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August 13, 2005

Dirty, Dirty

Why is it, when the topic of "sales" is covered in an association workshop, you tend to hear a lot of carefully worded sentences beginning with phrases like, "Well, if your organization's culture allows for it, you could do ..."

Because, unfortunately, there are still some associations for whom "sales" seems like a dirty word. "It's about the mission," they say, "and relationships. Not sales." Call me crazy, but I don't see how those things are mutually exclusive.

In fact, without sales providing the profit necessary to run all those cost centers we associations cherish so much, it's pretty hard to fulfill your mission -- and it's only going to get harder.

At a session today entitled "Identify the Right Sales Structure for Your Organization," we heard from some associations for whom sales is definitely not a dirty word. Execs from the American Water Works Association, American Association of Blood Banks, and AWFS (which represents the woodworking and furnishings industry) engaged in a back-and-forth based on their experiences managing an in-house sales force.

They pretty much focused on the tradeshow end of things. And one of the most interesting takeaways from the session wasn't mentioned in the workshop, it was included in the handouts. Did you know:

-- 70% of Tradeshow Week's "50 fastest growing tradeshows" are managed by for-profit companies
-- 55.5% of the top 200 shows are run by for-profits
-- 82% of all tradeshows are managed by for-profits

As one woman in the audience from a professional society bluntly remarked, "Our lunch is being eaten by for-profits." And another exec admitted of her organization, "We're good at producing things, but not good at selling them."

Interestingly, each of the panelists had moved from an outsourced sales model to an in-house sales model, and met with greater success. Though one admitted that she'd experienced some political growing pains when they first made the move, as other senior staff in the organization were uncomfortable with the commissionable sales model. What if, gasp, the salesperson made more money than other people in the office?

More power to him or her, said the panelists, because obviously, if you structure your commission base properly, that means the organization's making a lot more money as well. (AWFS shared their learning experience with commissions -- they started out with something fairly straightforward but moved to a more nuanced structure based on net from the different sponsorship and advertising products sold.)

The entire workshop was structured as a dialogue, with panelists answering rapid-fire questions from the audience rather than dwelling on their stories. (Well-written case studies on each were in the handouts.) Lots of good discussion on inter-departmental competition (consolidate the function), who sells what (each company should deal with one person who is responsible for cross-selling all available products), and commission structures.

When should an organization consider outsourcing? One other panelist, representing National Trade Productions, a for-profit company that manages trade show sales for associations, said the associations that should definitely look into farming sales out are those that really operate an "order-taking" environment -- they may call it sales, but it's really exhibit logistics. You can't take the order unless you ask for it first.

Posted by Kevin Holland at August 13, 2005 06:12 PM

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