Outsourcing sales teams are a popular solution to accelerate revenue, drive cost savings, or augment sales teams for businesses. By handing off the high costs of payroll, turnover, hiring, and management, businesses can focus on their growth.
While many businesses achieve success by adopting an outsourced sales team, it’s important to understand that they vary in quality. Too often businesses make decisions on outsourcing based on inflated numbers on outsourcers’ websites.
The ideal outsourced sales partner is highly transparent, agile, and customizable. They also provide suggestions and implement solutions to improve the current infrastructure and workflows which help your business meet its sales goals. Learn more about the value of outsourcing with the outsourced sales team calculator.
What Is an Outsourced Sales Team
An outsourced sales team is an outside agency or collection of individuals that help a business delegate parts or all of its sales process. Based on internal metrics and KPIs, outsourcing is typically adopted when the internal team lacks the time, resources, or expertise to successfully carry out the sales process steps to achieve their sales goals.
Outsourced sales teams have the necessary training and resources to equip their teams to boost sales for a diverse range of client companies. This includes recruiting and hiring, management, technology, and overall sales strategies. Outsourcing is more affordable, less time consuming, and less stressful than building an internal sales team.
What types of work do businesses outsource for sales? This varies from qualifying leads, lead generation, setting sales appointments, inbound and outbound call campaigns, CRM management, and closing deals. The ultimate goal of sales outsourcing is to increase conversion rates and build a more predictable revenue stream.
Outsourcing Domestically or Internationally
Outsourcing is typically associated with offshoring work overseas. However, there are many domestic options to support outsourced sales work. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. While international teams are cheaper on the surface, there are hidden expenses and challenges that prevent them from maximizing revenue. These include lower production quality, decrease in overall performance, poor brand association, time zone differences, and communication challenges. The cost of these challenges far exceeds the initial price difference.
Next, we’ll discuss six key traits to look for when finding the right outsourced sales team for your business: Transparency, Comfortability, Cultural Context, Affordability, Reliability, and Credibility.
What to Look for in an Outsourced Sales Team
#1: Transparency
Keep an eye out for outsourced sales partners that over promise solutions. Sales strategies and solutions are contingent on the company and industry. They should be honest that there will not be immediate results, but rather an initial investment phase to ensure quality business growth. They are open to answering questions about their team’s core competencies, level of sales expertise, technologies to leverage, and potential risk and returns from the engagement.
#2: Comfortability
An outsourced sales team does not move quickly to define solutions for your business. First, they cautiously assess your company culture, current sales processes, and scope in the market. Ultimately, you decide what parts of the sales process steps you will be handing over and which you will keep in-house. Your outsourced sales team understands and considers your business’ core values and company culture. They also allow you to feel your control over sales processes, not less.
#3: Cultural Context:
Your outsourced sales team shares and understands the cultural context that you desire for your potential customer and your internal team. Ask how you want to be represented in the marketplace, how you want your brand to be associated with potential clients and does the outsourced partner share your values and vision. Answers to these questions will help determine whether a domestic or international option is best for you.
#4: Affordability
Your outsourced sales team is comfortable running through an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of their outsourced sales services versus your business hiring in-house. Ideally, their outsourced services lower costs for your organization and improve profitability. However, the cheapest option is not always the best. Your business should emphasize capabilities over cost, as well as the growth in revenue alongside expenses.
#5: Reliability
An ideal outsourced sales team has experience selling multiple solutions with diverse sales processes and sales cycles. They provide a reliable method that’s proven successful across different industries and business sizes. By focusing their attention and effort specifically on the sales process steps, your internal team can focus on the bigger-picture. Throughout the partnership, your outsourced sales partner ensures your goals are aligned by meeting with your team regularly.
#6: Credibility
Finally, your outsourced sales team has proven experience through case studies, client reviews, and other data. They are a true sales center focused on growth in revenue. Your business should ask: How well does this outsourced sales team drive thought leadership and creativity during the proposal process? Are they just giving you what you asked for or providing innovative ideas for how to reach your sales goals?
Hiring an outsourced sales team is a fluid extension of your business. Your outsourced sales partner tailors their approach to your company culture and only saves your business on time and costs.
Besides growth in revenue and lowering costs, outsourced sales teams offer a new perspective on your sales processes for further business growth. For example, implementing a new CRM technology, entering new markets (by geography or segment), or changing your sales model (e.g., introducing the SDR/AE split).
Overall, the ideal outsourced sales team challenges you to brainstorm new and diverse approaches that best fit your company’s values and mission.
