Benefits of Outsourcing Sales Operations
Why you should give outsourcing a try.
Outsourcing is standard practice these days by all sorts of companies.
Whether you need a specific task completed or a set of skills attached to particular expertise, it is very common for companies big and small to rely on external workers.
More recently, outsourcing your sales operations has become far more common.
In this article, we'll go over what it means to outsource your sales, why you might consider it, the benefits of doing so, and the associated risks you'll see people bring up.
Whether you need a specific task completed or a set of skills attached to particular expertise, it is very common for companies big and small to rely on external workers.
More recently, outsourcing your sales operations has become far more common.
In this article, we'll go over what it means to outsource your sales, why you might consider it, the benefits of doing so, and the associated risks you'll see people bring up.
What Is Sales Outsourcing?
Sales outsourcing is hiring external experts to take over sales tasks associated with building pipeline.
Most commonly, this involves working with specialized firms such as SalesPipe to work with external sales development representatives (SDRs) to help build pipeline in the early stages.
They will often utilize cold approaches such as cold calling, cold emailing, and social selling to establish a rapport and connect with prospects.
These external employees become the face of the company and focus entirely on helping your business grow.
You can also hire SDRs for inbound work, not just outbound.
This means that you can have someone responsible for responding to all queries you receive on your landing page, blog, contact form, by phone, email, social media, or similar. They are responsible for qualifying these potential leads and establishing contact to move them further along the pipeline.
Most companies are content with simply hiring external sales teams for this initial part of the process. Some may also wish to introduce external workers for longer, such as training them to hold initial interviews or meetings with potential customers.
This is up to the needs of each company.
Most commonly, this involves working with specialized firms such as SalesPipe to work with external sales development representatives (SDRs) to help build pipeline in the early stages.
They will often utilize cold approaches such as cold calling, cold emailing, and social selling to establish a rapport and connect with prospects.
These external employees become the face of the company and focus entirely on helping your business grow.
You can also hire SDRs for inbound work, not just outbound.
This means that you can have someone responsible for responding to all queries you receive on your landing page, blog, contact form, by phone, email, social media, or similar. They are responsible for qualifying these potential leads and establishing contact to move them further along the pipeline.
Most companies are content with simply hiring external sales teams for this initial part of the process. Some may also wish to introduce external workers for longer, such as training them to hold initial interviews or meetings with potential customers.
This is up to the needs of each company.
Why do Companies Outsource Their Sales Team?
Because that is what it comes down to – what does your company need?
Often, outsourcing your sales team is due to one of the four reasons above.
Your company goals need to be met in a particular time frame, so you bring in external experts to help you crush those goals. After all, external, experienced SDRs have a proven faster ramp-up period.
Or, your company is looking to diversify or change things up, and that is the goal. Bringing in someone new is a surefire way to try out different things.
Additionally, if you are thinking about exploring new markets, it is typically a good idea to start with an external team of experts first.
While your internal sales team continues operations as usual, the outsourced team can test the waters for you. Sometimes this means an industry you hadn't considered before, other times it can mean a new country.
With external experts, you can safely test the waters before investing heavily in a fully-fledged team for a venture that might not pan out.
Similarly, testing the waters for a new product, or addition to a product, is something that can be safely done with outsourced SDRs.
Your internal sales team already has a lot on their plate, so relying on experienced SDRs to try out different approaches to sell a new product helps you iron out your strategy a lot faster via A/B testing. You can then add your internal team back in once the strategy has been worked out.
And finally, it is all about time.
Your company will have different needs at different times.
Three key moments have already been outlined above: growth, expansion, and a new product.
Additionally, the state of your company plays a role.
If you're a start-up that needs to keep a small staff, it makes sense to outsource.
If you're a mid-sized company growing fast, it makes sense to outsource certain tasks to free up more time and resources for your internal employees.
If you're a larger company, it's a good idea to outsource sales when you're doing some testing, as it may not pan out.
What should be noted, is that there is always a benefit to outsourcing.
Your company goals need to be met in a particular time frame, so you bring in external experts to help you crush those goals. After all, external, experienced SDRs have a proven faster ramp-up period.
