by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

Why does Initial Call not contract on a pay-for-performance basis? It might be easier to sell our services this way, but we moved away from this model because we have seen that commission-only terms do not form the foundation for a long term, win-win relationship.

When companies are shopping for contracted inside sales support, they face two major trust hurdles. #1, what firm is good enough to represent our company and our complex offering? #2, how can we eliminate all other risk when contracting?

Initial Call wins on point one, but vendors who offer commission-only terms or who make meeting guarantees beat Initial Call--at first glance--on point two. Since it is natural to want to avoid risk, our prospects are likely to have concerns when weighing our model against a “sure thing” vendor.

Buyer Beware. Commission-only terms may feel safer but are really not inherently less risk. Consider these points:

1. If you yourself do not have extensive metrics about what it takes to schedule qualified meetings from scratch, how can anyone else make a guarantee around such? Each client offering is unique, and we do not see consistent metrics in any one vertical. Anyone who says that “we will get you X meetings by X date” or “meetings with X title cost $X” is over-simplifying.
2. Promises may get you to buy, but then you will be stuck if there is a delivery problem. Be wary: actual sales meetings may be sub-par or take much longer to schedule than pledged, costing valuable time you cannot get back.
3. If a vendor compensates their employees or contractors on a commission-only model, it is likely that they have a high-level of turnover. Meeting commissions are one part of our compensation, but we eliminate volatility and hence retain the level of talent essential to our services.

We understand that prospects want their contractor to “have skin in the game” and may think that pay-for-performance or profit-sharing is the only way to do this. We have been providing complete inside sales management for over 7 years now. We know enough to know what we don’t know—and can’t know--about a new client. So we avoid making promises we can’t keep. However, we do have a two-part solution to ensure our clients see ROI from their relationship with us.

First, we engage with new clients in a Discovery Pilot, the primary aim of which is to uncover comprehensive information about the first 1/3 of their sales cycle. A solid pilot sets the stage for future performance and a win-win partnership. At the end of a 12-week testing period, our clients have their CRM customized, a complete sales playbook, and metrics around qualified sales appointments set.

Secondly, we offer a no-penalty termination clause. At any time, if you are not satisfied with our services, you can end the engagement immediately.

The one thing we do guarantee is that we treat you and your project like one of our own.