Outsourcing

Ashwillan

Hi. I am setting up an operation to offer sales acceleration & business development services to small businesses, who may not want to take the risk of hiring their own sales person/team, or who may just want to focus on their core strengths. Pricing will be based on a small monthly retainer + commission for booked sales.
I'd appreciate any comments / feedback / suggestions anyone might have to make about this type of service offering. Thanks.

Mr Clonfadda

I used a crowd called greatguns once for cold calling worked quite well but i paid a fee for certain amount of days. I don't do retainers only pay for work done but thats just my opinion.

MB74

Ashwillan wrote: »

Hi. I am setting up an operation to offer sales acceleration & business development services to small businesses, who may not want to take the risk of hiring their own sales person/team, or who may just want to focus on their core strengths. Pricing will be based on a small monthly retainer + commission for booked sales.
I'd appreciate any comments / feedback / suggestions anyone might have to make about this type of service offering. Thanks.

The idea is always good, for small to medium size business who don't want to make a large commitment to a dedicated sales staff. How do you perceive overcoming specific industry knowledge not held by the individual making the cold call?

Michael

elgransenor

Ashwillan wrote: »

Hi. I am setting up an operation to offer sales acceleration & business development services to small businesses, who may not want to take the risk of hiring their own sales person/team, or who may just want to focus on their core strengths. Pricing will be based on a small monthly retainer + commission for booked sales.
I'd appreciate any comments / feedback / suggestions anyone might have to make about this type of service offering. Thanks.

Good idea.
I would be interested in using you in a little while for a new business I am trying to put together.
However what about the question of the knowledgeability of your staff as another poster has raised?

Mr Clonfadda

That was the problem i found with service. Contracted sales person had no clue about product but when used as an introduction can be helpful.

lanod2407

Do you have a system / process to capture the sales generated by your efforts?
Would it be possible for a compnay to say that some of the sales would have happened anyway and not want to pay?

Good idea though - I've taken on a person on an ad hoc basis to work the sales and marketing process for me. It's certainly worth doing as I have no experience in the area and the ideas & advice she comes up with are great and I know its outside my capability right now.

Ashwillan

Thanks for those responses. The service we want to provide is a sales acceleration service - so we would work with a company to build the sles infrastructure they will need to reach their sales projections. That part of the service is generic and not product specific. Where we provide pipeline management and lead / prospect generation services, we would take it as far as the sales meeting, then we would want someone from the company (probably coached by us) to make the sales presentation. Its very hard to replicate the passion that the business owner has for the product/service and that is very compelling in a sales demo, as long as the sales presentation is structured correctly, this is a great recipe for success.
The problem with the fee for introductions as opposed to the retainer is that the quality of prospect is better when you pay a retainer, i.e. theres an incentive to get quality as opposed to quantity. I have started up atechnology business myself and the services we offer and the way we offer them are based on my own experiences of what worked for me and waht didn't work. Absence of sales skills is ahige gap for a lot of start up businesses nowadays.