Sales
June 2, 2022

A Detailed Guide to Outsourcing Inside Sales

A Detailed Guide to Outsourcing Inside Sales

Is it time for your company to step it up a notch? It might benefit from an injection of energy if you outsource sales to grow, expand your market coverage or improve efficiency. 

As opposed to what many people believe, outsourcing sales can benefit all kinds of companies, not just call centers and IT development firms. Outsourcing organizations reveal several benefits, including cost savings, increased efficiency, and reduced staff numbers. 

Moreover, it can help the organization become more efficient, and as stated in Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey 2018, "incorporating emerging technologies to drive innovation, speed to market, enhanced user experience, and improved performance." 

Businesses of all kinds can agree that creating new opportunities isn't always easy. You can get new business through referrals or word of mouth, but you'll have to work very hard if you want to keep getting qualified leads into your sales pipeline and then turn them into customers. 

On the other hand, mastering inside sales isn't a requirement for generating new customers and expanding your business. A well-established company should concentrate on what it does best: its business and the services and products it provides to its clients. With the help of outsourced inside sales, you can achieve rapid growth in your company's sales. 

What Are Outsourced Inside Sales?

When a business uses a third-party firm to hire salespeople, they utilize outsourced inside sales to access previously untapped revenue sources. With the help of an experienced inside sales team, you can increase the productivity of your business. 

These people work together to find new leads and set up meetings with them. They include sales managers, account executives, business development representatives, sales development representatives, and sales development managers. During these meetings, your company's internal team has the chance to provide a more thorough explanation of its goods or services and turn leads into customers. 

When you hire an outside sales service, you no longer have to worry about generating new leads. Consequently, with your sales department outsourced, you'll have more time to concentrate on your company's core operational activities. 

How Does Outsourcing Inside Sales Work?

One way to cut costs is outsourcing your inside sales operations. You can save a significant amount of money by outsourcing your sales team's hiring and training costs. 

With their extensive hiring, thorough vetting, and training, the external provider can offer this service to clients. It means you have instant access to great talent, but you also have quick onboarding. Thus, you don't let qualified sales opportunities slip away if you solely manage your sales team internally. 

Furthermore, you're practically assured of having no turnover because you're working in an industry that employs lifelong cold callers. When a member of your sales team quits, outsourcing prevents you from having to start the hiring process all over again. As a result of the already established inside sales modern infrastructure stack, costs are reduced even more. 

Therefore, your organization will be able to devote all of its resources to improving its core competencies, the value of your goods or services, and retaining customers. 

What You Need to Know before Recruiting an Outsourced Inside Sales Staff

An outsourced inside sales team works with your representative to prospect, qualify, and schedule appointments with potential customers and bring in new business for you. It removes the burden from your shoulders, permitting your staff members to focus on their core competencies. 

Before deciding to work with an outsourced company, organizations must be aware of the issues they must address. 

Here are some common concerns companies have about outsourcing their inside sales. 

The ability to manage outsourced employees

How much control do you expect when you outsource your inside sales over these representatives who work for you? Choosing to outsource can be difficult, and it's one of the most challenging decisions you'll ever make. 

Ideally, you'd like to ensure that your sales team properly represents your brand while supporting the appropriate processes and allocating their time wisely to leads that are a good fit for your organization. 

As long as you're working with an outsourced firm that prioritizes open communication and holds regular meetings with you to discuss their progress, you'll have some say in how their efforts are implemented. 

In your quest for the best outsourced firm, you should ask, "How are your results measured and reported?" Choose a company committed to helping directly from your Salesforce instance to understand the sales process at every stage thoroughly. 

However, suppose you choose an outsourcing firm that only provides results reports. In that case, you cannot evaluate their performance at each stage and gain some insights into the metrics that play a part in the success of your inside sales team

While the number of deals closed may be sufficient to meet your requirements, there may be a significantly greater number of opportunities that have been created but not properly nurtured and ultimately closed. 

An outsourced firm with a comprehensive understanding of the entire process will help you address any disparities between the gaps identified and the actual revenue generated. Your outsourced team may be able to take advantage of more opportunities if you know what needs to be improved in the process. 

Ensuring the alignment of the team with the organization's objectives

Many firms are concerned about how well an outsourced firm will fit into their organization's current processes when outsourcing sales. Additionally, the ease of communication between sales and other departments could be challenging. 

Building an internal sales force allows sales management to be more closely tied to the company's long-term vision and mission. 

Misalignment in messaging, buyer persona, or the definition of a "qualified prospect" is the last thing you want to deal with. A misalignment of your brand's image may harm its reputation. It can also be more difficult if you have a complicated product or service to sell when using outsourcing.  

The right outsourced sales team will work carefully with your internal leadership to fully integrate your processes and strategy. Numerous outsourced sales firms are willing to meet with you regularly to review the development of their efforts and make continuous improvements to the process. 

Accordingly, it's essential to know precisely what the onboarding process entails before deciding on a service provider. 

A good onboarding process is essential, so look for an outsourced company with one. You can rest assured that the outsourced team will be successful without your involvement in every aspect of their work during the start-up phase. 

The success probability of the organization

"Why should we put our sales in the hands of another company?" is another question that businesses frequently ask themselves when considering outsourcing sales. 

The outsourced company doesn't seem to have as much incentive as your company to make sales on your behalf. In the end, your company's success is dependent on its ability to generate sales. 

Many people mistakenly believe that an outside sales firm is less invested in your success. However, keep in mind that outsourcing companies are determined to help you succeed. Gaining new clients and retaining existing ones are equally important to a company. 

