How an Outsource Sales Team Builds an Ideal Customer Profile

by | Dec 23, 2016

This article is a quick overview of the step by step process we go through as an outsource sales team to build an effective and impactful targeting and messaging strategy for companies that leverage us as an outsource sales team and marketing partner, and for marketing automation implementations.

Building this Ideal Customer Profile with an outsource sales and marketing company can help you to accelerate your strategy.

If you have not read what is an Ideal Customer Profile you can find it here.  But as a quick recap it is a profile that allows you to determine, based on hard and soft criteria, what type of buyers:

  • Have the greatest need for your product
  • Will transact the most quickly
  • Will help you to drive sustained revenue

An Ideal Customer Profile allows your outsource sale partner to find and target your potential customers based on a number of hard criteria related to both the company and the specific decision maker type.

Step 1

During an outsource sales team and marketing launch our first step is to research the size of the market.  This is a critical step because as an outsource sales and marketing company we need to understand if the market is large enough to even merit targeting.  We typically share information that details:

  • Number of Companies in the vertical segment
  • Number of companies that can be reached by direct dial phone calls
  • Number of opt in emails we can access

Step 2

We run a Buyer Journey Workshop.  During that Buyer Journey Workshop we will walk through each step of 5 to 10 deals that our outsource sales client has closed: We then highlight:

  • The decision makers that need to be engaged
  • The influencers that need to be engaged

What we typically discover is that there are generally a specific set of decision makers and influencers that consistently have a need for your product and have the ability to drive that decision forward.  So we know where to focus our efforts based on:

  • Title and Level of Contact
  • Functional Area
  • Annual Revenue and Number of Employees
  • Vertical Market
  • Functional Area

Step 3

We combine the information from Part 1 and Part 2 and decide on a finite market to target based on:

  • Number of potential buyers
  • The needs those buyers have your product
  • Your ability to reach that market

And these buyer become the Ideal Customer Profile where we focus your outsource sales and marketing efforts.

An Ideal Customer Profile is (in the words of Steven Covey) allows an outsource sales and marketing company to “Start with the end in mind” focusing all of your investment on targeting buyers that will drive the right type of deals for your business so you:

  • Find customers that will transact
  • Close at a higher volume
  • At the right price point
  • Eliminate customers that do not scale or take too much time to service
  • Increase your profitability
  • Create a focus that drives sales and marketing alignment

To learn more about our outsource sales team services we invite you to visit the outsource sales team and marketing services section of our website.

When Sales Outsourcing Target an Ideal Customer Profile

When Sales Outsourcing Target an Ideal Customer Profile

by | Dec 19, 2016

As a sales outsourcing company understanding our clients Ideal Customer Profile is critical to:

  • Understanding what story your sales outsourcing and marketing team should be telling
  • Understanding how to tell this story
  • Understanding where your sales outsourcing and marketing team should focus their efforts

When you have a clear understanding of who you are targeting and why you are targeting them you sales outsourcing team will produce significantly better results on the back end.

What is an Ideal Customer Profile?

An Ideal Customer Profile is a process for you and your sales outsourcing partner to identify the buyers you should focus on for the best return from your outsourcing sales, marketing and lead generation investment.  As sales outsourcing company this is the first area focus on when we provide sales consulting during the launch of a client.  This area is critical because the leads you put into the funnel will have a downstream impact across the entire sales funnel.

Ultimately, an Ideal Customer Profile enables your sales outsourcing and marketing team to target your potential buyer based on hard criteria directly correlated to the type of company and specific buyer persona, such as:

  • Company revenue
  • Company employee count
  • Level where the decision will be made
  • Level where the decision will be influenced
  • Technology Adopted –  ERP, CRM, Social Media Platforms, Marketing Automation Platform, etc.

Your Ideal Customer profile should also include softer criteria:

  • Business Pain/Need
  • Psychographics – company culture, leadership style, corporate values
  • Education Level of Decision Makers – MBAs, MBAs from Ivy,  Under Graduate degrees

It is also important to know who you don’t want to sell to:

  • Are there decision makers or influencers who would feel threatened by the solution

The reason you want to start with this level of detail is so your company and your sales outsourcing partner will be fully aligned focused on:

  • Telling a powerful sales story to buyers that are most likely to transact
  • Creating the content and scripts necessary to tell this story
  • Focusing all your demand generation efforts on putting as many of these type of buyers into the sales pipeline in the most efficient and cost effective way possible.

