A sales organization’s sales ratios are the ratios between the numbers in your sales funnel. These ratios are essential data needed to understand how to improve performance, measure results and can help identify where to make strategic investments.

Step 1: Understand your ratios

Every business is different and the sales stages can vary dramatically. We usually suggest starting with your target market. How many potential clients will you market to this year/quarter/month? Then determine how many of those contacts you can qualify as having a need for your product or service over a period of time. That is your first ratio. Now identify the stages each sale goes through before it is closed as a won deal. The ratios between these numbers are your sales ratios.

Step 2: Measure your ratios

For instance, let’s say you have a technology product that is sold to schools and you have identified 200 school districts that you want to sell your product to in your territory. After reviewing your historical data (or estimating) you determine that you can qualify 40 new leads out of these 200 target accounts. You have now determined the first ratio is 5:1 or 20%.

After reviewing your sales process, it is clear that your next sales stage is a face to face meeting to demonstrate your product. So your next ratio will be the percentage of the 40 qualified leads you have identified that will agree to meet with your sales rep for a presentation.

Let’s say that the ratio is again 5:1 or 20%. So that means you can plan to meet with 8 prospects out of every 40 that you qualify.

Next, you know from experience that if you meet face to face with a prospect, 38% of the time that meeting will result in a new sales opportunity being created. So, your ratio is 8:3 and you will have 3 new sales opportunities to pursue

Finally, because your sales people are so skilled at selling and your product’s competitive advantages are so clear, you typically close 33% of all qualified opportunities. Your close ratio is 3:1. Therefore, in this example, you will win one new account. That is 1 new account for every 200 target accounts identified.

200 Targets > 40 Qualified Prospect > 8 Sales meetings > 3 Opportunities >1 New Account

This list of ratios is commonly represented as a funnel because it narrows as you work through the sales process.

Step 3: Improve your ratios

Now that you have determined/estimated what your sales ratios are, you can leverage this data to help you make business decisions on hiring, training, coaching, and marketing investments to name a few. The insight these sales numbers provide will allow you to create tangible action plans to improve your sales team’s effectiveness.

I recommend as a starting point, you should identify the 2 ratios that you believe through coaching and professional development can be improved the quickest/easiest and mount an effort to create a measurable improvement in those ratios.

In the example above, by improving the ratio of targets to qualified prospects by just 10% from 20% to 30% and qualified prospects to sales meetings by another 10% from 20% to 30% you will double the number of new accounts closed without improving the close rate at all!

200 Targets >60 Qualified Prospects > 18 Sales Meetings > 7.2 Opportunities > 2.3 New Accounts.

Without a solid understanding of your sales ratios, sales managers almost always go straight to the end of the funnel for improvement. They focus a disproportionate amount of time and resources on the close rate. When in the case of my example above, a significant return was found making moderate improvements in early stage ratios.

The point is; by understanding, measuring and continually striving to improve your sales ratios you can have a huge impact on your revenue and quota performance.

TIP: Consider what other investments can be made that will have an impact on these ratios. Perhaps by investing in market research you could identify 200 target accounts that are more likely to be qualified. Or, by leveraging a professional appointment setting firm the ratio of qualified prospects to sales meetings could be increased.

That is a pretty dramatic number… far shorter than most would guess!

There are obvious things sales managers get fired for like; not making quota, inappropriate use of company resources, and poor cultural fit with the organization… just to name a few. This post will explore the things that sales managers DON’T DO that can end their tenure with their company prematurely as well.

Not inspiring – We know that the role of the sales manager is to take the company’s vision and values and make them real by giving them context. A sales manager has to find ways to inspire her sales team around these values and create a shared vision. This gives the team a foundation for how they will work together and how they will interact with their clients and prospects. Inspiration has the potential to transform an average sales organization into one that consistently over-achieves. When ignored, consistent success is hard to find.

Not getting the right people on the bus – As a sales manager, your responsibility is to build the best team possible… one that can exceed the expectations of the organization. This might mean making difficult decision to remove members from the team that are not performing or are not invested in improving themselves or their teammates. This might also mean taking the time and placing particular emphasis on attracting the very best new team members to the team. Not building a great team will almost certainly cost sales leaders their job sooner or later.

