B2b Sales vs. B2c Sales

August 31, 2010 – 1:49 pm

One of the hardest lessons to learn as a young sales person making the switch from retail or consumer sales to B2B sales is how understanding how and why a business buys.  Often times, the sales experience and success that a person has will not translate into more sales when they move to B2b sales.  As an Outsourced sales provider, one of the key questions or interview steps is evaluating this transition.  While it is often the logical next step in a young professional’s career, it is not always the smoothest.  Even more so, when a company decides to use an Outsourced sales solution, they expect that the people on that account are experienced in B2b sales and will not need much sales help.

The key distinction between retail or consumer sales and B2b sales or B2b sales outsourcing is that a business makes buying decisions with a process, with multiple stakeholders and with the business in mind and not on emotion.  While an emotional connection, rapport and/or relationship is still part of the sale, a sales professional must also be able to find a need, highlight the urgency, develop a position and show some return on the investment.  To increase sales, an organization must provide sales help or sales tips to any young professional transitioning into this type of role.

Another benefit of outsourcing sales is that there is typically some sales training where the new sales executives are provided with formal sales help and sales tips in areas like networking, getting past a gate keeper, using social media to develop leads and sources, needs analysis, rapport building and product positioning.  All of these things are critical to sales success and increasing sales when using an outsourced sales provider.

When evaluating a sales candidate or outsourced sales provider, it is important to probe deeper on these points and make sure the person or company has the skills to understand a business.  How strong is their business acumen and training to help position your product?  Will they have the skill to participate and provide feedback to help with product or program development?  Will they increase sales for your channel and provide an ROI, just like you expect your product or solution to provide to your customers?  In the end, just as your business would evaluate a new product investment; make sure to spend the same level of rigor on choosing your sales professional or sales outsourcing partner.

Happy Selling!!!!

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Four Critical Characteristics of a Great Salesperson

August 15, 2010 – 8:31 am

Our organization recruits, hires, trains and manages many sales people……. And that is all we do.  That said we feel like we have become very good at identifying great sales people to sell on our clients’ behalf.

This ability to identify great sales people did not come over night and came through trial and error with many different types of sales professionals.  What we have discovered over our years of sales recruiting and management experience is that you have to hire individuals with that “sales DNA”.  Great sales people with that “sales DNA” all exude the following 4 critical sales characteristics:

Positive Attitude

This in our opinion is the most important characteristic that a sales professional must posses.  Sales is not an easy profession and comes with a lot of rejection.  If a sales professional does not have a positive attitude they are bound for mediocrity if not worst.

Ability to Ask Great Questions

Amazing sales professionals have a knack for asking great questions.  They have an uncanny ability to ask questions that get individuals to open up and talk freely about their issues which allows the sales professional the ability to figure out how his/her product can solve their issues.

Listening

This goes hand and hand with asking great questions.  One can ask the best questions in the world, but if that individual is not a great listener he/she will not full understand what their prospects issues are and in turn may not come up with a solution that fully solves their issues.

Great Product Knowledge

Finally great sales professionals have a tremendous grasp on their companies product knowledge and how it applies to every scenario a prospective client may through at them.

As you are looking to hire your next sales professional, concentrate on uncovering whether or not they are strong in the above characteristic areas.

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Boosting Sales in Tough Times

August 12, 2010 – 8:28 am

Often when times were tough and people try boosting sales for their organization, they look to a sales consultant.  Today, there are many more options to consider when you are looking for sales in tough times.  Sales outsourcing or b2b lead generation can be two options to consider.  The best way to fix slumping sales in these tough times is through hard work, persistence and repeatable activity that is easily scaled when the economy or slump turns around.

An outsourced sales force can take many different shapes and sizes depending on the specific b2b sales environment for your product or service.  Most providers will tailor your b2b sales experience and strategy based on your input and provide a turnkey solution.  Keys to sales success in this type of a cradle to grave outsourced sales force is total accountability and transparency so both the vendor and client can work together to change direction, messaging and integrate marketing support and activities.  Recruiting sales professionals is often part of this turnkey type solution.

Another way of boosting sales is to consider b2b sales lead generation in support of your sales force.  Often the sales roi for your existing sales infrastructure can be improved with better efficiency and the roi can increase if the sales professionals spend more time where they are productive.  In this model, your top sales person can spend more time in front of a qualified prospect and focus on closing sales in tough times.  Developing a sales strategy where the two teams or sales professionals can integrate their activity and work as a seamless team is key to sales success.  The use of a unified CRM platform is crucial in this blended approach.

