How Do B2B Companies Outsource Inside Sales?

Inside sales is a common tactic that companies employ to generate as many leads as possible. But is there a better way to do inside sales?

Yes: outsourcing it.

Outsourcing your B2B inside sales team is a good way to cut costs while increasing the number of deals you can make.

In this article, you will learn about the strategies of outsourcing inside sales and what to look for when hiring an outsourced inside sales team.

What Is Inside Sales?
Why Can B2B Inside Sales Be Outsourced?
Best Strategies for Outsourcing Inside Sales
What to Look for When Hiring Inside Sales Outsourcing Companies
Myths Related to Outsourcing Inside Sales
Conclusion

Inside sales is the process of selling using any method except for being in person. Sending emails, calling prospects, etc are methods of inside sales.

The inside sales team is responsible for all outbound outreach, helping set appointments, scheduling demos, closing deals, and reporting on these activities to management.

It's more common for companies to utilize inside sales teams as opposed to outside sales because of costs. Most products and services can be sold online or on calls, so it makes sense to have a robust inside sales team.

Inside sales for B2B companies can be outsourced for many reasons.

The first reason is because of the ability to optimize your workforce. Depending on how many inside salespeople you have, there may or may not be enough work for everyone to do at any one time.

Since the business is usually busy during certain times of the day, it makes sense to hire outside representatives who are available during specific hours. Outsourcing B2B inside sales allows you to be flexible in your outbound strategy since most outsourced inside sales teams work remotely.

Another reason that outsourcing B2B inside sales makes sense is because of the huge costs associated with hiring, training, and retaining talent. There are many expenses involved in recruiting qualified people to grow your inside team. If you find yourself always looking for new hires or struggling to keep good employees around, then outsourcing might be the solution for you.

One more pro about outsourcing inside sales is that you always have proof of performance.

Outsourced inside sales teams provide daily reports on their activities and conversations, meaning that you always know which campaigns are producing results and what strategies need to be adapted or changed.

There are plenty of strategies for outsourcing inside sales that may work for your business.

The first of these strategies for outsourcing inside sales teams is a dedicated direct-hire team from an offshore supplier. This approach is considered the most expensive, but may be necessary for some companies that have a difficult time finding talented employees locally to fill their inside sales positions.

Another strategy for outsourcing your inside sales is to hire a third-party firm as a bridge between you and your offshore suppliers while ensuring consistent results.

In terms of execution, a good strategy to have when outsourcing an inside sales team is to have a plan and projection for what you want to accomplish. This should include how many meetings you want the outsourced inside sales team to book per week and per month and how many leads you want them to reach out to.

An equally important strategy is to work with the outsourced inside sales team on content. If your outsourced inside sales team is sending 60 emails per day per SDR, it's imperative that the content of the email best reflects the value propositions of your product or service.

You can go even further and have the outsourced inside sales team a/b test the content of the emails.

Let's say you have a team of six outsourced SDRs and you only have one type of customer you are selling to. You can make three groups of two SDRs and test three different ideas for emails to prospects. The best SDR outsourcing companies regularly keep track of open and reply rates of their emails. You can utilize this to see which group's emails are performing best and have the entire outsourced inside sales team use that same email for lead generation.

A general best practice when outsourcing inside sales teams is to have a strong system of reporting. Have your outsourced SDRs get back to you on the number of prospects they reach out to per week, their open and reply rates, and the number of meetings they booked.

When hiring an inside sales outsourcing company, there are certain qualities that you should consider before making a purchase.

The first thing you should look for is whether or not that inside sales outsourcing company has experience in your industry. For instance, if you are hiring an inside sales outsourcing company for a tech company, chances are that they have more experience working with other tech companies similar to yours.

Another important point when hiring an inside sales outsourcing company is to make sure that the company has the tools they need to successfully endeavor an outbound strategy. If the inside sales outsourcing company you're working with already has its own tools and email services for lead generation, then that will help you get started right away.

A third thing to look for when hiring an inside sales outsourcing company is its size. This is a very important detail because the larger an inside sales outsourcing company is, the more sales cycles it can handle. It will also be easier for you to hire more outsourced SDRs if the company you're working with has a large pool of them.

Anything new will always have reservations from the old world, and that applies to outsourcing inside sales. Below are some myths that companies may think about when outsourcing sales.

This isn't true to the slightest bit.

The work that your inside sales reps do, whether they are in-house or outsourced, doesn't require expertise in the product. The job of the outsourced SDR is to book meetings with prospects and convert them into leads, but most of the time an internal employee of the company will go ahead and take that meeting.

The most important job for the inside sales team is to generate leads while you close them.

Like the previous myth, this one is far from the truth as well.

Most of the time, outsourced SDRs won't be selling your product. If they are, then your product is probably not that difficult to explain.

Your outsourced inside sales reps will be selling the opportunity of the meeting itself.

If you have generated strong leads and now it is time for them to set up a call with the prospect, outsourced SDRs shouldn't have any problems doing so.

This is also a myth that many are quickly proving wrong.

The fact of the matter is that outsourced SDRs are just as good, if not better than in-house SDRs because they've worked with several B2B businesses and are masters of their trade. Their experience allows them to understand your product and know how to sell it.

Outsourced SDRs also work with the same processes that in-house teams use. They are just as organized and efficient, if not more so because they have built up a process over time and their performance is measured by quotas and KPIs.

The more businesses an outsourced SDR has worked with, the easier it is for them to get started right away. And most outsourced SDRs have worked with companies like yours before they do the job for you.

In-house SDRs, however, require an immense amount of training and onboarding. You have to show them what kind of deals you want to close, how the product works, and the best way to sell it.

You must also invest time in them so they can understand your company's value proposition and become experts at selling your product. This extended learning period means you won't see any results until months later when that time could've been spent on generating leads.

Outsourcing inside sales teams is less expensive than in-house teams because of the lack of recruiting and onboarding costs.

An advantage of outsourcing inside sales teams that haven't been mentioned yet is the flexibility of their work with you. If you aren't seeing results when you want them, it is easy to terminate a contract with an outsourced inside sales team. There isn't much of a burden to do that since you didn't spend much time onboarding them and assimilating them into your company.

Takeaways:

-Inside sales teams can be expensive and risky
-Outsourced inside sales teams aren't as expensive and risky as you might think, and offer great flexibility
-More advantages of outsourcing inside sales teams include not having to worry about recruiting and onboarding

Inside sales is one of the many parts of sales that's ready for outsourcing.

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