Not coaching…every day – Coaching is the most important role of the sales leader. This goes for all levels of sales leadership, not just the frontline managers. Every day there are opportunities to coach and to teach your team to improve. High performing sales professionals also need expert coaching support from their managers to stay at the top of their game as well. Here are a few best practices:

• Sales managers should speak to their sales reps one-on-one every week.
• Sales managers should be in the field or on the phone weekly helping the rep prepare for meetings, attending meetings and debriefing after the sales meetings.
• Key performance indicators should be reviewed at least on a monthly basis and this data should be used to easily identify areas of concern and opportunities for improvement.

Coaching is a huge topic, so if it is not an area of strength for you today please go investigate this further. Remember, coaching is not about what needs to be done, but rather how to do it.

Not ending the elephant hunt – Sales managers (like sales reps) can get sucked into the exciting world of “elephant hunting” and more often than not they fall prey to their own short-sightedness. Don’t get me wrong, every healthy pipeline should have a few huge, quota-busting deals on it. However, if your sales pipeline is not at least 3 times your quota WITHOUT the elephants, you are playing with fire. Elephants (huge, low probability deals) have longer sales cycles than most sales people will admit and because of their poor close rates, most sales leaders factor them too heavily into the forecast. By the way, missing the forecast consistently is another great way to get an early exit from your sales leader role.

Not empowering their people – By enabling the members of your team to act and to make decisions, you create an environment of empowerment and action. This can super-charge a sales team and increase sales results dramatically. Sales managers who tightly control the flow of information to their teams and require too many sign-offs to respond to a client take the spirit out of a team and restrict performance. There is a chance that fewer mistakes will be made, but what is that worth to you?

With that being said, empowerment is only effective when there is a culture of consistent and effective coaching. Help your people understand how to make sound business decisions and then empower them to execute with authority. When mistakes are made, address them quickly with an emphasis on how to avoid the mistakes in the future.

Sales leaders are only as successful as their teams. The top-down autocratic sales manager has been replaced with a sales leader that inspires, builds great teams, coaches and empowers. To be successful in the sales leadership role you must deliver results. To deliver consistent results you have to leverage the full potential of your team.

What are some of the other mistakes sales leaders make that can get them fired?

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Wish you had one of these?

For most businesses, getting their expert sales people in front of new business prospects is the secret to fast growth and long-term business success. The challenge is, most seasoned sales people are so busy supporting their existing clients that they don’t have the time to prospect for new business. So they end up trying to leverage their network to grow their account base. This will obviously work to a certain extent, but this approach usually leads to slower growth than what is desired by the business owner, general manager, or executive team.

On the flip side, the junior sales person in most sales organizations has little prospecting experience and their closing skills are still being developed, so their efforts are usually mixed at best.

So what is the solution?

For the last 15-20 years, the answer for many businesses has been to outsource the appointment setting or lead generation to a telemarketing company. In some industries like the technology reseller or IT channel partners, these services are subsidized by the manufactures. However, over the last 5 years or so, these telemarketing firms have grown complacent and so ingrained into the fabric of the manufactures that indirectly fund them that their effectiveness is never questioned.

In the case of Technology VARs, the expectations are so low for these programs that many are satisfied with receiving just a few sales meetings over a quarter-long campaign!

There are 3 things that need to be in place for a successful outsourced sales appointment setting campaign.

1. Integration with the business
2. Systematic and frequent reviews of the campaign
3. Focus on making connections and not on finding “deals”

Integration with the business

Let’s start with the obvious… it’s difficult to schedule sales appointments or to generate quality leads. This task gets even harder when you are a third party organization. That is why we recommend partnering with a marketing company that you can trust and treat them like an internal organization. When the inside sales team making calls for the business can approach the prospect without the baggage of “calling on behalf of” or “representing YOUR COMPANY, Inc.” the quality and the success of a program improves considerably.

Systematic and frequent reviews of the campaign

When a marketing company is talking with your target prospects it is important to have a predictable process for reviewing the program results and collaborating to ensure a successful partnership. The business should plan to review the program at least every 2 weeks whether the program is going well or not. Part of these meetings should be spent discussing sales objections, market news as well as the meeting or lead volume and quality. Also, share the wins that come out of the meetings with your marketing partner. These success stories are motivating to everyone involved!