Or, your company is looking to diversify or change things up, and that is the goal. Bringing in someone new is a surefire way to try out different things.
Additionally, if you are thinking about exploring new markets, it is typically a good idea to start with an external team of experts first.
While your internal sales team continues operations as usual, the outsourced team can test the waters for you. Sometimes this means an industry you hadn't considered before, other times it can mean a new country.
With external experts, you can safely test the waters before investing heavily in a fully-fledged team for a venture that might not pan out.
Similarly, testing the waters for a new product, or addition to a product, is something that can be safely done with outsourced SDRs.
Your internal sales team already has a lot on their plate, so relying on experienced SDRs to try out different approaches to sell a new product helps you iron out your strategy a lot faster via A/B testing. You can then add your internal team back in once the strategy has been worked out.
And finally, it is all about time.
Your company will have different needs at different times.
Three key moments have already been outlined above: growth, expansion, and a new product.
Additionally, the state of your company plays a role.
If you're a start-up that needs to keep a small staff, it makes sense to outsource.
If you're a mid-sized company growing fast, it makes sense to outsource certain tasks to free up more time and resources for your internal employees.
If you're a larger company, it's a good idea to outsource sales when you're doing some testing, as it may not pan out.
What should be noted, is that there is always a benefit to outsourcing.
Benefits of Outsourcing Sales Operations
There are many advantages to outsourcing sales and working with external SDRs, so we'll just go over five key ones today to help you make that decision:
Cost-efficient
It is entirely more cost-effective in the long-run to hire externally as opposed to internally for the SDR role.
Between the hiring cycle, onboarding, and the lifetime of an SDR, you get a lot more bang for your buck if you look externally for this role.
The internal team can focus on other tasks
Let's face it – your internal team will usually get assigned additional tasks.
This means everyday tasks such as qualifying leads or prospecting to build early-stage pipeline fall by the wayside.
It is no one's fault, it is merely how it plays out a large amount of the time.
Outsourcing brings you people that focus on those exact tasks and nothing else. This frees up your internal team, and it ensures that those tasks get completed.
It is highly unlikely that your outsourced experts will be pulled into additional work.
No time spent on a hiring process
A hiring process from beginning to end can take around 40 days.
Put another way, that is an entire month of spending time and resources on finding a candidate and not getting that work done.
Outsourcing helps you avoid this entire process.
You get in touch with a company and they have the SDR ready for you. And if for some reason you want to expand or stop the service, this is a lot easier as well.
Access to experts
The section above on the hiring process did not take into account onboarding: the process of training your new hire and waiting for them to get comfortable with their tasks.
For SDRs, this is usually around three more months before you start seeing results.
By outsourcing, you avoid this entire step.
External SDRs tend to be experienced masters of their craft. They can be ready to go in two weeks or less, as they only need to learn some key factors before they're ready.
And of course, you will see results a lot quicker.
Latest sales technology
Access to outsourced SDRs from specialized outsourcing companies also provides you with access to the latest sales technology.
And who is going to know better about sales technology than companies that sell?
By working with experts, you get expert tech.
It is entirely more cost-effective in the long-run to hire externally as opposed to internally for the SDR role.
Between the hiring cycle, onboarding, and the lifetime of an SDR, you get a lot more bang for your buck if you look externally for this role.
The internal team can focus on other tasks
Let's face it – your internal team will usually get assigned additional tasks.
This means everyday tasks such as qualifying leads or prospecting to build early-stage pipeline fall by the wayside.
It is no one's fault, it is merely how it plays out a large amount of the time.
Outsourcing brings you people that focus on those exact tasks and nothing else. This frees up your internal team, and it ensures that those tasks get completed.
It is highly unlikely that your outsourced experts will be pulled into additional work.
No time spent on a hiring process
A hiring process from beginning to end can take around 40 days.
Put another way, that is an entire month of spending time and resources on finding a candidate and not getting that work done.
Outsourcing helps you avoid this entire process.
You get in touch with a company and they have the SDR ready for you. And if for some reason you want to expand or stop the service, this is a lot easier as well.
Access to experts
The section above on the hiring process did not take into account onboarding: the process of training your new hire and waiting for them to get comfortable with their tasks.
