Inside Sales Outsourcing - A Complete Guide

Are you tired of constantly dialing and emailing, only to be met with rejection and dial tones? Do you find yourself yearning for a sales team that's not only efficient but also doesn't take up all your office space? Well, have no fear because Inside Sales Outsourcing is here! Imagine, outsourcing all your sales woes to a team of experts who are just a phone call away. No more awkward small talk with strangers, no more cold emails that go straight to the trash. Let the outsourcing professionals handle it all while you sit back, relax, and collect the sales. Who said sales couldn't be fun?

We are only half-joking here. Let's get to the meat of things.

What is Inside Sales Outsourcing

Inside sales outsourcing is when a company hires another company to handle some or all of its sales activities that are typically done "inside" the office, such as:

• Cold-calling potential customers to introduce the company's products or services
• Responding to inbound inquiries and following up on leads
• Qualifying leads to determine their level of interest and buying potential
• Demonstrating products or services over video calls
• Keeping track of customer interactions and sales progress
• Staying up-to-date on industry trends and competitor activity

Inside sales representatives are usually responsible for a large volume of sales calls and the ability to close over the phone or through digital channels.

Simply put, their main goal is to generate leads, develop relationships with potential customers, then sell your services or products to them using the typical methods that salespeople deploy whether they are in-house or outsourced.

What are the benefits of having an outsourced inside sales team vs. an in-house team?

Outsourcing inside sales has multiple benefits, and you only need to look at the process of hiring your own sales reps to see why. First of all, it's usually always more expensive to hire your own in-house team. There are some benefits that we'll go over later but let's take a look at just the process of hiring your own sales rep.

1. You'd have to first define their responsibilities, what will they be doing, their daily tasks, figure out the required qualifications and skills you would want them to have.
2. Then actually creating the job listings that correctly reflect the role and responsibilities and in turn attract quality potential candidates.
3. You'll also likely spend a lot of time scouring through a variety of channels such as job boards, LinkedIn, or even recruiting agencies.
4. After attracting potential candidates, you'll conduct interviews, in-person or on the phone to further evaluate them.
5. You also need to do background checks and some research on their past work history as well as get references to make sure you aren't hiring a ticking time bomb.
6. You finally get to make a decision on who to hire and offer them a position at your company. Hopefully, one that they can't say no to.
7. Then fingers crossed the candidate you chose and extended an offer to accepts it. Let the leads and sales roll in! Right...?

At this point, we are already probably a minimum of 6 months into the process and we haven't even generated a single lead! We didn't even cover the fact that you'd need to onboard them, train them as well as manage them and it'll take at least a year for them to get the ball fully rolling at maximum efficiency. And on top of that, you'll need the office space, and deal with the regulations, and if you are hiring them in another country, it'll be even more headaches.

Time is money and it's not like that's the only thing you are losing here.

In a nutshell, the benefits are:

Cost savings

Your company doesn't need to spend valuable time and money interviewing and hiring candidates, training them, managing them, etc. In case something major happens and you need to make changes to your sales team, you can easily let go of reps and scale the sales activities according to your needs on a monthly basis.

Increased sales efficiency

It's so much faster to just let the experts take care of the whole process as they have cemented processes that work like a well-oiled machine regarding inside sales. Instead of kicking around dirt for the first year in the hopes that your free coffee and snack bar at the office is enough to keep your newly hired sales guy happy and not yearning for a better job, you could get to market a lot faster by letting a team of senior salespeople take over and start generating leads and sales immediately.

Flexibility and scalability

It's like having a fully remote sales team without all the risks of having your own hired employees as well as a big overhead. You have the flexibility of decreasing as well as scaling up faster than it is to let go or hire new people. And there's no ceiling on how much you scale up your outsourced inside sales team.

The disadvantages of outsourcing inside sales

We wouldn't do justice to this topic (and it'd make us seem a bit too biased) if we didn't cover the disadvantages of outsourcing your inside sales team.

• Loss of Control: Outsourcing your inside sales can result in a loss of control over your sales process. You may not have direct access to your sales team, and there may be a delay in receiving updates or information about your sales performance. This can make it difficult to make informed decisions about your sales strategy.
• Quality Control Issues: Outsourcing your inside sales can also result in quality control issues. Your outsourcing partner may not have the same standards or approach to sales as you do, which can result in subpar results or customer experiences.
• Communication Barriers: Communication can be a challenge when outsourcing your inside sales. There may be language barriers, time zone differences, or other communication challenges that make it difficult to work effectively with your outsourcing partner.
• Lack of Flexibility: Outsourcing your inside sales can also limit your flexibility to make changes or adapt to new circumstances. You may be locked into a long-term contract with your outsourcing partner, making it difficult to make changes to your sales strategy or approach.

It's not all doom and gloom though. With each of these points, it's important to note that they can and will be mostly mitigated by choosing the right partner. But on the flip side, choosing the wrong inside sales outsourcing partner will result in a lot of headaches and few results.

Managing an outsourced inside sales team

Now, we aren't saying that you can just hire a company to take over all your sales activities and let them run free doing their own thing. There's an important aspect of any type of outsourcing. The fact is that they still need your help and support.

Hiring an outsourced inside sales team (or any outsourced team for that matter) and then ignoring them for weeks at a time is likely to not give you the results you are looking for. You need to run your international sales team - that means you, or your employees and the outsource team like you would with your own employees. Reporting, sales calls, proper tools, messaging, and materials are of course vital for success.

How to choose an inside sales outsourcing company

Finally. Let's talk about the things you should consider when choosing a company to take your inside sales activities up a notch.

It goes without saying that this is a critical step to the success of your outsourcing project. You need a partner who is reliable, experienced, and capable of delivering results. Here are a few factors to consider when selecting an outsourcing partner:

1. They have worked with other companies in your industry and have the expertise and a track record of bringing results.
2. An inside sales outsourcing company that has poor communication from the get-go is a big red flag. As mentioned before, the team is an extension of your company and communication is key.
3. Make sure they have a tech stack and know how to use it. It'd be highly beneficial if they also integrate easily into your existing tools.

While it might seem like a daunting task and a lot of work and time to put into finding the best company, it's well worth it, and also still faster than hiring yourself.

Conclusion

Outsourcing inside sales can be an effective strategy for businesses that want to increase their sales efficiency, get to market faster, improve customer experience, and save on costs. By outsourcing inside sales, you'll benefit from the expertise and experience of your well-chosen outsourcing partner, and achieve greater flexibility and scalability.

There are some potential disadvantages but ones that can be fairly easily mitigated by choosing and vetting the partner carefully.

If you need help with outsourcing an inside sales team, contact us to book a meeting.

We help companies that want to grow quickly in new markets with the necessary strategies, plans, sales tools, and build local sales teams to target markets while minimizing the risks.