Outsourced SDR - The Future of Outbound Sales
What an outsourced SDR is and why they're the future of
outbound sales.
outbound sales.
In an era defined by remote work and the ever-growing need to scale, companies find outsourced SDRs an increasingly attractive option. By using the expertise and resources of these specialized professionals, businesses can tap into a vast talent pool and expand their reach with minimal overhead costs.
But why should you consider hiring an outsourced SDR? The benefits are manifold.
Outsourced SDRs bring a unique blend of experience, skills, and market knowledge that can significantly contribute to a company's growth. They are adept at navigating the intricacies of prospecting, qualifying leads, and generating a steady flow of sales opportunities. By offloading these tasks to outsourced SDRs, you can free up your internal team's time to focus on high-value activities, such as nurturing relationships and closing deals.
This article dives deep into the world of outsourced SDRs, addressing all your questions and concerns. Discover how outsourcing this critical function can optimize your sales process, streamline your operations, and fuel your startup's growth.
But why should you consider hiring an outsourced SDR? The benefits are manifold.
Outsourced SDRs bring a unique blend of experience, skills, and market knowledge that can significantly contribute to a company's growth. They are adept at navigating the intricacies of prospecting, qualifying leads, and generating a steady flow of sales opportunities. By offloading these tasks to outsourced SDRs, you can free up your internal team's time to focus on high-value activities, such as nurturing relationships and closing deals.
This article dives deep into the world of outsourced SDRs, addressing all your questions and concerns. Discover how outsourcing this critical function can optimize your sales process, streamline your operations, and fuel your startup's growth.
What is an Outsourced SDR?
An outsourced SDR is a low-cost alternative for companies looking to staff a sales team but is unwilling to pay the high costs associated with hiring an in-house SDR.
An outsourced SDR is typically managed by a third-party company that hires and manages remote sales reps on behalf of their clients.
Some sales teams, particularly in the B2B SaaS and technology industries, will use an outsourced SDR to fill their pipeline during times of high growth while they hire and train up their own internal sales development team.
Most SDR outsourcing companies offer a dedicated SDR team (typically 1-3 reps) for a monthly fee. The monthly fee depends on the quality and type of SDR service needed. For instance, some services charge a premium for phone support or the ability to handle weekly reporting.
It ultimately depends on the needs of the company. Sometimes a company only looks for one SDR to work full-time; other times, they may need five SDRs to work part-time. Whatever their needs, an SDR outsourcing company can assist in finding the perfect fit.
An outsourced SDR is typically responsible for managing leads sent by the client and performing lead qualification based on the criteria provided by the client. Most outsourced SDRs, at minimum, do outbound prospecting and outreach to potential customers on behalf of the company.
That outbound prospecting and outreach depend on what the company needs the SDR for, whether running email sequences, making phone calls, or both. Sometimes, companies hire an outsourced SDR to meet with the prospect or even demo the product or service they sell.
Outsourced SDRs also assist in making the prospecting and outreach process more efficient for the client by providing lead information to their team members to save time prospecting later.
This information is especially valuable to every department at the client company. Information on leads gathered by the outsourced SDR is, in effect, market research for the company. With this information, sales and marketing teams can adjust who they are targeting, and product teams can adapt their products to the newly learned market insights.
In addition to helping salespeople find new prospects, an outsourced SDR can also track results and give access to the client through weekly reports.
With this information, the client can easily track their progress and determine which parts of their campaigns are working best so that they can invest more time into them while scaling back on others.
An outsourced SDR is typically managed by a third-party company that hires and manages remote sales reps on behalf of their clients.
Some sales teams, particularly in the B2B SaaS and technology industries, will use an outsourced SDR to fill their pipeline during times of high growth while they hire and train up their own internal sales development team.
Most SDR outsourcing companies offer a dedicated SDR team (typically 1-3 reps) for a monthly fee. The monthly fee depends on the quality and type of SDR service needed. For instance, some services charge a premium for phone support or the ability to handle weekly reporting.
It ultimately depends on the needs of the company. Sometimes a company only looks for one SDR to work full-time; other times, they may need five SDRs to work part-time. Whatever their needs, an SDR outsourcing company can assist in finding the perfect fit.
An outsourced SDR is typically responsible for managing leads sent by the client and performing lead qualification based on the criteria provided by the client. Most outsourced SDRs, at minimum, do outbound prospecting and outreach to potential customers on behalf of the company.
