Sales Partnerships, Inc. - Sales Outsourcing Provider of the Year

Company: Sales Partnerships, Inc., Broomfield, CO
Company Description: Sales Partnerships, Inc. is the premier direct sales outsourcing company in the world, offering branded representation that delivers rapid revenue lift for the most influential B2B firms in the world. Whether it's brand activation, customer acquisition, or retention, SPI is the leader in providing scalable and proven solutions to the Fortune 500.
Nomination Category: Solution Provider Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Outsourcing Provider of the Year

Nomination Title: Sales Outsourcing - Field Success Done Safely During Covid

Sales Partnerships’ nomination for sales outsourcingof the year focuses on our post-epidemic work in outsourced field sales.

Our work between July 2019 and March 2020 generated more than $1B in revenue for our clients. We operated in more than 40 states face to face selling to hundreds of thousands of small brick and mortar businesses with a team of more than 200 representatives. Our performance during this period was more than 10% better than the period in which we won our prior gold Stevie award for top Sales Outsourcing Provider.

Post March 2020, however, the Sales Partnerships team was put in the position of figuring out if outsourced field sales could be done safely and inventing a successful methodology to do so. We were able to achieve this while helping public health departments better fight the epidemic and helping our communities. We felt that our story after March 2020 was more important to tell.

Thank you for your consideration of our nomination.

Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

Sales Partnerships (SPI) is a 7-time prior Stevie winner in the Sales Outsourcing Provider Category, specializing in difficult selling environments while representing the brands of some of the largest and most respected companies in the world. Our client roster includes notables such as Google, IBM, US Bank, Verizon, and Dow Chemical.

Sales Outsourcing means providing cradle-to-grave sales services under the brand of each of the clients represented. SPI’s specialty is field sales where we have driven innovation for more than 20 years. Our teams are recruited for and dedicated to just an individual client based on that client program’s requirements.

Our hallmark is using and inventing systems and processes that optimize all the important areas impacting sales: recruiting, systems, training, management, analytics, and strategy. We’ve won dozens of global awards, been recognized in national media (Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, Inc. Magazine, CNNMoney, etc.), and helped establish the standard for providing field based sales outsourcing services. Since 1997, we have generated more than $10B in gross profits for our clients. SPI historically has operated in every significant MSA in the United States as well as in select markets globally.

Outline the organization's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

During the Covid-19 epidemic, SPI was able to safely relaunch a field sales team nationwide of more than 200 representatives in financial services. Competing channels, including a past Stevie winner in this category, focused on telesales and digital engagement were failing. Field work, where possible, was a necessity.

This is detailed in the attached case study.

Late July through December 2020, SPI re-entered many field markets and exceeded pre-Covid-19 quotas in financial services sales by 105% while lowering the cost of sale. By comparison, less than 10% of our peer sales forces even reached quota. We achieved this with zero confirmed Covid-19 cases while on the job through our more than 200 field personnel.

Sales Partnerships gained knowledge of Covid safety through our work with public health departments and the CDC. Early 2020, we developed a Covid-19 transmission tracking tool as a free solution for health departments (the tool is based on our territory management system.) While working with them, we learned the key elements necessary to maximize safe field activity, how to measure safety in market, and how to apply those lessons to field activity.

Re-engaging in the field required we do the following:
-Safety protocols and PPE usage
-Strict territory safety limits based on Covid data at county and neighborhood levels
-Real time routing around hotspots
-Virtual flipped classroom model
-Volunteer work by SPI staff during market shutdowns (40,000 hours total for 2020)

These solutions required innovation and creativity to solve challenges not seen in modern history.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

The following attachments and links are included to support our nomination:

Case study detailing the outsourced field sales work performed for the nomination
“SPI Gives” summary document describing the volunteering efforts referenced in the nomination (helped both with retention and deepening community engagement)
White paper co-authored by SPI Chief Sales Office detailing safety considerations for field sales during the epidemic
Documentation on SPI’s Territory Management Suite referenced in the nomination
Documentation on SPI’s Covid QuickView solution for health departments referenced in the nomination
The SPI homepage for more information about our organization can be found at http: //www.SalesPartnerships.com
Thank you again for your time and consideration for Sales Partnerships for the Top Sales Outsourcing Provider in America.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):

We hit 105% of the annual goal despite market closures, 30% fewer opportunities, and losing 4 months of sales work. By comparison, through the hundreds of internal sales teams our clients field – only 10% of them hit quota for teams working the small business space in 2020. The average team missed goal by more than 30% in the understandably difficult environment.

In our financial services work, our $500M in gross revenue generated since the epidemic hit was the highest figure by a single sales team we observed during the same time in the small business space for merchant solutions. By comparison, the largest merchant processing provider in North America, FIS, generated approximately $2B in merchant solutions revenue in 2020 (estimated as Q4 figures have not been released yet.) Between April and December 2020, $1B of that revenue was small business sales. More than 500 channels are used to by FIS generate that $1.25B in revenue with an average of less than $30M/year per sales team.

In an industry with customer complaint rates exceeding 3%, SPI not only outperformed our peers in total sales but did so with a 0.0004% complaint rate (with zero complaints unresolved to the customer’s satisfaction.)

This was all achieved while helping the communities we serve.