Archive for category Business Challenges
5 Reasons to Outsource the Sales and Marketing Function of Your Business
Posted by Mike Faherty in B2B Marketing, Business Challenges, Sales Strategies on October 7, 2011
The reasons to outsource your sales and marketing functions to an expert sales and marketing company are many. For most businesses the reasons are also unique. Outsourcing the early stage demand generation or sales appointment setting might be all that is needed and, for other businesses, outsourcing the complete sales process all the way through order-capture and account management is the right move.
Regardless of your unique business requirements, below are some of the benefits of leveraging an outsourced sales and marketing company to expand your business.
- Trust – Add local and experienced sales and marketing experts to the business team without the cost and long-term commitment of recruiting and hiring directly.
- Speed – Bring a talented and experienced sales team on line in a fraction of the time it would take to recruit and hire from your Headquarters.
- Cost – Outsourcing the sales and marketing allows a business to expand the sales and marketing team quickly at a fraction of the cost of hiring internally and building the infrastructure to support a growing sales team.
- Flexibility – One of the great advantages of outsourcing is the ability to scale the effort up or down easily based on the business circumstances. Whether you need to double the sales force or the business wants to shift investment to a different market or priority it can be as simple as a phone call.
- Results – A well-structured program will have realistic goals and objectives that can quickly enable companies to accelerate new business revenue. Also, by allowing the business to focus on its core business, an outsourced sales and marketing program can have a positive impact on business productivity and revenue generation in your existing markets as well.
At the end of the day, you need the best resources you can afford to grow your business. Outsourcing is a great way to leverage up your resources to quickly and efficiently expand your business.
Enter the US Market with an Outsourced Sales Partner
Posted by Mike Faherty in B2B Marketing, Business Challenges, Sales Strategies on September 21, 2011
Over the years our company, ProSales Connection has worked with businesses based in other parts of the world that wanted to enter the US market, but thought that the effort and cost required was prohibitive for start-ups and smaller, fast growing businesses. But, that is simply not the case anymore.
For emerging companies, particularly technology oriented businesses, the real “brain-power” inside the organizations is usually dedicated to product development and servicing existing critical clients. There simply isn’t the bandwidth, “know-how” or funds available to build an entirely new marketing and sales force on the other side of the world to penetrate this new market.
Businesses that need to expand to the US in order to capture the sales volume needed to establish a viable business or to attract funding are often overwhelmed with the task of building a team on another continent.
Business leaders in this situation struggle with concerns like:
- Time zone challenges
- Travel expenses
- Local business regulations (taxes and licenses)
- How to manage the productivity of the employees
- Local business customs and culture
- Language barriers
- Recruiting
- Employee performance management
These are just a few of the challenges businesses face when expanding internationally to the United States.
For businesses that need to expand into the US market from places like New Zealand, Australia, India, China, Russia, Germany, UK and South America there is an alternative to building and internal sales and marketing organization in the US.
Outsourcing the Sales Function
Many businesses today are choosing to outsource the sales function to an outsourced sales partner based in the United States with experience bringing new products and technologies to the market for their clients.
Some of the advantages of outsourcing the sales function to a firm in the US are obvious:
- Quick start – often in just a couple weeks a sales team can be up and running
- Local expertise – a professional firm will have established business networks and expertise that they can leverage immediately
- Turn-key operation – Programs can be easily budgeted for
- Skilled sales force/Management – An experienced sales force that is managed and driven to meet your business goal and objectives.
- Flexibility – An outsourced sales partner offers the ability to “turn-up, turn-down or turn-off” the program if business circumstances change.
At ProSales Connection, we specialize is working with international businesses, particularly New Zealand and Australian based businesses that have great technologies that need a dedicated sales and marketing effort in the US to take their business to the next level.
If you have a business based outside the US and you are planning to enter the US market, consider outsourcing the sales and business development function to an established and experienced firm while you keep your focus on product development and growing your business in your established local markets.
How to Lead a Successful Sales Meeting
Posted by Mike Faherty in Business Challenges, Sales Strategies on July 11, 2011
If you have ever had a horrible sales meeting with a prospect where nothing seems to go your way (and we all have), then you have probably made one of these common mistakes. There are 3 common mistakes sales people make during sales meetings. These mistakes are bound to ruin a potentially great sales meeting.
These mistakes are:
- Not qualifying the people in the room
- Not understanding the need/pain
- Selling too soon
Of course, there are many components to a successful sales meeting in general. However, for the purposes of this three-part post, we’ll focus on introductions, understanding the pain, and selling too soon. Before we can get into the body of the meeting, we have to get the sales meeting off to a great start by leading the group through introductions.
