Introduction As a business owner or corporate executive, you must ask yourself, how can I turn over my company’s sales to an outside firm? Sales is my lifeblood, it’s the company’s family jewels. I can’t possibly let someone else develop, manage, and run with it, or can I? Who will own the relationships with the clients? Will I lose control? What happens if something goes wrong? Industry experts acknowledge that business process outsourcing has become a standard business practice. Outsourcing functions like logistics, administration, help desk/ IT, payroll, etc. can save you as much as 20%. What if outsourcing your sales functions could save you 20% in cost and increase your revenue and profit margin? Total Solution Delivery Are you tired of interviewing sales candidates due to turnover? Are you frustrated because forecasting and reality have nothing in common? Are you concerned that your salespeople are selling less, discounting like crazy, and losing clients faster than they bring new ones on? By partnering with a Sales Outsourcing Provider you can do what you do best and allow a results-proven company to do what they do best. The market for outsourced services has grown to well over $500B in 2014 with an annual growth rate expected to reach 15%. Business Process Outsourcing makes up over half of all outsourcing dollars spent in the market. Sales Outsourcing makes up approximately 25% of the total outsourcing revenue with a 30% annual growth rate! More and more companies, both large and small are looking for outsourcing providers who can bring value by; Reducing the “Cost of Sales” Increase the Speed to Market Improved Productivity of Sales Reduce the Turnover Rate Increase Client Acquisition Shorten the Sales Cycle In studying some of the most productive sales teams in various industries, a core of key principles, beliefs, skills, and practices becomes apparent with those of the top tier. The best sales teams exhibit energy, cohesiveness, and structure of the process that allows them to dominate. Here we will examine what choices and decisions you need to make in choosing your Sales Outsourcing provider so your company can focus on success. What is Sales Outsourcing? It is the transfer or development of sales resources, including all overhead expenses, such as recruiting, payroll, insurance, commission management, equipment, and training, including the management responsibilities to an outside organization. The outside organization, the outsourcing provider, has the responsibility to manage the sales team to meet corporate expectations and achieve results. What is causing an increase in demand for sales outsourcing? “Sales Expertise” – Many organizations are launched by engineers and financial or operations-type professionals. They are able to grow a business to a certain level based on their expertise, but in order to achieve their next level of growth they need to look outside of the organization to find sales & marketing guidance and direction. “Keeping a Focus” – Many large organizations have existing sales teams in place. If you put too large of a burden on your existing sales team with new products, new geographies, or new targets, they will lose their focus! Using an alternative channel, such as a sales outsourcing organization allows a focused sales effort on a particular market segment or product. “Tactical Revenue” – Sales Focus’ Sales Outsourcing solutions, range from advisory services to inside and outside sales teams focused on developing Tactical Revenue Plans that will help companies achieve the next level of growth quickly. “Cost of Sales” – If an organization looks at the true cost of building, supporting, and managing a sales force they would be surprised. Many companies can’t tell you what the true “cost of sales” really is. Sales Outsourcing offers clients a “fixed” cost of sales solution. The average cost of sales outsourcing is much lower than developing your own sales team! “Speed to Market” – Another factor is time to market, it’s much quicker for an outsourcing provider to have a well-trained and managed sales team out the door making and closing business than to organically grow a team. Outsourcing providers are constantly recruiting have Sales processes in place and can produce results with “feet on the street” in 45 days or less. How does a business know it’s time to look at sales outsourcing? If an organization needs to roll out a new service or open a new territory, Sales Outsourcing solutions provide a much quicker solution and allow their existing sales team to maintain their focus. Or, if you currently don’t have a sales force in place and decide it’s time to grow. Or, if a company has experienced one or more of the following problem areas: Stagnate Growth, High Turnover Rates, High loss Ratio, or Low Margins. How large or small can a company be to implement Sales Outsourcing? Most small and mid-sized companies require assistance in generating tactical revenue strategies. Large organizations, Fortune 500 companies, also need the speed and flexibility of sales outsourcing where they can launch a sales force in new territory in less than 45 days and then have the ability to scale the project at a moment’s notice. Large organizations with existing sales teams need to keep their salespeople focused and not introduce too many new products or change direction too quickly. Sales Focus is flexible to meet the demands of a changing economy. 