While there are many reasons that a sales person or sales team may not be selling, one root cause that can be an easy fix is to look at their activity. The road to increased sales is sometimes a factor of looking at statistical sales, meaning to not just call it a numbers game, but look at the numbers and try to find solutions. Many outsourced sales companies are experts in looking at metrics, measuring sales activity and sales mentoring with the end goal of creating results. With one recent outsource sales team under my watch, I looked behind some of the reported numbers and tried to find the root cause of the lagging results. Within two days, we were able to increase sales by monitoring and measuring the right activity. Often in b2b sales, it takes time to develop an active sales pipeline. One sales tip here is to motivate the sales person to interim goals that are sales activity based and reward them for achieving the goals.
Sales Appointment setting is also all about sales activity. In order to increase sales, a company may turn to outsourced sales or a telesales outsourcing company to help them increase their pipeline through sales appointment setting. Again here, the key to sales success is motivating the sales person to the right goals. B2b sales outsourcing is only successful when the right goals and targets are set and there is a real partnership in the outsourcing. You can increase sales through this type of transparent outsourced sales approach.
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.
Happy Selling!
When individuals look into business process outsourcing solutions for their organization, many companies 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!
Happy Selling…. And Marketing!!
As the economy starts to show signs of recovery and turning in the right direction, more companies are focusing their attention on how to increase sales. The best way to survive this type of downturn, is to sell your way out of it and continue to provide a solid product or solution that businesses need. As with any recession or economic hardship, one thing all smart businesses do is evaluate how they are doing business. Over the years, innovation and new practices are born out of times when a business must do more with less. This time is no different. As we begin to emerge from the tunnel, more and more companies are looking to outsourced sales as a way to increase sales without increasing their overhead in direct correlation.
The benefit of outsourced sales is the infrastructure and shared resources that a company can enjoy. Smaller companies can benefit from shared sales management, sales processes and sales infrastructure. Similarly, a large business can “purchase” a different sales culture or methodology than they have currently and increase their sales with a new channel, approach or target market. All in all, sales outsourcing has become more accepted and companies are willing to partner with a sales outsourcing provider for this critical portion of their business.
One sales tip to companies trying to expand their reach. Make sure that the sales outsourcer that you choose matches with your own company culture, sales philosophy and is flexible and willing to provide a transparent outsourced sales solution. Even more than with outsourced HR or IT functions, control and transparency is critical to maintaining your brand image, market presence and not sacrificing quality for quantity. More sales that have a higher cancelation or return rate or that are sold at the expense of the product’s market perception are not good ways to increase sales.
B2b sales outsourcing is not a new concept or business. Telemarketing and lead generation have been used in this segment for years. However, with the dawning of another stronger, post recession economy, so to have new models of outsourced sales been born. Today, you can find sales outsourcing companies that provide a myriad of services from lead generation, to face to face sales to cold call to close professional telesales.
One of the toughest 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 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, a company 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.
Most companies are confident about their products and services to a prospective customer face-to-face. But how do you get those sought after appointments? Setting an appointment requires a high level of diligence, productivity, creativity and a thick skin. Appointment setting is a role that most senior-level sales representatives are “above” doing. The bottom line is that people that are often good at closing business are often not as good opening to the doors to those opportunities. There are two different disciplines at work at both of these critical stages of the sale. B2b sales experience alone is not enough to ensure you can open the door to new opportunities or effectively manage your leads.
By utilizing outsourced sales services you can get that first part of the equation while your top revenue producers can focus exclusively on what it is they do – close new business. One of the most effective ways to increase sales ROI is by hiring an outsourced sales force to become “pre-sales support”, or “appointment setting”. Once the calls start, a good outsourced sales person will make an average of 75 calls a day in a typical campaign, which will actually result in them speaking to more people and getting more appointments as a result.
Getting to speak to the right person is a highly skilled job – handling objections, getting past the ‘gate keeper’ and making the valid points to the decision maker is no mean feat. It also involves a high level of rejection, which a lot of people find soul destroying. It’s a job that not many people are good at but it’s the kind of job sales outsourcing services excel at. They will take your sales failure, develop a sales strategy and begin a b2b lead generation campaign. By outsourcing appointment setting to a skilled b2b sales consultant you not only save your best sales representative’s time, but you put them out there more – thus closing more business.
