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, we can agree that the admin work is the unpleasant, but necessary drudgery involved in any professional sales job. It may be hard to ever eliminate it completely, but we should always be looking for ways to dramatically reduce it, and increase our time spent SELLING!
So, what one change would yield the greatest impact to decrease the admin work, and increase the amount of time spent selling?
First, let’s recognize that all work is not created equal:
- “Value-added work” is very different from “busy work,” rework, or unnecessary work
- Work that is not value-added in the sales process drives up prices, bogs down sales cycle time, and add no value to the customer
As Peter Drucker put it: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Administrative “busy work” saps sales people’s energy and the company of valuable people’s time and resources. Why pay sales reps a professional, premium rate of pay, when they are performing admin work?
That would be crazy, right? But companies do it all the time…
Value-added work for professional sales people includes any function directly related to developing, nurturing or closing a sale. All other work is simply a waste of your sales people’s valuable time and talent.
SO – how can you maximize the amount of time your reps perform value-added work?
- Review your sales process and identify areas of opportunity for improvement:
- What does your typical sales process look like from start to finish?
- 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?
By improving the sales process, you will better leverage your most important asset – your sales people’s time and skill – in a way like never before. What could the results look like?
- To quickly increase selling time, provide your reps with a high quality list of decision-maker contacts IN YOUR INDUSTRY.
When you don’t provide a quality list to your reps, you’d be SHOCKED at how much time your reps are forced to waste hunting, pecking and digging for prospects to build their own target lists. All of that work is NOT value-added…
The following are common, but ineffective, approaches to “list building.” Which do YOU USE?
- Purchase of low cost lists, with outdated contact information and wrong titles, functions, and phone numbers
- Hand-build lists one at a time by hunting, pecking and researching target companies, top 100 company lists, and social networking sites, searching by title, industry, location, etc.
- A “well planned” combination of #1 and #2
- Collecting unqualified “leads” at a trade show, who were only “in it to win it” (the fishbowl drawing, that is!)
Each of these approaches leads to an increase in admin work and a decrease in selling time for the rep.
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 they could just pick up the phone, reach the right person every time, and begin the sales process… What if it were really that easy?
- What if you could give back sales people’s time that had been previously spent on admin work – and they could now focus that time and energy on SELLING instead…
- What kind of results might you see?
- What kind of message would this send to your sales reps, that they are worthy of such a list…??
Using a simple tool like a qualified market intelligence database, will have a huge POSITIVE impact on your sales process and sales results including:
- Reduce time spent on admin work
- Increase time available for SELLING
- Speed up the sales cycle
- Increase sales
Making this one change can have a HUGE impact on sales results.
Stop wasting your sales people’s time and talent.
Invest in A HIGH QUALITY, TARGETED LIST.
Increase their selling time and decrease their “admin” time, resulting in increased sales. It’s that simple. Imagine – Your sales team’s efforts spent calling on a clean, HIGH quality, accurate list – rather than wasting time digging around for leads, or wading through a morass of poor quality tradeshow leads.
Give your sales people the one critical tool they need to “work on the right thing.”
The use of high quality market intelligence could be the KEY improvement piece that your sales process is missing. 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. Make this one change and watch your sales numbers soar…
If you’re lucky enough to sell or market to the corporate training and HR industries, there is a unique, high quality resource available to you.
Mentor Tech Group specializes in building high quality, accurate marketing intelligence for companies marketing and selling to corporate training, talent management, e-learning, and HR. Because MTG’s lists are hand-built via one-on-one phone interviews with decision makers, they offer the best market intelligence available in the corporate training and HR industries today.
Mentor Tech Group lists include:
- Direct Contact Information – Decision-makers at top US companies in your target industry
- Segmentation by job functions, called “Job Codes“ (not by nebulous job titles)
- Direct-dial phone numbers and email addresses
- FREE 4-month updates:
- To insure accuracy, our lists are completely culled and updated every four months.
- We make over 100,000 phone calls per year to maintain list accuracy.
- At an average change rate of 25-35% every 4 months, this included service is critical to your business success.
See what our customers are saying about MTG’s high quality lists, then contact Mentor Tech Group today to learn more about how we can help you locate the leads you seek.
To learn more, or to request a quote, please call: (651) 457-8600, Extension 3.
We’re here to help you supercharge your sales pipeline, whenever you’re ready!
