Do you have any good metrics around ROI for bringing in a technical sales role? We are looking at adding this position and I was wondering if there were metrics to support my back of the envelop numbers. – Anonymous
The simple answer is add their compensation plan plus travel expenses against forecasted additional sales and margins on the sales. This is a good start but may be too simple. My follow up questions are: How much is your product? How much is your current cost of sales? How long is your sales cycle? Can you sell your product without a technical sales role? How many sales people at your company? How are you handling today? Are you losing sales because lack of technical expertise in the sales process? Do your competitors offer technical pre-sales rolls? Based on these answers I would put together a more sophisticated ROI model.
At many companies the technical pre-sales roll is covered by the product group or development. If your product team is spending too much time on the road and on sales calls they are not working on enhancing your offering. This can justify the need for technical pre-sales, to free up your product resource to enhance and develop new products. Run a won / loss report for the previous year. Review the losses and determine if a technical sales person would have changed the outcome to a win. Do your competitors use technical sales people? If yes, in your loss report see who is the primary vendor(s) you are losing to? If no, is adding a technical sales person an opportunity to differentiate you in the market.
Based on your answers, put together a presentation for your management team. When calculating additional sales, I recommend a factor (3, 5, 7) of the value of the initial contract because in my experience quality clients will continue to work (buy from you) with you for years.
Last comment, if this is your first time using a technical sales role give the process some time. If you have a 12 month sales cycle and you hire a pre-sales technical person it could be a year before you see the results.
Anonymous, Good internal selling on adding 'Technical Sales Support’ to your team and let us know how it goes! Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give 'additional information on 'Technical Sales Resources’ and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun P
The simple answer is add their compensation plan plus travel expenses against forecasted additional sales and margins on the sales. This is a good start but may be too simple. My follow up questions are: How much is your product? How much is your current cost of sales? How long is your sales cycle? Can you sell your product without a technical sales role? How many sales people at your company? How are you handling today? Are you losing sales because lack of technical expertise in the sales process? Do your competitors offer technical pre-sales rolls? Based on these answers I would put together a more sophisticated ROI model.
At many companies the technical pre-sales roll is covered by the product group or development. If your product team is spending too much time on the road and on sales calls they are not working on enhancing your offering. This can justify the need for technical pre-sales, to free up your product resource to enhance and develop new products. Run a won / loss report for the previous year. Review the losses and determine if a technical sales person would have changed the outcome to a win. Do your competitors use technical sales people? If yes, in your loss report see who is the primary vendor(s) you are losing to? If no, is adding a technical sales person an opportunity to differentiate you in the market.
Based on your answers, put together a presentation for your management team. When calculating additional sales, I recommend a factor (3, 5, 7) of the value of the initial contract because in my experience quality clients will continue to work (buy from you) with you for years.
Last comment, if this is your first time using a technical sales role give the process some time. If you have a 12 month sales cycle and you hire a pre-sales technical person it could be a year before you see the results.
Anonymous, Good internal selling on adding 'Technical Sales Support’ to your team and let us know how it goes! Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give 'additional information on 'Technical Sales Resources’ and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun P
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