Outsourcing part, or all of your sales force can be a daunting thought, and it’s one many sales managers will face at one point or another. As more companies become privy to the concept of outsourcing certain areas of business like marketing, human resources, IT, and accounting, outsourcing the sales function has started to look like the next natural step in the process.
But when is sales force outsourcing the right choice for your business? With benefits like lower costs, increased ROI, and a newfound ability to shift your focus and resources on the company’s more pivotal missions, you may realize how valuable outsourcing your sales force can be, but knowing when to pull that trigger is often one of the biggest concerns we hear from decision makers like you. So without further ado, here are three examples we’ve learned across the past 20 years of the best times outsourcing sales makes sense, and why.
When Sales Force Outsourcing is the Right Choice
1. When you are launching a new product or service. Rolling out a new product can be a volatile process that oftentimes takes resources away from your company’s main focus, especially if the item differs from your legacy products. The simple truth is, onboarding and training salespeople on your new product or service takes time and money. In fact, Glassdoor tells us that it costs about $4,000 on average to onboard each new employee. If you’re needing a mid-sized or larger sales team, this can start to add up quick, and if you’re needing to pull other employees away from their current tasks, it can add up even quicker.
Launching a new product doesn’t just require resources for onboarding and training though, it also requires a well-oiled methodology and sales process. Sales programs don’t just need clearly established goals and objectives, but the means to achieve them. In today’s market, sales forces need robust technology and mobile access to your platform at all times to not only show them their targets, but to take information they acquire in the field and send it back to you in real-time for processing. They need dynamic solutions that can evolve with your company, and make the sales process completely turnkey.
This is where sales force outsourcing can really be a game-changer. With 20 years of proven experience, Sales Partnerships has developed a proprietary hiring methodology, a thorough training process, a robust technology suite, and the support and quality assurance necessary to make sure our sales programs run as efficiently as possible, and at a quicker rate than any other outsourcing firm in the US.
2. When you are looking to expand your customer base. Nowadays, potential customers are already armed with their own information, and can easily connect with you or your competitors on a personal level with the tap of a couple of fingers. So what will set you apart? You may be surprised at how far old-fashioned boots on the ground can go toward meeting your customers’ needs, and you may be even more surprised at how far customized content tailored to their company can go.
One of the biggest challenges sales teams face isn’t just closing deals, but building strong relationships that help close those deals. Research shows that one of the best ways to build strong relationships is by spending more face-to-face time with clients. A recent survey of 2,300 people conducted by Harvard Business Review revealed that 95% of them felt face-to-face meetings were both key to successful long-term relationships and to building strong relationships in general. In a related survey of business travelers conducted by Wakefield Research, 96% of them said face time is the most important part of developing and maintaining strong relationships, and 76% of those who had fewer in-person meetings in the previous year reported that their business relationships suffered.
Getting that critical face-time with the right people can often be a difficult task, but sales outsourcing firms know how to do it. With the technology and processes already in place, new customers can quickly be targeted and you can begin making your presence felt much stronger than your competition’s. Start building strong, long-lasting relationships with clients today to not just get the sale, but to improve your brand affinity.
3. If you begin noticing customers are less-engaged or start seeing customer churn. If you’ve started experiencing some sort of consumer churn, re-engaging your consumers is a must. Oftentimes businesses retreat to lowering prices so they can compete with the avalanche of options available to small businesses for virtually every product or service.
The fear is that customers having immediate access to nearly unlimited amounts of information about your vertical makes your product or service a commodity. However, a recent survey by Chally Group asked thousands of businesses why they bought solutions, and price didn’t even make it into the top five. In fact, total sales team effectiveness took the number one spot, and over half of the respondents (54%) said customer retention is one of their top five challenges.
A good sales outsourcing firm should provide solutions that stop customer churn or stagnation by first re-assessing your market, talking to your customers and giving them customized content directed toward their business, selling an experience over a product, building and protecting your brand, and embracing dynamic and agile processes. Having an outsourced sales force gives you the newfound ability to not just change your current customers’ perceptions of your brand, but to increase their usage of your product or service by re-selling them on value instead of price.
