Hi Johnny,
Great question. It’s not so much about the value of the order as about the complexity of the sales cycle. Having said that, if you have a complex sales cycle your order value needs to be worth it!
Here are a couple of rules of thumb, because every business is different:
* If the sales cycle involves multiple people (like most business-to-business sales), you should separate the functions.
* If you have a one-call-close product (ok, or two-call-close), you should NOT separate the functions.
* If you have a variety of kinds of customers and orders (some small, some large), and the website alone isn’t enough to have them pick the right products, you should separate the functions and have a sales development team that talks to ALL the customers to help them choose the right products.
* Again, although order value is not the main determiner…If the order value is more than a couple of thousand dollars, usually it makes sense to separate the functions.
Cold calling 2.0 ebook was very interesting and useful. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Is there a dollar value of the product you are selling that determines when you should separate the Sales Development from Sales?
Hi Johnny,
Great question. It’s not so much about the value of the order as about the complexity of the sales cycle. Having said that, if you have a complex sales cycle your order value needs to be worth it!
Here are a couple of rules of thumb, because every business is different:
* If the sales cycle involves multiple people (like most business-to-business sales), you should separate the functions.
* If you have a one-call-close product (ok, or two-call-close), you should NOT separate the functions.
* If you have a variety of kinds of customers and orders (some small, some large), and the website alone isn’t enough to have them pick the right products, you should separate the functions and have a sales development team that talks to ALL the customers to help them choose the right products.
* Again, although order value is not the main determiner…If the order value is more than a couple of thousand dollars, usually it makes sense to separate the functions.
Post some info about your order sizes, etc, and I’ll respond. Or set up a session through http://www.PebbleStorm.com/coaching.
Hope this helps,
Aaron