How do I get an Agent?

Alex is the Managing Director of major UK talent agency InterTalent. He represents his clients alongside overseeing the agency's creative strategy, day-to-day operations & acquisitions.

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🤔 How do I get an Agent?

Last week I returned from another Edinburgh TV Festival. I’ve been coming for nearly a decade. It’s one of the most important events in my calendar. Thousands of TV Execs in one building for 3 days give our team a chance to connect with everyone we work with and meet new people to develop new ideas. I’ve spoken a lot about networking in this blog. Every successful agent needs to be excellent at it and I don’t see the newer generation doing enough of it. You have to be out there, saying hello to people you’ve never met. Coming to the Ed TV Fest is one of the biggest opportunities. Everyone is there. You just need to be brave.

My team at InterTalent spent 3 days at panels, events, breakfasts, networking sessions, parties (including InterTalent’s own annual Edinburgh soiree) and most of all, just networking in the conference centre.

One of the other great things about the Edinburgh TV Festival is the fact it crosses over with Edinburgh Fringe. The world’s greatest platform for actors, comedians and all kinds of artists and storytellers to share their talent with audiences. Once again, in the most random of ways, I met actors, writers, presenters, comedians, singers and more not only looking for an audience member but when they found out what I do for a living, they also told me they were seeking an Agent too.

So many incredibly talented performers are not represented.

As ever, I happily gave everyone the best practical advice I had and I hope it helps them find the partnership that they’re looking for. I wrote last year about what an Agent looks for when signing new clients. You can read my thoughts on that here if you missed it the first time around. Let’s go one step further. Now you know what an Agent is after. How do you even write to them?

Today, I’m going to talk about how to approach an Agent. Whether you’re an actor, TV presenter, content creator or anything else, the same rules apply.

Let’s go! ⬇️

Contrary to popular belief, you are not right for every agency and every agency is not right for you. This industry is not on a one size fits all. Writing to anyone and everyone, which a lot of people do, is a terrible tactic.

Looking for the right fit is important but can be daunting. Where do you even start? Do you go big? Do you go boutique? Where can I find a list of agencies? How do I know who is legitimate? The questions go on and on, and for those looking for the right agent, it can be a minefield. This is where people panic and go wrong at Step 1. People often think the first thing to do is draft your email and send it to as many agencies as they can find online, far and wide. Wrong. The scatter gun, copy + paste approach never works.

Step 1 is research. The first thing you need to do is a deep dive and research into what different types of talent agencies exist. Think about what fits your specific talents, what their reputation is, what standing of agency they are, their history, the individuals, what level of work they regularly achieve and so on.

I always tell people to specifically find agencies where you not only respect the clients they have (no matter their profile) but also want to emulate their work one day. If you see a client list full of talented people you admire, that’s the reason to put them on the list. It means both you and the agency share the same vision as to who you think is talented. It’s important to see that creative synergy. That’s what you’re after. It might mean you end up with a hit list of only a couple of agencies, or maybe over 100 agencies, but at least every agency is on your list because you respect the work they do and would love to be a part of that.

So how do you find those agencies? Easy. Before building your list of target agencies, create a list of all the talent you admire. They don’t need to be direct competitors. Gender, age, profile level etc, it doesn’t matter. Just write down the names of the people who are doing interesting work in your field of expertise. Google who represents them. There are plenty of industry websites that can tell you: Media Eye, IMDb & Spotlight are just a few. Or Google. Find out who represents them, and then look into the agency as a whole. If you feel the synergy, add them.

The other way to find agents to add to your hit list is by meeting them in person and networking. Attend industry events where you can meet agents or people who can introduce you to agents. Networking can often lead to highly valuable referrals.

Unless you know an agent personally, or meet them randomly at an event, the first communication will come from email. That’s fine. But be warned. Hundreds of people are doing the same thing on the same day. Agencies get hundreds of representation emails every week. So now you need to stand out.

Step 2 is building a dynamic and exciting email proposition.

➡️ Here’s how:

• ✅ Subject: Near enough every rep request I see has the same title: Representation. Straight away that’s the first chance missed to say something more interesting. If you are competing with many other people that day or week trying to catch the eye of an agent, starting with a boring and basic subject line is no the way to go. Why say ‘Representation’ when that’s what EVERYONE ELSE says? Put one of your USP’s (see below) in there which might make you stand out. Some agents put all rep requests in a folder and read in one go every week. That’s you vs 100 people. If your subject matter is more exciting they might read your email first.

