Small Business Owners - Is It Time To Hire A Sales Team?

Every early-stage company owner faces this dilemma somewhere in their growth cycle… a time when the founder should focus on executing the company’s vision and relinquish the marketing and sales duties to professionals. At first, nobody can describe the value of your solutions like you can, but product knowledge and owner-passion give way to the need for skilled sales and marketing resources that can skillfully position your offering and know how to “find and close new business”.

Often an entrepreneur will take the most natural next step…hiring a sales person or two, only to see their hard-earned cash flow slip away in valuable base pay with nothing to show for it. In fact, we sometimes see company owners go through multiple iterations of this process before asking for outside help. Regrettably, frustration builds and the owner often goes back to selling on their own.

Why didn’t it work? The natural tendency is to blame the sales people, but "not so fast". You should know that every new sales rep has a ramp time to first sale. Further, sales professionals are used to being equipped with differentiated messaging, quality collateral, and competitive positioning. The absence of any one of these “tools of the trade” introduces risk into their ability to sell and close new business. Finally, most sales professionals are not independent, individual contributors. They are accustomed to receiving regular coaching and direction from a well-experienced sales leader. Having that knowledgeable resource to bounce ideas and improve execution is critical to revenue growth.

And that’s just the execution side. There’s strategy and planning needed on the marketing level, and a coordinated effort to develop a steady flow of leads for the sales team to work through. Most companies do an extensive amount of work on a marketing strategy and lead-development plans at least annually. Just because a small company cannot afford a sophisticated sales and marketing environment doesn’t discount their need for one!

With a great deal of planning and forethought, the company owner can coordinate all these components in advance and improve their chance of implementing a great sales and marketing arm. As an alternative, Motum provides a complete, turnkey sales and marketing environment tailored to the company’s needs. It begins with a thoroughly vetted go-to-market strategy, development of differentiated messaging, competitive positioning, and lead generation programs that will position your sales organization to succeed. We search, interview and hire the best sales talent your budget can afford and develop compensation plans that help you minimize risk. We assign a highly experienced sales leader to run the team on a fractional basis so it won't break your bank.

If you don’t have the expertise in house to make it happen, Motum has done it over and over company owners just like you, and at a surprisingly affordable rate. We’d be happy to give you more details. Just email us at [email protected]