We realize that this can all sound like a difficult task but as a sales outsourcing and marketing company we have the:

  • Frameworks to make this process frictionless
  • Access to the database subscriptions to make the market research and segmentation cost effective
  • And the experience building buyer persona’s to help stimulate insights from our clients they may not have had the time or bandwidth to uncover

To learn more about why we feel this approach to selling is the right solution for many businesses in this new buyer driven landscape we invite you to check out our sales outsourcing services page or our About Us section which details our sales outsourcing philosophy.

 

 

 

Ways Outsourcing Sales Team helps Start Ups with prospecting

by | Dec 16, 2016

Over the past several years, buyers have decreased the effectiveness of cold calling by as much as 50%. Because of this, buyers simply no longer pick up the phone as often and prefer to learn about new products and solutions through digital education first. So, success now requires a team that understands how to build awareness with buyers, engage those buyers and then convert those buyers which requires a combination of:

  • eMail Marketing Talent
  • Copywriting and Content Management Expertise
  • Content Distribution Capabilities
  • Lead Scoring Experts
  • Phone Talent

Here are 5 Reasons why Start Up Sales Executives consider an outsourcing sales team for prospecting:

Consistent Results – Achieving results with all these moving parts is high risk. If there is a breakdown or lack of consistency on a daily or weekly basis at one stage of the process it will impact the sales funnel downstream. Knowing that sales executives need to stay focused on closest to the dollar activities,  An outsourcing sales team  will provide you with the consistent daily activities required to keep a steady flow of sales qualified opportunities and well educated buyers entering your sales funnel.

Speed to Market

Building a team with expertise in outbound marketing and lead generation takes time, and getting that team to work together towards a common goal takes even more time. An outsourcing sales team with marketing support can be turned on and start producing results in a little as 30 days as opposed to months or quarters that may be required to build a team on your own. In addition, you will avoid the 80 to 160 plus hours of bandwidth required to recruit, hire, and train your own internal team.

Daily Management Bandwidth

There are only so many hours in week and it is often more effective to have sales reps focus on those opportunities already in the sales funnel and leave the front-end work to someone else.

An outsourcing sales team  is a fast and simple way to get a pipeline-building organization up-and-running to see results. After implementing this team, you can expect to eliminate the daily management requirements, employee headaches and conflicts, HR issues or employee churn.

Flexibility

Using an outsourcing sales team gives you more flexibility when it comes to staffing for specific campaigns. Most salespeople carrying quotas don’t have time to target and penetrate new markets. An outsource sales team makes it easy for you to staff for these campaigns while you focus on closing deals already in the pipeline.

When you are testing a new market you don’t always have the time to conduct market research, test a new message, or determine what customers are saying about your products or services so that you can uncover new opportunities. An outsourcing sales team can help you do all these things at a lower cost for a specific period of time.

Gabriel Sales helps companies transform their sales and marketing programs to generate more leads in this new buyer driven landscape. To learn more about our philosophy and approach to supplying an outsourcing sales team we invite you to read more about us here.

When Sales Outsourcing Target an Ideal Customer Profile

When to Outsource Sales if You Are a Small Business

by | Dec 14, 2016

The Right Time to Outsource Sales

When you outsource sales and marketing this strategy can be a significant competitive advantage if the timing is right and your business is prepared for it. However the decision to outsource is not always the right option for every business. Below, we outline several items and issues that should be considered.

In general, the time to outsource sales makes sense when:

Speed to Market is Important – For startups, new businesses or established businesses that are changing their business model or going through new product launches, an sales outsourcing team provides a very quick path to both a fully trained and managed outsource sales team, and an experienced marketing team for one cohesive sales and marketing team that can provide turnkey support across the entire lead generation and buying cycle.

