Peter Brook discusses whether outsourcing is a viable alternative to costly in-house sales teams.

What does the Echinacea plant and the outsourcing of sales teams have in common? The answer is really quite simple, they are both known for their properties of relieving stress.  

As Diageo Plc chief executive officer (CEO) Paul Walsh commented in the foreword to my book, ‘For me marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin – co-dependent – and if you get the strategies and execution for both to be brilliant then your business will undoubtedly grow’.

As we face economic uncertainties with sporadic consumer confidence, having a business model that provides flexibility while delivering outstanding activity at the point of purchase is critical.

A record number of companies from across the UK, large and small, were recently named as winners of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2009 – Britain’s highest accolade for business success.

A total of 194 Queen’s Awards have been announced this year, the largest number awarded in 44 years of the scheme. Previously, the record number of awards made in a single year was 175 in 1990.

‘We will neither exit the recession as quickly as we can, nor build the future strength we need, if we allow pessimism to descend on us or lower our expectations of what we can achieve,’ Peter Mandelson told the audience at a conference sponsored by the Association of British Insurers and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) this week.

Gordon Brown has rejected claims that the new 50p top rate of tax has sounded the death knell for New Labour, insisting the party remained committed to aspiration and opportunity for all.

Manifesto pledge

Chancellor Alistair Darling was accused of abandoning one of the key manifesto pledges which defined New Labour when he announced the new top rate for earners on more than £150,000-a-year. The new top tax rate will be introduced in April 2010, while people with incomes over £150,000 will also see their pension tax relief restricted from 2011 and personal allowances will be scrapped for incomes over £100,000 from next April.

How appropriate for April Fools Day! City office workers reportedly waved £10 notes to taunt G20 protesters as thousands descended on London’s financial heartland.

Environmentalists, anarchists, anti-war protesters and workers hit by the financial crisis congregated around the Bank of England to demand action from world leaders on what some protesters have dubbed ‘Financial Fools Day’. Meanwhile, bankers leaning out of windows taunted demonstrators on the streets below, who responded with jeers and shouts. (Not sure the ‘loadsa money’ joke is still appropriate – Ed.)

Meet the contestants being put through their paces by Margaret Mountford, Sir Alan Sugar and Nick Hewer.

World-class sales organisations don’t just do one or two things well; they do everything better. The most successful organisations maintain a high level of performance across all of the selling and sales management activities required to support the sales process.

That’s one of the major conclusions of Miller Heiman’s latest benchmark survey which saw almost 4,000 sales professionals contribute to its sixth annual study of the trends, issues and opportunities in a complex selling environment. The 2009 Sales Best Practices Study focuses on the selling and sales management activities that have the greatest impact on producing results.

Although the Oscars are better known, if you want to experience an awards event which is a truly great inspiration for the whole team, indeed an entire profession, you don’t have to look further than the National Sales Awards, writes ModernSelling.com publisher, sales director and category judge Neil Warren.

This week’s announcement of consolidation at Standard Life is further evidence of the accelerating pace of change within the financial services distribution landscape. However, financial advisers have expressed concern the cuts could result in poorer service for clients despite the company’s assurances.

Pity the poor comedian, apparently called Stanley McHale (not exactly a household name, then – Ed?) whose unfortunate job it was last night (12 February) to warm up a Royal Lancaster Hotel banqueting room packed to the gunnels with expectant salespeople, writes Nick de Cent.

The trouble was the audience didn’t need warming up; they were at it full tilt already; intent on partying their way through an evening which would see awards in 13 categories presented to top achievers, managers and other luminaries from the world of selling. Yes, it was BESMA night – the British Excellence in Sales Marketing Awards – when the lucky winners and runners-up (known as rising stars) would receive the recognition of their peers, friends and colleagues as the culmination of a year of hard work.

One can only assume that McHale didn’t know what he was letting himself in for when he agreed to open the evening. The trouble was, he made the cardinal mistake of not understanding his audience, but worse, he wasn’t even remotely funny.

Luckily, Institute of Sales and Marketing Management chairman Sheila Watson-Challis exercised her right as hostess for the evening to cut the unfortunate McHale short. If she hadn’t, blood would have been spilled.

Colin Coulson-Thomas reveals how some companies manage to charge higher prices for their products and services than others.

