You set sales goals for your sales reps. You work these goals with the sales team aggressively. But, when is the last time you checked in with your non-sales staff on the topic of business development? There are typically orders of magnitude more non-sales than sales staff in an organization. In my company, for example, the ratio is greater than 10-1. Even a small uptick in the effectiveness of this larger group to identify and qualify opportunities on which the sales team can then follow-up can have a substantial top line impact. At your next all hands meeting, why not have some sales training for non-sales professionals? Multiply your “feet on the street.” Do the math, it’s worth it!
I agree. We use the non-sales people in my company too. Specifically for identifying leads.