That outbound prospecting and outreach depend on what the company needs the SDR for, whether running email sequences, making phone calls, or both. Sometimes, companies hire an outsourced SDR to meet with the prospect or even demo the product or service they sell.
Outsourced SDRs also assist in making the prospecting and outreach process more efficient for the client by providing lead information to their team members to save time prospecting later.
This information is especially valuable to every department at the client company. Information on leads gathered by the outsourced SDR is, in effect, market research for the company. With this information, sales and marketing teams can adjust who they are targeting, and product teams can adapt their products to the newly learned market insights.
In addition to helping salespeople find new prospects, an outsourced SDR can also track results and give access to the client through weekly reports.
With this information, the client can easily track their progress and determine which parts of their campaigns are working best so that they can invest more time into them while scaling back on others.
Why Hire an Outsourced SDR?
Hiring an outsourced SDR has many benefits for client businesses.
The first of these benefits is that, by hiring an outsourced SDR, the SDR outsourcing company you are contracting has cumulatively more insights and experience on what works and what doesn't in outbound sales. They have worked with clients who are in your same industry or at least have experience working with other companies that are similar to yours.
This means they can provide you with better suggestions on how to increase the success rate of your campaigns, improving your company's lead generation capabilities.
Another benefit is that outsourcing allows businesses to dedicate more time to other realms. Suppose you're part of a small team where every moment and dollar counts, and you need most resources dedicated to product development. In that case, it's wise to hire experts to start outbound prospecting and outreach immediately.
One more benefit is that outsourced SDRs can work remotely. This means that you can hire talented professionals from anywhere in the world – this could save you money on relocation costs and employee benefits and give your company a unique position in the market.
If you have outsourced SDRs in various time zones, the sun never sets on your growing empire!
The first of these benefits is that, by hiring an outsourced SDR, the SDR outsourcing company you are contracting has cumulatively more insights and experience on what works and what doesn't in outbound sales. They have worked with clients who are in your same industry or at least have experience working with other companies that are similar to yours.
This means they can provide you with better suggestions on how to increase the success rate of your campaigns, improving your company's lead generation capabilities.
Another benefit is that outsourcing allows businesses to dedicate more time to other realms. Suppose you're part of a small team where every moment and dollar counts, and you need most resources dedicated to product development. In that case, it's wise to hire experts to start outbound prospecting and outreach immediately.
One more benefit is that outsourced SDRs can work remotely. This means that you can hire talented professionals from anywhere in the world – this could save you money on relocation costs and employee benefits and give your company a unique position in the market.
If you have outsourced SDRs in various time zones, the sun never sets on your growing empire!
Who Manages Outsourced SDRs?
SDR outsourcing companies are those that manage outsourced SDRs.
They will hire, manage, train, and deploy outsourced SDRs for your company.
Before hiring SDR outsourcing companies, you should clearly understand what you need from them. The scope of the work and your lead-generation goals are helpful.
Once you have a clear understanding of what you need from an SDR outsourcing company, there are other vital questions that need asking:
These are questions that many SDR outsourcing companies are familiar with, as many have experience managing outsourced SDR teams ranging from single to double digits. They will also clearly understand how to measure success, as they have likely been involved in setting up performance metrics for previous teams.
They will hire, manage, train, and deploy outsourced SDRs for your company.
Before hiring SDR outsourcing companies, you should clearly understand what you need from them. The scope of the work and your lead-generation goals are helpful.
Once you have a clear understanding of what you need from an SDR outsourcing company, there are other vital questions that need asking:
- What experience do they have? For example, have they managed an outsourced sales force before and if so how large was the team?
- How will results be measured? What metrics will be reported daily, weekly, and/or monthly?
These are questions that many SDR outsourcing companies are familiar with, as many have experience managing outsourced SDR teams ranging from single to double digits. They will also clearly understand how to measure success, as they have likely been involved in setting up performance metrics for previous teams.
Outsourced SDR vs In-House SDR
Compared to in-house SDRs, outsourced SDRs don't require much onboarding when hired by a company. This is because their previous companies have already trained them and know how to navigate the system they're working with.
There is certainly value in hiring in-house SDRs. But bear in mind that it will take a few weeks or more to do the hiring process, then another few weeks or more to get them oriented in your business. According to Hubspot, most SDRs require 4.1 months to fully ramp.
