Outsourcing your first sales rep can increase your revenue while reducing operational costs by up to 60%. Your company gains access to experienced sales professionals who bring proven track records and established processes to your team. That financial impact of outsourcing can shift your company into the bullseye.
The strategic choice to outsource removes the burden of training programs, infrastructure costs, and employee benefits packages, etc. You can scale your sales efforts based on market demand, track clear performance metrics, and keep your attention on growing your business – without carrying the weight of managing an in-house sales team. This practical guide shows you how to build a high-performing outsourced sales operation that drives measurable results.
The True Economic Impact of Sales Rep Outsourcing
When you outsource sales reps, you can reduce costs associated with commissions. Your company will spend less time calculating commissions, which can sometimes deflate the excitement of your employees. They may feel like they are putting in a lot of effort and energy, but the compensation plan does not match their expectations. By outsourcing your sales reps, you can avoid that drama.
Focus on What Matters
Want an SDR to book your discovery calls? We got you covered? Want more? We’ll get the appointments booked and discovery calls so you can focus on conducting great product demos and quote calls when you outsource to an account executive. This allows you to concentrate on the essential aspects of your business while leaving the sales process to the experts.
Cut Overhead Costs
Outsourcing sales reps can help you cut costs on overhead expenses. You will not have to pay for FICA, insurance, or compete with other companies for top sales talent. If you want a good sales rep in-house, you will likely have to offer a competitive salary and benefits package. Many startups include unlimited PTO, which you can avoid if you outsource. For more insight into the financial impact of outsourcing, See our pricing here.
Accountability and Metrics
When you outsource sales reps, you can hold the company accountable for their metrics. They will spend more time researching and ensuring that the time they spend on your company is effective. They will focus on picking the right ideal customer profile (ICP) so that you can call on people you really want to do business with.
Many sales reps are not busy all day, especially if your target market is small. Outsourcing allows you to hire people for a few hours instead of full-time, which can save you money on costs.
No Training or Infrastructure Costs
You will not have to worry about training and onboarding expenses or technology and infrastructure costs when you outsource sales reps. The company you outsource to will provide the sales reps with the SaaS sales coaching and technology they need to work in your environment.
Faster Market Penetration
Outsourcing can also help you penetrate the market faster. You will get reps who are already experienced and can work fractionally for your company and maybe two or three others. They will be really good at what they do.
This risk-adjusted ROI framework means that you can scale as you need to grow. If there are new products or markets opening up, you can get a couple more sales reps and pay for them as you go. You can increase or decrease the number of hours they spend on your project depending on the season or quarter.
Flexibility and Reduced Headaches
When you outsource sales reps, you have a lot of flexibility, reduced costs, and fewer headaches to worry about. You can focus on moving forward and working on your product without getting bogged down in the day-to-day management of a sales team.
For more advantages head over to Wikipedia.
Strategic Roadmap for Sales Team Outsourcing
When considering outsourcing sales roles, you should first look at which positions to outsource and how the transition timeline will impact your current sales operations. As a startup, the first sales reps you hire are often the ones you should outsource. You’ve likely been focused on developing your product or service for quite some time, but haven’t had the opportunity to build a sales culture, which is distinct from a developer culture.
Understanding the Nature of Salespeople
Be aware of the learning curves and the unique nature of salespeople, as they can be fickle and it’s easy to spend time on the wrong hires if you’re not experienced in recruiting. You may end up with reps who struggle to qualify leads, understand your target market or ideal customer profile (ICP), or call on the wrong territories.
Outsourcing Key Sales Roles
Right from the start, if you’re a startup, you should outsource your Sales Development Representative (SDR) and Account Executive roles. These are classic positions that can fill your sales pipeline and provide stability in lead generation.
Take a look at your current team’s capabilities and identify any gaps:
- If cold calling is a weakness but they excel at running appointments, consider outsourcing just an SDR.
- If they struggle with discovery calls but can book demos, outsource the Account Executive.
- If they lack the technical knowledge, you may need an outsourced Sales Engineer.
Focus on the roles that will fill your pipeline and move it to the next level.
Implementation Timelines and Performance Milestones
When it comes to implementation timelines, outsourced SDRs can start calling right away with minimal information. They need to know your past customers, ICP, who has purchased and why, so they understand the pain point you solve. This will get the team up and running quickly.
Performance milestones and KPIs should be based on your ICP and total addressable market (TAM). Keep in mind, if it’s challenging to break into the market or you lack brand recognition or marketing, success metrics may be affected, so set clear expectations for what a successful engagement looks like.
Contingency Planning and Knowledge Transfer
Lastly, when transitioning to different sales roles, have a contingency plan in place. Consider how your need for outsourced sales reps may change if you introduce new products or make changes to existing ones. Be prepared to shift and pivot once engaged, and establish knowledge transfer protocols.
Share what you know about your product, what the public knows, and how to take someone from being unaware to becoming a prospect and ultimately a buyer. Here’s an example: if you have a relevant case study from your first customer, that’s valuable information to share with your outsourced team.
The biggest reason to consider outsourcing sales reps is the ability to cover gaps, define a clear timeline, and understand the risk strategy. By outsourcing, you can focus on your core competencies while ensuring your sales pipeline remains strong and stable.
Outsourced Sales Partner Selection Criteria
When selecting an outsourced sales partner, you should first consider the partner evaluation framework. This framework ensures that your tech stack aligns with the outsource sales rep’s tech stack and what they are accustomed to using. Alignment is a major factor in predicting both short-term and long-term success.
