Building Your Sales Team

If you're on a growth trajectory and are ready to start closing deals with larger clients, you'll need to invest in your sales function. You can build your sales team in-house, from the ground up, but that takes time and money you might not have right now. If you can't wait six months to start seeing results from your sales efforts, then consider using an outsourced sales team. Working with a sales outsourcing firm can be tricky at first.

What company should you choose? How can you ensure your sales outsourcing partner is aligned with your vision? Will they even deliver results? If you're wondering whether you should outsource your sales efforts, this article is for you.

I'll walk you through everything you need to know about sales outsourcing, including:

• What Does Outsourcing Your Sales Team Entail?
• What are the Benefits of Outsourcing Your Sales Work?
• What do outsourced sales services provide?
• Reasons You Shouldn't Outsource Your Sales Team

By the end, you'll have a clear view of whether you should consider an outsourced sales reps or keep it in-house. Let's jump in.

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What Does Outsourcing Your Sales Team Entail?

For a fee, you'll have access to an experienced team of lead generation experts who will handle your outbound sales campaigns for you. Usually, they'll work as an extension of your company, and it'll be like onboarding a whole sales team at once. The time to productivity is usually far shorter than it would be if you were hiring an in-house sales team as your outsourced team will have proven strategies and tactics that they've tested and proven with potentially hundreds of clients before you.

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What are the Benefits of Outsourcing Your Sales Work?

There is a range of great benefits to working with an outsourced sales team. Let's take a look at some of them.

1. Instant Access to Expertise

If you're building your team in-house, you may end up cutting corners and hiring sales reps without proven expertise. If you're hiring proven sales experts, they're not going to work for free. When you work with an outside sales team, you don't have to spend time upskilling new hires or reading sales books to ensure you're using the best sales tactics. Your team's experience and expertise will mean they can ask all the right questions to learn about your business, then jump right in and start selling.

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2. Save Money Building an Inside Sales Team

Even if you're hiring entry-level inside sales reps, it can get expensive quickly. The average salary for an inside sales rep in the United States is $43,997. That's salary alone - not including commission, or other overheads such as office equipment or sales software like your CRM. In most cases, you'll need to hire 3-4 team members if you want to scale your efforts up quickly.

Now, an outsourced sales company may not be the most budget-friendly option. But, you'll have access to multiple sales reps working on your account. You won't need to spend a fortune on sales SaaS subscriptions, and you can be confident that your external sales team is well-trained and have access to sales best-practices.

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3. Insight into New Markets

If you're only selling to UK-based firms and want to get into the US (or vice versa), it always helps to have a partner who can advise on your go-to-market strategy. Outside sales firms will usually have multiple teams that focus on different markets. If you're planning a new go-to-market strategy, you can work directly with them to gather insights on what works (and what doesn't) in the market you're trying to enter. It's the type of expertise that you won't have in-house unless you actively hire team members with prior experience in the markets you're expanding into.

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4. No Messy Sales Cycles - Just Leads Delivered To You

It's no secret that an in-house sales team leads to higher management overheads. If you're already spread thin, you'll be spread even thinner after hiring an internal sales team. After the initial engagements, you can expect them to start regularly delivering sales-ready leads to you. You won't need to worry about what tactics are working, or how many sales emails you should be sending out each week. Your sales team will handle all of those details for you, run experiments, and figure out what works. Then, they'll deliver warm leads to you on a plate, ready to be closed.

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What Services do Outsourced Sales Companies Usually Provide?

There's no single answer to this question as all outsourced sales firms provide slightly different services that match their area of expertise. However, most outsourced sales teams will use sales tactics, including:

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a proven sales tactic, but it can be hard for teams new to sales to start. If you haven't got experience with cold calling, it can be hard to get right, so having an external sales team manage it can be a huge time saver. You'll still get the benefits of cold calling but won't need to get on the phones yourself.

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Cold Emailing

Cold email is another popular sales tactic used by B2B companies around the world. 89% of marketers say that email is their primary channel for lead generation, so it's no surprise that most outsourced sales development teams will use email to generate leads for your company.

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Content Syndication

Content Syndication for B2B is another highly effective way to generate ROI on your content and engage with key decision-makers. A content syndication service like Internal Results can ensure that the content you have is distributed to the right people through the proper channels. You'll be able to see data on how people are engaging with your content and attribute its effectiveness in your marketing campaigns.

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Social Selling

These teams usually engage in a multi-channel strategy, and will use social selling to get in front of prospective buyers. If you can put your content in front of buyers on channels like LinkedIn, then social selling is a highly effective way to bring new leads into your pipeline.

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Reasons Not to Outsource Your Sales Team

Not every company should outsource their sales efforts. There are a few key reasons why you should NOT outsource your sales team. Let's take a look at the reasons.

1. You Don't Have Product-Market Fit

If you're a new business and still finding product-market fit, then you should be handling everything in-house. If the founder can't make sales work in-house, then an outsourced sales team won't be able to make it work either. You need a proven solution that you know people are willing to buy. Once your own sales efforts start showing some results, and you're sure you have product-market fit, that's the time to outsource your sales efforts to kick start your growth.

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2. You're Not a B2B Company

Outbound sales strategies work best for B2B brands. That's no secret. B2C companies aren't calling up their customers, asking them to buy their $50 product.

B2B companies usually have a higher ACV, and that means you're more likely to see the ROI you're looking for.

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3. Can't Justify The Expense

Outsourcing your sales development isn't a silver bullet to business growth. If your growth is slow and you can't justify the investment right now, then consider holding off. Once you're ready to scale and re-invest in your growth, you can consider starting work with an outsourced sales firm.

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How to Choose Your Sales Outsourcing Partner

You need to choose the company you work with carefully if you expect results. There are a few key things you should be asking yourself and asking prospective companies you're going to work with.

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Do they have experience in your industry?

You need to ensure their core sales competencies match your industry and product/service type. Most vendors will have case studies you can read through to help you judge how well they'll be a fit. Keep in mind that the firms will also be vetting your business as they don't want to work with a client they'll be unable to get results for. Be honest about your product or service, budget. Trustworthy sales firms will be open and honest about how well they'll fit your needs.

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How will they align with your team?

Having a good culture fit with your sales team is vital, even if they're not in the same office as you. They'll need to be closely aligned with your sales and marketing efforts so that all material you promote has the same message to your prospects. Look for a sales outsourcing team that actively asks questions and listens to you. They'll be the ones who deliver the best leads as they're closely aligned with your company values.

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Grow Your Lead Pipeline with Internal Results

If you want to grow using outbound sales and marketing tactics, Internal Results can help. We help B2B organizations drive leads into their pipeline by combining content syndication, content creation, B2B data, and buyer intent solutions.

Our internal team will adopt a tailored and effective strategy to reduce the cost of lead acquisition and grow your pipeline, and our access to B2B data ensures we target the best possible clients for your business.

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Wrapping Up

Working with an outsourced sales team is a great way to quickly grow using outbound sales tactics that you don't have the in-house team or expertise to try. You'll be able to focus on what you do best - managing your team and growing your company - and have warm leads delivered to you on a regular basis.

It's essential to take time to choose your partner. Talk with vendors, ask questions, and let them do the same. That's the most effective way to find an outsourced sales team that has the expertise you need and will deliver the results your company needs to continue growing.