In both instances, sales in tough times are possible and can build a foundation that will increase results even more when the economy turns around.  Sales methods can be developed and deployed on a smaller scale in this environment and ramped up when needed down the road.  IN the end, a b2b sales outsourcing company can be great addition to your sales strategy and a great long term partner if chosen carefully and set up strategically.

Happy Selling!!

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Why Organizations are Outsourcing Sales and Marketing Functions

August 9, 2010 – 8:26 am

When companies look into business process outsourcing solutions for their organization, many tend to gravitate towards outsourced sales and marketing services.  Most organizations end up partnering with a company that does either outsourced sales or outsourced marketing.  What companies are beginning to realize is that they can tremendously benefit from partnering with an organization that can do both sales and marketing for them.

The reason why this combination works so well is because sales and marketing complement each other extremely well.  With outsourced sales your organization will benefit from having a dedicated sales professional calling on ideal client prospects.  This sales professional will navigate corporate structures, learn the landscape of an organization, pinpoint decision makers and articulate your organizations value proposition to these individuals.

The outsourced marketing services will complement your outsourced sales professional’s message with continual targeted messaging around the areas of interest that your sales professional has identified.

Through the combination of these two services, organizations like yours sales are thriving!

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Outsourced Sales for Small Business

July 22, 2010 – 2:42 pm

Contrary to popular belief companies of all sizes can benefit from sales outsourcing.  Although outsourced sales for small business may have the greatest impact as these companies are the ones who typically need it the most.

Most small businesses don’t have many critical pieces of a successful sales infrastructure and culture which in turn can lead to poor sales results.  Small businesses typically don’t have professional sales recruiting and management on staff and this can lead to hiring the “wrong” sales person.  Even if a company hires the “right” sales professional, without proper sales management and culture that individual has a high likely hood of failing.

Through using a full service sales outsourcing force, small business can leverage the sales recruiting, management and culture/environment that many larger organizations are accustomed to having.

Happy Selling!!

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Sales Consulting vs. Sales Force Outsourcing

July 9, 2010 – 8:08 am

For all companies, sales are the lifeline and the revenue generator that drives growth.  During a down economy or in a slow period of seasonality, companies look to their sales force and examine if they are capitalizing on all potential opportunity.  Often in these times of desperation, a company will look to an outside resource to help them.  Sales consulting can be an effective way to work with your existing sales force and find new approaches, invest in training and sales techniques or work with marketing to determine better avenues to promote a product or service.

Another route that more companies are using is sales forces outsourcing.  In this approach, a professional company, that can often have some sales consulting on the front end of an engagement, will execute a sales strategy and leverage their core strengths.  Many sales force outsourcing companies can add a channel to existing sales or target certain markets to squeeze every drop of opportunity out of your product or service.

These engagements can be anything from sales lead generation, telesales outsourcing, outsourced inside sales or sales support to face to face sales team implementation.  When considering a direction, good companies look to their top performs and ask what they are doing different and how they can use that experience and knowledge to choose the right partner channel.  Often, the sales force outsourcing company will work in conjunction with your existing sales team.  They can target a smaller sized customer segment, leverage an efficient telesales outsourcing strategy and free up your top producers to chase the larger enterprise level sales.

In any situation, a company must evaluate how the integration will impact their existing sales.  Cannibalizing existing sales with a sales force outsourcing company may be more efficient, but is not part of a sound strategy.  Engaging with an outsourced inside sales provider, you should find new markets, new approaches or new revenue sources that is underserved so that your overall sales revenue level increase.  This is the mark of a solid sales force outsourcing partnership.

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Telesales Outsourcing

July 5, 2010 – 7:44 am

The changing landscape of sales and the technology that supports the modern salesperson has allowed for the growth of telesales services.  Selling via the phone and the use of web based demonstrations allows today’s salesperson to generate leads, garner interest, qualify prospect, build rapport and close many sales without leaving their office.  The greater efficiency of selling a national territory without traveling to see a client has also allowed for the growth of telesales outsourcing.