• ✅ Unique Selling Points: Ok, this is crucial. It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 10 USP’s but you need to know what they are. This is where you need great self-awareness. Know what makes you different, know why you’re impressive and get them in the email EARLY. It can be anything - jobs you’ve done, skills you have, languages you’ve learned, millions of followers you have, you’re related to Royalty, whatever. If you don’t say anything to make you stand out from the crowd then it’s going to be very difficult. It doesn’t matter if it’s just 1 USP or loads, get them in. My concern is when people don’t list any. Don’t wait for paragraph 3, tell an agent straight away why you’re worth meeting. This leads me onto…

• ✅ Sell Yourself: An agent’s job is to sell you. They can’t do that if you can’t sell yourself to them. Make sure the email is engaging, full of USP’s and reasons why you’re fantastic and interesting. If an Agent only has 30 seconds to read Paragraph 1 make sure that’s the killer section. This isn’t the time to be modest. It’s also not the time to be egotistical… but it is the time to know what makes you interesting and why me, as the reader, should also be interested. Don’t forget to add in your social media links. It is important and we’ll be checking them anyways so do guide us there.

• ✅ Make It Personal: Link back to why you wanted to write to that agent in the first place. How did you find them? Why you would make a great fit. At the end you can even reference a piece of work you loved that the agent was involved in. This shouldn’t form the key part of the email - that’s the selling yourself with your USP’s bit - but making your email personal makes the agent understand you have reached out to them for a reason, which always goes a long way.

• ✅ Length: Keep it short. No novels. 2 paragraphs, 3 max. If you can’t get across everything you need in a really interesting but concise way then it’s not right. No waffling allowed.

• ✅ CV / Bio: This is where I feel people make the biggest mistake. Sometimes I will see CV’s that are 3 or 4 pages long. It’s too much. A CV is not a diary. It does not need to list every job you’ve done since A Levels. It’s a tool to show off your best work which can then lead to more work. When I used to represent actors, it would baffle me to see a CV with really cool TV, Film & Theatre work that really stood out, followed by 5 pantos and 20 commercials. Focus on the jobs that will help get you to the next level.

• ✅ Showreel: The common mistake is that people put their best scene last to leave you with that final exciting moment. Truth is, some agents only watch about 30 seconds. So if that’s the case, don’t fight it, just put your absolute best stuff first. Get them hooked straight away. If they love it, they watch everything else but don’t wait to show your best work at the end as they might not get that far.

• ✅ Headshot: Same as the Showreel. Best image first. I think everyone only needs one image. I find it quite alarming when you get 5-10 pictures of the same person but the only difference being a hairstyle or different expression. I don’t think that’s necessary. Just send the one.

• ✅ The Acquaintance Test: Don’t just send the email!!! Find someone who you trust that can read it for you and give you feedback. Ideally someone who doesn’t know you that well. Ask them to read it and then report back on what kind of talent they think you are, what is important to you, why you reached out etc. Make sure it all makes sense. You need someone who doesn’t know you well enough to lie. Someone who will just be honest and say ‘my takeaway from your email is X, Y and Z’ - and then make sure that’s what you intended.

➡️ Here’s what you need to do next:

Once you’ve set your email, give it a few weeks. Chasing is fine as long as a bit of time has passed. Just remember - no reply is a reply. Replying to all 100 people is hard. We all try to reply to as many people as possible but it’s not always doable.

No reply is a reply, it’s just not the one you want. I tell my team that all the time. It means that’s the answer FOR NOW. Not forever. Just now. And here’s the truth: you don’t know what the agent is doing when they receive your email? Maybe they’re sitting in a Doctors waiting room bored with nothing to do but read every word of every email and LUCK, you have emailed them just at the right time. OR - maybe you’ve emailed on a day when they’re feeling ill, running from meeting to meeting, stressed, late, overworked and they see a random email and before even opening it just hit delete. You just don’t know. You have no idea how or when an email is received so just know that a NO REPLY might mean a no but it also might not be as personal as you think. It feels personal, but it might not be. It might just be bad timing. So…

When do you get back in touch? When you have something new to say. An exciting revision to what you had sent previously. Be wise with the right moment to get back in touch. Resending the same email twice isn’t a strategy. It feels desperate. Be proud of who you are, what you can do, what you have done and if you want to email the agent again, just be patient and wait for the right moment. In the meantime there are plenty of other agencies and, of course, many ways to create your success. I wrote about that HERE.

And if you do get a meeting with an agent, this previous blog can help you out: What does an Agent look for when signing a new client?

Need to catch up on previous blogs? Try some of these…

🤔 What makes a great Talent Agent?

🤔 Should the biggest talent need an Agent?

🤔 What does an Agent actually do?

🤔 What are the secrets of dealmaking?

🤔 What kind of Agent are you?

📥 I would love to hear from you. Any ideas, thoughts and feedback via alex@intertalentgroup.com are always most welcome.

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See you next time.

Alex