Choosing the Right Sales Reps
Choose sales reps who understand your industry and can speak to the technology adjacent to yours. Your sales methodology may differ from the outsourced sales partner’s methodology.
For instance, you may be used to consulting-based selling or solution-based selling, while the outsourced sales partner uses pain-based selling. In pain-based selling, the focus is on identifying the customer’s pain points during sales calls. Aligning sales methodologies is crucial for success.
Cultural Fit
As your partner, the outsourced sales rep should be a good cultural fit. Ensure that the person representing your company aligns with your company culture and interacts well with your team members.
Performance Track Record
Next, consider the performance track record of the outsourced sales partner.
- Understand their client retention data and how they handle churn.
- Identify any issues that may arise during the sales process and the expectations set that could contribute to churn.
The outsourced sales partner should provide company case studies that clearly define the pain, solution, and impact to the organizations they would be bringing on. This information should be conveyed throughout the full-cycle sales experience, starting from the first call with the SDR to the discovery call with the account executive.
Operational Integration
Operational integration is another important factor.
Understand the communication protocols the outsourced sales partner uses, such as:
- Slack
- Teams
- Google Chat
Know how they report information quarterly to your leadership. If there is a quick purchase prospect, understand their escalation procedures. Ensure that the outsourced sales partner has access to your calendars and knows who they are booking. They should provide integration examples of how they have worked with different tools in the past.
By considering these factors – partner evaluation framework, performance track record, and operational integration – you can select an outsourced sales partner that aligns with your company’s goals and culture, ultimately leading to long-term success.
Sales Performance Metrics for Outsourced Teams
When you’re looking for performance metrics for outsourced sales reps, they’re going to spend less time, but that time is more in-depth, valuable, on-point, and on-target.
Personal Experience
I once worked at a firm where I only cold called two hours a week. They had two full-time SDRs that booked maybe six appointments a month. In comparison, I only worked eight hours a month but booked twice as much as they did combined.
Imagine this: if I can work eight hours a month and book 12 appointments while they work 320 hours for six, it goes to show that you need to have the right performance metrics for your team, including your outsourced team. Results vary by industry so keep that in mind.
Understanding Success
You need to understand what success looks like based on real data. The key is to maximize your effectiveness and lower your customer acquisition cost.
Core Performance Metrics
When it comes to the core performance metrics, here are some things you should track:
- Generating pipeline
- Number of calls needed to convert
- Conversion rate tracking
- Revenue generated
These are all great, normal things to track and most companies that provide outsourcing have automated reports that go out for sharing this data.
Quality Assurance Framework
However, a quality assurance framework is also important. How are the calls going? You should have some customer feedback systems in place to ensure you’re getting great qualified leads at the end of the day. Again make sure your outsourced sales rep firm can provide recorded calls to help a customer be confident about performance.
Data Integration and Reporting
Understanding the data integration systems and real-time reporting tools is also important. You’ll be able to see that in your CRM and provide feedback to your outsourced sales reps.
By tracking the right metrics and having a solid quality assurance process, you can ensure that your outsourced sales team is delivering the results you need to grow your business.
Technology Stack for Outsourced Sales Operations
When outsourcing your sales operations to an outsource sales rep, choosing a robust and user-friendly CRM is essential. HubSpot is a popular choice and the go-to solution for many companies, including Cloud Sales Coach. If you don’t have one we can help you get that set up! Choosing the right partner and the right tools is a great way to maximize the financial impact of outsourcing. You’ve heard of bootstrapping right?
Communication Tools
Effective communication is key when working with an outsourced sales team. If your company uses Google Workspace, it’s ideal if the outsourced team also uses Google Mail to streamline communication.
But what if you prefer a different tool? No problem! The outsourced team can adapt and use tools like Slack to communicate with the people they’re booking meetings for. The specific communication tool will be agreed upon during the onboarding process to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Automation and Lead Management
Automation plays a vital role in managing lead flow from your website. You’ll be responsible for handling incoming leads, but if you want the outsourced team to run discovery calls, they’ll need to understand how those calls are booked on their appointment calendars.
Here’s what you need to consider:
- How leads come in from your website
- Who will handle the incoming leads
- If the outsourced team needs to run discovery calls, how will those calls be booked on their calendars
Data Security
Data security is paramount when outsourcing sales operations. You should clearly communicate which systems the outsourced team needs access to.
At Cloud Sales Coach, we have successfully integrated with other companies using various tools without any issues. Some of these tools include:
- HubSpot
- Slack
- Google Chat
- Google Mail
By establishing a clear technology stack and ensuring seamless integration between your systems and the outsourced sales team’s tools, you can create a smooth and efficient sales process. This allows the outsource sales rep to focus on what they do best – reaching out to potential customers and booking meetings on your behalf.
Accelerate Your Sales Growth with Cloud Sales Coach
Your next revenue milestone starts with a conversation about outsourcing your sales team. CloudSalesCoach offers a tested method to build and scale your sales operations without the burden of full-time staff costs. We can break down the full financial impact of outsourcing.
Our sales professionals work alongside your team while delivering clear results from the first week. Ready to boost your sales numbers? Schedule a call to review your goals and see how our outsourced sales representatives can accelerate your revenue growth.
Contact us at 615-777-2002 or book your strategy session below.
