In today’s fast paced business environment, more companies are looking to gain a competitive edge when it comes to sales and marketing. These same companies are often looking to augment their sales efforts through partnerships with outsourced sales companies. There are many reasons why a company may outsource a portion (sometimes all) of their sales department to a trusted partner:
Sales Expertise/Execution: Sales is both an art and a science that isn’t easily learned. For most to excel in sales, it takes daily effort and work to hone this accent craft. For many small to midsized companies, sales strategy and execution is not their expertise. They are experts in their software/services, customer service, etc. New business acquisition and sales does not come easily.
Specialization: There is a great sales strategy book called Predictable Revenue. This book discusses the strategies that Salesforce.com used to help create a predictable forecast in their early days. One of the key strategies is the concept of specialization within your sales organization. Sales roles can include: “inbound” lead qualifier, outbound prospecting/cold calling, sales/”closers” and account management. At Acquirent we feel that having a professional inside sales team is critical to your company’s success. The following is a response to a great study that Insidesales.com published which states that inside sales is the best lead generation tool: https://www.acquirent.com/blog/study-confirms-inside-sales-is-best-for-lead-generation
Channel Strategy: A lot of companies have a direct sales team and also have a channel sales strategy as well. Companies look to outsourced sales companies to create a sales channel for them to increase their reach and cover product lines that their internal team will not handle (i.e. orphan product lines).
Create a Minor League: Many companies are looking to their outsourced sales partner to create a minor league for them. Many will have their outsourced sales partner recruit, hire and manage their sales professional and once they hit certain metric they bring them on their payroll full time. This helps eliminate the chance of a new sales hire not working out for their company.
Speed to Market: When an opportunity calls, you need to move quickly to capitalize on it. This is a great case for partnering with an outsourced sales company. Many times outsourced sales companies are more nimble and can move more quickly than a big corporation can.
Reduced Risk: Companies that are prone to rapid change, outsourced sales partners are a great option to help reduce their risk. Outsourced sales companies reduce hiring and firing costs and also take on the employment risk.
There are many more reasons why a company would partner with an outsourced sales company. The best way to find out if sales outsourcing could benefit your business is to call a couple vendors and talk with them about your sales organization and some of the current challenges you face.
Happy Selling![/fusion_text][/fullwidth]