Your Executives Have Grown the Company and Bandwidth is Tapped – Many small businesses generate their first 500K to 2 million in sales on the backs of one or more of their owners or a single rock star senior sale executive. Companies at this stage typically need these resources to continue to focus on closing so the early stage sales funnel starts to suffer. You can start to outsource sales by leveraging an outsourced sales partner to fill your closers sales funnel with increased real sales opportunities. As your outsourced sales team learns more about your business the can continue to take deals deeper into the funnel.

You Are Ready to Implement a Repeatable Process – If you outsource sales, you will get the best production if you can sell your solution through the same staged process in a repeatable way. If you are confident that you are successful selling your solution in a similar way the majority of your time you can then expect your allow your sales outsourcing partner to document and script the process for methodical results.

Lack of Time or Resources to Build a Team– Many small business do not have a full time recruiter or HR professional on staff. A sales outsourcing company will have both the existing talent in place on the sales and marketing side. In many cases you will get access to a blended team of sales, marketing and executive talent for the price of one to two individuals.

You Need a Part Time Experienced Sales Executive – Many small businesses are started by founders with natural sales skills and closing abilities. But these same founders have also never built, managed and led a sale and marketing team. If you outsource sales executive to manage your account is typically part of the package. This will remove the need for founders developing the skills set and learning the systems required to manage a sales team.

You Have Not Invested in Technology or Infrastructure – Early stage lead generation and development now requires a suite of tools to score leads (marketing automation), and manage leads (CRM). If you have not invested in and implemented these tools, a sales outsourcing team will be able to provide these tools and leverage best practices to implement them at a fraction of the cost of launching them on their own.

Gabriel Sales is a full service marketing company that is adept in sales outsourcing. To learn more about our philosophy and approach, we invite you to visit our Outsource Sales Page Services and About us Page.

Outsourced Sales Strategies To Increase Sales for 2017

Outsourced Sales Strategies To Increase Sales for 2017

by | Dec 11, 2016

Outsourced Sales Strategies and Marketing Tips for Small Businesses 2017

2017 is fast approaching. Here are several quick ways Small Businesses can kick off 2017 to build a sustained and productive sales and revenue engine.

Build an Ideal Customer profile. Analyze the demographics of your current group of customers. Use this information to determine what companies give you the biggest profit, are the least demanding, and quickest to scale. Target more of these buyers for the top of your sales funnel.

Run a Campaign to put a Fresh Set of Leads into Your Sales Funnel. The start of the calendar year is not just a new beginning for your sales and marketing team. It’s also a new start for your buyers. January is a great time to build awareness to a large a group of decision makers and influencers, so as new initiatives are launched they are aware of you your solutions can help them achieve their goals and solve their pains.

Consider a Marketing Automation Platform – Marketing automation is becoming a requirement for successful B2B sales and marketing. In our experience as an outsourced sales marketing company, the insights and efficiency gains are critical for us to compete in the new new buyer driven economy. Marketing automation platforms allow you to stay top of mind with buyers that are not ready to buy with more cost effective email marketing. These platforms also allow your sales reps to measure a buyers digital engagement so you understand what a buyer is most interested in prior to them becoming a sales ready lead.

If You Are Using a Marketing Automation Platform Commit to More Content Marketing to Nurture your Sales Pipe. 60% of companies have now committed to using content for top of funnel lead generation and are 72% are planning on increasing this budget using content marketing. But 80% of companies that are using marketing automation platforms are not even experimenting with lead nurturing and lead scoring and even fewer are actually leveraging these platforms for any sort of personalization. By understanding outsourced sales strategies, your company may be able to gains a competitive advantage with a basic lead scoring and nurturing program in 2017.

Start Using Video to Help Buyers Understand How Your Solution Will Help Them Solve Their Problem – Once a buyer aware of your solution and the problems you can solve for them video is a great way to make it easier for the buyer to buy. If a software demonstration is critical to closing the sale, as an outsourced sales and marketing company we recommend that you create two to three short videos that demonstrate how your product solves a specific problem, and helps your potential client get a visual of how it works.