Focus on making connections and not on finding “deals”

This element of a successful partnership with an appointment setting firm comes from an acknowledgement that there is only so much that can be accomplished on a cold call. Cold calls should be used primarily to build credibility, create interest, and gather high level qualifications then to set a “discovery meeting.” In an effort to measure short-term ROI, Marketers who invest in outsourced lead generation services too often want to skip the discovery step and move straight from the cold call to a sales presentation. By placing too many restrictions on the qualification of an acceptable meeting or lead, the number of new business opportunities generated is limited and more importantly, the ultimate return on investment is short-changed.

Trust your sales people that when they get in front of a business decision maker at a qualified company that they will ignite a new business relationship and find an opportunity even if the opportunity is further out on the horizon than is desired.

New business is new business whether is closed in 30 days or next year.

Check out our FREE white paper, 5 Secrets of a Successful Cold Call

Each critical business decision can be made quickly and relatively easily if you first ask yourself these three questions:

Business leaders must make decisions quickly

Is this this good for the business?

After all, as a business leader you are responsible, in part, for the success of your company. You are obligated to reject any proposals that you believe will cause harm to the business. If you can’t see how the business benefits from the decision you are considering you must be willing to say no.

Is this good for the customer?

We must keep the customer “in the room” when making strategic decisions. Take a moment to consider how your decision will impact your customers. So often, businesses ignore or never consider how a decision will affect their customer base. Make sure you have considered if your decision will improve customer experience or negatively impact it. Be aware of the “law of unintended consequences.” How might this decision impact the customer that is not immediately obvious? Ask this question and until you are satisfied with the answers.

Is this good for me?

As selfish as this may sound, it is important to understand how a decision will impact you personally and/or professionally. Will it make your ability to service internal or external clients easier or more difficult? Will it impact other responsibilities or commitments you have already made? How will it impact your career or earning potential?

If you can’t say yes to these three simple questions when evaluating an important business decision then more work is required before a decision can be made. Look for ways to adjust the circumstances so that you can answer yes to each question.

At the end of the day, if you have to give the go ahead when you can only say yes to 1 or 2 questions (as will happen from time to time) at least you will be completely aware of the risks involved.

BEWARE: A decision that seems good for you and either good for the business or customer but not both will potentially blow up in your face and ultimately make it a bad decision for you. Shoot for all three and you will usually come out ahead.

Do you have a simple process for making business decisions? Do you agree or disagree with the above approach? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Ready - Set - Sell!!!

Recently, a small business owner approached me with a challenge he was facing in his business. His business was growing and he was in the process of transitioning out of the role of primary sales person and had hired an experienced sales person to replace himself.

He was excited about this milestone for his company, but never having led a sales person before, he was anxious about how to help his new sales person become successful in his company. Like most entrepreneurs, certain elements of running the company come naturally to him, but building and leading sales team was not one of them. He credits his sales success to his hunger (literally) and passion (obviously).

So when he called me with the question, “How do I make sure my new sales guy is prepared and stays motivated while he builds a pipeline of his own?” I thought I would use this opportunity to briefly review the 10 steps needed to bring a sales person up to speed quickly.

1. Determine the sales persons financial goals – Think in terms of annual goals and break it down quarterly and monthly from there. If the sales cycle is shorter than 30 days or is transactional in nature, weekly or daily goals may be appropriate.
2. Focus on the core – Establish a plan to quickly educate the sales person on your core offerings. This is more than handing them a stack of sales collateral. Even if no formal product or service marketing materials exist, invest the time required to make sure the new person is comfortable with your businesses value proposition and differentiators. Review this often and don’t be afraid to role play to check for understanding.
3. Train them on the internal business processes and culture – getting this out of the way quickly lessens the wasted cycles and accelerates integration. Remember to ask the new employee to share their experience with a focus on identifying opportunities to improve. New employees bring with them tons of experience from other companies. Don’t waist an opportunity to learn how to improve your business with this information.
4. 90 day marketing plan - Have the employee create a 90 day marketing plan that aligns to the goals you have already given them. Work-shopping this with the employee will help them get a better feel for what your expectations are and how you make decisions. This is invaluable to the employee.
5. Be realistic with the goals – For a new sales person, missing early sales targets is discouraging and can serve to demotivate. Balance setting practical goals with giving the employee the opportunity to “feel” successful early.
6. Check-in often, but don’t micro-manage - Schedule morning check-in calls/meetings for the first few weeks to make sure bad habits don’t take root and that little questions can be answered quickly. Make these conversations priority. Missing these calls will send the message that you do not think they are important. Spread these calls out to weekly after a few weeks, but keep them on the schedule even if they don’t seem necessary. Great sales people want to give you the impression that they have everything under control, but you can break through this façade with just a couple challenging questions. Use real issues from your inbox to spark conversations and talk them through.
7. Don’t answer every question - Resist the temptation to answer every question and take the time to ask the sales person what he/she thinks would be the best way to handle difficult situations or problems. By investing a few more minutes to help coach them through the decision process you use, they will make better decisions. This means less time in your office looking for help and more time taking care of clients and growing the business.
8. Inspect what you expect - If you give the sales person a task or a deadline, make sure that you follow-up and that it is completed. Any time you hand out tasks make sure there is a specific time when you expect that task to be completed by. When you give out tasks and don’t follow-up on them, you tell them it is not important. In time these task no longer become priority and are not completed. This is a slippery slope that is hard to reverse.
9. 10 meetings – Help them get their first 10 meetings as soon as they are at about 60% – 80% ready. There is no better learning experience than these first 10 meetings. Help them prepare for each and take the time to debrief after each one. Enlist non-sales team member to join these meetings to add support. Send the head of finance or HR. This will improve the connections between sales and other functional parts of the team while providing the rep with some high level support for his/her first few meetings.
10. Fire quickly – If it is not a good fit and you know it on day 2. Admit it and correct it quickly. It is best for the employee and for the business.

