First time meeting with potential agent
So I have secured a meeting with an agent, and they have asked to meet in a very well know members club bar.
Does this sound at all worrying? I've never met an agent before and was kind of guessing it would have been at their offices?
Hi John
Lots of reputable agents have what they call a virtual office, which means they mainly work from home, there's nothing unusual about that.
If you're new to meeting Agents there's a few things worth asking them....
Rates of Commission?
What about work you find yourself?
How many clients do they have?quality of thier work.
Why did you respond to my application? How do you see me? How would you sell me? What sort of roles?
How many staff do you have looking after clients?
Are they a non-sole agency-is it OK to have a commercial agent as well?
Hope this helps.
Thank you for this Michael, much appreciated.
I can fully understand working from home and have had a few meetings with potential agents via zoom which these days is the new normal, i just thought it odd that I'd be asked to meet in a members only bar, although I have now changed this to a telephone call as it did not feel right with me.
One of the agents I spoke to also stipulated a 1 year minimum contract period, and 5% commission on all work I find myself?
I have a few more agents to speak with and its all exciting but at the same time i want to make the right decision.
A one-year minimum seems excessive, unless that's just the first year (i.e. notice period is reduced significantly after that). That 5% is VERY generous - grab it! Most agencies will take a lot more (% to the agent for self-found work means you can still let them take care of the details or contract issues - plus it means they're still getting something while you're 'unavailable' for work they might have otherwise found for you).
Many agents - particularly in London - have 'virtual' offices. There are several of these around London (Shelton St & City Rd have two of the most common addresses, but there are others). This isn't - necessarily- something to worry about, but I'd expect it to be mentioned... Apart from that, having a London office is expensive, so even if it's an -actual- office, it may be a cramped, glorified closet or even a co-working space - nothing to be worried about, but much more conducive to relaxed conversation in a bar/club/whatever.
Yep, meetings at members clubs is perfectly normal and very common. Face to face meetings with a potential agent, if offered, is far more beneficial than a phone one, so I'd definitely recommend meeting them. 5% from self found work is brilliant, you're not going to find any better than that. Good luck with it.
I strongly suspect the Agent in question will take 5%on all work John finds himself but still may ask for the usual 15 or 20% for work they find for John, if your Agent is on your cv when you apply it can be very difficult to establish who first applied for that work. Either way, any Agent asking you to commit to a year's contract is enough to put me off.
Yes indeed, it is 5% on work I would find and deal with myself, not to then hand over to the agent for the contract and admin side of things.
I did question the 1 year commitment and asked if it could be shortened to 6 months and they politely declined and withdrew their offer of representation so that's how that ended. Onwards and upwards!
Hello there, I am currently looking for an agent to represent me. Any suggestions where I can have a look ?
Thanks
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