Most small businesses don’t have many critical pieces of a successful sales infrastructure and culture which in turn can lead to poor sales results.  Small businesses typically don’t have professional sales recruiting and management on staff and this can lead to hiring the “wrong” sales person.  Even if a company hires the “right” sales professional, without proper sales management and culture that individual has a high likely hood of failing.

Through using a full service sales outsourcing force, small business can leverage the sales recruiting, management and culture/environment that many larger organizations are accustomed to having.

Happy Selling!!

Another route that more companies are using is sales forces outsourcing.  In this approach, a professional company, that can often have some sales consulting on the front end of an engagement, will execute a sales strategy and leverage their core strengths.  Many sales force outsourcing companies can add a channel to existing sales or target certain markets to squeeze every drop of opportunity out of your product or service.

These engagements can be anything from sales lead generation, telesales outsourcing, outsourced inside sales or sales support to face to face sales team implementation.  When considering a direction, good companies look to their top performs and ask what they are doing different and how they can use that experience and knowledge to choose the right partner channel.  Often, the sales force outsourcing company will work in conjunction with your existing sales team.  They can target a smaller sized customer segment, leverage an efficient telesales outsourcing strategy and free up your top producers to chase the larger enterprise level sales.

In any situation, a company must evaluate how the integration will impact their existing sales.  Cannibalizing existing sales with a sales force outsourcing company may be more efficient, but is not part of a sound strategy.  Engaging with an outsourced inside sales provider, you should find new markets, new approaches or new revenue sources that is underserved so that your overall sales revenue level increase.  This is the mark of a solid sales force outsourcing partnership.

Outsourced inside sales was traditionally thought of as lead generation function or sales support role.  Today, telesales outsourcing refers to a larger segment of the market where a company can outsource all or part of their sales staff and leverage a professional inside sales team to represent their brand.  Part of making this transition, often involves some sales consulting that can help change the sales process or stages for a particular product or service and leverage modern technology.  The use of electronic signatures, flash video, email marketing and other online tools can speed up a sales cycle and allow one person to cover a larger territory.

This type of outsourced inside sales team can also sell consultative or enterprise level solutions using the right approach.  Telesales outsourcing is more than just a telemarketing lead generation house.  It is a total solution for cold call to close sales.  Sales force outsourcing is not a good fit for all businesses or products, but can be an effective way for a company to leverage the professional sales skills of a telesales outsourcing company while focusing on their own core business.

1)       Product – many times people will hire sales outsourcing companies when their product/service is not ready to go to market.  While it might be tempting to “get ahead” by putting the cart before the horse, there is no quicker way to fail at an outsourced sales campaign then trying to bring a product to market that is not ready or has not been approved.  It will serve you better to be patient on the front end, rather than scramble to deliver to a paying client/customer on the back end.

2)       Messaging – this is where a lot of companies get stuck.  They know their products/services so well and have been so entrenched in them for however long, that messaging becomes lengthy and entirely too specific.  Utilizing sales and marketing outsourcing can assist here.  Experts in these fields will be able to identify what sort of messaging will resonate with potential buyers.  There is a reason we develop “elevator pitches” for our outsourced sales clients – it is because often, that is all the time you have to grab someone’s attention.  Make sure your message is clear and succinct.

3)       Target Market – it is not unusual for us sales outsourcing companies to help our clients determine their target markets or, at the very least, uncover other areas where the product or service might be useful.  In sales you must be creative, which is another reason why hiring a sales consulting company can be beneficial.  If you haven’t identified your target market, you need to do so – and be as specific as possible.

4)       Defined sales process and sales goals – we cannot tell you how many of our sales outsourcing clients had never employed a “sales process” before working with us.  Sales is like anything – you must have a plan for it to be consistently effective and successful.  The sales process helps to keep you organized and understand what the next step is.  Utilizing a sale force outsourcing company will certainly help you do this – and it is often where many sales outsourcers excel and many other companies’ fail.  Similarly, you must have realistic sales goals and milestones – how will you know where you are going if you don’t know where you want to go?  Goal setting is critical for sales success.

5)       CRM – if you don’t know what this stands for, you are not alone!  CRM is the acronym for Customer Relationship Tool and should be utilized by ANY company who not only wants to increase sales, but keep their sales people happy!  The ability to track information about potential deals, set reminders, make notations and reminders for next steps is CRITICAL for sales success.  Your target market is, most likely, going to be thousands and thousands of prospects deep – and a little excel sheet will only get you so far.  As sales outsourcing experts we utilize several different CRMs for our clients depending on how robust it need be.

6)       Dedicated sales person/team – is your COO running operations by day and selling by night?  If so – you are doing both you and your COO a disservice.  So many companies make this mistake and it is a critical one.  Your COO should be running operations, not cold calling and setting appointments that he or she, most likely, doesn’t have the time to run.  By having a dedicated sales person or team – like those that are built when utilizing sales outsourcing companies – you are able to focus your people on doing what they do best 100% of the time, as opposed to 50% of the time.

