Key Takeaways
The market for sales-as-a-service continues to grow across the globe with major multinational and fortune 500 companies like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft augmenting their in-house sales teams along with outsourcing sales operations to drive revenue and efficiency in operations.
But what exactly is the outsourced sales-as-a-service model and how can you use it to grow your sales?
Let’s dive right in and take a quick look at:
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What is outsourced sales-as-a-service?
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A few benefits of the outsourced sales-as-service model
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Questions to ask before proceeding with sales outsourcing
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The various outsourcing models to consider for growing your sales
What is outsourced sales-as-a-service?
With sales as the primary focus, outsourced sales-as-a-service provides businesses with dedicated sales teams and highly experienced sales professionals. These agents then act as qualified sales ambassadors for the client’s company by fully learning the client’s brand, product, and service offerings.
The benefits of the outsourced sales-as-a-service model
The benefits of the outsourced sales-as-a-service model are umpteen.
From cost reduction to having access to a larger talent pool to getting to market faster to data analytics and flexibility, you have everything covered.
Not only does this help you reduce costs considerably but also gives you an upper hand over your competitors while positioning your brand as authoritative yet trustworthy.
3 important questions to ask before proceeding with outsourced sales
It is always advisable to weigh your options before you move ahead with outsourced sales or outsourcing a certain function to a certain company. Outsourced sales-as-a-service will work out perfectly for you if you select your partner wisely and with little due diligence.
There are various factors to consider ensuring effective and profitable outsourcing of sales operations. Here are 3 important questions to ask before you pick the right candidate:
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Whether the other company understands you, your nature of business, and your clients?
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Is the company asking relevant questions to understand your ideal customer, offerings, USPs, challenges, and objections?
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Does the company have the relevant expertise to deal with your target customers?
At the end of the day, it all boils down to the stage of customer acquisition you are at, the industry you belong to, the customers you are targeting and the product/service you offer.
For example, if your business caters to the needs of HNIs or offers a niche product/service, the outsourced inside-sales team must have the proficiency and the skills to communicate with the customers or explain the niche offering well, and convincingly so.
Growing sales with outsourced sales-as-a-service
One of the most significant advantages conferred by outsourced sales is flexibility.
For companies in a growth state, rapid adaptation to market conditions and customer expectations is critical.
This means companies should look for outsourcing partners who don’t follow a one size fits all approach and are able to provide the necessary flexibility by taking over one or more parts of the sales process.
Depending on your unique sales problems or challenges, you can opt for one or more of the below-mentioned outsourcing models that will help you cost-effectively grow your sales.
Full-service partners
These are premium agencies that possess the manpower, resources, and technology to take over the entire sales process from lead generation to closing the deal.
They can also offer strategic support in developing product-market fit, sales playbooks, and so on. They also possess capabilities for inbound and outbound approaches and can provide omnichannel sales services.
While finding a provider who can successfully execute such a wide range of sales processes can be tricky and time-consuming, companies should take great care in selecting a full-service partner.
However, organizations looking to build a sales process from scratch or completely overhaul existing sales processes can benefit from the right full-service partner.
Point solution or mixed model partners
Mixed model or point solution providers are the most common type of outsourcing partner available.
Here, a part of the sales process gets entrusted to the partner. Such a division can be either vertical or horizontal.
In a vertical division, outsourced partners take over specific activities such as lead generation or appointment setting, while the in-house teams handle other stages of the sales funnel.
Generally, top-of-the-funnel activities get outsourced with in-house teams focusing on qualified leads or prospects.
In a horizontal division, both inside and outsourced sales teams handle the whole process but divide themselves according to markets, segments, or products.
Such outsourcing encourages a spirit of competition and motivation for both in-house and outsourced teams.
Companies looking to enter new geographies may also maintain in-house teams in their home territories and rely on outsourced partners to provide the local expertise needed for the new geography.
Sales consulting partners
Sales consulting companies provide strategic support for building and managing sales pipelines for businesses where there are small sales teams that cannot invest in hiring managerial expertise for their sales function and processes.
Consulting partners are especially valuable when organizations possess the frontline sales talent, but sales are still lagging or if targets are not being achieved in the specified timeframe.
Sales consulting partners can aid in a variety of processes such as strategizing and restructuring sales plans, defining sales processes and developing goals and metrics, establishing processes for capturing and analyzing rep performance, pipeline management, devising, and optimizing compensation structures.
Bottom Line & Takeaways
More and more companies are opting for different models of sales outsourcing as they realize the value of optimizing the resources at their disposal.
While sales continue to remain the most crucial task for a business, the growing complexity of markets and the ever-evolving sales landscape entail the need for specialized talent to scout for and win customers.
And with COVID-19 lurking around, organizations (small, medium, and large) are being challenged in ways they never imagined earlier.
In the midst of this, sales outsourcing agencies have cost-effectively helped growing businesses address complex business challenges while also leaving the management ample time to focus on strategic and core activities that help these businesses scale up.
