Outsourcing Inside Sales - Strategy For Success
Outsourcing inside sales is a strategy for your company to achieve success by focusing on what it knows best: the company, its products, services, and customers. Correspondingly, this strategy results in the “front-end” of the sales development process, prospecting, lead generation, and appointment setting, being contracted to an outsourcing provider. In brief, the outsourcing provider fills your company sales pipeline, while your in-house sales team closes the deals.
Outsourcing inside sales is certainly not a new concept, as companies have been using independent distributors, agents, and contractors for many years. However, what is new, are companies leveraging “sales as a service”. Specifically, working with long term partners qualified to act as a manager of the inside sales process of the company.
So, let’s discuss more outsourcing inside sales, factors you should consider before moving forward, and the advantages of doing so.
Outsourcing Inside Sales Overview
Prospecting of qualified sales leads is one of the most difficult parts of business development and is a major challenge to your company’s growth. As a result, this is the most typical barrier to growing since new sales aren’t possible without first directly speaking to a qualified prospect.
Inside sales perform the beginning stages of the top of the sales funnel of a company. That is to say, identifying, connecting with, and qualifying sales leads. Basically, this involves contacting prospects, pre-qualifying, and scheduling appointments for your company’s in-house sales team. Afterward, they follow up via a telephone call, video conference, or face-to-face meeting to close the deal.
The purpose of inside sales is to dedicate specialized resources to focus on the prospecting of sales leads. Conversely, the company’s in-house sales team does NOT spend time on prospecting sales leads. Rather, its specialized sales talents focus on nurturing these pre-qualified sales opportunities into paying customers. Basically, you can view this as a specialization of production to improve the efficiency of your company’s sales process.
The lessons to be gained are that your in-house sales team should focus on what they know best: your company, products, and services. Also, outsourcing inside sales gives you access to sales expertise that leads to greater company productivity and improved ROI.
Outsourcing Inside Sales Factors
Outsourcing inside sales requires you to consider various factors before moving your company forward. Because it is like any business decision involving a fundamental change in how your company conducts business. So let’s review factors to consider and how to be successful with the results.
Loss Of Control
Outsourcing implies delegating a portion of a company’s functions to an outside service provider. Generally, this is one of the biggest challenges a company will face.
With this in mind, you need to be sure that when outsourcing inside sales, the team:
- Represents your brand correctly.
- Adheres to the processes you have established.
- Makes the best use of resources (time, personnel, and systems) to generate proper sales opportunities.
- Provides transparency in communication.
- Offers flexibility in adjusting the sales process.
Alignment
Your outsourced inside sales team is a virtual extension of your company’s sales organization. Consequently, you need to ensure that there are consistency and transparency within your ENTIRE sales team.
So here are factors your outsourced inside sales team will need to focus on:
- Align and adapt to your company’s established processes. Also, identify opportunities for improvement.
- Identify and correct communication noise (misunderstandings) with your in-house sales team.
- Adhere to a clearly defined “sales prospect” profile. Likewise, identify the need to adjust.
- Consistent communication (messaging) of your company’s products/services values and benefits.
Skin In The Game
Your sales are the lifeblood of your company’s long term success. So, how can you trust this with an external outsourcing provider?
From a different perspective, is your outsourcing provider really your partner in the sales battlefield? That is, do you want to share your foxhole with your outsourcing inside sales provider?
This only makes good business sense when YOUR company’s success translates into THEIR company success. In brief, you both need to have skin in the game, with a major stake in the success of the relationship.
Consequently, your outsourcing provider’s compensation plan needs to incentivize them to ensure your long-term success. Also, your outsourcing provider must consistently demonstrate the importance of retaining your company’s business as a client, just as winning new customer business is for you.
Is The Price Right?
Outsourcing inside sales has a variety of tangible and intangible costs. So, you will need to know whether they are proportional to the benefits gained by your company. Basically, is the price right and fair to both parties?
You may find outsourcing inside sales to be economical or expensive depending upon your company’s present situation. While there will be a price tag each billing period, your focus should be whether the investment provides the return your company requires.
Due Diligence
Your due diligence should estimate the value of outsourcing inside sales and ROI for your company. For example, you will need to measure the cost of services provided for the value received:
- What will be the size and cost of building your sales pipeline? I.e., qualified sales prospects?
- How many sales prospects are converted into qualified sales appointments? That is the conversion percentage over a period of time.
- What is the percentage of sales appointments that convert to new customers? Remember, this also reflects your in-house sales team’s performance.
- How much will new customers contribute to your company’s revenue? I.e., what is the average revenue per new customer over a period of time?
DISCLOSURE: Nexus Teleservices is a Nearshore Outsourcing Inside Sales business provider.
Outsourcing Inside Sales Benefits
Your company, like most companies, is constantly being challenged to improve its performance. For instance, this might be sales growth, profitability, competitiveness, or other metric. Consequently, to respond to these challenges, outsourcing inside sales is a business strategy you should consider. So, let’s discuss the key benefits of this in greater detail.
