Outsourcing business development function

[Holland Risley]

Hi,

We are a digital media agency and are currently weighing up the pros and cons of employing business development people, which of course are expensive beasts often requiring high basic salary plus commisison, car, phone etc etc.

The other alternative we are looking at is to outsource some of our new business function, I suppose going to a lead generation, telemarketing or commission only sales agency.

Has anyone had experience of outsourcing the new business function. What are the pitfalls we should look to avoid? Any advice would be most welcome.

HR

[telemax]

I used to be a commision only salesman. I took 66% of the sale value, a deal could be worth anything from 5-30k. There are people who come on here expecting commision only salespeople to take 10% on something that sells for 2k, they then wonder why there is no interest.

Every sale that you make has a cost, whether it's you making the calls, or someone else. There is no way to do it "on the cheap" if you want it done properly

[casado]

I used to be a commision only salesman. I took 66% of the sale value, a deal could be worth anything from 5-30k. There are people who come on here expecting commision only salespeople to take 10% on something that sells for 2k, they then wonder why there is no interest.

Every sale that you make has a cost, whether it's you making the calls, or someone else. There is no way to do it "on the cheap" if you want it done properly


66%?! really? I wonder why you didn't just buy the company you were working for.

[Willself]

Having worked on National Accounts across the Home Improvement
Industry, plus other Companies...i find 66% Simply Amazing..even if you owned the Company..let alone work for it!!

[Big Pete]

66% :eek:

[telemax]

Ahh I always love a bit of controversy,

The nature of the product is the company that I worked for received commision of three hundred pounds per unit sold. I took two hundred pounds while they sat back and took the remaining one hundred. Not bad for me doing all the work!!

And it was certainly a lot of work. I spent months chasing business , driving up and down the country, making hundreds of phonecalls, no leads were supplied to me, I had to generate all of my own. It did actually work out to be a fair living even once expenses were taken out of the equation. Also i was only interested in pitching for a minimum of 5 units other wise it wasn't worth my time.

Which leads me to my next point, if I worked on a 10% commision I'd be doing the same amount of chasing around to earn £200 per sale, It would be impossible to make a profit!! thats precisely why no one reponds to a 10% commision ad. It seems that no one has a conception of how hard it is to sell any product and how long it can take unless they have done it themselves.

[david6415]

Hi,

We are a digital media agency and are currently weighing up the pros and cons of employing business development people, which of course are expensive beasts often requiring high basic salary plus commisison, car, phone etc etc.

The other alternative we are looking at is to outsource some of our new business function, I suppose going to a lead generation, telemarketing or commission only sales agency.

Has anyone had experience of outsourcing the new business function. What are the pitfalls we should look to avoid? Any advice would be most welcome.

HR



Hi

we are an outsourcing company and a call center based in delhi, India. We have network of efficient call centers across India. Basically we are a one stop shop and we can help you in the outsourcing aspect of your business. Awaiting your response

[wood1e2]

As far as I am concerned with the rules on employment, I would always go for subbies...oooppsss sorry outsourcing :)

[david6415]

HI

Ok. So let me know which all campaigns are u looking to outsource and what are the payouts and the payment structure so we can start working towards this.

[left-long-ago]

A few angles:

1) Get someone with a track record in your business and give him a nice slice. People do not often get this one, if they get more of the deal they work harder. In the meantime you can sit back and play on facebook.

2) Could hire more people than you need, there is a recession on. Fire the shiit ones and keep the good ones.

3) Get some telsales done, internet advertising yadayada

[casado]

Ahh I always love a bit of controversy,

The nature of the product is the company that I worked for received commision of three hundred pounds per unit sold. I took two hundred pounds while they sat back and took the remaining one hundred. Not bad for me doing all the work!!

And it was certainly a lot of work. I spent months chasing business , driving up and down the country, making hundreds of phonecalls, no leads were supplied to me, I had to generate all of my own. It did actually work out to be a fair living even once expenses were taken out of the equation. Also i was only interested in pitching for a minimum of 5 units other wise it wasn't worth my time.

