No business can survive without making sales, which is why so many businesses invest so much into obtaining the most effective sales engine they can in the midst of a competitive market. However, some entrepreneurs mistakenly believe they can solve the problem by throwing money at it. It may succeed – but only at first – and many businesses soon discover that this method is unsustainable, incredibly difficult, and expensive to scale.
Ryan Hall, founder of London-based sales consultancy Friday Solved, says he has seen an increase in businesses burned by outsourcing sales. Using his 23 years of experience in sales, both in his businesses and for others, he founded Friday Solved, which seeks to make clients realise that outsourcing sales problems won’t be able to solve a broken sales pipeline.
The company has created a unique approach to creating scalable and sustainable sales engines for its clients in knowledge-based industries, guided by its philosophy of ‘build it, don’t buy it.’
Friday Solved believes modern sales techniques are about building relationships, especially lasting ones. Instead of striving for sales, businesses must achieve buy-ability, which builds trust and the knowledge to solve customers’ problems.
What does ‘Build It, Don’t Buy it’ mean?
Hall says businesses and organisations have been falling into the trap of outsourcing sales and not owning the whole sales engine. Many of them approach business development agencies that simply buy leads and cold email prospects without any form of relationship building.
In contrast, building one’s own sales engine involves warm outbound sales to an audience that might actually want their product. This also includes building relationships, building authority through the power of content, and using personas along the pipeline to nurture the leads. This is a more sustainable approach and allows the business to fully control the output of its pipeline, resulting in a more predictable and scalable outcome. Friday Solved’s framework has five elements that help clients build their own sales engine. These are:
Creating ownership and accountability by defining clear ways of working
To drive accountability, you need ownership within your business. By that, we mean the right people, tools, processes, and strategies that sit inside your business, not with a third party. That is where the value belongs. If you’re clear on the ways of working, processes, and standard operating procedures, you can create accountability and ownership. The sales process should be crystal clear so anyone new to the business can understand what should happen and when. By having a clear process, you can easily attribute roles and responsibilities to team members and understand who owns what.
Putting the right people in the right place
Naturally, people who are part of an organisation have better knowledge and are more interested in the organisation doing well than outsiders. Friday Solved says businesses should get their team to play to their strengths. Subject matter experts are a huge asset, and leadership should ensure that these subject matter experts are facing the prospects at the right place in the funnel.
Build culture and momentum
According to Hall, businesses must embrace a sales culture where sales isn’t a dirty word but rather the lifeblood of the organisation. Another important part is having the momentum required to pull off the outreach successfully. This momentum doesn’t come from the volume of bought leads. Instead, it comes from a team working together to synchronise marketing and sales efforts into a well-oiled machine.
Having a strategy and tactics and a tool kit that supports it
Having the right sales strategy is crucial – it should be clear, actionable, and well-defined. Anyone should be able to read it and understand the goal, how to get there, and where the ownership comes into play. This strategy will inform the tactics to reach sales, whether behavioural triggers or contact-based tactics. We are always looking for ways to drive the next best action and move the prospect along the pipeline.
Control the conversation through authority and channel ownership
The final and arguably most important element, Hall says, is building authority. This is why marketing and sales functions should not operate in isolation. He says content marketing is the perfect opportunity to guide the audience through their pain points and the funnel, educating them on what the business does. Instead of teaching them to sell, Friday Solved guides its clients on how to build relationships with their customers through various channels.
“We've been applying and refining this framework and it has achieved exactly what it's supposed to and more, scale and sustainability,” Hall says. “Some of our consultancy clients have been smaller-sized teams, but we've helped them punch above their weight, delivering the same kind of pipeline output that you'd expect to see in large scale organisations. We are working on the next version of our framework, and are very excited about the growth potential for our clients for the next year.”
Media contact:
Name: Ryan Hall
Email: [email protected]