Outsourced inside sales was traditionally thought of as lead generation function or sales support role.  Today, telesales outsourcing refers to a larger segment of the market where a company can outsource all or part of their sales staff and leverage a professional inside sales team to represent their brand.  Part of making this transition, often involves some sales consulting that can help change the sales process or stages for a particular product or service and leverage modern technology.  The use of electronic signatures, flash video, email marketing and other online tools can speed up a sales cycle and allow one person to cover a larger territory.

This type of outsourced inside sales team can also sell consultative or enterprise level solutions using the right approach.  Telesales outsourcing is more than just a telemarketing lead generation house.  It is a total solution for cold call to close sales.  Sales force outsourcing is not a good fit for all businesses or products, but can be an effective way for a company to leverage the professional sales skills of a telesales outsourcing company while focusing on their own core business.

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Essentials of Your Sales “Tool Kit”

July 1, 2010 – 6:59 am

As leaders in the field of sales force outsourcing we have identified several “sales essentials” that we find integral to a companies’ outsourced sales success.  If you are considering hiring an outsourced sales company or launching an outsourced sales campaign – make sure you have the 8 “essentials” below, or right company to ensure you get them!

1)       Product – many times people will hire sales outsourcing companies when their product/service is not ready to go to market.  While it might be tempting to “get ahead” by putting the cart before the horse, there is no quicker way to fail at an outsourced sales campaign then trying to bring a product to market that is not ready or has not been approved.  It will serve you better to be patient on the front end, rather than scramble to deliver to a paying client/customer on the back end.

2)       Messaging – this is where a lot of companies get stuck.  They know their products/services so well and have been so entrenched in them for however long, that messaging becomes lengthy and entirely too specific.  Utilizing sales and marketing outsourcing can assist here.  Experts in these fields will be able to identify what sort of messaging will resonate with potential buyers.  There is a reason we develop “elevator pitches” for our outsourced sales clients – it is because often, that is all the time you have to grab someone’s attention.  Make sure your message is clear and succinct.

3)       Target Market – it is not unusual for us sales outsourcing companies to help our clients determine their target markets or, at the very least, uncover other areas where the product or service might be useful.  In sales you must be creative, which is another reason why hiring a sales consulting company can be beneficial.  If you haven’t identified your target market, you need to do so – and be as specific as possible.

4)       Defined sales process and sales goals – we cannot tell you how many of our sales outsourcing clients had never employed a “sales process” before working with us.  Sales is like anything – you must have a plan for it to be consistently effective and successful.  The sales process helps to keep you organized and understand what the next step is.  Utilizing a sale force outsourcing company will certainly help you do this – and it is often where many sales outsourcers excel and many other companies’ fail.  Similarly, you must have realistic sales goals and milestones – how will you know where you are going if you don’t know where you want to go?  Goal setting is critical for sales success.

5)       CRM – if you don’t know what this stands for, you are not alone!  CRM is the acronym for Customer Relationship Tool and should be utilized by ANY company who not only wants to increase sales, but keep their sales people happy!  The ability to track information about potential deals, set reminders, make notations and reminders for next steps is CRITICAL for sales success.  Your target market is, most likely, going to be thousands and thousands of prospects deep – and a little excel sheet will only get you so far.  As sales outsourcing experts we utilize several different CRMs for our clients depending on how robust it need be.

6)       Dedicated sales person/team – is your COO running operations by day and selling by night?  If so – you are doing both you and your COO a disservice.  So many companies make this mistake and it is a critical one.  Your COO should be running operations, not cold calling and setting appointments that he or she, most likely, doesn’t have the time to run.  By having a dedicated sales person or team – like those that are built when utilizing sales outsourcing companies – you are able to focus your people on doing what they do best 100% of the time, as opposed to 50% of the time.

7)       Effective sales management – hiring an excellent sales person or team is, unfortunately, not enough for sales success.  Many of our clients come to us after a failed attempt at hiring a few remote sales executives in target markets, and then leaving them up to their own devices.  Again, this is NOT a sales campaign.  This is hoping that your sales person is working and doing what they made you believe they would during their interview.  Oftentimes, they are not.  Without effective sales management event the best sales rep can falter and fail.  You must have management that can challenge, inspire and drive the sales person to be the most productive they can.  By utilizing an outsourced sales firm, you are going to get not only a great outsourced inside sales team, but excellent sales management as well.

