What is an Outsourced SDR?

The future of SDRs.
sales outsourcing b2b cover photo
SDRs that are leased out to a different company are known as outsourced SDRs.

In contrast, in-house SDRs are sales representatives you must recruit, screen, employ, and train yourself. Therefore, outsourced SDRs are usually more cost-effective compared to internal SDRs.

As a result, an effective SDR is extremely important, especially for B2B businesses.

This article will explain how outsourced SDRs work and how you can find one that fits your company.

Outsourced SDR - Definition

An Outsourced SDR (Sales Development Representative) is a role within a sales organization that involves outsourcing the responsibilities and tasks of identifying and qualifying potential leads or prospects to a third-party service provider or agency.

The primary function of an SDR is to initiate the first stage of the sales process by reaching out to potential customers, generating interest in a company's products or services, and determining whether these prospects are a good fit for additional engagement by the sales team.

The outsourced SDRs will increase rapport and are dedicated to growing your pipeline with qualified leads.

However, an outsourced SDR usually remains under contract with his company. His work is therefore considered as a service for your requirements.

This makes Outsourced SDRs much more affordable than hiring and managing your own SDRs - while getting the same, or better, results.

What do Outsourced SDRs do?

Outsourced SDRs are mainly responsible for lead generation, which means identifying and qualifying potential customers for your business.

Lead generation is a major part to makes sure your pipeline is filled.

Outsourced SDRs execute their strategy to generate through several sales channels. The most popular ones are cold calling, cold emailing, and social selling.

Here is a short explanation of these channels:

SDRs use cold emailing to contact new clients and introduce them to the business's goods and services. They send a valuable and pertinent message to the recipient to increase response rates.

Cold calling is the practice of calling prospective clients over the phone who may not be familiar with the business or its products. SDRs must be ready with strong negations in case objections are raised.

Using social media platforms to find new prospects and establish contact with them is known as "social selling". With the help of this technique, sales reps can establish connections with potential customers before making direct contact.

Of course, all three channels are more complex than just described. This blog talks about lead generation in detail.

Before during, and after SDRs do cold outreach, it's their job to qualify leads.

Be it via creating ideal customer profiles (ICPs), directly asking prospects about their pain points and what could help to solve them, and deciding if they can be pushed along the sales funnel.

Qualifying leads decide over success and failure for an SDR and is a valuable skill that your outsourced SDR should have.

What is Sales Outsourcing?

Sales outsourcing refers to your company hiring a third party to perform one or more sales activities for you, usually with a specific focus on lead generation and lead qualification.

Outsourcing sales activities means that you'll be paying a percentage of your sales revenue, or a fixed price, to a third-party sales management organization.

B2B companies often outsource sales activities because they don't currently have the budget or the right resources to handle it in-house.

They use outside sales agencies or saas sales outsourcing firms to scale their sales efforts quickly without hiring new employees and incurring significant costs.

But you cannot simply offer the business a list and a few scripts, then leave. You must develop a solid relationship with them to ensure that their questions and suggestions are heard.

By treating them like the extension of your company that they are and giving them input, you can work together for better results.

How to Find Outsourced SDRs?

When choosing an outsourced SDR, it's important to find someone who understands your industry, goals, and target audience.

So before you start searching for possible SaaS sales outsourcing companies, define exactly what you need from the outsourced SDR to get proper results.

How many meetings are scheduled is often used to measure SDR performance. But that's not always the best KPIs to focus on.

You might have a lot of meetings, but if most prospects are unqualified and not a fit, you can lose a lot of money.

Alternatively, you could track the meeting-to-opportunity acceptance rate and the meeting attendance rate to promote a more meaningful approach.

You won't likely receive any form of guarantee of a fixed number of meetings from an outsourced sales company.

On the contrary, a competent outsourcing firm would collaborate with you to determine what constitutes a reasonable outcome concerning your KPIs and then make a significant effort to make it happen.

You can use the internet to connect with sales outsourcing b2b firms to find an outsourced SDR. You can research based on their experience and quality of work or read about their past clients' ratings.

While reviewing, it's helpful to identify the services they provide to see if they can help your sales team.

If you're unsure what you need, it's best to contact the manager/founder through their website or LinkedIn. Usually, after a short call, you are familiar with their approach and how they work to know if they can support your sales team.

Besides searching for sales outsourcing companies on Google, you can reach out to your social network on LinkedIn, to ask for recommendations or direct help.

The best sales outsourcing companies are often recommended because other people could benefit from them.

LinkedIn is very popular with people who work in sales, tech, Software-as-a-Service, and so on, so it's very likely that your message will be seen by someone who can help you out.

Conclusion

Outsourcing sales development is a great way to save money and ensure that your sales team is doing what it needs to do for your business' success.

You can outsource lead generation and lead qualification activities to help you get the most out of your sales team.

This approach can even help you find more qualified and interested prospects and close more sales.

It will also save money and make your business more efficient by saving resources.

But you must be careful to hire the right person for the job. For example, you might not want to hire someone who has never worked in your industry.

Fill out this form to determine if SalesPipe is the right choice for your company to provide outsourced SDRs.