We have a surprising number of conversations with companies that already have their own in-house new business person, but want to know “what their options are”. It feels a little cutthroat to pursue such discussions, but you might be surprised to hear that you don’t have choose between us - you can have an internal cold channel champion AND an external business development agency.
FIGHT!
(Only joking).
If we encounter the objection “we already have someone in-house” we don’t try to oust them, we just want to be sure there’s not something we can do to assist them. Invariably the disadvantage of an in-house person (apart from them being head-hunted VERY quickly if they’re any good) is that 1) you’re now a sales manager (just like you never dreamt of), 2) they live in the very cold and lonely world of being told “no” for 99% of his or her day while the rest of the company have more ‘fun’ jobs, and 3) after a short while burning through their little black book of contacts, they run dry. (There are way more to numbers to list but I didn’t want the post to get too negative).
Bringing in an external agency on top of your staffer can help with plenty of those ‘issues’. Firstly, we’re all over data. If you’re running dry on prospects, we can build new databases for your in-house specialist to chew through. Secondly, we’re like-minded folk who know just how tough a nut new business can be to crack. Having sympathetic colleagues to bitch with on the phone is great for morale. And finally (well, for this post anyway…) we’re pretty smart cookies ourselves and are always happy to share the various methods we’ve developed over the years with our partners.
So, don’t see us as ONLY an alternative to in-house; we also play well with others.