Follow these steps when adding new sales people to your business and you will have less employee turnover and will dramatically shorten the time required for a new sales person to be productive.

This list could have had 50 actions on it… What are some of the others ways to ensure a new sales person’s success.

Don't be this guy!

I thought I would start today’s blog on ways to never get past the gatekeeper when cold calling with a sports analogy.

If the process of selling was a basketball game, moving beyond the gatekeeper is akin to the inbound play. The offense can’t move the ball or score until they can effectively pass the ball into the field of play and maintain possession. Although I make the point below that the gatekeeper is NOT THE ENEMY, they are in effect playing defense and your role is to find a way past the defense to engage the decision maker.

Below is a list of 19 strategies for getting past the gatekeeper that are virtually guaranteed not to work long term.

1. Don’t deceive – Telling the gatekeeper a lie may get you past the gatekeeper, but you will never sell them anything. You remove credibility and you can’t start a successful business relationship with a lie. If you define success as having a conversation with the prospect, then you might feel like deceiving the gatekeeper to get access to the decision maker is a success. However, if success is a landing a new loyal client, this approach is not recommended.
2. Don’t be a jerk – Talking down to a gatekeeper is not a winning strategy either. At times they will let you past them, but what do you think they say to their boss when you get off the phone with him/her? Do you think you are good enough to get someone to buy from you after offending their most trusted employee? I don’t think so.
3. Don’t say you know the prospect when you don’t – If you don’t know the prospect, don’t tell the gatekeeper that you do. If you didn’t meet him at a trade show last quarter or if you didn’t play golf with her recently don’t say that you did.
4. Don’t tell the gatekeeper you have an appointment when you don’t – The gatekeeper is often the keeper of the prospect’s calendar. This is a rookie move and is impossible to recover from.
5. Don’t bull rush the gatekeeper – I define bull rush as not giving the gatekeeper an opportunity to object and using a tone of self-importance. It might include something like, “Just put me through now.”
6. Don’t be intimidated – If you sound like you shouldn’t be speaking to the prospect, you never will. Just be confident that you have something of real value to say to the prospect.
7. Don’t be sneaky – Fishing around and not telling the gatekeeper who you are or what company you are with when asked falls into this category.
8. Don’t forget their name – Using the gatekeeper’s name once or twice during your short conversation will help you build rapport and will do wonders for your second call if you are not able to get through on your first attempt.
9. Don’t be stressed – Just relax. The gatekeeper can sense when you are nervous, and if you are nervous to speak to the gatekeeper, they will never let you through to speak to their boss.
10. Don’t read a script – Reading is a dead-end approach. Practice your opening line and then role-play with your boss/spouse/colleagues how you will respond to the 3-4 most common objections you expect to hear from the gatekeeper.
11. Don’t wing it – Have a goal for every call you make. Know exactly what you want to accomplish with every conversation you attempt to have. It is too hard to get people on the phone these days to not capitalize on each conversation.
12. Don’t treat them like the enemy – The gatekeeper is not the enemy. They are simply doing their job. Don’t give them any reason to not connect you with the prospect. Treat them with respect and give them credit for their position.
13. Don’t sound like a sales rep – Decision makers talk with one another at an “eye-to-eye” level. Sound relaxed, confident and friendly. If you sound like your rent is counting on getting through, the gatekeeper will sense it and shut you down.
14. Don’t stop listening, just because they are the gatekeeper – Pay attention to everything the gatekeeper says. They often will pass along clues and bits of information that can be useful when you do speak to your prospect or decision maker.
15. Don’t sell to the gatekeeper – You might need to explain your reason for calling, but don’t “pitch to the gatekeeper.” If they ask for more information after your short explanation of the reason for your call you might counter by asking them to explain how they are involved in the decision making process. I call this charging for information. Don’t give information away without asking for information in return.
16. Don’t underestimate the gatekeeper’s influence – In smaller companies people wear lots of different hats. In large organizations gatekeepers can carry tremendous influence over an executive’s time and priorities. Don’t assume the gatekeeper is not involved in the decision. Treat them with respect and you will never have a “Pretty Woman” moment.
17. Don’t get too personal – You want to build rapport, but some sales people go too far and waste valuable selling time building relationships with gatekeepers. Keep your eye on the prize.
18. Don’t give up – Gatekeepers are a part of the fabric of sales. There is not a silver bullet for moving beyond the gatekeeper, but a successful sales person must remain committed to prospecting if they are to have any significant long-term success.
19. Don’t burn the bridge – Burning the bridge with a gatekeeper is a fatal mistake. At small companies gatekeepers get promoted to decision making positions and at large companies gatekeepers move to support different executives. Worse yet, gatekeepers are often promoted along with the executives that they support. Burning a bridge with a gatekeeper could lock you out of a potential client for years.