1 – Lower Costs For Sales Function
For most companies, the sales function is a major cost component. When considering personnel salaries, benefits, employment taxes, recruiting, training, turnover, and facilities, the inside sales organization is clearly a major investment.
Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are expensive and in high demand, with an average turnover rate of approximately 30%. Consequently, your existing management will need to take time away from the hiring process, adversely affecting current sales development. Additionally, after an initial ten-month period, less than one-half of your sales representatives will be profitable. Finally, when you need to replace an SDR, it will cost your company over 1.5 the annual salary.
Obviously building and maintaining an inside sales team is expensive and will strain your company’s budget.
Personnel Strategy
A strategy of outsourcing inside sales allows your company to significantly lower costs related to hiring, training, and maintaining sales personnel. Because the outsourcing provider has already hired and trained sales personnel for their clients like you. As a result, your company has rapid access to these personnel, particularly when starting up new activities.
Your company’s risk of personnel turnover using an external outsourcing provider is also much lower. Additionally, your outsourcing provider assumes the financial risk for the replacement and training of their sales personnel, not you. Finally, by outsourcing inside sales, investment in infrastructure and technology related to personnel are also assumed by the provider.
All of these factors reduce your company’s total sales function costs, while allowing your in-house sales team to focus on generate opportunities quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
2 – Increases Sales Function Flexibility
Outsourcing inside sales allows your company to leverage the external provider’s resources and experience to increase the flexibility of sales operations. Generally, it takes time for a company to set up the in-house sales resources for a new product, market, or growing sales program. Conversely, by outsourcing, your company can respond much faster to these market opportunities.
Sales flexibility will be determined by how quickly your outsourcing partner can adjust to new business demands and how well your company leverages the relationship. So, let’s discuss this in greater detail.
Adaptability
Business planning often requires your company to make a mid-course correction. So, outsourcing in-house sales can offer additional resources, as well as changes in the sales process to adapt to the unanticipated business demands.
Scalability
Your company’s marketing and sales activities will vary (up or down) for many reasons. Consequently, your outsourcing provider gives your company the resources to support new markets, seasonality changes, or a varying business cycle.
Strategy
Your outsourcing provider should help teach your company how to be better at sales. Correspondingly, they will assess and provide feedback on the sales process and what changes need to be implemented for success. For example, the sales pitch, customer needs, market reaction, and other elements needed for improvement.
Processes
Your company’s sales processes can be improved upon. Despite what works well before, changes will be needed moving forward. So, by leveraging your outsourcing provider’s expertise and perspective, your company can adjust and refine its sales processes.
Technology
Outsourcing inside sales implies that your service provider specializes in SELLING. Consequently, they provide superior selling tools and technology to improve your company’s flexibility, speed and competitive standing.
3 – Reduces Sales Function Risk
Any business decision your company makes entails some level of risk. Outsourcing inside sales to an external provider is no different. However, outsourcing to the provider also implies a transferral of risk, which needs to be balanced and managed differently.
As previously mentioned, when you outsource inside sales it needs to be a virtual extension of your in-house sales team. Consequently, both groups need to share the risks of failure as well as the glory of success. In short, both need to have skin in the game.
Your company will need to understand and define the risks for both parties in the outsourcing relationship. Specifically, where the risks are likely to be found and who will be held responsible. Generally, the party that has the resources allocated defines the area of responsibility and related risk. In other words, if you have the power, you have the responsibility, and you have the risk if you don’t perform.
Metrics And Transparency
Your company will likely structure a contract with your performance-based outsourcing provider. Accordingly, if your outsourcing provider fails to perform to expectations, there is a loss of revenue for them as well as your company. So, it is important to have a well-defined set of performance expectations and goals, plus the transparency of how the metrics used are determined.
The decision to outsource your inside sales team is to reduce your company’s risk of failing to take advantage of new business opportunities. Specifically, outsourcing inside sales reduces lost revenue, taking advantage of new market opportunities, or scaling to meet additional demand. Basically, you are mitigating the risk of not being flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions.
Outsourcing Inside Sales Summary
Outsourcing inside sales is a strategy for your company to prioritize and dedicate its in-house sales resources for the best ROI. Specifically, in-house sales resources focus on what it knows best: the company, its products, services and customers. Conversely, outsourced inside sales prioritize front-end sales development (prospecting, lead generation) to feed your company’s sales pipeline.
So should you outsource inside sales? Unquestionably as this speeds the sales cycle, keeps the pipeline full, is flexible, affordable, and offers measurable results. In brief, your company will reduce risk, lower costs, .
Please call us at (888) 339-6699 to discuss how our call center inside sales services will serve your business needs or Contact Us.
Very interesting, I think the biggest challenge for a company, is finding the right team that once they start, they will continue to perform with the same passion as when they first started. The other difficult part is when you bring on new team members and getting up to speed with the rest of the team.
Great article. It helps provide a perspective of a new option to stimulate company sales. This would be espectially helpful in real estate agencies.