When have you had the best success?

The bigger the market, the better. Our client is large enough to handle needs of most in their market, but small enough that their customers get great service. The people we are scheduling appointments for are good at telling your story, sharing successes, identifying opportunities, and selling next steps after an initial appointment, and follow up (on average, a sale closes 6-18 months after an initial meeting).

 

When have you failed?

• New technology / solutions – I can’t count the number of times over the years when we’ve been given the impression that the solution being offered is the “best thing since sliced bread”. Invariably, we learn after we start, there are other solutions in the market, and maybe at a lower cost. Or, the solution might be perceived as a threat to displace the people we’re targeting, but not a big enough solution to gain the interest of higher-ups.

• Not enough time - Though in some cases, such as what we did in Indianapolis, we paid for ourselves within the first six months, but more often it takes a year or more. Our client in the Kansas City area believed in our process and what we were doing for them, even though they only closed on a handful of customers, but not enough revenue to justify our fee. They quoted a $2 million project that they did not win, but the recognized that without us, they would not have had the opportunity. After working with us for 18 months, they closed a $2.5 million project that was expected to grow to $5 million. They were awarded the project in April, and we had scheduled the initial meeting in June the prior year. Around the same time they had proposed another major project that they were the front-runner for, and expect to win soon.

• Smaller markets - The relationships people have with their current providers tends to be much stronger in smaller markets. Providers are often times good friends, or they may belong to the same clubs, and see each other socially. Breaking through to those companies is more difficult, and the sales cycle is much longer.

• Ineffective people who go on appointments - This is not a great program for salespeople that are struggling, or those that are traditionally good at managing existing relationships but not closing new business.

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How do I get the best return from your efforts?
To get the best return leads should be assigned to your people that are good at telling stories about other companies you have helped, identifying opportunities, presenting solutions and follow up until close (ask us for our sales process tips write-up).  

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Do you guarantee the number of leads?

We guarantee the number of new targets we pursue each month, and that’s in addition to maintaining the relationships with the prospects we developed in previous months. We don’t guarantee the number of appointments, because it’s not in your best interest to force an appointment. You want your people to meet with prospects that have a genuine interest in learning more about what you can do for them. We don’t need an incentive to get appointments, because that’s always our goal, and we understand that if you don’t meet with qualified prospects, you won’t close business, and if you don’t win new business, we get fired.

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Do your people say they are with Alliance or with us?
Our people say they work for you because we do work for you. The only difference is we work from a different office, and we don’t get a payroll check, but we get paid as an independent contractor. We will call from a phone number that has an area code within your market. Many clients also set-up an email for our caller, or we use a gmail email that looks similar to your email profile.