For some additional reading on Gatekeepers, please check out the following articles. One published by me recently and the other by one of my personal favorite sales experts Anthony Iannarino.

From Mike Faherty – 3 Ways to Make Gatekeepers Love You

From Anthony Iannarino – The Gatekeeper

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Simon Cowell

One of the most intimidating scenarios that professional sales people find themselves in is selling to an expert. At times it can feel like standing on the American Idol stage being judged by Simon Cowell.

Business prospects that are experts in their field have a tendency to make even the most confident sales people fearful of not being able to answer a technical question or inadvertently saying the wrong thing and looking foolish.

In some industries like technology, finance and other complex solution sales environments it is common that your client will have a deeper and more seasoned understanding of the technical nuances of the industry or even your specific solution than you do. It is just a fact of life.

For instance, a CIO at a fortune 500 company will almost always have a deeper technical background than your average technology account manager. You might have a better understanding of your niche or your specific suite of products but that might be where your advantage ends.

So, how do successful sales people handle these types of sales scenarios? After all, you are going to have to go through an expert if you want to close big deals and blow out your number, right?

Here are 3 things you need to do to sell to an expert effectively:

1. Let them be the expert – It may sound simple but don’t get sucked into a pointless game of “who’s the smartest!” This is what the negotiating books call a “lose-lose scenario.” If you win and prove you are smarter or as smart, you have likely just lost. Acknowledge the expert’s experience and expertise early in the meeting and give him/her the opportunity to “flex” a little and show-off a bit. People like to impress an eager audience and by asking the right questions you can learn all you need to know to make the case for your solution when the time is right.
2. Known your own product or service – You don’t have to be an engineer, but you shouldn’t be tripped up by simple features and functions. Knowing the “speeds and feeds” is simply table stakes for a good discussion with an expert. They will likely test you on this early in the discussion to size you up. Don’t fail and be confident.
3. Focus on the solution – If you can effectively extract the specific issues the expert is experiencing and can keep the conversation focused on the business impact and not the technical minutia you will have much better long-term success with these expert clients. To do this effectively you need to do your homework on the business, be able to articulate how similar organizations have used your solution to solve essential business problems. You must listen carefully to identify the business challenges they are not ready to come straight out and admit to a sales person.

Selling to experts is challenging but if you are going to make a difference for your company and earn the big commissions you will have to skillfully navigate these types of scenarios with confidence.

What strategies do you use to sell to experts?

