Companies specialising in outsourced employment provide good money and career prospects.
There's a big move on for those looking at sales and marketing as a career it's called outsourcing.
Up to 20,000 people in the profession are now employees of companies that are contracted, mostly by large companies looking to avoid day-to-day management of field sales forces, in-store merchandising teams and point-of-sale customer service monitors.
This week, we look at two companies showing rapid growth in the area as corporates drop their reluctance for the concept.
Bruno Maurel , managing director , Creative Field Marketing (Melbourne and Sydney)
Started in 1989, Creative Field Marketing (CFM) spent 10 years persuading companies of the merits of using sales teams managed by outside specialists. Now business in booming.
CFM has between 1200 and 1500 people on the road, working in field sales and marketing teams, and point-of-sale manage-ment and distribution all the in-store promotional items for companies such as Nokia, Levi's, Arnott's, HP and Optus.
CFM's outsourced sales teams run all the retailer training and education on client products, and oversee product merchandising.
Maurel says corporates still prefer to keep their most senior sales roles inside the company but the execution task is transferred to CFM.
"Usually there will be a person heading up the Harvey Norman account at head office, as an example," he says.
"They will go and set up the structure of the Harvey Norman deal from a supplier perspective. Then they will have our people in the field dealing with the individual Harvey Norman proprietors and floor sales staff."
Half of his people are graduates who have strong career prospects. "From day one, part of their responsibility is to develop their own career path.
"We've got people who hang around for six years or more and progress nicely through the organisation," he says. "The ones who drop out usually do it at the two-year mark. About 10 per cent move into our client organisations, 10 to 20 per cent are promoted through our company. About 60 per cent are happy with what they're doing but might shift from one client program to another, and another 10 per cent move on."
Base remuneration packages start at $45,000 a year for a full-time sales representative. Field managers earn from $60,000, program directors from $80,000, and national program managers upwards of $100,000. Maurel says CFM will double in size in the next three years.
Matt Bailey , managing director , the Bailey Group (Melbourne)
Like CFM, the Bailey Group business is running hot. Chief executive Matt Bailey has more than 500 people on the road, across three divisions.
The smallest group but the one with the greatest growth prospects is Bailey Sales & Marketing, home to the out-sourced sales force. This division has about 30 sales people on the road, responsible for about $100 million in sales. Bailey says his business will double its revenue of "$10 to $20 million" in the next two years.
Getting the right people with the right work ethic and attitude is his biggest challenge. About 60 per cent of his people are university graduates.
"If you've got people willing to have a go [who] have the right attitude, you can teach them the rest," he says. Specific sales expertise is not high on Bailey's agenda. "We continue to try different types of people with different backgrounds."
But he does regard career development as important. His company has two other key divisions Powerforce Brands and Retail Facts. Powerforce is a merchandising operation for clients selling to supermarkets, pharmacies, liquor stores and mass merchants.
Retail Facts is an "observational data" business analysing in-store marketing tactics how many displays, for example, are present in outlets or what product lines are under- or over-stocked.
The work is done for a specific client or brand. That information is then matched with retailer sales data to develop or finetune in-store marketing strategies.
"Multiskilling is a big advantage for a young graduate," Bailey says. "In a big multi-national company, you may be stuck in one position, or one area, for some period of time."