For SDRs, this is usually around three more months before you start seeing results.
By outsourcing, you avoid this entire step.
External SDRs tend to be experienced masters of their craft. They can be ready to go in two weeks or less, as they only need to learn some key factors before they're ready.
And of course, you will see results a lot quicker.
Latest sales technology
Access to outsourced SDRs from specialized outsourcing companies also provides you with access to the latest sales technology.
And who is going to know better about sales technology than companies that sell?
By working with experts, you get expert tech.
What are the Risks of Sales Outsourcing?
We've established all the good that comes from outsourcing, so what are some of the possible risks?
Or at least, the risks you might come across.
Lack of control
The biggest one is that businesses fear that outsourced SDRs result in a lack of control.
They're bringing in a stranger into their business and allowing them to parade as the face of their company in those all-important first contacts and first impressions.
Inside sales, outsourced SDRs do tend to have and utilize their freedom a lot more than their internally hired counterparts – this is true.
But remember that they still work for and represent the company themselves. They know their role and how to maintain it.
Their freedom is a selling point, as they can try strategies internal SDRs cannot or do not dare to attempt.
It is not a lack of control if managed correctly, for instance by having weekly meetings or email updates to keep each other informed of changes in strategy.
It is a strength.
Not working with the right company
In business and in life, it is always important to find the right partner.
It is the same when it comes to finding the right outsourcing company to work with.
You want to investigate thoroughly and evaluate all your options before settling for one, and then you want to make sure they can provide you with what you need.
And that their payment method – whether that is a monthly subscription or something else – works for you as well.
Avoid any unexpected surprises or overpriced services by doing your homework before coming to a decision.
Time to receive feedback
We're all human, and being critiqued is hard.
When you hire outbound SDRs, your company and product are about to receive all the negative feedback you might not have received previously if you were focused on inbound marketing.
But this is good.
Feedback allows you to grow and challenge yourself further to arrive at new heights.
Another facet of outsourcing is that your SDR will be able to provide all of this information and feedback to you while still projecting a professional image of you and your company.
We're experts at being told no, after all!
Or at least, the risks you might come across.
Lack of control
The biggest one is that businesses fear that outsourced SDRs result in a lack of control.
They're bringing in a stranger into their business and allowing them to parade as the face of their company in those all-important first contacts and first impressions.
Inside sales, outsourced SDRs do tend to have and utilize their freedom a lot more than their internally hired counterparts – this is true.
But remember that they still work for and represent the company themselves. They know their role and how to maintain it.
Their freedom is a selling point, as they can try strategies internal SDRs cannot or do not dare to attempt.
It is not a lack of control if managed correctly, for instance by having weekly meetings or email updates to keep each other informed of changes in strategy.
It is a strength.
Not working with the right company
In business and in life, it is always important to find the right partner.
It is the same when it comes to finding the right outsourcing company to work with.
You want to investigate thoroughly and evaluate all your options before settling for one, and then you want to make sure they can provide you with what you need.
And that their payment method – whether that is a monthly subscription or something else – works for you as well.
Avoid any unexpected surprises or overpriced services by doing your homework before coming to a decision.
Time to receive feedback
We're all human, and being critiqued is hard.
When you hire outbound SDRs, your company and product are about to receive all the negative feedback you might not have received previously if you were focused on inbound marketing.
But this is good.
Feedback allows you to grow and challenge yourself further to arrive at new heights.
Another facet of outsourcing is that your SDR will be able to provide all of this information and feedback to you while still projecting a professional image of you and your company.
We're experts at being told no, after all!
Conclusion
Outsourcing sales operations is a great way to adapt and adjust according to your company's needs at any given time.
It helps take away the stress from your workers without tying you down beyond what you are willing or able to give, and it allows you to explore and grow as a company.
If you're interested in outsourcing with the best company in the game and working with top-quality SDRs – make sure to fill out our form.
We'll be in touch soon!
It helps take away the stress from your workers without tying you down beyond what you are willing or able to give, and it allows you to explore and grow as a company.
If you're interested in outsourcing with the best company in the game and working with top-quality SDRs – make sure to fill out our form.
We'll be in touch soon!
Post by Flor Fustinoni.
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