Revisit Your Overall Sales and Marketing with Outsourced Sales Strategies – In B2B sales and marketing, there are numerous strategies and tactics that have potential to drive sales growth, With the advent of new technologies, the adoption of new content marketing strategies, and the change of buyer behavior, now may be a great time to take advantage of the sales consulting services and outsourced sales and marketing company provides. An outsourced sales and marketing company stays on top of best practices, and a brief consulting engagement may provide the two or three nuggets you need to transform your sales and marketing in 2017.

Gabriel Sales helps companies transform their sales and marketing with:

  • Sales Consulting
  • Outsourced Sales and Marketing
  • And Sales Automation Systems Implementation

To learn more about outsourced sales strategies and how we may be able to help we invite you to visit our About Us page.  Or you can check out our outsourced sales and marketing services here.

Outsource Sales and Marketing for Effective Marketing Automation

Outsource Sales and Marketing for Effective Marketing Automation

by | Dec 5, 2016

When you outsource sales and marketing to help transform and modernize and scale your sales and marketing operations, one of the greatest benefits you will realize in the short term will be the outsourcing of your marketing automation systems.

First let’s look at the benefits of hiring an agency to implement your marketing automation platform vs. hiring a full time employee (FTE). Hiring an FTE to implement and manage a marketing automation platform used to mean that you had a person sitting in your office available right next door. However in today’s business environment odds are that one or both of you are working remotely, so that’s no longer the upside it used to be. Also, hiring a single FTE would mean they would have one or two key strengths and skill sets – it could be systems integration, copy writing, content management, content production or sales messaging. Successful sales automation requires all of these skills sets to have the greatest impact. When you outsource sales and marketing, you will have access to a blended and dedicated team experts in automation with both depth and breadth in marketing automation, content marketing, databases management, CRM and sales. So you will be accessing a wealth of insight, strategy and skill.

So your next concern would be that this blended team will be more expensive than an FTE. That’s not the case because the costs of hiring that one employee with the limited skill set can go as high as $120,000.

Let’s start with simply finding that person. Marketing automation as a discipline is in high demand so you will need to start by advertising, hiring a recruiter, and interviewing. Your employee hasn’t even started yet and you’ve already spent weeks or months on the search and $1000s of dollars.

Next they join the team. You’ll have the regular salary, and benefits package that will be between 25% to 40% of their income including typical benefits like insurance, dental plans, paid vacation etc.

Once established in the office, you’ve got to allow time for ramp up; which takes an estimated 20 weeks for professionals and 26 for executives. One survey of CEOs in Harvard Business School estimated that the average mid-level managers require 6.2 months just to offer break-even value.

Simply stated you’re paying out long before you will start to see a return. Even more detrimental is that only 50% of hires pan out the first time, so you could be out twice that investment.

So now to the kicker when it comes to marketing automation and ROI. Marketing automation requires that you also invest in software. Marketing automation typically takes 3 to 6 months to start producing a more consistent set of leads. So while you are also waiting for your new FTE hire to:

  • Implement the system
  • Create the content use to fuel the system
  • Generate the leads to put into the system

You are burning through valuable resources and delaying the net return on your investment by not getting the tools and system as productive as quickly as possible. When you outsource sales and marketing along with marketing automation you will have sales ready leads before an FTE will even have your engine off the ground.

Bottom line, when you outsource sales and marketing in combination with outsourced marketing automation you will hit the ground running, with no training costs or ramp-up period required.

Having a blended teams collective experience, tactics, best practices and expertise at your disposal will give you access to a marketing automation and lead scoring brain-trust no single FTE can match. Especially when you consider that this blended team will have the collective experience of over 20, 30, or even 40 implementations under their belt to cross-pollinate best practices and set benchmarks from their past implementations.

So yes, when you outsource sales and marketing you will get all the benefits detailed above. But when it comes to building an automation system, the return will be even greater because ultimately all the investment will be returned even faster when your new and improved marketing automation program delivers a higher ROI faster because your blended team put the right skills behind the technology.

Gabriel Sales provides sales consulting & outsource sales and marketing automation services to companies committed to modernizing that sales and marketing operations. To learn more about our  outsource sales philosophy and how we can help you build a sales and marketing revenue engine from start to finish, please visit our outsource sales and marketing services page.