Many firms we talk
struggle to determine the best business development approach. Does it make sense to hire full-time sales
people? Can’t we expect our marketing
director to make sales for us? How will
we compensate a full-time sales person?
Here are some ideas to keep in mind when embarking on the process of building a growth culture in your firm:
·
Marketing
and Sales are the fundamental building blocks of a growth culture. You need to address both of these functions
in your firm to sustain consistent growth.
o
Marketing is defined as positioning your firm –
telling your story to your target market and building your brand equity in the
marketplace;
o
Sales is defined as getting face-to-face with
clients and prospective clients to ask for their business;
o
Marketing without sales leads to expense with
no/low return on investment; but sales without marketing leads to poor results
and wasted time.
·
Within the basic building blocks, there are four elements of a growth culture:
o
Strategic
marketing – determining target markets, focus services, goals, budgets,
competitive positioning, etc.
o
Tactical
marketing – implementation of marketing tactics and sales support
activities
o
Sales
people – determining who will see services for your firm and making sure
they understand and accept the role
o
Sales
management – tracking results, establishing accountability, motivating
sales people, providing training, etc.
· The characteristics
of a successful marketing professional are quite different from those of an
effective sales person. Most of the time, it doesn’t make sense to hire
one person to handle both of these fundamental roles in your firm. You'll be frustrated. They'll be frustrated. Results will suffer. It's a lose-lose-lose situation.
· Thinking of hiring full-time sales
people? Ask yourself the following:
o
Do you have effective
sales management to help the sales person succeed?
o
Do the partners
agree on the role of the full-time sales person vs. the role of the
partners regarding sales?
o
Do you have a defined compensation plan for the sales person approved by your
partners?
o
Can you find someone with a proven sales record in the professional services (or at least
business-to-business) industry?
o
Are you willing to measure results, hold the full-time sales person accountable for
reaching goals, and measure your return on investment?
o
Have you made strategic marketing decisions and do you have tactical marketing resources to support full-time sales?
·
If your answer is no to these questions, your
firm is likely to have a negative experience with full-time
sales people. It’s crucial to establish the growth culture elements before introducing
full-time sales into your firm.