5 Reasons why businesses should invest in sales outsourcing Outsourcing outbound sales is a great way to stand out from the competition without breaking the bank. Unlike hiring in-house outbound sales representatives, outsourcing allows you to save money (since you don’t have to pay them a full salary), and more importantly, it saves time. This means you can focus on building out your business instead of sales. This is a great step towards developing and scaling your company for growth. Most importantly, when you outsource outbound sales, you get complete access to the outreach process whenever you need it. Since outreach is available on-demand, you can outsource outbound sales as needed and only pay for what you use. The outreaching process does not require you to spend on training, so it is easy to outsource outbound sales if you feel your company needs more time or support from an outreaching team at any moment. With that said, the following are some of the prominent reasons why outbound sales outreaching is becoming a popular option for businesses across the globe: 1. Great Repeatable Business Model When using inbound sales, customers have an idea of what service or products they are looking for. Thus, you are relying on your customer to take the first step of contacting you. This sales strategy doesn’t work when you are trying to acquire new leads. In outbound sales, however, you outsource your outreach to a third party. Outbound sale is all about reaching the potential customer first instead of waiting for them to contact you. Hence, you can have complete control over who you target and how you target, making it a predictable and repeatable sales formula across different marketing channels. Because outreaching requires more skills than inbound sales, outreaching companies have experts who know how to sell over the phone or via email or text message. These outreach experts are trained to pitch and close customers based on their needs. This is what makes outbound sales outreach a predictable sales channel for businesses. Streamlined outbound sales process Outsourcing outbound sales can save you time because outreaching comes with a well-defined outbound sales process that takes the guesswork out of outselling. You can outsource outbound sales campaigns to an expert who has mastered the outcalling process and will generate outbound leads for you without you needing to manage outreaching daily tasks. Once the outbound sales process is in place, your outsourcing experts will do their outreach and follow up relentlessly until they get a response from your outbound sales leads. This process can be repeated across different marketing channels. 2. Reach Out to Prospects Directly Businesses can use outbound sales outsourcing to directly target customers who are in a buying/decision-making process. Outreach campaigns seek to pull potential customers into your business by reaching them before your competition does. Once you have an outline of the prospect’s needs, your outreach team can easily map it to what your company has to offer. Outreach campaigns are designed to find prospects who want the product or services offered by a specific organization. For instance, if you are selling a service that helps companies reduce their manufacturing costs, then most likely, you will come across companies that are interested in cutting down their operating expenses. You can then tailor your outreach campaign to find these companies and sell your product or service to them with ease. When you hire outbound sales representatives, you can be sure that they will stay up-to-date with the latest technology, tools, and methods for making sales in the current market conditions. One of the benefits of this is that you can get in touch with your customers easily. You don’t have to wait for them to make the first step and contact you, which is usually a time-consuming process. Outbound sales outsourcing gives you the chance to focus on your company’s core business while still having prospects’ interests in mind. 3. Quickly Generate Revenue Outsourcing your outreach campaign allows you to gain access to more potential customers because your company is able to tap into a larger network. This means that you will be able to deliver more accurate contact lists for your outreach campaign, which can result in a higher conversion rate and more deals closed. In an outbound sales campaign, you are making the first move by reaching out to prospects on every channel possible, including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Hiring a third party to do your outreach campaign also gives you access to higher-quality leads. With experts who have knowledge about various marketing channels, they can find better and new ways to generate outbound leads and grow your business. 4. Enhance Speed to Market Companies that use outbound sales outreach enjoy a boost in market awareness, which can translate to higher visibility and revenue. Outsourcing your outreach campaign allows you to get in touch with decision-makers faster since they will already know about your company before you even contact them. Moreover, experts who do outreach can shorten the sales cycle as well as help you strengthen your lead qualification process. Experts also know the best times for reaching out to prospects, so you can get in touch with them faster and more efficiently. Moreover, doing this enables you to save time because there is no need for you to look for new prospects since you already have a list of lead contacts ready. 5. Proven to Work Across Different Industries The success of outreach campaigns has been proven across different industries and types of organizations. That is, sales outsourcing is not just limited to a particular industry. Any business from any industry can invest in sales outreach. Outsourcing your outreach campaign is effective because it allows you to focus on important tasks that are crucial for growing your business. While experts do the legwork, you can concentrate on making sales and increasing revenues. What differentiates Sales Outsourcing companies? Sales Outsourcing is still a growing industry that is becoming more and more crowded with new competitors. It’s important to verify that the organization has had success in the development and launch of several sales teams. The Sales Outsourcing provider should have a clear understanding of vertical industries and the knowledge of differentiating between selling products and services. They must also possess strong sales organization development capabilities and have their sales processes well documented along with a solid launch process to get the team moving quickly. Conclusion In today’s super competitive environment, building a successful sales force depends on a partnership mentality between the company and the provider.
