Sales is a key function in any company, and SalesConx.com CEO Evan Sohn believes that his company can help other small to medium businesses strive for better results in this area.
SalesConx.com is essentially an online marketplace for sales leads and referrals, somewhat like Leadvine.com (which we recently featured). However, instead of crowdsourcing various leads of sorts – sales, recruitment, partnerships etc – from the entire community at large as Leadvine.com does, at SalesConx.com you get sales leads from qualified sales experts to reach targeted decision makers from a wide range of different industries. These “selling experts” undergo a stringent selection process by SalesConx.com – applicants require at least three years of sales experience and have to be invited by a current member – before they can join, which ensures the quality of leads you get.
A qualified introduction to a prospective buyer, partner or investor is priceless, especially if it’s made by someone who’s worked with them directly before. Heck, it’s way better than cold-calling for sure. Think of SalesConx.com as a virtual throwback to good old-fashioned referrals and networking, in an online sort of way.
Users place a listing on the site, and determine the price for an introduction to a potential prospect for as little as US$50. They only pay upon completed transactions – there are no subscription, maintenance or licensing fees of any sort as a SalesConx.com member.
“As a small business owner, head of sales and marketing finding the decision maker and actually getting in front of the decision maker has always been a challenge. While it is very easy to find the name of the decision maker, getting a meeting with the client is another story,” says Sohn. “There was a time when a salesperson was at the heart of every transaction.
“E-commerce, online transactions and inside sales teams have for the most part disintermediated selling professionals from the overall process.”
Sohn believes that sales has always been about building relationships and delivering value to the client, and the revenue and commission elements should always come secondary to delivering quality and consistency. “I felt that if we could bring (sales professionals) back into the fold and capitalize on their experiences that we could deliver incredible value to our clients.”
“We are consistently adding features to our site and processes to our operation that improves are entire value chain.”
SalesConx.com came into the media limelight late last year and early this year, where it was featured in Fast Company (story), CNET (story), VentureBeat (story) and KillerStartups.com (story). Sohn says one of the key lessons he learnt from his previous ventures in Brainchild, Informedix and Omnipod was to surround himself with great people – a great board, a great management team, great partners and great employees. Sohn’s CTO, Nicholas Dinatale, worked with him years ago at a previous venture. “His business sense and keen understanding of small business needs and online e-commerce were essential elements for the business. The rest of the team at SalesConx are energetic, enthusiastic and bright young people with limited experience but incredible winning attitudes,” Sohn shares. SalesConx also attracted the founders and investors of Gerson Lehrman including Mark Gerson, Thomas Lehrman as well as serial entrepreneurs like Jeffrey Stewart.
Sohn agrees the economic climate looks bleak at the moment, and believes the best way companies can weather the storm is to grow revenues, contain cost and increasing one’s productivity. In a difficult market such as the one we are in, Sohn says, sales become even more critical and clients go to them seeking to improve their productivity by gaining access to their target decision makers.
He’s optimistic about SalesConx‘s future. “We are adding new selling experts every day as companies around the country are reducing their sales forces.”