As recession starts to bite, many suppliers feel under pressure to slash their prices. Some may have scope for sharing the benefits of falling raw material costs with customers. Yet panic reactions and excessive reductions may prevent investments in securing longer-term competitive advantage.

Pricing decisions impact directly upon sales revenues and profitability. At any point in the economic cycle charge too much and orders are lost, while charging too little erodes margins and may give the impression that offerings are of low quality.

Obtaining and sustaining higher prices – particularly relative to competitors – ought to be a top priority of entrepreneurs. Yet often they agonise over perfecting what is sold and then take quick pricing decisions based largely on guesswork.

Setting prices

So how should businesses set prices? In the past pricing was largely shrouded in mystery. Firms have either been reluctant to reveal their approaches or sensitive to the lack of rigour involved.

A research team led by the author has persuaded 73 companies to reveal their pricing strategies, tactics and practices. The firms surveyed provided data on 127 factors that could affect pricing decisions. Set out in the report Pricing for Profit*, the findings reveal that more effective pricing could boost the profitability of many companies.

Commission schemes are on of the most emotive aspects of a salesperson’s business life: how they’re structured determines take-home pay and bonuses and can be a powerful motivational force in driving the team forward.

Much as management consultancy McKinsey is proving to be a recruiting ground for Barack Obama’s new US administration, so Standard Chartered Bank is turning into a one-stop shop for the British government when it needs to solve a problem.

Steve Young of Winning Pitch exposes seven wasteful marketing practices and explains how lean thinking can bring you more profit with less budget.

While companies have ‘streamlined’ their factory floors and operations as the credit crunch continues to hit hard, few have dared to put sales and marketing under the same scrutiny – usually for fear of what they might find. However, in the vast majority of sectors, there is a huge amount of waste in marketing, which few companies have even noticed, let alone tried to address.

Competitive advantage

In today’s economic climate, your only real competitive advantage is to learn faster than your rivals. This is a quality you need to see at every level – and especially in sales and marketing, from where your new business should be driven.

Marketing more efficiently would, clearly, save costs and the impact of these savings on net profit could be far greater than you ever imagined. If a company making 3% profit margin managed to save 3% on costs in that year and retain the same level of sales, it would have the same effect on the bottom line as a doubling of turnover.

The world’s leading professor of professional selling, Neil Rackham has warned that the recession could see one in five companies go to the wall.

The way to avoid this is to be more focused, he told the audience during his keynote address at the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management’s Successful Selling Conference at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre on 15 October.

ICDL’s Andrew Dugdale asks why the selling community is so confused about sales effectiveness.

Almost inevitably ‘no’ is the answer to the question ‘Are two head better than one?’ when talking about sales headcount… especially in light of recent evidence from consultants IDC showing that, on average today, between 1.5 -2.2 salespeople are employed to deliver the same results that could be achieved with one fully effective salesperson, is it any wonder that CEOs (chief executive officers) are looking at the sales function with ever-increasing interest.

The so-called Dragons from BBC’s Dragons’ Den like to strike terror into the hearts of the business start-ups pitching for their hard-earned cash. But they’re pussycats at heart... and very free with advice for budding entrepreneurs. Here are some of the Dragons’ best tips: all are equally applicable to the sales arena as they are to the fledgling business.

Who’d be in the financial services sector at the moment, what with the sub-prime lending crisis, a slow-down in the UK housing market and an increasingly austere regulatory regime?

General Manager of SCI Sales Group, Andy Hollands offers an essential guide to selecting a sales outsourcing company.

ONE 

Spend time researching and interviewing prospective sales outsourcing companies – their people will be at the coalface of your business and will be representing it to potential customers – so make sure you meet the sales team they are proposing. Ideally, the company should have at least 3 years’ experience, so ask for references from previous clients.

If you want to optimise the performance of your organisation’s sales function, first of all you’ve got to ask the right questions. Bill Jackson of AchieveGlobal provides a checklist.

1 Define your company’s value proposition

What is the range of products and services you want to invest selling resources on in order to bring value to your customer? What do you want your sales professionals to focus on selling?

2 Segment your market

Which customers have the highest potential to invest in your products and services? Who needs most of what you are selling? Who values your participation throughout their buying-decision process? Should customers be placed in channels according to their relative potential value?