Posts tagged: Part-Time

Sales Agent vs Part-Time Dedicated Sales

Posted on March 8, 2011

By Steve Gruber

I have been in numerous prospect and client meetings over the last 4.5 years, and am often asked “What is the difference between VA Partners’ part-time sales offering and classic sales outsourcing? “

On the surface of it, it may not seem like there is a big difference, but once you dive under the covers a bit – there is more and here is how I answer this:

A sales agent is an individual that will normally work on 100% commission and will represent your product / service in a territory.   They will do this on a part-time or full-time basis and they may have more than one product in their portfolio, many of which are similar.  An agent will typically represent the product through his or her own company and their rolodex of business is exactly that, their rolodex of business.  Agents, because of the nature of their business, may not be as engaged or motivated to always push your product / service as they could have items that are selling with less work, quicker or could be more lucrative.

VA Partners provides sales strategy and part-time sales rep assistance for a client. We have a portfolio of clients we work with but that is where the similarities with an Agent end.  We white-label ourselves and become a seamless and dedicated extension of our clients sales team.   In the majority of cases, we will have a client email and business card set up for us and work on a per day fee and commission basis.   One of the biggest differentiators we bring is that when we build a clients sales funnel or database, it is for them, not for ourselves.  We populate their database, encourage them to come to key meetings and genuinely act as an internal resource.    Our end goal is to build their book of business, build their database of qualified contacts and opportunities and ideally get them to a point of revenue where they can hire a full-time sales rep resource.

I have to be honest, I am biased and favour our model vs a sales agent model.  The reason, I think, especially for business to business sales for companies that don’t have a long history of sales success in other markets, a dedicated and focused sales effort is required.  One which helps to develop the companies brand, mindshare and database of clients.  I find there to be great risk in losing touch with your customer base by ‘agenting out’ your sales.  This lack of customer ownership to me poses great challenges especially for sustained and long-term growth as the client does not have a relationship with you the company – only the product via the agent.  Early on in a companies’ growth in particular, you need to know your clients, really understand how your project is used, solve their business pain and they need to know you.  This relationship is really the platform for long-term sales success.

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Learning to Network at Tech Start Up Events

Posted on March 1, 2011

By Stephanie Goodman

“Networking” is one of those intimidating words that can leave a person struggling to bring themselves to an event. Putting yourself out there and meeting new people can make almost anyone nervous, no matter how long they have been doing it for.

Within the past several months I’ve found great networking events in Toronto such as breakfast seminars and lectures hosted at MaRS Discover District  and SproutUP TO hosted by Sprouter. For those people like myself, who are new to networking for business, it can be overwhelming.  Here are a few things I have learned:

  • Put yourself out there. If a networking event overwhelms you, GO. Don’t shy away from meeting other people and telling others about what you do. Everyone is there for the same reason: to make a connection.
  • You are not looking to sell your services or products so there is no need to practice your sales pitch, however, you should be practicing how you will introduce the value proposition of your company. You are not looking to make a sale at a networking event but rather, to sustain a connection and leave an impression and contact information for those you meet.
  • If you see someone standing alone, go talk to them. I attended Sprouter in November where I met three people simply by saying, “Hi, my name is Stephanie, what brings you here tonight?”
  • Ask questions. Once you initiate the conversation and you learn about someone’s business, ask them about it. How long have they been in business? Who is their target customer? Where are they located? What kind challenges have they faced (This question could lead into how you could help them)?
  • Do not forget to bring at least 15 business cards. Put them somewhere accessible so you’re not fumbling with your purse or wallet.
  • Leaving a conversation is difficult. If you have been talking to the same person for over 5 minutes and are looking to meet others before the event is finished, simply excuse yourself by saying: It was great meeting you and learning about your business. Do you have a business card available? Hand them yours and tell them you hope they enjoy the rest of the night.
  • The last part of the previous point is very important. Leave your business card with everyone you meet. If they have forgotten their own, make sure you have a pen handy so you can write down their twitter name, Linkedin or email address.
  • Connect once you’re online. Follow your connections on twitter, add them to Linkedin, follow their company on Linkedin or subscribe to their newsletter (or suggest having them subscribe to yours).

If you’re new to the networking world, or you’ve been in it for years, you are always going to face challenges. The one thing I keep in mind when going to these events is that everyone is there for the same reason: to make a connection. So what you need to do is simple: connect.

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Marketing your Small Business Brand

Posted on February 24, 2011

By Stephanie Goodman

Last night I attended the MaRS Discovery District Entrepreneur 101 series focused on Marketing Communications with Mark Evans. In the time span of an hour, Mark was able to address the key factors that all entrepreneurs and small business owners should be aware of when starting and looking to improve their marketing strategy. The following are some fundamentals that I took from his lecture, highlighting key objectives that often go overlooked:

  • The Core Message: It is the bottom line of what your company does. In this message, always answer the questions of “Who are you?” and “What problem do you solve?” You should be able to get this explanation down in 30 seconds. If it takes you longer or if you leave too many lose ends, you will lose your audience.
  • The “Mom” Test: Best phrase I’ve come across so far in regards to core messaging. If your mom cannot understand what you do (in 30 seconds or less) your customer won’t either.
  • Using Social Media: As useful as it is, social media will not solve ALL your problems. However, if you leverage it properly it can be very powerful. Remember, “whatever you do, do it as well as you can.” If you cannot wrap your head around a Facebook fan page, avoid it at all costs. It’s better to have never touched it then to leave it unattended.
  • Marketing and Branding needs creativity! A great example Mark brought in was from a company called “Will it Blend”. The company’s youtube commercial is engaging and humorous, not only drawing people into the commercial but also to their site
  • Do not come out with 10 services at once. Start with 2. Once you have your audience’s attention, go into more detail about the other ways you can help their business.
  • Your website is the workhorse: it does the most work. The three core components you must have on your site are:
    • Homepage: Keep it simple and to the point. Integrate clear calls-to-action
    • About Us: Don’t ignore this section. Use it to tell people why you do what you do.
    • Contact Us: Personalize it. Avoid using only “info@” addresses. People want to talk to a person, not just an email address.

A few points to keep in mind:

  • Having coffee with someone. The person you originally have coffee with is not usually going to be your future customer. Your customer will be someone referred to you from that initial contact. This comes back to the core message: if your message is less than 30 seconds and easy for others to understand, they are more inclined to pass on your information
  • Business cards are still being used! People like them because they’re tangible. Although some have adopted the digital “v-card,” not everyone is there so do not throw those cards away just yet.

Many of these points may seem self-evident; however, many of them go over looked as people are too busy trying to keep up with the emerging trends and changes in digital marketing. As a successful entrepreneur himself, Mark provided the fundamentals needed to kick start any small business marketing strategy. “Success is measured in inches at a time, not miles” – Mark Evans

 

 

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Relationships for Results recap from the Communitech Senior Sales P2P

Posted on February 16, 2011

By Mark Elliott

I am a regular attendee to the Communitech Senior Sales Peer 2 Peers sessions. This week’s session focused on Networking and was titled “Relationship for Results” lead by Jane Jantzi  from Deloitte.  Jane is well known in the KW tech community and is an excellent choice for this topic.

There were many good nuggets shared with the group.  Some of the highlights for me included:

  • Pick events that have the partners or customers that you would like to connect with
  • Look to help other attendees, not just yourself
  • Meet as many people as you can
  • Don’t be afraid to sell to friends and family if you can help them

Perhaps the best piece of advice from Jane was: “Follow-up or Fail”.  I find one of the biggest mistakes is making connections and not following through on an email, newsletter, Twitter, or Linkedin.

The culmination of the presentation was Jane’s Top 10 Networking List

1      Know who you can meet

2      Have something interesting to say

3      Be memorable

4      Don’t talk or sit with someone you already know unless…they can connect you to someone they are talking to

5      Physically position yourself correctly in the room

6      Don’t spend a lot of time with any one person

7      Listen

8      Get out and network and get involved

9      Smile

10    Don’t be shy

I would also like to add that Steve and I have worked with Jane somewhat and more so with another one of her coworkers Jamie Barron. We often send the start-ups we work with to Deloitte to get help with accounting and consulting on items like SR&ED.  They understand the start-up world and are very reliable.

If you can only go to one tech conference this year I suggest the Communitech Tech Leader conference . It has great speakers, break-out sessions, and a great mix of attendees.

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Sales Success and an MBA

Posted on February 8, 2011

By Steve Gruber

It has been a while since I completed my Executive MBA at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and as a caveat I thoroughly enjoyed the program and found it to be extremely beneficial, but one thing that is still on my mind is why there was no focus on “selling” or the Sales aspect of an organization.  It seems to me, and this is not specific to Rotman at all but I am sure a large number of MBA programs, is that the majority of attention is spent on teaching people how to manage a business or its finances once it already has them.  Not on the act of generating revenues for a company.

I know there will be some who say that Marketing serves this roll and is covered extensively in all MBA programs, and they would be right only in the fact that it is covered in all MBA programs but I want to be clear, Marketing is not Sales.  My feeling is that although the two are related and they work together they are separate disciplines within an organization and take entirely different strategies to deploy.

Given we run a sales focussed organization this makes me wonder why a large number of MBA programs have structured themselves in such a way as to for the most part ignore what I would consider the most important goal for any organization – driving revenue?  I did ask the Dean of the Program I attended and the answer at the time was that Sales is tough as there isn’t a ton of research on the space etc…not sure how true this is or not – there is definitely a lot written about sales but from a quantifiable standpoint I would have to do more research myself.  I think here at VA Partners, we are getting close enough to start to publish some of our work based on historical, quantifiable evidence – so maybe we can begin a new era of stats and sales.

I think as an executive it is too easy to get caught up in the financial and operational management of a company and forget that in order to have a successful company you need to sell stuff.  If anyone in a position to make MBA course content decisions is reading this – maybe time to put some additional thought into adding some Sales related courses to your MBA program – this could be as an example:

  • A Sales Leadership Course looking at Sales Strategy, Sales Process & Infrastructure, Employee Compensation & Motivation, Forecasting, Value Proposition Development
  • A Business Development Course covering how to successfully execute a direct or channel sales strategy, sales process methodology and sales best practices, value proposition development and refinement on the fly, gathering statistics and usage of a CRM (customer relationship management system)

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