Mistake: Not Qualifying the Meeting Participants
Occasionally, when you have a sales meeting, your customer point of contact will take it upon herself to invite others from the organization to join the meeting that you may not have met yet. In most cases this should be taken as a positive gesture and an indication that you have created some interest or at least some curiosity within the account.
However, this now larger audience with unfamiliar faces can be a double-edged sword and can sometimes become overwhelming. As a sales manager, I have watched many a sales people skip a critical step in conducting their meeting… They neglect to ask everyone in the room to introduce themselves.
This is a critical mistake, for several reasons. We will explore four of these reasons below.
#1: Don’t Be Rude
To begin, let’s get the basics out of the way first. To speak to a room full of people and not being introduced to each one is simply rude and even if you think it’s not a big deal in today’s business world, it is likely that one of them will be disappointed and you can’t afford to get off on the wrong foot with anyone. Like they say, “One bad apple ruins the bunch.” So mind your manners and introduce yourself to each person in the room.
#2: Shine a Light on the “Spy”
I have seen and heard of this happening often enough to include this point here. It is not uncommon for your competitor and/or your prospect’s current vendor to be so critical to the organization’s operation that they are seen as a virtual member of the team. These vendor contacts are often included in internal meetings as a regular practice. Regardless of their trusted advisor status, their first goal will always be self-preservation. If your competitor has been invited to your meeting to hear your presentation, it will be important to identify them in the room and be prepared for them to challenge your claims and to politely point out your limitations as it relates to their solution or service. Ask for each person to introduce themselves and their responsibilities so you are not caught off-guard later in the meeting by someone threatened by your solution.
#3: Sort out the Roles
As you go around the room during introductions, take the time to ask people to clarify their responsibility and how they relate to the topic you plan to present. You are looking to identify some key roles:
- Your Champion – This person likely helped you set/organize the meeting.
- The Influencer – Their opinions are valued. This is often the Dept. Manager.
- The User – This person is concerned with how a decision to purchase your product/service will impact their life. They ask themselves, “Will this make my job easier/harder/obsolete?”
- The Decision Maker – This is usually the person with budget authority.
#4: Selling Deep and Wide
Finally, by understanding the role each person plays in an organization, you improve your chances of earning more business at the account. Use the contacts you create in the meeting to spin-up opportunities in other areas of the business. Build relationships with influencers and users by asking for ways you can help them immediately solve a problem. Can you volunteer a technical resource to answer a question? Can you provide a document or white paper that provides some insight? Can you give away a free trail of software or authorize a diagnostic of an existing tool or process? Look for ways to convert these people to fans of you and your business. These relationships may benefit you on your current opportunity or be the seed for other opportunities elsewhere in the organization.
In future blogs we will explore some of the other common mistakes sales people make in sales meetings. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
What are the other benefits of taking time for introductions at the start of a sales meeting?
What’s Your Problem? – Part 1 “Fix it”
Posted by Mike Faherty in Business Challenges on August 17, 2009
Most small and emerging businesses have a strong core competency. There is something that the business does that makes the business successful. It could be the way you deliver your solution, it might be the design of your product or it could be your total customer experience. Regardless of what it is at your company, the point is that every organization has its strengths and conversely, each business has its weaknesses.
When a business has a weakness that is hindering its potential, it is important to address the weakness quickly and get back to focusing on your strengths.
There are a number of ways to address a business weakness.
1. Fix it
2. Support it
3. Replace it
In this blog I will focus on the first of these 3 approaches to addressing challenges inside your business.
Fix it – In most cases the people who are closest to the problem are the people with the answers to how to solve the problem. Below is the process we use at ProSales Connection to address weaknesses or issues within our business operation and when we have determined that the issues needs to be solved with a “Fix it” approach.
1. Make sure that the people close to the problem understand that you are not satisfied and set the correct expectations for what your vision is for this area of the business.
2. Challenge the team to think creatively to identify one or more solutions to the problem.
3. Empower the team to implement the change after careful consideration of the proposed solutions.
4. Measure your success. Make sure to regularly check that the proscribed change is being adopted and that the operation has not slid back into comfortable mediocrity.
5. Reward the team that proposed and implemented the solution. Make sure you recognize the creativity and effort employed to improve the business.
In the next few weeks I will continue to elaborate on the other 2 options for addressing weaknesses in your business. I encourage your feedback and thoughts on my view point. The more interactive the better!
Until next time…
Mike Faherty
ProSales Connection
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