No matter how great your product or service is, if you don't have people using and buying what you produce, you go out of business. So how do you set up an efficient sales and marketing machine, on a limited budget? Do you have experience in sales management? Would you know how to maximize the potential of a good sales person?

So why is it important to have someone with sales management experience in a company? Those of you with sales experience will know the answers, however, if you do not have experience in sales, let me ask you the following questions; Low risk – low cost – high return!

• Would you know the characteristics of a good sales person?
• Can you easily spot when someone is telling you a lie?
• If a sale was dragging on, would you know what questions to ask to find out why?
• Have you ever been paid commission, do you think sales people are overpaid?
• If a sales person was not performing, would you fire them and get a new sales person?
• How would you define not performing, in the previous question?
• Have you ever used and do you understand the value of a sales process?

The answers to questions like these come as second nature to an experienced Sales Director or Manager. Over 90% of the most successful companies in the world have experienced sales directors on their management board.

But what if you don't have global ambitions, or just can't afford to hire a full time sales manager? And even if you did want to hire one, how could you be sure that the person you hired would be worth the money?

How do you make the case for sales management outsourcing?

Like any purchasing decision, you need to ensure that you get value for money. If you bear in mind that the reason you would even consider investing in sales or marketing in the first place, is to increase revenue and profit, then do these calculations first.

How much additional revenue do you wish to generate, and by when. What is your margin on that? How much profit does that put in your pocket?

Now how much of that are you willing to spend? One of the issues apart from the loss of time and cash flow in making a mistake in hiring is the actual cost of hiring fees and monthly base salary. This is a cost even before a single additional sales is generated.

If you could get the sales execution focus of a sales director for a fraction of the monthly cost of a full time hire, paid them on performance and have the ability to part company on a month's notice, without any employer liability – would that not be attractive.

If you said yes – than that is the beauty of outsourcing your sales management function.

Low risk – low cost – high return!

What do you get when you outsource sales management?

On a weekly basis, the sales manager will speak with the sales team, to determine the status of your sales opportunities. Everything in that meeting will be focused on closing sales, or ensuring opportunities are moving along the pipeline. The key advantages of this are as follows:

• Identification of strengths and weaknesses amongst your sales team, whatever the size, ensuring you are maximising return for your spend
• Shorten sales cycles, thus increasing revenue and cash flow
• Optimise the time your sales team spend on given opportunities, so that they can spend more time closing profitable opportunities
• Accurate information, based on sales both won and lost, which can be used by product planning and service teams.
• Ongoing coaching and training based on your real opportunities, which makes your team the envy of the industry, and thus enables you to attract the best.
• Identification of a team member who can take over the role of sales manager, so that you promote from within, which is fantastic for morale and motivation.

Several companies are already outsourcing their sales management function to 3R Sales and Marketing, for further information, take a look at interim sales management.

This article was written by Peter Lawless, founder of 3R Sales and Marketing - www.3r.ie. For previous articles like this, visit 3R's Articles. Alternatively, subscribe to Success our free monthly Information Bulletin with sales and marketing articles.

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