Ask any professional business developer the type of work activity they like the least and the
majority will likely mention “the admin work”. Admittedly, having been a sales rep/business developer for many years, the admin work is the necessary drudgery involved in any professional sales job, like it or not. We may never be able to completely eliminate the admin work from sales, but we should always be looking for ways to dramatically reduce it…
After all, admin work takes time away from the work that really matters when you’re in sales – the SELLING!
So, what would make the most impact on your ability to decrease the admin work and increase the amount of time you’re actually selling?…
You see, work is an interesting concept when you break it down. “Working on the right thing” or “value-added work” is very different from “busy work”. Administrative “busy work” saps sales people’s energy and the company of valuable people’s time and resources.
Professional sales people are usually paid well for their work and often have a commission structure tied to the success of their endeavors as well. So, why would you pay them a professional’s rate of pay, when they are performing admin work?
That would be crazy, right?
Companies do it all the time, but there IS a better way.
As part of your company’s management team, I’m sure you WANT your sales people to sell. Any function not directly related to developing, nurturing or closing a sale is simply a waste of your sales people’s time and talent. How can you minimize the amount of time your reps perform functions other than selling?
To understand the real opportunity for improvement, you must first review your sales process:
- What does your typical sales process look like from start to finish?
- What are the real value-added tasks in the process?
- What would things look like if everything were perfect in that process?
- How does your sales team find leads? Map out the process details in a flow chart. (You might be surprised at the results.)
- Where are potential areas of waste in that process?
- What actions are your sales people performing which could or should be eliminated, handed off, or substantially improved, to free them up to sell?
If you can effectively manage to change and improve the sales process, you will be leveraging one of your most important assets – your sales people’s time and skill – in a way like never before. What could the results look like?
One key area of improvement where management has the opportunity to make quick, dramatic change in the sales process is in the sourcing of the target list.
Remember the simple tool called the lever?
- Definition: A lever is a simple tool that makes work easier for us; a strategic aid.
Question: Is your list like a lever, or more like a load? Let’s find out…
THE LOAD: Low Quality List DEVELOPMENT
There are several all-too-common, often ineffective approaches to LIST DEVELOPMENT, each of which usually INCREASES admin work and DECREASES selling time… (Which do you use?)
- Purchase a low cost list (which usually contains outdated contact information and wrong titles/functions)
- Hand-build a list by researching target companies and/or top 100 company lists, finding decision makers for those companies through various search mechanisms, social networking sites, etc.
- Develop a “well planned” combination of #1 and #2
- Collect “leads” at a trade show, many of whom were only “in it to win it” (i.e. the fishbowl drawing, that is!) and are unqualified…
You can easily see how each of these approaches will lead to an increase in admin work by the sales rep – not exactly what you want! But, what if there were a way to provide your sales people with a list of decision makers’ direct dial phone numbers and email addresses within your target market?
- What if your sales reps could just pick up the phone, reach the right person every time, and begin the sales process… What if it were really that easy?
THE LEVER: High Quality List ACCESS
Management can greatly decrease admin work and increase real selling efforts, by simply providing the sales team with ACCESS to a clean, HIGH quality, targeted list containing current contact information for key decision makers in your industry.
When you apply a high quality list to the front of the sales cycle, you eliminate a huge time waster in the sales process: list building. Your sales people’s time can now be spent “working on the right things” instead of doing busy work.
LEVER: Providing access to a high quality list of decision makers is the equivalent of using a lever to “make work easier” for your sales reps. When your sales people are able to perform value-added work instead of admin work, the results can be amazing. If you want to make real, immediate improvement to your sales cycle, you MUST provide your sales team with the proper resources to get the job done.
Investing in the proper list streamlines the calling process, allowing sales reps to:
1.) Decrease time spent on admin work
2.) Increase time spent on value-added work…the stuff that really matters…the selling!
What kind of results might you see using this “simple” LEVER? And what kind of message would this send to your sales reps, that they are worthy of your investment in such a targeted, high-quality list…?
LEVER: Investing in a Mentor Tech Group list.
Do you want to get started right away? We can help. Mentor Tech Group offers specialized, hand-built lists of decision-makers in your target market. Every contact in our database was added as a result of a one-on-one phone interview with an MTG Market Intelligence Consultant. And our database is completely updated every 4 months* to maintain the highest standard of accuracy in the industry.
Simply stated, MTG is the best list resource in the corporate training and HR industries today.
Don’t just take it from us, see what our clients say about Mentor Tech Group lists: MTG Client Testimonials.
MTG list services include:
- Researching specific job function, not just the job title
- Direct-dial phone numbers and email addresses
- Free verification and updating service* – every 4 months, our lists are completely culled and updated. At a current 33+% change rate every 4 months, this service is critical to your business.
Why would you pay your sales staff to do copious hours of administrative work by hand-building their own lists? There is a better way. Let your sales people get back to what they do best – SELLING – and let our MTG team of experts take care of the list. It just makes good business sense.
Watch a 2 minute message with Pat Ryan about how MTG can help you improve your sales team’s productivity! To start saving money, please call us today at (651) 457-8600.
*Free list updates provided with minimum list purchase of 1000 contacts.
