Example: a sales representative from Joinville carries two packaging lines and has been visiting food manufacturers in northern Santa Catarina for years. One Monday, the largest of the companies he represents announces it will build its own sales team and take over the clients in the region. His client base is still there, and the buyers still answer his calls, but a good part of next month's commission disappears. He needs a new product line to bring to the people he already knows and, at the same time, new clients so he depends less on a few manufacturers. Before you call anyone, it pays to write down how you introduce yourself to each of these audiences: the Pitch Generator builds the 60-second and the 30-second versions, plus an opening question. This guide shows how to find clients as a sales representative and how to find the right principals, the companies you sell for.
If you are on the other side, at a company looking for someone to sell on its behalf, the guide on how to find a sales representative is the place to start. Here, the subject is the routine of the person doing the representing.
Understand the representative's routine
A sales representative sells on behalf of other companies, the principals, and works on two fronts at the same time. On one, they look for manufacturers that want to sell in a region or to a type of client the representative knows well. On the other, they look for buyers for the lines they already carry. The two fronts depend on each other: a good client base attracts principals, and a good product line opens the door to new clients.
In practice, the week is split between visits to existing clients, taking orders, following up on deliveries and returns, reporting to principals and prospecting. Prospecting is usually the first thing to drop off the schedule when the month gets tight. Yet it is exactly what protects you when a principal leaves, changes its policy or starts selling direct.
A simple rule helps: set aside a fixed time slot each week for both prospecting fronts, separate from your routine visits, and treat that slot like an appointment with a client. Half a day per week is enough to keep a contact list moving.
Decide which lines make sense for your client base
Before going after new principals, look at who you already serve. The question is not "what can I sell?" but "what do my clients already buy, and who do they buy it from today?". A new line pays off best when it goes into the same order, for the same buyer, on the same visit.
- Complementary: the product is bought by the same client and does not compete for space with your current lines. Example: someone who sells packaging to food manufacturers can carry labels or adhesive tape.
- Competing: the product is the same as, or very similar to, one you already represent. Even if the contract allows it, you will have to choose which one to offer on each visit, and one of your principals will lose out.
- Unrelated: the product is good, but it is sold to a different buyer, on a different buying cycle. It is only worth it if you have time to build a new client base from scratch.
Write one sentence describing the manufacturer you are looking for: industry, size, the region it wants to reach and what it gains from working with you. That sentence goes into your profile, your LinkedIn message and your pitch.
Know where the opportunities are
Clients and principals tend to show up in the same places. So it is worth looking at each source with two questions in mind: who here would buy what I carry, and who here needs someone to sell in my region?
| Source | To find clients | To find principals |
|---|---|---|
| Your current clients | They refer other buyers in the same industry | They tell you which suppliers they miss in the region |
| Your current principals | They pass on orders from clients who arrive without anyone serving them | They refer manufacturers of complementary lines |
| Industry trade fairs | They show who is buying and who is growing | They gather exhibitors that still have no representative in your region |
| Business and industry associations | They bring together local companies that buy from other companies | They remember you when a member is looking for a representative |
| It shows who makes the buying decision at each company | It carries posts from manufacturers looking for representatives | |
| Online business rounds | Conversations with buyers looking for what you offer | Conversations with manufacturers looking for someone to represent them |
Not every manufacturer wants a representative. Some prefer to sell through distributors or wholesalers, who buy, stock and resell the products. Understanding that other channel helps you see when offering representation makes sense and when the manufacturer needs something else. The guide on how to find distributors and resellers shows that choice from the manufacturer's side.
Research each company before you reach out
An approach that includes one accurate fact about the company works better than many generic messages. For clients, start with their economic activity: the CNAE (Brazil's official classification of economic activities) tells you what each company does, and the guide on prospecting B2B clients by CNAE code shows how to build a list from it, by city and by industry.
For each name on the list, the CNPJ Lookup shows the registration status, the main and secondary activities, the company size, the opening date and the address. The CNPJ is the Brazilian company registration number. With this, you rule out inactive companies, check whether the client really belongs to the industry your lines serve and arrive at the first conversation knowing who you are talking to.
The same lookup works for potential principals. Before you accept a new line, check whether the manufacturer is active, how long it has existed and where it is based. Then ask around the market: clients and other representatives usually know whether it delivers on time and pays commissions when due.
What to write down about each company
- What it does and who it sells to.
- Who makes the buying decision or chooses the representative.
- How it is served in your region today.
- A concrete reason to talk now.
Prepare how you introduce yourself
A representative introduces themselves to two audiences with different interests, and a single sentence does not work for both. The manufacturer wants to know whether you open doors it cannot open alone. The buyer wants to know whether it is worth seeing one more salesperson.
For the manufacturer you want to represent
Say where you work, what type of client you visit and how often, which lines you carry (and that they do not compete with theirs) and what you are looking for. End with a question about how their products reach your region today. Avoid promising volume: the person deciding knows their own market and distrusts any number mentioned in a first conversation.
For the buyer
Talk about the problem the line solves for that type of company, not about the whole catalog. Show what changes for them with you: regular visits, returns handled without red tape, orders followed all the way to delivery. Ask for a small next step, such as a visit with a sample.
The sales representative pitch example includes the 60-second and 30-second versions for representatives looking for principals, along with what manufacturers and retailers expect to hear. To adjust the structure and practice your delivery, the guide on the 60-second sales pitch shows the parts and how to fit everything into a short conversation.
Put the agreement in writing
When a manufacturer accepts you as its representative, early enthusiasm is no substitute for a contract. In Brazil, independent sales representation is governed by Law 4,886/1965 (in Portuguese), which requires representatives to register with the Core (the regional council of sales representatives) and lists what the representation contract must include, such as the territory, whether or not the territory is exclusive, and the commission with its payment timing.
This guide is not legal advice. Read the text of the law, keep your registration up to date and, before signing, ask a lawyer you trust to review the draft. When you talk with the manufacturer, have your answers ready:
- Which cities, states or types of client are yours?
- Is the territory exclusively yours? And can you represent other companies?
- What amount is the commission calculated on, and when is it paid?
- Who sets the price, discounts and payment terms for the client?
- What happens to orders in progress if the partnership ends?
Use business rounds as a channel
In a business round, you describe in your profile what you offer and what you are looking for, and the platform suggests conversations with people looking for what you offer, without repeating a conversation. For a representative, this works on both fronts: your profile can say that you offer representation in a region and for a type of client, and that you are looking for manufacturers that want to reach it, or for buyers for the lines you carry.
Conversations are short, by video call inside the platform, with a fixed length and automatic room switching. There is no schedule beforehand: pairs form on the spot, and each conversation opens with a card showing the company, what it is looking for and why it was suggested. Read it to pick the right pitch, for a manufacturer or a buyer, and research those who marked interest later in the CNPJ Lookup. At the end of each conversation, each side marks whether there was interest, and contact details are only exchanged when both mark it. You do not spend a visit on someone who does not want to move forward.
A round does not replace visits or the relationship with your client base. It shortens the path to a first conversation with companies you would not meet on your usual route, including companies in other cities and states.
Where to start
List the lines you carry and the types of client you visit. Write one sentence describing the manufacturer you are looking for and another describing the buyer missing from your client base. Build a short list of companies for each front, check each one by CNPJ and prepare both versions of your pitch. Then book a fixed prospecting slot and keep it like a client visit.
Your company's first online business round is on us: all you need is an active Brazilian CNPJ, once per CNPJ, and contact details are only shared when both sides mark interest. See the upcoming business rounds and put the region and the type of client you serve in your profile.