Nobody here seems to be talking about the compensation part of having an outside salesman or sales "representatives". Our company was doing OK back in the 80's but felt it was time to move out of the Military-industrial realm and try to broach the commercial side of manufacturing. We were approached by a company (husband and wife team) who had all sorts of glowing letters of recommendation, but only a couple from companies we knew of. We didn't think anything of it at the time, but that should have been a red flag. Without doing too much research other than contacting the two companies we knew, we hired them and signed a 12 month contract. Based on their reputation and recommendations, we agreed to a 5% commission, thinking that was only to be applied to work they actually brought in. When they started asking for commission checks, we balked because they hadn't produced any new contracts. That was when their lawyer pointed out that we had agreed to 5% on ALL of our contracts for the year, not just what they brought in and threatened to sue us. At the end of the year, we had paid them a hefty sum for doing absolutely nothing to bring in any work and were sending their checks to a P.O. box in Florida. We later found out that most of the letters of recommendation were completely bogus and not unlike a typical Ponzi scheme, they had worked hard to help the first 3 or 4 businesses that hired them and then used their glowing letters of recommendation to get new clients.
Several years later, we hired a guy who had lost his (outside sales) job at an industrial supplier due to a cutback and had decided to do the "company rep" thing himself. This time, by Gawd! we weren't about to be skinned, so we did some research and found out that he actually had been a very successful rep for one of our suppliers and was laid off because they were closing the local office. He had been offered the same job in another branch but turned it down because of family ties in the area. So far, so good. We agreed to a 7% commission ONLY on new contracts that resulted from his contact. After about 6 months, he had produced absolutely no new work because he spent all of his time visiting his old business contacts with companies that we already did business with and NEVER went anywhere else. He was only interested in schmoozing and spending time in other peoples' nice offices than actually selling. Finally the "Old Boy" goodwill ran out and he couldn't even get in those doors.
So, both situations turned out poorly for us, but we didn't lose any money on the second. Lesson finally learned. Now, our products are selling all over the world due to simple word-of-mouth and a simple "showcase" website that doesn't even take orders.
I would suggest that you should (A) find someone reputable, with a verifiable track record, to design a great-looking website and update it occasionally, (B)check out business organization events, like "Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours" get-togethers and go to trade shows, home shows, expos and the like and hand out lots of business cards.
Another lesson learned - Don't fall for the printing salesman's pitch about sending out flyers. It is hard to put together a flyer that tells an adequate story of what you do and then target whom to send them to and it is an expensive and time-consuming task. Most printers won't work with pictures you take, they have to be done by a professional photographer they recommend at an inflated cost. Then within months, the flyer will be obsolete and the majority of the ones you sent out went directly into the trash.
One thing that HAS worked - get business cards printed in two or three "styles" that might appeal to slightly different potential clients -you know not all of your customers are the same- Vistaprint is a great place to get them really cheap, just spend a few minutes - literally - at your computer and they show up in the mail a few days later for pennies apiece.. Since you can have both sides printed, you could choose to tell a little story about your business, its history, the owners, etc, or, put a discount coupon on the back for them to use the first time. This has really worked for us when making "cold contacts" at business-social functions like the ones I mentioned. Another thing we have seen is that unlike flyers, a card is easy to put in a wallet or purse or tack up on a bulletin board. We've given out cards that produced calls weeks or months later. This is an investment that really pays you back.