SDR outsourcing companies know the training that outsourced SDRs require. For example, they often spend one week or more onboarding new hires before sending them to their clients. This saves money for the client compared to hiring in-house SDRs who you must train.
The onboarding is done for you when hiring an outsourced SDR.
There is certainly value in hiring in-house SDRs. But bear in mind that it will take a few weeks or more to do the hiring process, then another few weeks or more to get them oriented in your business. According to Hubspot, most SDRs require 4.1 months to fully ramp.
SDR outsourcing companies know the training that outsourced SDRs require. For example, they often spend one week or more onboarding new hires before sending them to their clients. This saves money for the client compared to hiring in-house SDRs who you must train.
The onboarding is done for you when hiring an outsourced SDR.
Another difference in hiring an outsourced SDR is the return on investment. SDR outsourcing companies have a typical price they charge per month on their outsourced SDR, and this is typically based on various metrics.
For example, they may offer a $500/month SDR who responds to 20 emails and makes five phone calls daily. In turn, many contracts with SDR outsourcing companies will expect to generate a certain amount of weekly leads for the company that hired them. In other words, the outsourcing company has a guarantee for a certain amount of results.
You may think that, compared to in-house SDRs, outsourced SDRs may turn over more. SDRs that work at SDR outsourcing companies tend to have a very low turnover rate. This is because they are paid well above their local wage and provided with benefits such as remote work.
For example, they may offer a $500/month SDR who responds to 20 emails and makes five phone calls daily. In turn, many contracts with SDR outsourcing companies will expect to generate a certain amount of weekly leads for the company that hired them. In other words, the outsourcing company has a guarantee for a certain amount of results.
You may think that, compared to in-house SDRs, outsourced SDRs may turn over more. SDRs that work at SDR outsourcing companies tend to have a very low turnover rate. This is because they are paid well above their local wage and provided with benefits such as remote work.
Is Outsourcing the Future of Outbound Sales?
The era of outsourcing may change the nature of outbound sales forever. Inbound, at times, supplants cold calling while prospecting skills become more essential to success.
SDRs work at these companies for one reason: to generate a high-quality prospect list and set meetings with decision-makers who hired them.
Most SDR outsourcing companies will have their SDRs focus most of their time on prospecting. Most SDR outsourcing companies use automated outbound outreach, whether emailing or messaging. Even cold calling can be automated.
More often than not, SDR outsourcing companies choose to automate emailing and messaging through email automation sequences. Email automation sequences automatically send to a prospect based on their engagement (or lack thereof) with the SDR.
The reason why SDR outsourcing companies like email automation is it's a lot easier for an SDR to set up and allows them to spend more time on manual outreach. We all know the importance of being personal in sales.
Automating email and messaging allows the SDR to focus more on lead generation, prospecting better leads, and personalizing irresistible messages for readers.
Because of this, it's clear that outsourcing is not only a big part of the future of outbound sales but also part of the present. Many companies use an outsourced SDR today for their outbound campaigns.
SDRs work at these companies for one reason: to generate a high-quality prospect list and set meetings with decision-makers who hired them.
Most SDR outsourcing companies will have their SDRs focus most of their time on prospecting. Most SDR outsourcing companies use automated outbound outreach, whether emailing or messaging. Even cold calling can be automated.
More often than not, SDR outsourcing companies choose to automate emailing and messaging through email automation sequences. Email automation sequences automatically send to a prospect based on their engagement (or lack thereof) with the SDR.
The reason why SDR outsourcing companies like email automation is it's a lot easier for an SDR to set up and allows them to spend more time on manual outreach. We all know the importance of being personal in sales.
Automating email and messaging allows the SDR to focus more on lead generation, prospecting better leads, and personalizing irresistible messages for readers.
Because of this, it's clear that outsourcing is not only a big part of the future of outbound sales but also part of the present. Many companies use an outsourced SDR today for their outbound campaigns.
Conclusion
Outsourced Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are increasingly playing a crucial role in shaping the future of outbound sales. Startups from various corners of the world have recognized the immense value they bring to their organizations, and as a result, the demand for these talented professionals continues to grow rapidly.
These startups are capitalizing on the expertise and specialized services provided by outsourced SDRs to supercharge their sales efforts and drive business growth.
Fill out this form to hire an outsourced SDR.
These startups are capitalizing on the expertise and specialized services provided by outsourced SDRs to supercharge their sales efforts and drive business growth.
Fill out this form to hire an outsourced SDR.
Post by Noah Levy.