Outsourced sales allows your business to gain extensive sales skills and experience at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house sales teams. And let’s face it, to grow your business, you need to improve your conversions and sell more of your product. To sell more of your product and see higher lead conversions in Salesforce, you’ll likely need more skilled and experienced sales representatives. Unfortunately, hiring, training, and managing sales representatives can be expensive, which is especially relevant when you want to minimize your expenses. If this sounds familiar, outsourced sales, where you outsource all or part of your sales processes, might be the solution. As a bonus, it also offers you several other benefits.
Read on to learn what outsourced sales are and how they can help your business.
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ToggleOutsourced Sales – A Broad Overview
As the name implies, outsourced sales are when you outsource your entire or part of your sales process, much like you would any other business process like, for instance, bookkeeping. There are several reasons you would consider this, from not having the budget to hire salespeople to a lack of skills or increased flexibility. We’ll look at when outsourced sales is a good fit in more detail later.
What Are the Different Outsourced Sales Models?
Because outsourced sales allow you to outsource all or part of your sales process, there are two different models you can use. Firstly, you can outsource the entire sales process using a full-stack outsourced sales model. This is ideal if you lack the budget or resources to hire an in-house sales team but still want to see your lead conversion rate in Salesforce grow.
Conversely, you can also choose to use a mixed model where you only outsource certain parts of your sales process. Here, you can opt for a vertical, horizontal, or geographically based model.
When using a vertical model, you’ll divide your sales process into two or more parts and outsource only those parts you don’t have the skills, expertise, or resources for. For instance, when using this model, you’ll gather leads, qualify them, and pass them on to the outsourced sales provider.
With a horizontal model, you won’t outsource only parts of your sales process, but you’ll use both your in-house and outsourced teams in conjunction. For example, your in-house team could focus on one market while the outsourced sales team focuses on another.
Finally, you can also use a geographically based model where different sales teams focus on different geographic locations. For instance, when using this model, your in-house team might focus on your business’s local area while the outsourced team focuses on other locations.
When Is Outsourced Sales a Good Fit?
The final question to consider is when you might consider outsourcing your sales to an external provider. We’ve already mentioned budget and skills limitations as considerations, and we’ll deal with these in more detail when we get to the benefits of outsourced sales. However, there are also several other times when outsourcing your sales might be appropriate.
For one, outsourcing might be a good idea when you already have a proven sales model that you know works. This will allow you to generate consistent sales or improve your lead conversion metric in Salesforce without the expense of hiring and managing more sales reps.
Outsourced sales might also be a good fit when you have a reasonably short sales cycle. This enables you to measure the outsourced team’s performance and their results without heavily investing for long periods.
Benefits of Outsourcing Sales
We now have a broad overview and understanding of outsourced sales. Let’s now look at some benefits you’ll enjoy when you outsource all or part of your sales process.
Outsourced Sales Offers Cost Savings
One of the major benefits of outsourcing your sales is that it lets you save money. For example, when using an outsourced sales provider, you’ll reduce what you spend on:
- Hiring and training sales reps. By outsourcing your sales, you won’t have to hire any or more sales reps and train them. This results in significant savings considering that the average onboarding time for a sales rep is about 3 months. In other words, it takes about 3 months before a sales rep will start earning you money.
- Salaries. By implication, when you don’t have to hire more sales reps, you don’t have to pay more salaries. Likewise, if you don’t have sales reps to manage, you won’t need to hire any sales managers, which brings about additional savings. Outsourcing your sales may also mean you get access to better talent – vetted reps who can help you reach your Salesforce lead conversion goals at a lower price than if you’d hired them.
- Office space. Without large sales teams, you won’t need extra office space, which means you’ll save on office rentals. You’ll also save on office equipment, utilities, and more.
- Technology. Nowadays, sales teams use several platforms and services. Most of these tools come with hefty monthly subscription fees, which, if you don’t have in-house sales teams, you won’t have to pay.
More Skills and Expertise
When outsourcing your sales to an external provider, you’ll have access to more skills and experience. In turn, you’ll improve your sales and generate more revenue. Also, if you already have a sales team, experienced reps from outsourcing providers might expose them to more advanced and effective sales techniques and strategies to be more effective.
Don’t think of outsourcing as exclusively a replacement for your in-house team. Instead, consider how outsourced sales providers can supplement your team’s skills and which new knowledge they can share.
Expanding into New Markets with the Help of Outsourced Sales
Outsourcing sales is the perfect strategy if you want to expand into new markets. For instance, it can help you test viability in a potential market without needing to hire and train any new sales reps. Once a market is established, it can also help you drive sales faster than hiring in-house sales teams could.
Generally, to grow your business, you need to make more sales and, consequently, hire more sales reps and spend more money. With outsourced sales, this isn’t the case. It allows you to scale easier when your business and customer base grows.
Improved Customer Engagement and Experience
When you use sales reps skilled in selling on several channels like social media, web, email, and chat, you’ll be able to provide a genuinely omnichannel sales experience. In turn, this increases customer engagement and improves the customer experience.
More Insights
Through outsourced sales, you’ll have more insights into your sales processes and what works and doesn’t. Based on these insights, you can better identify your ideal customer and implement strategies to improve your offering to better meet your customers’ needs.
Improved Growth
Ultimately, when you’re able to sell your products or services more effectively at a reduced cost per sale, you’ll generate more profit. This, in turn, directly impacts your business’s growth.
How to Get Started with Outsourced Sales
We’ve now seen what outsourced sales are and what you can gain by outsourcing. The only question remaining is: How do you get started?
Fortunately, it’s quite simple:
- Define what you want to achieve. For instance, you might need more skills and expertise to supplement your existing sales team. Or you could be expanding your business into new markets. No matter what your goal is, understanding it lays the foundation for success ahead.
- Choose the model you’d like to implement. Based on your goals, you’ll be able to choose the outsourced sales model you’ll need to use. So, for example, if your goal is to expand into new markets, you’ll likely need a horizontal model. Likewise, if your business is new and you’ve only started selling your product, you’ll likely need to go for a vertical model.
- Pick the right provider. Finally, once you know what you’d like to achieve and what model you’ll use, you can pick the right provider to meet your needs. In addition, you should ensure that the provider has experience in your industry and, as such, will be able to sell your product effectively. Also, while costs are an essential consideration, they should not be the determining factor when choosing a provider. Instead, focus on what value and return on investment the provider can offer.
Keep in mind, though, that these steps are only a guideline you can use to get started, and there might be other considerations you’ll take into account based on your circumstances. What’s important, however, is that you don’t get bogged down in the process of finding the best model or provider. It’s better to get started and tweak your methods as you go rather than not getting started at all.
The Bottom Line: Should You Outsource Sales to Make Your Salesforce Lead Conversion Grow?
Depending on your unique circumstances, outsourced sales might just be the solution you need to boost your sales, generate more revenue, and grow your business. If your Salesforce lead conversion is getting you down, consider outsourcing sales to a capable provider and letting them show your team how to get results faster than ever.
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