Hiring sales and marketing personnel is an option you may be considering.

You may have been reading our articles for awhile. You’re aware that it takes more time and effort to sell aviation products  and services now than it did five years ago. Aviation companies have to work harder and smarter and build better marketing materials and deploy them more intelligently to convince cautious customers to buy.

So, we know there is more sales and marketing work to be done.

How will you get it done?  Well, there are basically three options. You can hire sales and marketing people that are employees of your company. You can hire an assortment of contractors to work on individual tasks. Or you can hire ABCI.

Many of our clients were in the market to hire an employee to manage sales or marketing tasks when they found us.

As an example, we performed a Marketing Flight Plan for a company and provided recommendations for improving  sales and marketing performance. The President liked what he saw, but confided that he would rather have the work done by an employee.  He spent eight months interviewing potential candidates, using ABCI’s Marketing Flight Plan as a job description.  He was unable to find anyone with the right mix of skills and experience that he would be comfortable with for a salary that was equal to (or even a little more than) what ABCI would charge for the same level of service.  At the end of eight months of searching and interviewing job candidates, he hired ABCI.  He’s been a satisfied client for two and a half years.

ABCI is a better fit than hiring sales and marketing team internally for many companies.

Why?

Contracting is more flexible than hiring.

We understand that many companies are reluctant to hire permanent employees.  There has been a lot of economic uncertainty, and lots of changes to employment, tax, and health care laws that make us nervous about taking on the long-term commitment of hiring an employee.

We have a simple, two-page contract that includes a non-disclosure agreement, a clause that indicates the marketing materials we produce for you are “work for hire” and therefore your intellectual property, and general expectations of our work and availability. That’s all.

There is no minimum or maximum time on our contract. We bill monthly, essentially making our services a month-to-month subscription.  We ask for a “handshake commitment” to use our program for a minimum of six months to a  year, depending on your business model.  Many of the techniques we use (such as Search Engine Optimization) can take several weeks or even months to take full effect, and sales cycles tend to be months or even years for some large-ticket products and services.

You can change your service level as your business changes.  We have three levels of service, plus options.  “Dial up” your sales and marketing system as you increase capacity.  “Dial down” your system (and expenses) during seasonal fluctuations.  We work with you on your strategies and objectives each month to adjust your system as your business requires it.

Our programs include great software and training.

Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars choosing the right contact management or customer relationship management (CRM)  system, buying or subscribing to software, getting it configured for their needs, and then sending people off to training classes to learn to use it. (More expense!)

Learning to manage your website can be equally daunting.

We use the best software and technology we can find. We are a GoDaddy reseller for our web services. We are Infusionsoft Experts, qualified to set up and run your contact management system. We have used WordPress with many websites and applications and can set it up so that your website is easy for you to update and change as needed.  We attend regular training to stay up to date on the best software solutions in the market.  We invest in upgrading our software for search engine optimization, marketing analysis, project management and even videoconferencing for our meetings with your team, all included.

We provide our Marketing Master Class and custom, individual training to help our clients’ employees  do exactly what they need to do to make their sales and marketing system work.  You don’t have to be a technical genius.

Some of our clients want us to do everything, some of them want us to simply set things up, train their staff, and then provide a minimum of coaching once things are up and running.  Either model is fine with us.

You work with a team rather than an individual. (Or individuals!)

While John and I personally oversee every aspect of our business, our project managers are top-notch and selected for their knowledge and contacts in the aviation industry.  Our writers, designers, photographers, printers, and website support folks are the very best at what they do.

You get an orchestrated approach.  This is much easier (and more effective!) than hiring  someone to do your website, someone to design a print ad, and someone else to do the photography, none of whom has taken the time to really understand your business, your customers or the aviation industry.

Also, unlike an employee who may have a sick child or a personal emergency, our team approach ensures that “the show will go on” regardless of what happens to any particular individual.

If you’re thinking about hiring a sales or marketing staff, talk with us first. Complete our Marketing Flight Plan.  You may find that you still want to hire a team (or individuals) internally;  or you may decide that you’d rather outsource that whole function to ABCI.

Either way, you’ll know what needs to be done to get results, and have several good options for making that happen.

sales and marketing investment comparison

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