Which leads me to my next point, if I worked on a 10% commision I'd be doing the same amount of chasing around to earn £200 per sale, It would be impossible to make a profit!! thats precisely why no one reponds to a 10% commision ad. It seems that no one has a conception of how hard it is to sell any product and how long it can take unless they have done it themselves.

It looks like here everyone talks in very general terms as if the characteristics, even the business characteristics, of a product where only determined by either price or margin. And that is absolutely nuts, and I suspect not really candid.
There are many sales people making a living selling at "normal" commission/margin, i.e. corner shops for instance.
The answer is volume. There are at least two parameters to be considered, profit per unit, that can be specified by the margin or whatever, and the sales volume.
The rule of thumb is always the same, if you see a product with a huge margin you can be sure that the volume of sales will be low. That is elementary market economics, if the volume was bit enough other competitors will prop up that will bring prices down.

But you have not been totally honest in your account. First you said you had a 66% commission on some kind of product, now it turns out that is a commission on a commission. What percentage of the whole price was the commission you were getting your cut then? If that turns out to be, say, 30%, your commission would have been 20%, far away from the 66% you claimed. And then leaves unanswered the question as to why you didn't take the full 100%, since your bosses "they sat back".

But this is a no-problem. If a higher commission needs to be paid, prices need to go up, and volume would go down. I assume any one who writes down a business plan will try to workout its pricing so they can make a profit after paying commissions that should be enough to pay the sales personnel a fair salary, otherwise, we all know there will not be sales personnel at all. All this discussions have the feeling as there is a tension to take more money from the employer when the only many there is to be taken is that of the clients. The employer employs people to make a profit no to do charity work. And if the sales personnel feel that they can do better they are more than welcome to set up their own business.

[left-long-ago]

I think from an owners perspective, you always want to pay as little as possible to your sales staff and keep the maximum for you. That is human nature on both sides, as the salesman wants to get the most for them as well.

You need to look at your costs, what you can sell the product for and what you would be happy with as a margin. If someone is onto a good thing they will stay and keep on making sales for you and if they do eventually become too expensive you will be rich anyway OR you messed up with your margin calculation and gave too much away.

[telemax]

But you have not been totally honest in your account. First you said you had a 66% commission on some kind of product, now it turns out that is a commission on a commission. What percentage of the whole price was the commission you were getting your cut then? If that turns out to be, say, 30%, your commission would have been 20%, far away from the 66% you claimed. And then leaves unanswered the question as to why you didn't take the full 100%, since your bosses "they sat back".
.

You have a point

Then again it worked for me so I don't really care,

What I'm saying was that I was happy to put a huge amount of effort in to get a large size deal with a decent payday. What many offer on here is a small size deal with a frankly rubbish commission.

[ebonybailey]

Sent you a PM with some useful information.

Michael

[casado]

You have a point

Then again it worked for me so I don't really care,

What I'm saying was that I was happy to put a huge amount of effort in to get a large size deal with a decent payday. What many offer on here is a small size deal with a frankly rubbish commission.

How do you know? how do you know what they really offer based only on the percentage? You don't care mainly about talking rubbish? I know people who makes millions on a 2 and 3% commission. How can you say that 10% commission is rubbish? are you a mind reader to know what people is selling, at what price and the sales volume just looking at the commission rate?

And yet again, it worked for you but what you told us is not the truth, hope is just one off. And still you refuse to tell us the real commission rate, those 300 pounds out of what sale price? If the price the commission was calculated on was, say, 2000, then you have worked on 2/3 of a 15% commission, that works out to be 10%.

[telemax]

How do you know? how do you know what they really offer based only on the percentage? You don't care mainly about talking rubbish? I know people who makes millions on a 2 and 3% commission. How can you say that 10% commission is rubbish?

are you a mind reader to know what people is selling, at what price and the sales volume just looking at the commission rate?

And yet again, it worked for you but what you told us is not the truth, hope is just one off. And still you refuse to tell us the real commission rate, those 300 pounds out of what sale price? If the price the commission was calculated on was, say, 2000, then you have worked on 2/3 of a 15% commission, that works out to be 10%.

Ok so I'm wrong and your right,

Feel better?

[casado]

Ok so I'm wrong and your right,

Feel better?

I don't know, you just don't complete your sentences.