Snake salesperson found next to slate (7)
I believe the answer is:
reptile
'snake' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'salesperson found next to slate' is the wordplay.
'salesperson' becomes 'rep' (sales rep).
'found next to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'slate' becomes 'tile' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rep'+'tile'='REPTILE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reptile that I've seen before include "Cold-blooded creature" , "Eg, snake, lizard, etc" , "Despicable sort" , "Unpleasant character" , "loathsome type" .)