Typical startup sales consulting takes the form of high cost analysis and planning services.

PROBLEM: These consulting firms typically do not get into the trenches and sell with you. This leaves their high cost advice lacking impact and relevance.

OUR SOLUTION: We tie consulting and service together, to close the loop; giving you a beneficial sales strategy, and a sales process to execute it.

Typical lead gen agencies will ask you for an extensive playbook on how you’re currently selling your solutions.

PROBLEM: Most startups aren’t prepared to provide this formalized sales process/revenue strategy document, and the lead gen agency is only as good as the most current process that works. You might as well try and sell yourself and you’d have similar success to the lead gen agency.

The other issue is that, even if they offer performance-based pay, if they don’t see sales after a time, they have no reason to keep working for free. Don’t get seduced by free work on the front end, pay for something specific that you need.

OUR SOLUTION: We build a strategy, then we test through actual, industry-standard sales efforts, then we assess and improve revenue strategy, and execute the sales process again. Building the foundation that allows you to benefit from agencies in the future.

It seems to make sense to hire someone with lots of experience from an industry that is close to or matches the market your product is in, and hire them full-time, right?

It’s a gamble actually.

High experience players will often struggle in a startup environment, the pay won’t be quite enough, the benefits won’t be quite right (or even be offered), the sales tools won’t be there (or not enough of them), the sales process won’t be defined.

Anyone who has a lot of experience in sales is more accustomed to seeing commission. People work in sales for the upside of their successful performance. Early-stage companies don’t know where their money is ACTUALLY going to come from yet.

High-cost, high-experience sales hires will usually be gone after a year at a startup. There just are better options for them.

Start with the SSIC startup sales solution, then consider full or part-time hires.

Startups don’t have great options for scaling sales in the early-stage; that’s why we created the SSIC sales method.

Well, what about a cheaper sales hire, without much experience, who’s hungry for a growth opportunity? That’ll probably work right?

It’s also a gamble.

Low experience means more management, less independent contribution to your sales goals, less ability to handle the pressure of a startup where leadership gets antsy and starts leaning on the sales rep hard because their unrealistic sales goals aren’t getting hit as fast as the investors want.

First of all, you have to admit that any sales goals in the early-stage are ideas, not necessarily attainable based on proven performance. Another reason you don’t want to over-commit to sales early.

Low experience reps still cost quite a bit. Hiring them too soon, before you have a grasp of what sales is like for your company, is setting yourself up for more challenges than are necessary.

Having no process before hiring a rep is risky. It shows them no one has sold anything at your company, or even tried, it shows they will have to create all their own process to succeed, which sometimes is not a sales rep’s strength.

Start with a base process by going through the SSIC startup sales program, then consider hiring staff full or part-time.

VAs are a cheap option that can help us execute sales activity, right?

Yes actually. But is the cheap option the best option?

VAs are dedicated. They have a great work opportunity based on where they live. Cheap for us is high-paid for them.

However, US-based businesses are overwhelmed with offshore resources calling in as scammers, low-cost sales staff, etc.

The US market isn’t particularly in favor of this sales experience. Can you find a great VA who’s a “killer” in sales, and has really good English-speaking skills that buyers can understand? YEAH! You certainly can. It’s just not that easy to find.

The most typical VA experience:

lots of management, lots of explaining, great order-takers and hard workers, great for many things, just not the best fit for mid-market or high-dollar B2B sales in our experience.

If you find one that’s really good, let us know where you found them by all means!

Here’s a story:

Stryker owns its market for hospital beds. Their straight sales reps are almost entirely all-commission. The reason why? Because making great money is just a matter of time for them, it’s not a matter of beating competition, they just service demand.

In early-stage sales, where you aren’t the market leader, you have to pay more up front with reps. They don’t have a reason to trust in commissions early on. Because of this, you need them to have a reason to get up and work on sales for you, otherwise you’ll just get inconsistent focus, and poor results.

When you’re trying to bring on a sales rep, with compensation, you have to understand, a sales rep can work anywhere in sales. People work in sales because there’s an upside to performance, it’s not just base pay with no upside.

They need to be paid for their time well if they are going to sink time into your company early on, and not see a lot of commission on the front-end.

This compensation philosophy is built into the SSIC startup sales model. The cost is matched to the risk to the sales team, and the pay structure is matched to the startup’s position financially and in terms of its maturity in its market.