The Keys to Moving Beyond the Gatekeeper

The question I get asked the most about cold calling by professional sales people is for strategies to get past gatekeepers. It is a tricky task that can frustrate even the most successful sales people. However, if growing your business is the goal, then you will have to find more new clients. That means you will have to pick up the phone and make cold calls, thus conversations with gatekeepers will be inevitable.

The first thing to remember about gatekeepers is that they are people too. They are not just a barrier that has to be overcome at all costs. This attitude will backfire eventually and makes for a frustrating day on the phones.

So, the question then becomes how to move beyond the gatekeeper and speak with your prospective client.

#1 – Treat them like the expert

Talk to the gatekeeper like you would any influencer to the decision process to buy your solution. Don’t underestimate their knowledge and input into the major decisions your target prospect makes. Give them credit for their role in the process and assume it is a major role.

#2 – Appeal to their sense of wanting to help

I always start a conversation with a gatekeeper with some variation of, “I bet you can help me out…” people want to be helpful and gatekeepers have usually earned their position in part because of their resourcefulness. Appeal to this talent and you might find them being an advocate for you and not an adversary.

#3 – A little humor never hurt anyone

Nothing breaks down barriers like a smile or laughter. A little humor can humanize you to a gatekeeper and quickly separate you from all the “drones” and “script-readers” the gatekeeper has to deal with every day. I am not talking about telling them a “knock-knock joke,” but maybe you make a funny observation about the awkwardness of this “dance” the two of you are engaged in or you comment on how grateful you are to speak to a live person and not a machine.

WARNING: If no one has ever accused you of being funny, this might not be the best time to break-out your comedy material… stick to the first 2 strategies and you will be fine!

What strategies do you use to get beyond the gatekeeper?

Before the date you are anxious and excited, but you have prepped for success. You know exactly how you are going to start the conversation and if the conversation lags, you have thought-out questions to help you get to know your date a little better; to understand their background, to determine where they are at this point in their life, and to inspire the sharing of future plans.

Then you have the date. It goes great. You have butterflies at the end and you talk about meetings again soon. Then comes the problem… you’re not sure exactly when or how best to connect with them again.

This follow-up step is not only critical in romantic relationships, but also in business relationships. There always seems to be confusion amongst sales people when it comes deciding when and how best to follow-up after a successful first meeting.

The ideal approach to following-up after a first sales meeting with a potential prospect consists of 3 simple elements:

Steps 1 – Next Day – Quick thank you call

The idea here is to call the next morning to say thank you for taking the time to meet. This is a very short call and you should expect to get their voicemail. You simply want to convey your appreciation for their time and summarize the action items that you took away from the meeting. Let them know that an email will follow in the next day. Make sure that if you make this self-imposed deadline you don’t miss it. Don’t start the relationship by missing a deliverable.

Steps 2 – Day 2-4 (or when you committed to deliver the letter) – Short email letter to clarify your understanding and preliminary recommendations

Next you need to draft a short letter that outlines the following:

1. Your understanding of their present situation
2. What they would like their future to look like
3. How you recommend achieving this desired outcome
4. Any budget or time-frames that need to be considered
5. Confirm what you understand to be the decision process
6. The recommended/agreed to next steps

This is a detailed letter, but it needs to be succinct as well. Aim for 2-3 pages at the most. Make sure your contact understands that it is a “living document” and that they are encouraged to edit and clarify any of the details of the letter. In order to cover all of the content recommended above, you may have to make some assumptions. This is perfectly okay, but be sure to acknowledge when assumptions are made and ask your contact to validate them as well. This participation will help you ensure the solution is a mutually beneficial solution.

Steps 3 – Day 4-5 – Follow-up on the letter to ask for edits and corrections and to schedule the next meeting.

Your goal now is to schedule a time to review the letter with the decision making team. Remember that significant business decisions are seldom made by just 1 person, so encourage you prospect to invite stakeholders, users and business influencers to the meeting. This will ensure that all potential objections to moving forward with your solution are uncovered early in the sales process so that you can overcome the objections and shorten your sales cycle as much as possible.

Use your follow-up letter as the basis for the second meeting agenda and make sure that everyone invited has the most recent version of the letter before the meeting.

Using this follow-up process will help you transform your relationship with the prospect from a “selling relationship” into collaboration. Done right, you will turn more first dates into meaningful long-term relationships.

Regardless of your unique business requirements, below are some of the benefits of leveraging an outsourced sales and marketing company to expand your business.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.