Setting up a direct sales force
‘Direct selling’ or a ‘direct sales force’ is where you have direct management and control over who is doing the selling, how and when. This is because you are using your own resources and staff. To help you decide if a direct or an indirect sales force is best for your business, see our article on Choosing and managing your sales channels.
Different ways to use a direct sales force
Sales team selling face-to-face
Having your own sales team for face-to-face selling can be expensive so you need to monitor performance to ensure it’s cost-effective. Sometimes it’s essential to have your own sales team if, for example:
- your product is high-value and you only need a few sales to achieve your business objectives
- the product is a luxury item that demands high level of involvement from the sales person
- the features and benefits of the product need to be explained in detail
- the sales cycle (ie from initial interest to making a purchase) is very long
- the decision to buy rests with more than one person
Sales team selling over the telephone
Telesales have been getting a bad name as people grow increasingly wary of indiscriminate cold calls and robotic reading of a script. However, done properly this is one of the most effective and the most cost effective methods of promoting your business. Selling over the phone can also be particularly effective in making repeat sales to established customers and provides a way of keeping in touch which builds goodwill from your customers. Avoid providing a fixed script to your telesales team; it’s obvious to the customer, it stifles conversation and it creates a very poor lasting impression of your business. The far better alternative is to make sure the people selling your product actually know the product and know how it is used. There really is no substitute for well trained staff. Remember, if you’re selling to the general public you must make sure you check whether any phone numbers you’re planning to call are registered with the telephone preference service before you call them.
Trade shows and exhibitions
Trade shows and exhibitions offer the opportunity to bring your product or service to the attention of a large captive audience at one time. Take care though, as this can be a very expensive way of promoting your business and even though there may be a lot of visitors, many of them are only information collecting and not potential customers at all. If you’re lucky you’ll end up with a lot of ‘leads’ that need following up after the event. If you’re going to invest time and money in exhibiting you also need to invest some time to make sure the people who have shown an interest in you are contacted as soon as possible after the event. This may take a fair amount of resource with no guarantee that any will turn into a sale.
Bids and tenders
Competitive tendering is one of the main sales channels for supplying goods and services to the public sector, for high-value business contracts, or for the ongoing supply of services. Preparation of the bid can be very labour intensive but the resultant contract can bring large one-off or ongoing revenues to your business. To help you decide whether to make a bid you need to weigh up the time involved, the chances of winning the business and the potential value of the contract if you do win it. To view and bid for public sector contracts with a value of up to £100,000 visit supply2gov.uk.
An online shop
Selling online via your website enables your customers to reach you easily at a time and at a time that’s convenient for them. If sales volumes are high enough this is a cost-effective way of selling as you don’t need premises or staff. However, you do need to set up shopping cart facilities on your web page, a payment system, a back-end order processing system to monitor despatches and manage any returns, and a system to keep track of the payments. This type of selling can work well if you have:
- well-defined products or services that don't need explaining
- fixed prices for all types of potential customer
- products or services that can be delivered within a predictable lead time.
- high volume of sales
- low to mid-value products
- products that are easy to post
A real shop or retail outlet
Having your own retail premises, whether it’s a shop or a market stall, will bring you in direct contact with the users of your products. Whilst it therefore provides a valuable insight into your target market it brings with it particular cost disadvantages compared with online businesses. It’s a good idea therefore to consider what value you can add by having both the goods and staff present at the point of sale. Having a retail outlet may be suitable where:
- customers want to see or touch the product
- customers are likely to impulse buy
- the goods are either too bulky or too delicate to post
- product demonstrations or particular product knowledge helps the decision to buy
- the target market is unlikely or unable to buy online
- the good are of high value
- Circumstances where this may not be so good are:
- selling high volume low margin goods
- where the target market is very price sensitive so anything that adds to your cost base is a disadvantage
Setting up a direct sales force
‘Direct selling’ or a ‘direct sales force’ is where you have direct management and control over who is doing the selling, how and when. This is because you are using your own resources and staff. To help you decide if a direct or an indirect sales force is best for your business, see our article on Choosing and managing your sales channels.
Different ways to use a direct sales force
Sales team selling face-to-face
Having your own sales team for face-to-face selling can be expensive so you need to monitor performance to ensure it’s cost-effective. Sometimes it’s essential to have your own sales team if, for example:
- your product is high-value and you only need a few sales to achieve your business objectives
- the product is a luxury item that demands high level of involvement from the sales person
- the features and benefits of the product need to be explained in detail
- the sales cycle (ie from initial interest to making a purchase) is very long
- the decision to buy rests with more than one person
Sales team selling over the telephone
Telesales have been getting a bad name as people grow increasingly wary of indiscriminate cold calls and robotic reading of a script. However, done properly this is one of the most effective and the most cost effective methods of promoting your business. Selling over the phone can also be particularly effective in making repeat sales to established customers and provides a way of keeping in touch which builds goodwill from your customers. Avoid providing a fixed script to your telesales team; it’s obvious to the customer, it stifles conversation and it creates a very poor lasting impression of your business. The far better alternative is to make sure the people selling your product actually know the product and know how it is used. There really is no substitute for well trained staff. Remember, if you’re selling to the general public you must make sure you check whether any phone numbers you’re planning to call are registered with the telephone preference service before you call them.
Trade shows and exhibitions
Trade shows and exhibitions offer the opportunity to bring your product or service to the attention of a large captive audience at one time. Take care though, as this can be a very expensive way of promoting your business and even though there may be a lot of visitors, many of them are only information collecting and not potential customers at all. If you’re lucky you’ll end up with a lot of ‘leads’ that need following up after the event. If you’re going to invest time and money in exhibiting you also need to invest some time to make sure the people who have shown an interest in you are contacted as soon as possible after the event. This may take a fair amount of resource with no guarantee that any will turn into a sale.
Bids and tenders
Competitive tendering is one of the main sales channels for supplying goods and services to the public sector, for high-value business contracts, or for the ongoing supply of services. Preparation of the bid can be very labour intensive but the resultant contract can bring large one-off or ongoing revenues to your business. To help you decide whether to make a bid you need to weigh up the time involved, the chances of winning the business and the potential value of the contract if you do win it. To view and bid for public sector contracts with a value of up to £100,000 visit supply2gov.uk.
An online shop
Selling online via your website enables your customers to reach you easily at a time and at a time that’s convenient for them. If sales volumes are high enough this is a cost-effective way of selling as you don’t need premises or staff. However, you do need to set up shopping cart facilities on your web page, a payment system, a back-end order processing system to monitor despatches and manage any returns, and a system to keep track of the payments. This type of selling can work well if you have:
- well-defined products or services that don't need explaining
- fixed prices for all types of potential customer
- products or services that can be delivered within a predictable lead time.
- high volume of sales
- low to mid-value products
- products that are easy to post
A real shop or retail outlet
Having your own retail premises, whether it’s a shop or a market stall, will bring you in direct contact with the users of your products. Whilst it therefore provides a valuable insight into your target market it brings with it particular cost disadvantages compared with online businesses. It’s a good idea therefore to consider what value you can add by having both the goods and staff present at the point of sale. Having a retail outlet may be suitable where:
- customers want to see or touch the product
- customers are likely to impulse buy
- the goods are either too bulky or too delicate to post
- product demonstrations or particular product knowledge helps the decision to buy
- the target market is unlikely or unable to buy online
- the good are of high value
- Circumstances where this may not be so good are:
- selling high volume low margin goods
- where the target market is very price sensitive so anything that adds to your cost base is a disadvantage