Image courtesy of Athena SWC.
Selling Today
Inside sales, which takes direction from the business development coordinator, is responsible for prospecting and vetting both inbound and outbound opportunities. The business development coordinator is responsible for managing the overall process with the goal of keeping the outside salesperson’s queue (calendar) filled with qualified sales opportunities on a daily or weekly basis. This includes other administrative tasks, such as following up with RFQ and quotes if any information is missing or reengaging when a prospect goes dark after receiving a quote and there was no resolution. The outside salesperson consumes the sales opportunities and closes the sale. That person might need to pull in technical support and estimating and quoting as part of the process. Under this model, you will likely need several customer service reps and inside sales reps but need fewer outside sales reps. One of the biggest benefits is a reduction in labor costs, since outside sales reps are paid much more. Benefits of Division of Labor The primary benefits of implementing a division of labor are increased productivity within your sales department, a
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BOXSCORE July/August 2022
suitable flow of new qualified opportunities into the active sales cycle, and the opportunity to lower your overall cost of sales. Your outside salespeople are no longer fragmented but instead focused on what they do best. Many compensation structures provide commissions on repeat customer sales, making salespeople more apt to spend time with current customers instead of creating new business. Moving all customer interactions to the customer service and account management team removes that barrier. Of course, compensation should be adjusted to accommodate for the change. Another benefit is that you can ensure that you have the right person in the right place. With the traditional sales model, salespeople are expected to wear several hats that require distinctive skill sets. Division of labor allows you to maximize your employees’ strengths. Some people are better at nurturing customers, while others enjoy the thrill of the hunt. This model is also scalable by turning up or down the flow of opportunities based on sales need and production capacity. Using your historical conversion rates for each step in your sales cycle, the typical sale size, the average length of the sales cycle,
and desired growth, you can calculate how many prospects your sales development reps and business development coordinator need to interact with each week to sustain your outside salesperson opportunity queue. Moving to a different way of selling won’t be easy and will take dedicated management support to ensure that each component integrates well and works in harmony. The idea is to maintain sales at a consistent level and avoid spikes and dips. If your current sales model isn’t working, division of labor may help you create a consistent flow of the right types of opportunities. Todd M. Zielinski is managing director and CEO at Athena SWC LLC. He can be reached at 716-250-5547 or tzielinski@athenaswc.com.
Lisa Benson is senior marketing content consultant at Athena SWC LLC. She can be reached at lbenson@athenaswc.com.
