Hi there, it’s Dr. Nadia with the Doyenne Agency, and welcome to another episode of Straight Talk About Sales. Today I want to chat with you about things to consider before you outsource your sales.
As your business continues to grow, obviously sales and generating revenue is a really key piece of it. But you may get to the point where you can no longer manage the amount of leads that are coming in, you may not have the capacity to manage them consistently, so you want to look at ways to get yourself out of that cycle of feast or famine.
A lot of times we find ourselves, especially when we’re in that place where we’re doing the majority of the roles in our business, where we may do a lot of activity with marketing and sales conversations, we may have an event, so there’s a big influx in not only clients but cash.
But what happens if you’re not continuing those activities or have some way for that to happen once that cycle or program ends? A lot of times when you’re a coach that may look like a year-long engagement. But once that year is up, then where are your next clients coming from? Where is your next revenue coming from? Or if you’re looking to increase your revenue, what does that strategy look like?
One of the ways to do that is bring on some helping hands in terms of having a salesperson or a sales team. A lot of times people just think, “Oh my gosh, I’ll just throw something out there, I’ll hire a salesperson, I’ll pay them 100% commission, and that’ll be the end of my worries.” I’m here to be the bearer of good and not-so-good news, and that is not always the case.
Now, there are people out there that obviously will work 100% commission, but there are also some other things that you need to consider beyond just bringing someone onto your team just because they are willing to work 100% commission.
I have some questions here that I’m going to talk about in this video, but then also I’ll do a series to go deeper on each of these different topics because these are some serious things that you need to think about before you outsource your sales. Meaning you take that pretty much off your plate either partially or completely, where you’re no longer having those sales conversations.
The first thing you need to consider is what type of salesperson do I need? All salespeople aren’t created equal, so what type of salesperson do you need? Do you need someone that’s going to be more of a business development type person? The type to go out and really build those relationships and start to let them know about the types of products and services that are available to bring them into the company.
Or do you need someone that’s more on the side of a closer? They are the ones that bring it down the home stretch, get the credit card information, get them all set up for the program that’s right for them, and get them moving forward into working with the company. Or somewhere in between?
So understanding your business needs and the type of salesperson that you need is very important. Again, not all salespeople are created equal, people have different skillsets. So are you at a point where maybe you just need someone to go out and do some pre-quals? They may not be full business development, they may do some prequalifications, but then you’re the one that actually has the conversation and closes it. So again, looking at your process, understanding who you need, is very important.
The next question you need to consider are what types of processes, procedures, systems do I need in place for my person, or for my people? It’s not just, “Hello, good morning, I woke up, hired a salesperson, and boom they’re just off to the races.” There are certain things that you need in place, not only to make sure you set your salesperson up for success, or your sales team, but also to make sure you’re covered and you’re protected. So what systems and processes do you need to have in place in order to support your salesperson or your sales team?
Next, our third question is at what point should I build my own team? A lot of times I may have questions, people come in, they schedule time to chat with me, and they may be like, “Dr. Nadia, I’m at a point where I want to build my sales team,” or, “I’m at a point where I don’t want to be my salesperson anymore,” that’s usually where the conversation starts.
But then we have to decide, is it better for them to outsource their sales, whether it’s to my team or someone else? Or do they want their own person in terms of building their own team? You really have to look at your business, what makes the most sense for where you are at this point in your business, and how would you manage all those pieces if you were having your own team versus outsourcing?
Obviously, in a company you outsource to, what are they doing, all of those different things that they manage for you. Those are really key things that you need to think about, at what point in my business am I at a point where it makes sense to outsource my sales? And again, it also depends on the type of salesperson you’re going to outsource your sales to.
Question number four is how many salespeople do I need? Do I only need one, do I need a team? Which also leads me to the next question, which is do I need them consistently throughout the year, or only at certain points? Recently I was part of a sales team for a very large event. There were a total of seven people on this sales team. Not all of us had the same role, but the sales team in and of itself was seven people.
It was a massive event; there were hundreds of people in attendance, and there were a lot of offers and activity so it made sense to have at least seven people on the team. The host and hostess were at that level in their business so they had regular full-time employees. So there were times when some of their employees would also come in and support this sales team in managing some of the activities that were taking place at this event.
So again, do you need a sales team, and if so how many people do you need on your team? Do you need a sales team throughout the year, or do you need a team that just comes in for maybe your annual event or if you have multiple events throughout the year? These are things you really have to consider, and really start to think through what this really looks like in your business.
Again, you just don’t get to wake up one day (or at least I don’t advise it) and just say, “You know what, the first person I talk to that’s willing to do sales for me at 100% commission, that’s it.” Slow your roll. There’s some other things I really want you to consider so that you can make a wise decision based on where you are in your business.
And then finally, how will you compensate your team or your salesperson? I know I’ve mentioned 100% commission, that is definitely one way. There’s also 100% salary. My husband and I recently bought yet another car earlier this year, and one of the dealerships where we went, the salesperson was salaried, they did not get a commission at all.
So you could definitely look at that. I don’t know if they at some point got bonuses, because that’s also a way you could do straight commission and maybe bonuses if people hit certain goals throughout the year. That’s definitely a way to do it. You could also do a combination of salary or maybe retainer if you’re going to hire an independent contractor, they may not be a full-time employee on your team, plus commissions. You could also look at bonuses or other ways to compensate.
So again, taking the time to really sit down and think this through is really going to you and be to your advantage before you go out and hire your next salesperson or start to build your sales team. It’s a very key thing for growing your business, I definitely highly recommend that you look at your business strategy and where you’re gonna go.
Because I can tell you, depending on what your goals are in terms of revenue, at some point you’re going to need to build a team. It’s just plain and simple. I recently attended the eWomen Network Conference, and one of the things that Sandra Yancey talked about (which is now her personal mission) is to help a million women get to a million dollars of revenue. Well, if that’s your goal (not everyone wants to get to a million dollars of revenue) and your desire, I can tell you that you’re going to need some help.
Now, it may not mean … That could look very different for the type of business you’re in, but what does your team look like, and is a sales team part of that overall growth strategy that you’re putting together to get there? One of the things I really loved about how she made it easier to digest, because I think sometimes you see a million dollars and you’re like OMG, right?
She was like, “What if year one, if you were starting out brand new, or fairly new in business, you just made $100,000. And then year two was $250, and then year three was $500, and year four was $750,000, and year five it was a million dollars. How cool would that be?”
I really liked her mission and her vision. But I also understand that, if that is your desire, to get to a million dollars, you’re probably going to need some helping hands. What’ll work to get you to $100,000, or maybe even $250,000, may not be sufficient to get you to a million dollars. I can almost guarantee that the team that got you to $250 won’t be the team that’ll get you to a million. Meaning that you might not get rid of people, but you probably will need to add some people so that you have the right people in place to help you get to where you need to go without burning yourself out.
So anyway, that is all I want to talk about today in terms of, before you outsource your sales, here are some things I want you to consider. And as I mentioned, I’ll pull together a series and I’ll go deeper into each of those questions. And if you have any additional questions you want to ask, feel free to let me know, send me an email, you can do that at drnadia@doyenneleadership.com.
And if you would love to just schedule time to ask some questions like, “Dr. Nadia, whoa, that’s a lot of things that I need to consider before I outsource my sales support, I hadn’t thought about all of that,” you can schedule time to chat with me at meetwithdrnadia.com. I would love to answer any questions you have about things that you need to consider before you outsource your sales.
This is Dr. Nadia, with another episode of Straight Talk About Sales with Dr. Nadia, signing off. I’ll see you again soon. Bye-bye.
