Prospect Relationship Development Outsourcing
Prospect relationship development is usually the part of the sales process that most companies associate with the "Sales" job description. The ironic thing is, once an organization has put a proposal or a price quote together and forwarded it to the prospect, it is too late to "sell". If a company has a strong system for qualifying new sales prospects and converting sales prospects to new RFQ/RFP opportunities (also known as sales pipeline), the organization shouldn't have to sell. This part of the sales process is about making sure that new sales opportunities are turning into new sales in a way that works for the buyer and the seller. The closed sale hit rate at this stage of the sales process(if calculated using total RFQ/RFP conversions) could be as high as 50%.
Outsourcing prospect relationship development is quite simple, but requires that the company stay in control of the process. If you are using contracted sales resources for the prospect development and prospect qualification, simple reporting requirements and involvement of your internal sales resources can help make the process most effective. Look to the contracted sales resources for positioning and relationship direction and manage the reporting process so that the information gathered forces engagement of your internal sales resources.
If we were to compare the sales process to a manufacturing process, this would be the final quality, package and ship step. If the process ran correctly, you should not be worried about your pricing, you should not be worried about the terms of the sale, you should be focusing on the execution of the order and what will make that new customer come back for more.
