The question was straightforward and profound: “How should we leverage our partners so that they can be an off balance sheet sales force?”

That’s the question a client recently asked as they looked to drive sales on limited resources in a down economy.(Sound familiar?) The client had been regularly offering combined solutions with partners, but the results weren’t hitting expectations.

The key was creating simple, powerful sales tools that would help the partner’s sales teams turn good intentions into consistently good results.

These tools had three important characteristics: (1) repeatability; (2) customer orientation; and (3) usefulness across a variety of sales conversations. Some of the specific tools included elevator pitches (also called 2-minute drills), buyer profiles (to help sales people understand the key business problems of particular audiences), solution summaries (matching joint solutions to business problems), and a whiteboard conversation process (a key tool that enabled the joint sales teams to carry on dynamic conversations rather than static presentations). These tools were combined in a guidebook that both sales forces could easily refer to just before a sales call.

With improved tools to enable partner sales teams, our client was able to effectively add a whole new sales force – without having to hire a single person.

Do you have strategic partners who could likewise become off balance sheet sales teams?