Does Inside Sales Outsourcing Actually Work?

As a startup, it can be difficult to scale quickly with limited resources. You want to focus on growing and innovating but staffing up your sales team is often too expensive or time-consuming.

Fortunately, there may be a solution at hand in the form of outsourcing inside sales functions.

Instead of hiring an entire team early on, you could outsource key functions such as lead generation or bookkeeping to experienced sales professionals who could provide reliable services for an affordable price and help you remove some of the risks associated with scaling up rapidly.

But how could yo actually benefit from it?

Sales outsourcing is the practice of hiring a third-party company to handle some or all of your sales activities. This can include tasks such as prospecting for new leads, making cold calls, negotiating deals, and managing customer relationships.

When you outsource your inside sales, you outsource a lot of the everyday tasks.

Inside sales are sales that do not require physical contact to sell: they are all done remotely. All the associated tasks only require a laptop and WiFi connection.

You can therefore outsource comfortably.

This can be at any point of the sales cycle, although most companies opt to outsource for the early stages, particularly to build a pipeline.

The tasks at this particular stage tend to be quite tedious and repetitive, and require a thick skin and 100% concentration and commitment.

Often, inside sales hires can be best served by spending their time closing deals or focusing on sales channels and messaging that have already proven successful.

They are also typically given additional tasks by their companies. They have to select what to focus on, on any given day. Initial, less-likely-to-be-fruitful tasks fall by the wayside.

And so along comes outsourcing as a solution.

Outsourcing tasks such as cold calling, cold emailing, social selling, lead qualification, or building B2B lists to experienced professionals have saved companies time, money, and stress.

You are able to have experienced, dedicated staff, without making too much use of your own resources. It is a very attractive alternative to hiring internally.

Given how lucrative of an option it is, you must be wondering how sales outsourcing works.

It's quite simple.

Specialized firms and companies such as SalesPipe have at their disposal trained and experienced Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

You send us your needs, and we dive into our database of SDRs.

Based on their experience and your requirements, we then match you up with the best possible rep for you and your company.

All you need to do is agree depending on your needs to a particular subscription model, from which you can back out any time, or you can add more SDRs to your team any time as well.

SDRs tend to be green when they are starting out. It's the nature of the job.

And yet, the job is one of the most important ones in your company: they are the face of your business.

It is they who make that first impression and contact each prospect.

As nice as it is to be patient and train new salespeople, sometimes you do not have time to wait for them to gain that experience.

When you outsource this influential role, you are guaranteed to work with experienced SDRs from the get-go, who understand how critical they are, and already have tips and tricks up their sleeves that newer hires do not.

They already possess the thick skin any SDR worth their salt needs to cultivate to be truly successful.

Outsourced SDRs are also more creative in their approach, and comfortable trying out different things than the average internal hire.

If you are looking to hire internally, there is a lot of spending that is involved. And a lot of time.

For newer companies or start-ups, or for companies looking to test the waters for a new product or explore a new market, outsourcing is a better call than spending on talent that may not stay for long.

As mentioned above, outsourced SDRs are already experienced.

This means you do not have to train them.

Typically, one to two weeks of learning the product and your messaging is enough for them to start their outreach campaigns through several means.

Most SDRs take a while to truly show their results, especially if they are just starting out and unsure about how best to approach the role.

Not so with outsourced SDRs who have been at the game for quite some time already.

Combined with already knowing everything there is to know about the job and merely adapting it to fit your industry, outsourced SDRs from specialized firms have access to top sales technology.

And those same tools are now at your disposal.

While your time is struggling with shifting between sales tools and keeping them up-to-date, your outsourced SDRs focus on using specialized technology to help them do what they do best: outreach and booking meetings.

Want them to also work with your CRM?

No problem!

Outsourced SDRs have experience with multiple types of CRMs and can easily adapt what they do to your tech stack as needed.

The average hiring cycle includes: deciding on the requirements, posting the position, interviewing the candidates, and then training the selected candidates for the position.

You can avoid this entire process by simply working with an outsourced SDR.

As we saw above, you avoid the hassle of hiring internally, the time and money that tends to cost businesses.

