Let’s imagine that you’re the proprietor of a small business.Image may be NSFW.
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You do the finances, manage ordering and production, and do all the cold-calling to get customers. Things go well, and soon you have a handful of clients, all of which need to be managed and taken care of. So you do that, too. But while you’re taking care of your new customers, who’s making the sales calls? Soon enough you’re back making cold-calls because there was nothing in the pipeline—and worse, there’s no revenue until you convert new leads. You need someone to generate leads while you manage the leads that have converted to customers.
Macoem Business Solutions, a Montreal based sales outsourcing consultancy published a white paper in July 2007, which points out that “the worst acquisition a business can make is an expensive sales recruit who does not sell anything and leaves after six months, resulting in wasted time, effort investment, salary payment and recruitment fees.”
Hiring a talented sales staff is a gamble for many entrepreneurs. When you win, you’re not sure what you did right, and you don’t know how to do it consistently.
Outsourcing to a company whose only job is to make sales for you is a good way to make sure you win often.
Some companies provide turn-key sales solutions, and many offer assistance with everything from brand management to lead generation to hiring and training the sales team.
Tony Horwath, said, “Larger companies with very strong brands need to trust that the sales people will protect that brand, while smaller companies need someone to help them build that brand recognition.”
Scalability in Your Sales Force
The “best” way to approach customers is always changing.
It’s not really so long ago that corporations paid salespeople to go door-to-door, selling everything from encyclopedia to washing machines and vacuum cleaners. In the new millennium there are hundreds of ways to spend your marketing dollars, from online pay per click advertizing to giant billboards, from word-of-mouth social networking to cold-calling through a phone directory.
If you don’t know where or who your customers are, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on sales—it will be hard to be successful. Hopefully you already have a good idea of where and who your customers are—you just need a little help getting your message to them, or persuading them that you’re the best vendor for them. Describing the services offered by his company, SalesFocusInc, Tony Horwath said, “We actually can help our clients to craft their message to build their brand,” and added that, “Larger companies with very strong brands need to trust that the sales people will protect that brand, while smaller companies need someone to help them build that brand recognition.”
You should find a provider which matches your needs now, and has the flexibility to change as your company grows. “Our draw for small-businesses is scalability—the fact that you can increase or decrease the sales team as your business needs [change] is very attractive to small business owners.” Horwath said.
