In the current climate, everyone is trying to reduce costs. We
have spoken to many companies who plan to reduce their sales teams in order to
cut costs. In particular, many are considering replacing field salespeople with
telesales staff. However, we believe that while this may temporarily reduce
costs, it can seriously harm the company prospects in the long term.
There may be a place for telesales in a lot of companies. If a
telesales campaign is well-planned with a good script, a good list of numbers
to call and well-trained staff, it can be very effective and you can reach a
lot of potential clients very quickly. Furthermore, it could be argued that a
good salesperson should be able to show their ability whether they are talking
over the phone or face to face. Good telesales people can generate profits.
However, a good field salesperson can be an invaluable asset for
any company. There is no better way to find out a client’s needs and build a
relationship than by meeting face to face. It helps to build a level of trust
and customer service that cannot be replicated over the phone and ensures that
you develop repeat business. By reducing the number of field salespeople, a
company is lowering its chances of making much greater profit in future.
Does your company recognise the value of field salespeople?
Reducing Sales Team = Reducing Company Profit
ReplyDeleteSince around Y2K, companies have made use of the Internet as a sales tool. That's been steadily increasing with inside sales replacing outside sales for transactional and smaller-deal business. Junior salespeople are replacing senior reps, leaving experienced field salespeople with only "big deal or no deal" business. On-the-road seminars are being replaced by online webinars and inbound (prospect initially calls vendor) communication is supplanting outbound (salesperson starts the sales cycle) communication. Vendors seem to think it's better to have a team of invisible rookies (sales and technicians) on the phone, complete with notes in hand, than seasoned veterans selling in person. Naturally, a rookie costs less than a veteran and the rookie is more likely to lick the ground for a dime's worth of business.
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