What do you do if
you really hate your sales force?
What if you don’t
even have one?
Well, that is the problem
with a lot of business owners. I think
it is safe to say that most owners would rather spend their time working in
their area of expertise than marketing their products or services. Unfortunately, there is currently no real
alternative to hiring a sales force or going to a manufacturer’s representative
system. The concept of shared
telemarketing is interesting, but incomplete.
As you might observe, there are a number of questions about how a shared
telemarketing service can be useful to different members of the same market group. All can agree that a pay by the lead program
is useful, but few see how the service would exactly fit their business. The reason is that a shared telemarketing
group is only a partial solution.
Telemarketing touches only a portion of the marketing process. That will lead to varying results, depending
on how dependent a business is on the volume of appointments set. Some business operations thrive on a large
volume of contacts. Calling on too many
unqualified prospects kills others. The
fact of the matter is that the marketing process is a multifaceted, but
definable process that can be applied to any business (with consideration to
product and the relationship to the market place). Absence of any aspect causes confusion and
failure,
The Answer Is “Fire Them All” and Turn the Whole
Thing Over to Real Professionals
BTF does not know of a business owner that has the
time, talent and resources to develop and execute a fully formed marketing
program. BTF also does not know of an
owner that would not benefit from such a service. All marketing, in the web or in the brick
world, shares certain definable elements that can be organized and executed in
a scientific and measurable manner. BTF
would certainly agree that there is a good bit of art to the actual sale. That is where the business owner must enter
the process. However, before that time,
the sifting, sorting and qualification of the prospects in the marketing
universe becomes a daunting and unwieldy process that keeps most owners from
being as effective as they might be.
Rather than identifying only one aspect of that
sifting process (telemarketing), why not consider all of the aspects of the
presale process? They are quite
definable and applicable to any situation.
Without going into horrible detail, here is an outline of the
rudimentary elements of the process.
1) Start
with a commonly applicable marketing process – BTF uses IEEO. In order to be successful in marketing, one
must accomplish this. IEEO means
Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer. It
must be done in this sequence and all elements must be present.
2) Determine
the nature of the product or service – This simply means educate the sales and marketing
team first. They do not have to be
experts. They do have to know enough to
interrupt and engage. Educate and Offer
will be done by the business ownership them selves.
3) Determine
where the product strengths and weaknesses lie - A basic principal of sales is
that people only really buy for three reasons.
Those are price, performance and delivery. This is the three-legged stool of sales. It is essential to determine the strong and
the weak legs of the sales proposition. Does the product have a price
advantage? Can it be delivered less
expensively? Is it unique or superior?
Determine where the strengths and weaknesses of the product are.
4) Determine
where the competition lies against the product.
Where do they sit on the three-legged stool?
5) Where is
the product in the competitive life cycle? -This is straight business school
material. Is it inception phase,
competitive phase or commodity phase?
Each phase markets differently.
6) Once the
determinations are made, develop at least five hot button articulated sales
arguments for the product. This serves
as the basis for the entire marketing campaign. All aspects focus on these arguments.
7) Execute
the first three phases of a standard five-touch process. A five touch process involves 1)
Non-intrusive cold call contact, 2) Media contact (commonly telemarketing), 3)
First contact (to be done by a shared, professional sales team), 4) Technical
contact (this is where the ownership steps in) and 5) Offering contact (which
may not be necessary). The shared
services group would provide everything up to the 4) Technical contact.
By expanding the service to include the scientific
aspects of marketing and for some the initial contact work, the shared
marketing concept will fit virtually any business. There are details to work out, but those are
the basics.
Do not lose another dollar, contact BTF Management
Consultants Inc:
Ken Roys, CEO
BTF Management Consultants
Inc
866-385-1900 Toll Free
713-983-7904 Fax
www.btfmanagement.com