B2B Sales Outsourcing v. Insourcing
B2B outsourced sales, at its most basic level, is when a third-party service provider leverages its salespeople to sell your product or service on your behalf. The idea is to maximize sales by offering you a fully managed team that works to sell for you rather than you having to do that work yourself, perhaps with a smaller or more limited sales force.
B2B sales outsourcing can be useful for:
- Bringing in market research specialists to learn more about your client base
- Generating qualified leads with a third-party provider with expertise in inbound marketing
- Lead conversion sales
- Customer relationship management
- Comparing your internal sales team to an external sales team
- Specialized tech sales
- Avoiding 2x/3x the cost of setting up an internal B2B sale steam
Learning about B2B sales outsourcing will help you decide what aspects of your B2B sales functions—if any—you choose to delegate.
The case for outsourcing
Getting your B2B sales team up and running and yielding results takes time, money, more money, and more time. The process includes recruiting, training, deploying a lucrative incentive plan, deploying new tech tools and most importantly retaining your talent in a role that is highly prone to burnout. The preparation, training, and onboarding of your new hire can take time you don’t have to spare. Time (and money) that is spent working on a system that, while traditional, also prevents a company from reaching their target clients.
Outsourcing B2B sales can help solve this problem, skipping all these time-consuming processes and diving straight into the sales. Redirecting your company’s resources from the long and drawn-out process of hiring, training and retaining to outsourcing gets you an already trained, expert sales team. Qualified leads are generated sooner, and revenue starts to flow in your direction faster.
Third-party B2B sales teams are experts in emails, cold-calling, and follow-ups. Lead generation doesn’t lag with the time it takes to find and train new sales team members. This can potentially save you money on customer acquisition costs as well.
Other outsourcing considerations
It’s not always easy to hire a third party to take care of your sales needs. Considering some of the disadvantages is also important.
Lack of internal knowledge — Counting on someone else to learn the ins and outs of your product and business can be a tenuous situation.
Privacy/security risks — Letting a third party handle such an important aspect of your business can be a risky proposition.
Data ownership — The outsourced sales firm might own the data they generate, making it more difficult to move your sales back in-house.
Quality and expertise — They may not have the same high expectations or quality of salespeople that you would choose to hire yourself.
Lack of control — Potentially high turnover at the outsourcing sales firm is out of your control entirely, making it difficult, if not impossible for you to have any control over continuity of client management.
With an understanding of what outsourced B2B sales is, weighing the pros and cons of taking your business down that path is a worthwhile and important next step.
Exploring the pros of B2B outsourcing
It is worth exploring the benefits of outsourcing your inside sales. An outside B2B sales provider can help in situations where going it alone is simply not going to work. The specialized expertise that an outsourced sales provider has can free you up to focus on other more strategic responsibilities that are a higher priority and a better use of your time.
A better sales environment
There are minute details involved in creating a good sales environment for your sales team. An outsourced B2B sales provider specializes in addressing these details and obstacles that you haven’t even thought of yet.
Get up and running quickly
When you need to increase your sales numbers quickly, an outside sales provider reduces the amount of time it takes to generate the sales you need to get going. This quick ramp-up also saves you the hassle of having to worry about training and oversight.
A flattened learning curve
Third-party sales firms are very familiar with all the industry metrics and baselines that maximize sales performance. Starting from scratch with an internal sales force carries with it a steep learning curve. It would take years to internalize all the lessons and information the outsourced sales team already knows.
Technology and tools
One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your B2B sales is that the sales provider is going to have the latest technology and automation tools available. Many firms spread out the cost of investing in these tools over their many clients, making it affordable to them and to you. Acquiring the technology and tools yourself, to say nothing of the investment of time and training, may be prohibitive for setting up a successful inside sales force.
Recruiting and retaining
A good outsourced B2B sales provider will have all the tools for recruiting and retaining the best and brightest talent for sales. They have the expertise for identifying and training people who have a passion for sales. They know how to handle of the inherent turnover in sales and will likely have a strategy in place for minimizing the effect on performance. In the end this saves you from having to spend the time and money doing that on your own.
Minimizing overhead management
Managing salespeople, especially new ones, involves a lot of thorough attention. Outsourcing B2B sales can free up a large portion of this management time and allow you to spend time on the aspects of your business that requires your specialized expertise.
What to consider when evaluating a B2B outsourcer?
Consider all aspects of your sales needs before outsourcing to someone new. Make sure they check all the boxes your company needs before entrusting them with a large aspect of your business. Here are some cons that other third-party providers fall short on.
Not always the best of the best
B2B sales outsourcing providers don’t always hire the best. Most salespeople want to work for a prestigious company. Third-party providers can offer great training programs, networking, agile models, etc., but landing top talent might be difficult for them. And because they are not there in your office, you might not know the quality of their resources until your sales have started to suffer.
Control issues
One advantage of outsourcing is also a disadvantage: You won’t have to manage and oversee all the details of your own sales team, but you will lose some control at the same time. The third-party salespeople don’t work for you directly. Relying on a group of people you may rarely or never meet to handle a very important part of your business might be difficult, especially if you have trouble giving up control.
Consider the future
If you are planning on having an inside sales team eventually, partnering with a B2B sales outsourcing provider may not be money well spent. While you may see some short term benefits, you must consider the long term as well. If you have the budget now to begin building an inside sales team that works with your business model, outsourcing sales makes little sense. But, if you do not have that budget, but will later, remember you are using outsourced sales as a tool until you have the money to do it yourself.
Ownership
Of course, most third-party B2B sales providers are ethical and upfront about what processes, by-products, and assets you own. But this is not always the case. Make sure you find out and agree upon what lists, contacts, processes, and any other data stay with them if you leave.
Conflicts of interest
Keep in mind that the B2B sales provider you are working with is always looking for new clients, some of whom might be your competitors. It is unrealistic to expect that the sales provider will avoid working with other businesses related to your field, but it is reasonable to request or outline a few direct competitors that you would like them to consider out of bounds. It might be possible to work out an agreement with an ethical firm in advance, one that addresses your concerns and works for both of you.
Deciding what’s best
Working through the nuances of outsourcing B2B sales is complex. Some of it might come down to what your management style is. Do you feel the need for a lot of control? Are you willing and able to let others make the call when it comes to people management? Some of it is budgetary. Do you have the money and dedication in the long term to building a sales team yourself, or does it make more sense to let someone else run that aspect of your business?
Your company is individual and unique, even though you may have direct competitors in the same field. Every business and business owner has a different personality. Deciding whether to outsource your B2B sales is based on your company’s situation, and even that might change over time.
Finding the right solution for your business is the most important thing. Outsourcing your B2B sales might be the right thing for your business, especially if you don’t have the time, patience, or budget to dedicate to building your own sales team. B2B sales outsourcing is always a useful tool to keep in mind when considering your options for working to sell your product or service.
