The economy for the past year and a half has been a challenge to say the least. Like a lot of creative shops, large and small, we’ve turned to dedicated sales to attempt to deal with this challenge. We’ve hired two very different sales people over this period and a lot of hard work has gone into shoring up our marketing to support their efforts.

The results? Nothing. Bupkis. A big fat zero.

Like a lot of companies in our industry, our bread and butter “sales” have been through referral. We love referrals—the prospect is half sold on using you from the first contact. You do a good job and work keeps flowing in. But the economy has throttled the referral pipeline. We’ve learned that referrals aren’t sales at all. It would be an easy and comforting excuse to blame the economy, but the reality is that a dedicated sales program SHOULD work, even when times are tough.

Starting a real sales effort from scratch is a steep learning curve. I’d like to share some of what we’ve learned on our way up.

Know what you’re selling and to whom
Almost anything any creative agency does can now be done cheaper by freelancers or even by “one size fits all” online tools. If you’ve got even a modest overhead, you just can’t compete on price against these resources.

What we’ve learned is that we’re not selling a “deliverable”, we’re selling a relationship. There are so many quality firms out there that just getting the job done isn’t the problem for the client. Finding a reliable, affordable resource that understands their business challenges is a whole different matter. Selling a relationship implies that there is going to be more than one decision maker you have to engage with. It is a “complex sale” where you have to gain insights into the organization and understand how each player sees their “personal win” in hiring you.

Past performance is no guarantee of future gains

This has been a tough issue for us to overcome. What we’ve learned is that a sales person with a successful background in selling products, or even services, may not have the skills to successfully sell a relationship. Time and again, we’ve seen sales people on our team start strong and then become frustrated and more or less give up when they are not able to close quickly and earn their commissions. The reality is that establishing a relationship with a new prospect takes time, as much as a year of staying present and nurturing the lead.

Get creative with compensation

Good sales people are measured by and driven to earn that commission. When commissions are not near at hand, sales people understandably become frustrated. We’ve tried any number of combinations of base salary, draws, commission schedules, and bonuses to motivate sales. None of the things we’ve tried yet has hit the “sweet spot” that would motivate our sales person while maintaining our margins and total overhead.

It’s the networking stupid

Cold calling doesn’t work, at least if your expectation is that a sales person will pick up the phone and close a deal right then and there. Cold calling is more about enlarging the universe of contacts you have and creating more people to put into a nurture and contact program. If you’re considering trying out inside sales, be sure to ask a lot of questions about who the interviewee knows, what social and business circles they travel in, and how they participate in engaging with the audience you want to reach. We’ve found that these informal network contacts are much more valuable than a list of names and numbers that a sales person cold calls all day trying to break through gatekeepers.

Know who you are hiring

Sounds pretty obvious, but we’ve learned the hard way that checking references is important. You may also want to conduct a background check on any potential hire. If your sales person is any good, to be effective they need a degree of autonomy. You want to feel confident that the person representing your company to the marketplace is trustworthy and ethical.

We are still dedicated to developing an effective sales strategy, executed by great people who are experienced professionals. We’ve learned a lot and expect to continue to climb the curve. We have much more clarity on what we’re selling and why our potential customers can benefit from working with us.

The bottom line is that we’ve learned that sales is really selling us, both individually and as a team. The role we’re asking sales people to play is more like a talent agent than a traditional sales person. We’re still looking for the answer, but the more we learn, the closer we get.