There is an argument to be made that, since you're outsourcing, you may lose the knowledge that the outsourced SDR brings with them. And several businesses fear this, making them hesitate to outsource.

It is not something that needs to be a worry, however.

Simply be aware of the fact that outsourcing means working with a professional that brings their own expertise to the table. Then ensure that the contract you sign means you obtain all the data they gain throughout their contract with you.

The lists they put together, the messaging they utilize, and the channels they use are all valuable information that can be shared. Most SDR outsourcing companies will do this, but making sure that it is part of the formal contract is always something to remember.

And when working with the SDR, make sure that you ask them what they are doing and what is going successfully and what is not.

They are the ones on the frontlines, so they have the best idea and feedback for you. Focus on the numbers, yes, but not at the expense of strategy.

As we saw above, outsourced SDRs can get started right away, and a lot faster than internal hires.

If you are a startup in need of quick sales and meetings, however, you may not wish to try an outsourced SDR for longer than the first month.

This is entirely your prerogative and an understandable decision, but it is something that can be seen as a con.

Even the most experienced outsourced SDR may have to play a longer game, depending on the industry. If your company cannot wait, you might not have the patience for it.

You still come out of it with more knowledge.

Namely, what tactics may or may not be working in your industry.

Or you learn that currently hiring externally or internally is not a good idea to continue based on your budget.

And you've done this without spending as much time, effort, and money as you would have on an internal hire. So outsourcing is still the way to go.

With outsourcing companies, you gain access to top sales tools via the assigned outsourced SDR.

What it often makes you realize is that your own tech stack for sales may be missing a few components and tools that could make a world of difference to your internal sales team.

And it makes you think you need to spend more on expanding your sales tech stack.

But spending on the tools your outsourced SDR is already using does not necessarily mean they will be used. Often, it becomes another expense.

Instead, continue to rely on your outsourced SDR and their company for their specific sales and outreach-focused approach to building your early-stage sales pipeline.

An outsourced SDR is an experienced player that you are adding to your team to focus on specific tasks.

Think of us as a plug-in of sorts.

This does mean that your product or service has to be ready and optimized to receive said plug-in.

While outsourced SDRs can help with messaging, particularly focusing on cold messaging to arrive at a meeting or sale, the core of this does have to already be prepared.

You cannot expect an outsourced SDR to do the work of your marketing team or of a founder, so make sure you hire one at the right time for your company.

The first thing you want to do is learn how long this particular company has existed and successfully offered this service.

Longevity holds significance in terms of building trust and attracting the right talent, as a business that has stood the test of time can be seen as reliable and established.

By considering the duration of the company's existence, you can gain valuable insights into their experience, expertise, and track record of delivering the service.

This can often be anywhere from Software-as-a-Service generally, to Real Estate, to AI or Finance, to anything goes.

It is best to see if your product matches the expertise the company finds itself most comfortable with, for both your sakes.

A clear understanding of how payment works for the company.

Most companies, SalesPipe included, offer subscription services. But these can be on a monthly, bimonthly, or yearly basis, or they can be completely customized to your needs.

You want to know what you would be getting into and how much you would be spending.

Most companies will ask that you prepare target and marketing information, or previous sales information you may have, to select an SDR that best fits your interests.

They will ask you to tell them about your product or service, its industry niche, and the market value it provides.

This may be done in a first meeting, in their sign-up form, or via email follow-ups or exchanges.

This provides you with knowledge about the type of SDR you may be assigned.

Learning about their sales enablement tools and how they will work in your favor, as well as what the available SDRs have experience with, helps you figure out how you can fit them into your existing tech stack.

Plus, you can start thinking about strategies to diversify your approach.

Given everything you have read, what do you think?

As you can imagine, at SalesPipe we strongly believe inside sales outsourcing is the future.

The world is more connected than ever, and inside sales do not require anyone to be in any physical place. With the right tools and strategy, an outsourced SDR is worth their weight in gold.

Not to mention the treasure trove of talent outsourcing can connect you with.

If you're ready to take the plunge, be sure to get in touch with us!