put your offering in their assortment is difficult. Also in France potential agents look at the rotation of the product, how easy and often they can sell it, and multiply this with the margin they can make on it. The result should be higher than they earn now from any competing product. Only if you have proper sales data, for example from other countries, they will engage in a discussion with you.
    Sales representatives will always look at the time they have to put in the sales of your product versus the commision or retainer they get. If you are already active outside France, and you have data from other sales reps you work with, this will make it easier to convince them.

    Find sales agents in other countries