Many of us have found ourselves in the position , selling a technical service , where the successful sales exec (hunter) needs a prerequisite level of technical and industry knowledge that does not come with a crash induction course.  When and how do you justify the addition of another such BDM, with the cost and risk associated?  It’s a bit like the investment choice between real estate and some shares.  Taking on a(nother) BDM is a bit like buying a slice of real estate.  You can’t buy the front door to get started small and try before you buy.  Whereas you can buy (and sell)  a small parcel of shares.

But you can try before you buy (like shares compared to real estate), if you play it creatively and cleverly.  Start off by treating the decision as a market research-come-business case exercise.  Hire an outsourced tele-lead gen/lead qual function starting off with just a few hours a day or week (whatever is small for your situation).  Carefully craft the scripts , the offer, the “carrot” for having the target on the other end of the phone agree to have your current BDM/s visit to scope the requirement.  Assess the demand, the proportional uptake , the normal funnel metrics , and calculate your business case.

You may well find, that in addition to answering your opening question, you will head down the pathway of setting up permanent phone based lead gen / lead qual  as an integral feature of your sales process.  In this sense, your total BDM activity is predicated on working received qualified leads, instead of drumming them up new leads themselves.

Two follow up chapters flow from this.  The notion of specialising your sales resource to different parts of the top-to-bottom new opportunity funnel.  And the notion of how best to synergise telesales and BDM resource and effort across the customer base.  Stand by as we tackle each of these over coming instalments.