Has your company ever struggled to balance your sales with running the rest of your business? The average sales conversion rates across all industries are already low enough. It’s even more difficult if you don’t have the staff to turn those numbers in your favor.
One way to handle that issue is by using outsourced services. Instead of building your own sales team, you borrow one that already exists.
Here are nine ways to optimize outsourced sales for startups so you can get the most profit out of your investment.
1. Define Your Sales Goals
First of all, figure out what exactly you want out of your sales team. Measurable and achievable sales goals are essential if you want to build your team the right way. They can help you gauge the success of your sales team and if you need to increase their numbers.
What are your specific sales goals for the next year? How about the next month? What do you expect from your team and what does your business need to survive?
2. Find the Right Provider
Once you know what you need from your sales team, you can look for the right provider. Some of the benefits of a turnkey sales team are saving money, gaining resources, and getting experienced employees without needing to train them.
Ideally, the outsourced services should be able to handle whatever you throw at them in little to no time. If you know that business picks up during a specific season, they should be able to help you handle the extra work.
Do your research and ask for references. Get a proposal of their services and pricing. Always try to get the best value for your money.
3. Outsource Lead Generation
One of the best purposes of an outsourced sales team is that they can focus on generating leads for your more knowledgeable team to follow up with. This can be done by assigning them to your marketing campaigns or even assigning them to handle overflow needs.
What matters most is that you aren’t wasting your most talented manpower on generating leads. Give the outsourced team a specific set of leads or a number to meet every day. This is especially helpful if you don’t have much experience in the area and you’re short on sales staff.
4. Outsource Cold Calls
Easily one of the worst parts of sales is the dreaded cold call. You can have years of experience in the field, but you never know how it’s going to turn out. It’s definitely not a job for someone who responds poorly to negativity.
If you want to avoid making cold calls, you can always rely on your outsourced sales team. They can provide outbound sales and support or help with other related tasks. Meanwhile, the rest of your company’s internal team can focus more on converting leads and maintaining current clients.
5. Define Your Scope of Services
In addition to determining your sales goals, your company should also determine what kind of services you actually need. Do you need the new team to increase overall revenue or will they be more focused on lead generation?
The last thing you want is to hire outsourced services and not have work for them to do. It’s a waste of your money and their time. Instead, always have some kind of task lined up for them so they can keep working on your behalf.
6. Follow Up With Leads
While your outsourced team is dealing with generating leads and making cold calls, your internal team can focus on the leads you already have. You can follow up with them, qualify leads, and nurture the established ones.
If you need that extra bit of help, outsourced sales development reps also have the required expertise. They’ll know things like the best times to make certain calls and how to seal the deal. While they may not know as much about your brand, they have more experience in that area.
7. Enter a New Market
Sometimes outsourced sales optimization requires trying out a new market. However, you may not have the resources necessary to do so. Outsourcing allows you to explore different avenues without investing a lot of time and money into building up a whole new team.
Additionally, these outsourced services often have much more experience than your startup at navigating these other markets.
8. Train Your Sales Team
Despite their experience, you can’t assume that an outsourced sales team will know how to sell your product as soon as they start. They’ll still need some level of training and onboarding to understand your brand and your product.
For example, what is the general process for your company’s sales? It may be much simpler or more complicated than what they’re used to.
The sales team should be able to answer any questions about your product or service. This is especially important if they’re expected to make cold calls or generate new leads.
They should also understand your target market. Provide information such as your audience’s demographics and buying history.
9. Manage Them From Inside Your Company
The final key to outsourced sales optimization is to manage them using your own resources. Even though they aren’t your own sales team, they’re still under your command.
Provide any resources they need and stay in communication with them. This may involve setting up weekly calls or sending updates on your company’s progress. You should also hold them accountable for their performance by setting up and tracking KPIs.
Try Outsourced Sales for Startups
Optimizing outsourced sales for startups isn’t easy, especially when it’s your first time trying it out. However, following these nine tips should help you gain an advantage over the competition. It’ll also help you save time and money on building your own sales team.
The Selling Factory provides outsourced work to college students. Let them do the research, make calls, and generate leads on behalf of your company. Contact us to learn more and get a free consultation.
