Kathy Meehan--Using Technology to Make High-End<br></br> Sales Processes and Practices Available to SMBs

This month we talked with Kathy Meehan, co-founder with Dina Sarti of Five Star Connection, a sales outsourcing firm. Five Star Connection provides sales outsourcing to small and medium companies, as well as consulting with these companies to develop a process to manage marketing campaigns, the sales pipeline, and customer relationships.

No longer just for the Fortune 500 and no longer simply relegated to IT deals, business process outsourcing, or BPO, has seen a dramatic rise in the past two years. According to a recently released IDC report, the share of BPO and processing services outsourcing deals increased from 15.2 percent in 2003 to 25 percent in 2004.

As our interview with Meehan shows, technology is helping to make this all possible. In fact, the team at Five Star Connection is an entirely virtual one, relying on technology to keep them coordinated, organized, and in touch with their clients and each other.

Q: So tell me about Five Star Connection. What service do you provide?

A: Five Star Connection is a sales and marketing consulting and sales outsourcing firm. We provide small and mid-sized businesses with the sales power they need during peak times, or for companies that can't afford to hire a full-time sales executive. When you have a small or mid-sized business, it's very hard to hire sales executives. They cost a lot and if they're good, they're going to leave unless you really make it worth their while. Our company also provides the benefits and best practices of the sales processes used by Fortune 500 and 1000 companies but make it accessible to the small and medium business. We adjust them for practical application in these smaller markets.

Q: Can you give me an example of what you mean by "adjusting the sales processes"?

A: Sure. The way we utilize CRM for a small business is dependent on our client's specific needs. Often we recommend CRM software, for instance, salesforce.com, which is a very extensive and powerful tool. But when you only have 10 or 20 clients, you don't always need a complete CRM software package. Some clients may simply need an Excel spreadsheet to track their sales. Or, perhaps the client wants to use an Excel spreadsheet and the contact manager within Outlook. Or, do they want to implement ACT!, a mid-tier CRM package? The choice of the CRM tool that we use is often dictated by the size of the business, the client's budget, their familiarity with technology, and also, by what the client is currently using. If the client is familiar with Outlook, then we can marry that with a process for forecasting and sales pipeline management.

That's one of the things that's really important about what we do. I've been through many professional sales trainings and have spent a lot of years putting together sophisticated pipelines for Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 organizations. What I found is that if you're overloading the client with features and functions of the CRM package, people just aren't going to use it, and it's not going to be perceived as a valuable sales tool. At Five Star Connection, we strive to develop sales and marketing processes that are useful and valuable to the client. We take this very seriously.

Q: Walk me through what happens when you're working with a client.

A: What we've found is that a lot of small and medium businesses are run by entrepreneurs who are really good at what they do, but they may have limited professional sales or marketing experience. These companies can have a full sales staff, or perhaps just a few people, or, in some cases, no sales force at all. We consult with these companies and help them understand that after you run out of friends, you have to have a sales and marketing plan in place if you want to keep growing your business and attracting new sales. This is where we provide the biggest impact--helping them to figure out who they want to target. For instance, we ask: Is it a vertical market? Is it people who perform a certain function within an organization? What size organization? We have these conversations and help our clients develop their target list. Then we develop and drive a process that includes introductory letters, follow-up phone calls, e-mails, presentations, and, finally, we support these efforts with a marketing campaign, if the client's budget allows for that.

Q: Do you build the campaigns in-house or do you outsource those?

A: We do both, depending on the project. We have great resources for newsletters, for Web and brochure design, and for high-level marketing campaigns. We'll manage the process for the client and, when appropriate, we'll outsource the work to these firms.

Q: What's an example of a high-level campaign for a small or mid-sized business?