Front-and-Back

One of the biggest problems businesses face today is how to get more sales. The fact is that good salespeople are extremely expensive. They demand a high base; and if they're not confident of a substantial payoff, they also demand a high commission rate. If you hire someone, before you even know whether they're any good or not, months can go by, and thousands of dollars wasted if they're not. So what can you do to minimize your costs and protect yourself, while still getting the sales growth that you need?

At JV/M, we have an old-fashioned, but perfect, solution: "Front-and-Back."

Front-and-Back is a type of sales techniques involving two salespeople and one prospect. You may know one version of it as "good-cop/bad-cop," where the prospect gets bounced between two salespeople - one sympathetic and one hard-nosed, who try to wear him down. You've probably even seen this in action when you bought a new car ("I don't think I can give you that deal; I have to ask my manager.") The salesperson acts as the "bird-dog," and the sales manager acts as the "closer." It's not a shining example, but at least you know what we mean.

JV/M, though, has a version that is ethical, inexpensive, and extremely effective in generating high levels of sales and profit for our clients. It can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars a year or more, while dramatically reducing your risk, your financial exposure, and wasted time (both calendar and clock time).

How It Works

In traditional lead generation, the telemarketer usually generates the lead, and then "tosses it over the wall" to a salesperson. The salesperson then follows it up, and tries to close it. This works well in most cases, but there are a few instances where the process can run into some problems. For example,

• Sometimes a lead needs to go to the salesperson for them to answer the prospect's technical question, to establish credibility, or for more qualification. But the next step may require more prospecting (e.g. finding additional decision makers, or uncovering additional needs,) which the salesperson doesn't have time to do (usually because he's busy working with other customers,) so it gets neglected.
• Another problem can occur if the salesperson can't manage a large number of leads. Depending on your compensation plan, most salespeople will cherry-pick or triage their territories, and leave many opportunities unaddressed.
• The most common problem, though, is simply where the prospect needs to be nurtured over some period of time - until they're ready to move forward. Someone just needs to touch base with them once in a while, but the salesperson who's consumed with his other priorities always seems to forget about them.

All of these problems can be solved, though, if the salesperson simply gives the lead back to the telemarketer for nurturing, until it's ready for the salesperson to get involved again.

Examples

We've done dozens of Front-and-Back campaigns. Here are a few examples of how it's worked, and worked out.

• An insurance brokerage had us prospecting for new business. Some prospects could be converted right away, but others wanted to wait until their renewal date to consider changing brokers. Each month, we contacted the prospects who wanted to wait, and kept them fully stocked with case histories and other sales material, until they were ready to meet with the producer. Sales jumped from $2M to $8M in two years, with no addition in sales staff.
• A professional services company required their consultants to do their own selling. But with their heavy travel schedules, they simply couldn't coordinate their follow-up meetings. We did it for them, and sales increased ten-fold in one year simply by us managing their prospects.
• An IT firm didn't want to hire salespeople because most wanted a $60K base and a guarantee of $110K. So the owner had us do the lead generation, and give the leads to him. He was able to establish credibility, requalify the lead, and try for the quick close. If it wasn't ready, he gave it back to us. We then nurtured the leads, finding additional needs and decision makers, until they were ready to move forward. And when they were, we gave them back to the owner. After a while, the company had built a good base of business, and the owner could afford to hire salespeople. And with funnel full, he was able hire salespeople for half the price - because there was demonstrably no territory risk.
• A manufacturing company wanted to open new territories, but it was too risky to put someone in the field. So we generated the leads, which were initially handled by Inside Sales to answer technical questions. They then handed them back to us to nurture. When there were enough leads to justify putting someone in the territory, they hired a salesperson to close them - avoiding all of the up-front risk and cost.
• Another company was using manufacturers reps to cover their sales. But the reps also had other, sometimes more important, lines to sell; so the manufacturer wasn't getting the attention they needed. Using a Front-and-Back program, JV/M set the initial face-to-face call for the manufacturer's rep, who went on the call and then handed it back to us to find additional needs and additional decision makers. When it needed another visit, they covered it; and gave it back to us if they couldn't close it yet. After a while, the company realized it didn't need the anufacturer's reps, replaced them with Inside Sales, and picked up 35% on their margin.

Front-and-Back is an extremely efficient way to leverage limited resources. It lets you add salespeople only when you can afford them, without giving up the sales. And you can double or triple your sales margins.

At JV/M, we have the talent, and especially the tools, to make Front-and-Back work for you!