One of the perks of outsourced sales services that is secondary to increased sales is the development of excellent sales representatives. Outsourced sales firms not only excel at increasing sales ROI for their clients, but they excel and recruiting sales professionals to fill their sales needs. Because the focus of an outsourced sales team is strictly sales, their recruiting focus is similarly targeted to sales people. Many companies would clone their top sales person if they could, but the reality of the situation is that excellent sales people are hard to come by. Outsourced sales services will not only find the top talent – but will further develop it. Many companies who see decreased sales in tough times loose focus on their sales and try to lift the bottom line. An outsourced sales team will focus not on downsizing sales talent, but getting the most from their existing sales team. Because outsourced sales teams are laser focused on consultative sales outsourcing and developing a sales strategy for clients – the sales process is constantly being refreshed and updated and the sales representative constantly developed and challenged in what is a very specific and sales-focused environment. There have been numerous occasions in our outsourced sales business where we have essentially bred top sales people in our sales environment to be ‘bought’ by the client company. This ‘development’ is a great perk of outsourcing your sales force. You get a strategic partner and, in the meantime, a top sales person who can be utilized for the future.
If you are a company looking to trim expenses and boost productivity, you might be considering outsourced sales services. Hiring an outsourced sales firm is not unlike hiring a b2b sales consultant, but instead of assessing your sales process and developing a sales strategy for you to execute, an outsourced sales team will actually do it for you. Outsourced sales firms use their b2b sales experience and consultative sales outsourcing techniques in developing sales strategies that will result in sales ROI for you. There are many sales methods that they utilize and many different ways to offer sales help.
Winning Back Prior Accounts
In other cases, an organization will enlist the assistance of an outsourcing sales company to help them reconnect with former accounts or reinvigorate “dead” ones. In this case, outsourced sales professionals make contact with companies that have worked with the client company at some point in the past to re-establish a relationship. Once the relationship status becomes active, account servicing returns to the client company. This sales method also works for accounts that perhaps “slip through the cracks” of more senior sales reps and go ignored.
New Account Sales
Some companies will use b2b sales outsourcing to develop new accounts. In this case, the outsource sales team will generate and follow-up on leads, as well as making initial cold calls that will ultimately turn into sales. Once an initial sale is generated, the account switches to an in-house representative or account manager. Follow-up and customer service is handled by the client company, freeing the sales professional to continue prospecting for additional business. Activity in prospecting is one of the keys to sales success and splitting these roles.
Full Cycle Sales
Some companies will outsource the entire sales force. In this regard, the client hands off all sales functions from lead generation to account management to the outsourced sales team. This method is best for smaller companies who are doing a product launch or are not as familiar with developing a sales strategy and bringing a product to market.
As you can see – outsourced sales services offer a number of different sales strategies that can help your business to fast-track sales. If your business is seeing sales failure and boosting sales is on your agenda, consider b2b sales outsourcing!
February 28, 2010 – 12:11 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.
February 26, 2010 – 12:49 pm
As companies look to Outsourced Sales Solutions as a way to increase their sales, they quickly realize that these solutions can come in many different flavors. The following are just a sampling of the different types of solutions out there:
Lead Generation/Appointment Setting:
For those organizations that have an existing outside sales force but need more consistency when it comes to “qualified” opportunities, outsourced lead generation/appointment setting is a great option. Once the lead/opportunity is created, it is the company’s outside sales force responsibility to qualify, pitch and take them to a close.
Face-to-Face Sales Outsourcing:
This solution is great for companies that don’t have sales infrastructure in specific markets and that need face to face sales presence. Typically this type of outsourced sales solution is perfect for companies that sell different commodities (office supplies, VOIP phone and internet solutions, coffee and water services, etc.) and target the SMB market place.
Full Cycle Sales Outsourcing:
Full Cycle Sales Outsourcing (aka. “cold call to close”) services are ideal for companies that are looking to launch new products, that don’t have proper sales infrastructure (recruiting, sales management, lead services, CRM, marketing support) or to even just complement their internal sales efforts. With this type of sales outsourcing solution company’s basically get a “turn key” sales solution without having the capital expenditure.
Happy Selling!
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