A Spokane entrepreneur is starting up a Web-based company designed to connect businesses with freelance salespeople.
Through the service, named SalesCreed.com, salespeople post their resumes, and businesses post sales projects on the company's website, says Tom Parrish, SalesCreed.com's president and CEO.
"Salespeople pick what products they want to sell and companies they want to represent," Parrish says. Companies also can select who they want to sell for them based on the experience and other attributes of the respondents.
"There is a whole pool of salespeople out there with great resumes and experience," he says. "Some are out of work, and some can work on the side to improve their earnings for the year."
Compensation is based on actual sales.
"The focus is that pay is based on results," Parrish says. "Businesses only pay what they've agreed to pay when they get results."
Companies that use SalesCreed.com likely would pay higher commissions because they wouldn't have to pay certain overhead expenses such as employee benefits and travel that they would pay for an outside sales force, he says.
The SalesCreed.com web site also includes a rating system for businesses and sales professionals to evaluate each other.
"The rating system is a powerful part of the model," he says.
Individual ratings let businesses know how effective each salesperson is, and business ratings give other salespeople an idea of what it's like to work with each rated business.
Invoices and payments flow through SalesCreed.com, which generates its own income by collecting a fee from the businesses that's equivalent to 10 percent of the sales commission.
SalesCreed.com, which went online last month, has four employees, including Parrish. He and a sales representative are based in Spokane. Another employee is based in Bellevue, and the other is based in Portland, Ore.
The next step is to establish a physical office in Spokane, Parrish says.
"I live here, and we'll be hiring people in Spokane," he says.
Parrish is experienced in starting up a successful company in the Inland Northwest.
In 2001, Parrish and business partner Alan McElroy founded Spokane-based PE Systems LLC, which helps merchants manage credit-card costs through its proprietary software system.
The founders sold a majority of the business for more than $10 million to a private equity company in 2006.
Parrish stayed on as CEO until selling the rest of his interest in the company in 2010, after the company's workforce grew to about 85 employees.