8)       Excellent customer services and/or product implementation – while sales force outsourcing can provide a lot of these essentials above, the one area sales consulting cannot do is ensure that – once the product has been sold, the service and implementation will be satisfactory.  Companies have been made or broken by excellent or poor customer service – so make sure you can keep that client after the sale and make sure you can deliver what you promise.

If you have all of the above taken care of – congratulations – you are well on your way to a successful sales campaign.  If not, call Acquirent today and let us help you begin your sales outsourcing initiative!  We love sales – but more importantly we love to sell for our clients, so put us to work for you today!  Happy selling!

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Outsourcing Sales: Perfect for a Start-Up Business

June 24, 2010 – 6:52 am

Are you a small business who has spent the last few weeks, months, or years perfecting your product, getting investors, developing your brand and perfecting your messaging?  If so – now what?  Well – now is the time to build the sales force to sell that product and get your brand on the market!  It sounds so simple, but for so many of our small business outsourced sales clients this is a very daunting task.  So many small companies do not invest enough in building a sales force or well thought out strategic sales process and end up suffering because of it.  You can have the best product out there, but if no one is selling it – then no one is buying it.  Too many of our clients fall in love with their solution and believe that their products will “sell” themselves – this is just not true.  If you are reading this and wincing because this sounds like you, first of all – you are not alone!  Secondly, you need to consider sales force outsourcing – now.

Not all business owners and entrepreneurs come from a sales background, so your sales naïveté is not your fault.  This is why the sales and marketing outsourcing industry exists in the first place.  By utilizing an outsourced sales model or a sales force outsourcing you are not only getting experts in the field of sales but you will shorten your ramp up period significantly.  Sales outsourcing companies already have systems and tools in place to help develop, test, and execute sales plans and processes.  We will be with you every step of the way.  First, we will help to identify your target market and generate targeted lead lists.  It might not even be what you think it is.  We will utilize our past experience and relationships to determine the “lowest hanging fruit” and work up from there.  Secondly, we will determine if you should utilize and outsourced inside sales model, a more strategic outside sales model or something in-between.  Next – we will build out a CRM (customer relationship management tool).  From there, as your sales consulting experts, we will develop a very specific sales process which will include generating probing questions, web demonstrations, proposal development, price offering options and negotiation parameters (all of this on an as needed basis, of course).  As your outsourced sales experts – we will be with you every step of the way to fill in all the blanks.

When we are finished, you will have a thorough and tailored sales process that we will then execute.  Sales is not as easy and straightforward as simply hiring a qualified and likable sales person to throw out into the world.  If that is your answer to your sales problems – you are in for a tough lesson, and one that so many of our outsourced sales clients had to learn the hard day.  Put yourself ahead of the curve and call a sales force outsourcing expert like Acquirent today and solve your sales headaches before they begin!  Happy Selling!

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Taking the “Middle Man” out of Sales Force Outsourcing

June 18, 2010 – 8:36 am

Sales outsourcing companies often get a bad rap for being the “middle man” in sales operations.  Here at Acquirent, this could not be further than the truth.  We are not a middle man, rather – we are a strategic partner whose sole purpose is to enhance your company’s sales efforts and add to the bottom line.  Often times sales force outsourcing takes the form of telemarketing or appointment setting.  While these methods work for some companies, they do not work for all.  At Acquirent, we act as sales consultants, learning as much as possible about your business and target markets to come up with a specified and strategic outsourced sales plan for you.  Some times, this means an entry level sales person who is cold calling to set appointments for a senior sales representative at your company – other times, this means a very tailored and specific “cold call to close” model that requires a more senior and polished sales person with specific industry experience.  Our sales representative, while on our payroll and managed by our expert sales management staff, will adopt your company’s persona and carry business cards and email all with your company identity.

While most of our clients choose us as their outsourced inside sales provider, we have also hired representatives that will travel and meet with clients face to face and employ an outside sales model as well.  Like I mentioned earlier, what is best for one client may not be for another and you can rest assured that your outsourced sales model will be specific to your business and your business needs.  While telesales outsourcing – a strictly inside sales model – works for many of our clients, a more consultative and strategic sales approach might be best for you.  As a tactical partner in growing your business we will work closely with you to come up with the most effective sales force outsourcing strategy for you.  Whether it is a simple appointment setting approach or grooming your future “director of sales” we can handle it and take care of all of your sales needs.  Can a middle man do that? Not at Acquirent!  Happy Selling!

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