Selling conversations.

Building Enterprises is not what others consider a telemarketing company. After 20 years of business, Building Enterprises prides itself on being experts at selling conversations.

Research by National Statistics shows that the Business-to-Business market will grow from $145 billion

According to IDC, the worldwide call center services market totaled $23 billion in revenues in 1998, and is projected to double to $58.6 billion by 2003. (This is based on dividing the overall call center service marketing into these segments: consulting, systems integration and outsourcing.) Outsourcing is the largest segment, with $17 billion in 1998, or 74 percent of the total market, headed for $42 billion in 2003.

In today's highly-competitive corporate business environment, the most successful companies in virtually all types of industries share one common consideration -- they focus their valuable time and resources in generating new sales and then work very hard with dogged determination to keep those customers satisfied and loyal.

This unique group of high-profit companies covers a wide assortment of industries ranging from well-established service organizations to fast-growing sales corporations to high-profile real estate brokerage firms. They provide verifiable proof that investing in a profitable sales system generates handsome dividends and healthy bottom-line profits.

One of the biggest challenges facing many business owners, chief executive officers and sales managers is effectively converting leads from trade shows, media advertising and other direct marketing efforts into sales revenue.

The local Houston company, Building Enterprises, Inc., is a behind-the-scenes national leader in the field of helping successful companies continue to be successful and to generate increased sales.

The company provides a sales partnership plan to effectively address the age-old problem of qualifying leads for many growing, dynamic companies. They have worked directly with senior-level managers in a wide array of areas such as strategy development, company growth, market share initiatives, organizational design and reengineering.

"Time is money," explains owner and president Buddy Rhodes. "We know that salespeople are most effective when their time is focused on the most promising prospects. We do the qualifying. We do the phone calls. We provide the list of qualified prospects who know why you're there and are ready to buy," he explains.

Meridien states that 11 percent of the 78 billion contacts that occur annually between the customers and companies are handled by telephone, and that is expected to grow to 16 percent by the end of this year. It is estimated that global financial services firms spent just over $3 billion (US) on IT related to consumer call centers. This spending is currently growing at an annual rate of about 10 percent and sits at approximately $3.3 billion (US) right now, before accelerating to approximately 15 percent annual growth within the next two years. North American financial institutions have historically invested the most in call centers, representing 68 percent of the total current investment.

Building Enterprises' trained sales team gathers key information on each prospective company and generates tremendous success by following up on a wide variety of leads such as business cards collected at trade shows and reader service cards from magazines.

Since 1982, Building Enterprises has been charting the course in development of relationship marketing. The unique company focuses on team selling and relationship building and provides the legwork (and phone work) necessary to get a client's sales staff off the phone and in front of qualified, knowledgeable, receptive potential clients. The result is more sales and more repeat business.

The industry leader helps companies focus on team sales enhancement and customer relationship building by providing sales services which include lead generation and prospecting, appointment setting and qualifying potential customers. Their services expand beyond that to include expertise in such areas as new product introduction, new market generation, customer surveys and database management.

Building Enterprises is an award-winning, industry-leader and proven performer in sales effectiveness training and education and helps boost sales departments by providing specialized expertise in sales force assessment, strategic sales planning, as well as relationship sales and sales management training.

It's not surprising that the professionals at Building Enterprises, Inc., are experts at making contacts, qualifying leads, reducing sales costs, improving cycle time and enhancing the entire sales process. What is unusual is the fact that the company's communication experts are NOT experts in the specific fields and industries they represent.

"People think you have to be an expert to sell a specific product in a specific industry," explains Rhodes. "It's simply not true."

"We're very good at what we do -- identifying, qualifying, educating and setting up appointments," he says. "We do the groundwork. We do the homework. And when the time is right and the prospect is primed and ready, we call in our customer's salespeople to close the deal," he says.

"That's the best use of their time and perhaps the most profitable use of their time as well," he adds.

For clients, the advantages of outsourcing include the opportunity to increase revenue and expand the firm's business model. Outsourcing also helps to build loyalty with clients in another dimension. Employees can dedicate their time to the client rather than on calls to a company that doesn't meet their new business needs. Clients will only get more comfortable with outsourcing as they experience its benefits. Future growth is inevitable.

Buddy Rhodes is owner and president of Building-Enterprises. The Houston-based company specializes in direct sales programs for business-to-business marketers designed to generate leads, qualify prospects and set appointments so you can spend your time working on proposals and closing sales. For more information log on to this site: www.BuildingEnterprises.com.