Ask HN : commission rate for business intermediaries selling SAAS

1 points by bsaul 12y ago ↗ HN

Hi, i'm slowly deploying my b2b SAAS, and am waiting for my first customer. One business intermediary found a potential customer, but he is asking for a 50% commission on the sale. I find that extremely excessive and don't want to start the business relationship with that salesperson on that basis. How much do you think I should ask (please, answer only if you'v had a similar experience) ?

The contract would bring about 500$ a month total for a start, and may end up reaching twice that amount in the future (not much more).

2 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] thread

NicoJuicy 12y ago ↗

Just ask him, who will do the support? It should be him and if he is prepared to pay for services. As you can't do much without hurting your business for that kind of money.

He is trying to get 50% and let you do all the support, don't get tricked ;-)

bsaul 12y ago ↗

He will do the "commercial" support, but since it's still a very early phase in the project, the final customer isn't expected to use the admin interface itself, we'll do it. And by "we" i mean "I". So basically, he'll forward the customer requests to me.

Do you have an idea of a "normal" commission ? I was expecting something between 10% to 20%