Sales are arguably the lifeblood of any company. And for a new business, having a strong start here will pave the way for their growth. But as your customer numbers grow, you might find yourself short-handed in your sales department. Outsourcing can be a great strategy to deal with that challenge. Here is how you can effectively take advantage of it.
Why Outsource Your Sales Department?
You might already be aware of the general benefits that outsourcing can provide to your startup business. But there are also specific ones that your sales department will want to use. These benefits wil be a strong convincing factor to your decisiton.
Increased Sales Revenues
Outsourcing sales lets you increase your reach without having to spend more. This translates to greater revenues when compared to recruiting full-time agents. Additionally, you can get quality agents that will better deliver desired sales results.
Better Scalability
Your business scaling efforts will also greatly benefit from sales outsourcing. Here, you can quickly get the right amount of people to meet the current rise in demand that you are experiencing. Additionally, you will also be able to roll back the deployment size should you need to.
Better Sales And Marketing Tools
Sure, you could argue that you can also get these marketing tools for yourself. However, this adds to the cost of maintaining your sales department. They can also take some time to develop and implement. With outsourcing, access to those tools is part of the service that you pay for. Thus, you get to use them the moment you deploy your new team.
Reduced Risk
Growing your sales team has its associated risks. For instance, you might not always be sure that the new members you hire would deliver. With outsourcing, you lessen these risks since the partner company will be the one handling these. Their expertise will also help you resolve such issues.
A Strong Start With The Right Sales Outsourcing Partner
With it being a critical part of your startup business, you would not want to hand over sales to just any provider. Insteead, you should be careful with how you select the outsourcing firm. There are three main questions that you should ask any provider before signing up with them.
Can You Describe Your Sales Process?
This question will help you get an idea of how the company works. You can then see whether this matches your own sales process. Note that you would want to see whether they also provide specific things like multi-channel outreach, education, targeting, and personalization. These are important components that will help make your sales department more effective.
In case the outsourcing firms are the ones who initiated the communications with you, look into the way they reached out. This will also give you a good glimpse of how their sales process works. Depending on your impression, you will have a good idea of how good they are at engaging leads.
How Do You Define Results And KPIs?
Having an accurate measurement of sales performance is also a must to have a clearer picture of the company’s abilities. A good provider will be able to define these clearly. Their answer should include the rationale behind each metric as well as how well they would align with your own.
You would also want to take a look as to whether the results they promise are realistic. Consider the current standards within your industry and see how they stack up to this. Weigh in on whether these promises are achievable in the time frame that they have specified. Compare several providers to see which has the most realistic offer for you.
How Do You Report Results?
Alongside providing you with the right KPIs, you should also look into how these potential sales outsourcing providers present these in reports. What you want to see here is the type of data that they include. Additionally, you need to know how regular these reports would be.
Beyond these basic features, you also need to look into how easily these reports can be used. The right language will help everyone understand these and get important points. They should also be able to quickly transmit these reports to the different departments that need them.
Working With Your Sales Partner Towards A Strong Start
Once you have your new sales outsourcing team signed up, you need to closely engage them. Remember that their work is a vital part of your business success. So you would want to be ready in guiding the team towards an effective sales strategy.
Understanding Their Sales Process For A Strong Start
You already have a glimpse of your partner’s sales process during the selection process. But working closely with them will help you better understand it. Be ready to walk through all the stages, from acquiring leads to finalizing deals.
You would also want to make sure that these sales processes align with the ones that your internal team uses. Conduct training sessions that will help the external team get accustomed to your ways. You can also do joint sessions between your internal and external teams where they can exchange notes and look for ways to bring their processes together.
Providing Additional Support For Outsourced Agents
Ensuring that your external team is fully supported is another crucial step in working with them. One of the things that you would want them to have is a continuous set of sales enablement materials. These include various promotional content that will encourage customers as well as provide them with after-purchase information. Having these ready will save your external team a lot of time.
Another way to support your outsourced sales department is by including them in internal meetings. Here, you can get them involved in forecasting and developing business strategies. You should also do regular touch-based meetings to help them stay up to date with your initiatives and resolve gaps.
Get A Strong Start In Sales Outsourcing With Virtua
With all these strategies, you can be sure that your business will be able to take on new sales opportunities. And we at Virtua Outsourcing Solutions can help you get off to a strong start. Sign up with us today and we will show you why we are the best team for sales outsourcing.