Not all agent relationships are created equal. A commission-only agreement looks low-risk on paper — if the agent does not sell, you do not pay. But a poorly matched agent still costs you time, reputation, and missed market opportunity. Before you sign any mandate, ask these five questions.
1. What categories do you currently represent?
A great wines agent is not necessarily a great spirits agent, and neither may have any traction with health and beauty buyers. Ask the agent for a current list of the brands they represent, the categories they cover, and — crucially — whether any of those brands compete directly with yours.
Non-compete clauses matter. An agent carrying a competing Burgundy producer will almost never prioritise your bottles, regardless of what the mandate says.
2. Which buyers have you visited in the past 90 days?
Activity level is the single biggest predictor of conversion. An agent who has not been in front of buyers recently — regardless of their historical contacts — cannot move product quickly. Ask for specifics: which buyers, which regions, how frequently. A good agent will answer without hesitation.
"The question is not who they know. It's who they saw last month."
3. How do you prefer to communicate with producers?
Operational compatibility matters more than most producers realise. Some agents send weekly updates with full CRM exports. Others work intuitively and check in monthly. Neither approach is wrong, but the mismatch between producer expectations and agent practice is one of the most common reasons partnerships break down in the first six months.
Be explicit about what you need: call frequency, reporting format, feedback on buyer objections. A professional agent will adapt if they are told clearly.
4. What commission structure do you expect, and on what basis?
Commission on ex-cellar price, landed cost, or retail? Inclusive or exclusive of local taxes? Payable on order or on receipt of payment? These are not small details. A 10% commission on ex-cellar is a very different number from 10% on a UK landed cost that includes duty, freight and insurance.
Get the commercial terms written down and agreed before the relationship begins. This protects both parties.
5. Can you provide two producer references?
Any agent worth working with will have producers who will vouch for them. Ask for references from producers in a similar tier and category to your own. When you call those references, ask specifically about conversion speed, communication quality, and whether the agent ever walked away from a product without explanation.
The answers will tell you everything you need to know.
How CommsOnly helps
Every agent introduced through CommsOnly has already been vetted on all five of these dimensions before the introduction is made. We verify active markets, buyer relationships, category relevance, and commercial track record — so the first conversation you have with an agent is a business conversation, not a due diligence interview.