Connections is definitely the way to do this. It gives you a 4% boost (roughly 0.4 actual standing in your position) per level, so training three levels of it will guarantee you have enough standing to access low-quality level 2 agents.

The Social skill also increases the standing boosts you receive when completing a mission - so it's not a one-time boost like Connections, but means that it will take you less missions to increase your standings - it pays off more, the more you grind standing.

Train social skills like Social and Connections. You can also train the division specific social skills like Financial Connections. Those cost a ton though.