.jpg)
News
March 2008 - To consult or not to consult; that is the question!
A business sales guru is offering advice and guidance to small to medium-sized companies that are looking to ‘buy in’ specialist expertise – advising them to think carefully about what they really want to achieve and to consider coaching as the ideal solution.
“It’s a common problem for most businesses,” commented Technology Sales and Marketing Coach, Terry Forsey. “When it comes to finding outside help, many managers and directors do not understand how they can best utilise the skills of others – especially when it comes to marketing and sales.
“Sub- contracting the work is commonplace but leaves the business without having acquired any relevant skills to develop in the future, whilst consultancy can be costly and often relies on inexperienced internal staff to implement strategies and plans.
“Coaching services are designed to suit businesses that want to take control of their own sales and marketing function, with a coach providing advice and guidance to ‘mentor’ staff – allowing ownership of these resources. This procedure would typically mean appointing a ‘non-executive’ Director who can guide the business through change. This approach suits many businesses and annual growth of up to 100% is quite feasible – in fact, I have two recent examples of this at ‘Halcyon Software’ in Peterborough and ‘Alamein’ in Beaconsfield that have achieved this level of growth.
“Consultancy often involves the traditional approach of analysis, conclusion and recommendation whereas coaching can become more hands-on - from developing a sales and marketing plan to participating in sales meetings, assisting the writing of proposals and developing white papers as part of a skills transfer process.
“Coaching does not suit everyone and for some, this style of ‘outsourcing’ simply does not fit with the nature of their business and may better suit a sub-contract model - while this may carry a lower cost per day for the service, overall project costs are often higher.
“I recommend that managers carefully examine their desired outcomes – if it’s to do the job in hand whilst equipping their own people with skills, so that in the future they can undertake similar tasks with reduced direction, consider coaching!”
For more information call 01536 771440 or email, terry@forsey.info.
ENDS
