The term outsourced sales can be a loaded one for a lot of possible reasons. To start with, it’s a newer concept. Although we’ve been outsourcing sales for the past 20 years with several Fortune 500 businesses, it’s not something that everyone has seen in action, and losing control over any part of your sales function can be a daunting thought to most sales managers out there.
Sure, you know your company’s marketing department outsources some of their white papers and infographics, IT outsources on-site troubleshooting, and HR is outsourcing recruiting, but that can’t translate to sales, right? Well, let’s break it down and explore the thought a little further to see exactly what outsourced sales is and why outsourcing part, or all, of the sales function is currently working for several mid- to large-scale companies.
So what is outsourced sales? Sales outsourcing is a way for companies to attract increased, high volumes of sales for their products or services by using a third party (Wikipedia). As with every division of outsourcing, the concept isn’t really that hard to wrap your head around. What tends to halt sales leaders in their tracks is the notion that another company can do as good of a job, if not better, selling their products/services than they can. Like outsourcing services across all verticals though, there are companies that have built reputable and proven sales processes as well as results across several years of work.
Why Outsourcing Your Sales Makes Sense
You may be thinking, “But couldn’t we just build our own sales team?” and the answer is, absolutely! We understand that it’s a tough decision to entrust the direct representation of your products and services to an external partner, and if your firm is willing to invest the time, money, and human capital to create sales specific recruiting, training, methods, management, technology, and quality assurance processes that constitute a best practices model, you can probably achieve the same results, eventually.
However, you’re probably investigating outsourced sales because you want or need to see results more quickly than an internal effort would allow. Maybe you don’t feel confident that your management team or department has the personnel or access to the right corporate resources to make this happen, or perhaps you want to dedicate your focus on those areas of your business that are most meaningful to your product development or existing customer service needs. Whatever situation you find yourself in, you want the assurance that your customers are getting the best possible representation of your product while leveraging resources and market reach that would take too much time, focus, or investment internally to fulfill within your business development schedule.
“For companies of all sizes across all industries, outsourcing sales strategies can be a game-changer for your sales results, as well as your bottom line.” – Entrepreneur
Our Outsourced Sales Methodology
At Sales Partnerships, our representation of your products and services is dedicated and exclusive, and the identity of our sales professionals remains tied to your brand and product line. Our teams are held to quotas and quality standards that are managed and enforced on a daily basis. Sales team loyalties are to your brand and customers, and we know the customer experience is paramount. The sales professionals we hire are held accountable to a high standard of activity and performance and are required to maintain current and accurate understanding of your products, marketplace, and customer needs.
Dedicated management staff and administrative and recruiting support ensure a consistent quality of salesperson is placed on your team and that customer interactions are as uniform and predictable as possible. The relationship between you and our sales teams is more than arms length. In many cases our sales professionals interact routinely with our clients’ operations and support staff to attend training and sales meetings, address customer questions, order fulfillment challenges, and ensure the quality of the customer experience.
The Sales Partnerships’ Outsourcing Approach
Our services provide different solutions across your sales lifecycle including product launch, customer acquisition, customer engagement, and customer retention. Using our CRM to provide detailed consumer information in an easy-to-navigate GIS mapping app, our field sales representatives quickly start learning their territory and building strong, long-lasting relationships with your high-priority potential customers.
If this sounds like something you may be interested in, give us a call or let us know about your business needs here.