Maintaining long-term client satisfaction is critical, even more so for outsourced sales firms that offer month-to-month contracts. As an alternative, consider companies that pay based on the number of leads or sales appointments, commission, or contract length of one year. 

When you hire an excellent outsourced sales firm, they will act as an extension of your organization, displaying your products and brands as if they were their own. 

Ultimately, If you're considering working with them, it all boils down to how they represent their brand, how well they've pursued you as a lead and customer, and their onboarding process and overall effort.  

Cost-effectiveness of outsourcing

If an organization considers outsourcing, one of its main concerns is the cost. If you're going to outsource a business function like sales, you'll need to know if it will be worth it for your situation. 

Do your research thoroughly to get a precise estimate of what various service providers will charge. To follow that, make sure you get an accurate estimate of the value you can expect to receive from them.  

What You Need to Know to Get Started on Outsourcing Inside Sales

As soon as you have decided that outsourced sales are suitable for your company, the next step is to find a reputable sales service provider and implement your program. 

To reap the full benefits of a partnership with an outsourced team, you must do some pre-planning and have an accurate picture of what you hope to accomplish through the partnership. 

Now that you've decided to outsource your sales efforts, what are the most important things you should know before getting started? 

Establishing your outsourcing project's scope of work

Choosing which aspects of the sales process you want to delegate to an outsourced sales agency is an essential first step. 

Several companies prefer to outsource their sales efforts entirely. At the same time, others want to outsource qualified leads, then hand the prospects over to a senior in-house team member to seal the transaction. In some cases, the sales process may be outsourced to a third party. 

You can get started with outsourced sales by using sales chat, even if you aren't ready to implement an entire omnichannel strategy. Potential customers who are just beginning the buying process can be quickly and easily engaged using live chat. 

Customers may not be ready to take a sales call or presentation, but they may feel more comfortable conversing with a chat rep to continue their product research and get more information. Once you've established a connection, you can work on strengthening it. 

Substantiate that your efforts are aligned with the organization's goals

Account-based thinking is used with practical techniques for developing relationships to achieve success. When using this approach, sales teams make connections witha greater purpose — using teaching opportunities, social media channels, and subtle, personalized communications to forge long-lasting relationships. 

The concept of account-based thinking differs from traditional sales development. It emphasizes using various resources to reach prospects with potential and establish mutually beneficial relationships rather than simply closing sales. 

This approach means ensuring that everyone, from marketing to sales development to account managers, is on board and in sync with the overall strategy. Additionally, if you keep your teams separated, it will be more challenging to communicate effectively and result in more difficult handoffs between business groups. 

Importance of Outsourcing Inside Sales

Outsourcing is a highly effective method of accelerating your company's growth. You might consider this method if you're expanding your sales operations but are still not ready to hire an inside sales team. This section will unravel why it is important to outsource your inside sales team. 

Allows your sales team to focus on revenue-generating tasks

Even if you decide to outsource your inside sales, you can still employ a few internal sales representatives. However, the average inside sales representative spends only 35% of their week selling. Repetitive tasks such as creating target account lists, generating leads, and performing administrative duties consume the remainder of their time. 

There are benefits to hiring an outside sales team, though. They can spend time building a pipeline, and your inside sales team can stay focused on running product demos and closing deals with people interested in your brand and ready to buy. 

As an example, your in-house sales team and your outsourced team can work together. They can share information regarding your target consumer, best practices, and workflow for working together. 

Your sales team will be able to serve as the first point of contact for your outsourced team, allowing them to free up time that they would have otherwise spent on time-consuming activities to concentrate on closing deals with high-value target accounts

Makes it easier for you to reach the market

You can get into a new market faster and close more deals more quickly if you hire an outside sales team to help you grow. The typical hiring process takes 36 days, and it will take more than a month by the time your new sales representative steps foot inside your office door.  

When you outsource your inside sales, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to get things done. Consequently, the onboarding process for most outsourced sales programs is the same as when you hire a new employee. 

Gives an external viewpoint on your business's development

Although you can better grasp your company's operations than an outsourced team, they may also have insights into your market that you hadn't previously considered. Utilizing their extensive knowledge and experience gained by years of working in the market will help you accelerate your business growth. 

An inside sales representative can bring a lot of experience to the table, but there is only one of them. Thus, outsourcing your inside sales allows you to use a team's collective knowledge and various inside sales methods. 

Reflect success: When you succeed, they succeed

When you outsource, you may risk hiring a team that isn't invested enough in your company's success. You should be able to read customer testimonials and case studies before deciding to partner with an outside sales team. 

When it comes to getting results for your company, most good, outsourced sales teams will be invested in it at the same level as an in-house employee. They have their own set of goals that they must achieve to help your company succeed. 

You'll continue to pay them as long as they produce results or fire them at any time if they aren't meeting your expectations. 

Maintain a low cost of operation

Consider using an outsourced sales team to expand your business if you lack the financial resources to hire and train many new sales representatives at once. According to 59% of companies that outsource work, cutting costs is a significant motivation. 

You save money on the upfront costs of hiring several new team members, purchasing software, and dealing with other payroll-related expenses when you outsource an inside sales team to a third-party provider. Because outsourced teams benefit from economies of scale, you will not be required to pay the same amount as it would cost you to hire the same number of sales representatives as they do. 

Final Thoughts

When your company is ready to expand, outsourcing inside sales can help you proficiently scale your efforts and introduce new opportunities for your business growth. There are several reasons to use an outsourced sales team, but the most important is that it can provide the extra workforce your company needs to move forward and expand into new markets.

 

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