7)       Effective sales management – hiring an excellent sales person or team is, unfortunately, not enough for sales success.  Many of our clients come to us after a failed attempt at hiring a few remote sales executives in target markets, and then leaving them up to their own devices.  Again, this is NOT a sales campaign.  This is hoping that your sales person is working and doing what they made you believe they would during their interview.  Oftentimes, they are not.  Without effective sales management event the best sales rep can falter and fail.  You must have management that can challenge, inspire and drive the sales person to be the most productive they can.  By utilizing an outsourced sales firm, you are going to get not only a great outsourced inside sales team, but excellent sales management as well.

8)       Excellent customer services and/or product implementation – while sales force outsourcing can provide a lot of these essentials above, the one area sales consulting cannot do is ensure that – once the product has been sold, the service and implementation will be satisfactory.  Companies have been made or broken by excellent or poor customer service – so make sure you can keep that client after the sale and make sure you can deliver what you promise.

If you have all of the above taken care of – congratulations – you are well on your way to a successful sales campaign.  If not, call Acquirent today and let us help you begin your sales outsourcing initiative!  We love sales – but more importantly we love to sell for our clients, so put us to work for you today!  Happy selling!

Not all business owners and entrepreneurs come from a sales background, so your sales naïveté is not your fault.  This is why the sales and marketing outsourcing industry exists in the first place.  By utilizing an outsourced sales model or a sales force outsourcing you are not only getting experts in the field of sales but you will shorten your ramp up period significantly.  Sales outsourcing companies already have systems and tools in place to help develop, test, and execute sales plans and processes.  We will be with you every step of the way.  First, we will help to identify your target market and generate targeted lead lists.  It might not even be what you think it is.  We will utilize our past experience and relationships to determine the “lowest hanging fruit” and work up from there.  Secondly, we will determine if you should utilize and outsourced inside sales model, a more strategic outside sales model or something in-between.  Next – we will build out a CRM (customer relationship management tool).  From there, as your sales consulting experts, we will develop a very specific sales process which will include generating probing questions, web demonstrations, proposal development, price offering options and negotiation parameters (all of this on an as needed basis, of course).  As your outsourced sales experts – we will be with you every step of the way to fill in all the blanks.

When we are finished, you will have a thorough and tailored sales process that we will then execute.  Sales is not as easy and straightforward as simply hiring a qualified and likable sales person to throw out into the world.  If that is your answer to your sales problems – you are in for a tough lesson, and one that so many of our outsourced sales clients had to learn the hard day.  Put yourself ahead of the curve and call a sales force outsourcing expert like Acquirent today and solve your sales headaches before they begin!  Happy Selling!

While most of our clients choose us as their outsourced inside sales provider, we have also hired representatives that will travel and meet with clients face to face and employ an outside sales model as well.  Like I mentioned earlier, what is best for one client may not be for another and you can rest assured that your outsourced sales model will be specific to your business and your business needs.  While telesales outsourcing – a strictly inside sales model – works for many of our clients, a more consultative and strategic sales approach might be best for you.  As a tactical partner in growing your business we will work closely with you to come up with the most effective sales force outsourcing strategy for you.  Whether it is a simple appointment setting approach or grooming your future “director of sales” we can handle it and take care of all of your sales needs.  Can a middle man do that? Not at Acquirent!  Happy Selling!

• Increasing the Number of Sales Opportunities – through using an outsourced inside sales channel, companies with outside sales representatives can drastically increase the number of “live” deals that their reps are working on which can even out the typical ebbs and flows of sales.
• Adding Sales Velocity without adding more Management Overhead – Companies can quickly add more sales velocity without adding more management overhead through an outsourced sales partner.
• Attacking Different Verticals – an outsourced sales partner can give companies the ability to go after different verticals without having their internal sales teams change their focus.

Those are just a couple reasons why using an outsourced inside sales partner could make sense.  If your company is one that could benefit from this type of partnership don’t hesitate to call Acquirent.

Happy Selling!

Most small businesses don’t have many critical pieces of a successful sales infrastructure and culture which in turn can lead to poor sales results.  Small businesses typically don’t have professional sales recruiting and management on staff and this can lead to hiring the “wrong” sales person.  Even if a company hires the “right” sales professional, without proper sales management and culture that individual has a high likely hood of failing.

Through using a full service sales outsourcing force, small business can leverage the sales recruiting, management and culture/environment that many larger organizations are accustomed to having.

One good measure of this type of b2b sales outsourcing company is their ability to develop a sales strategy that takes everything from lead generation through Lead Management and all the way to the close. The use of a central CRM system that allows for transparency and constant feedback in the sales process is key.  Outsourced sales services should be experts in this type of reporting, lead tracking and sales process development.  Otherwise, you will still find yourself doing the majority of the work and heavy lifting.

Consultative sales or a consultative sales process is also dependant on this central sales process idea.  Starting with Lead Management, best practices include developing a comprehensive approach to contacting the lead.  Most effective and experienced outsourcing companies will use a combination of touch points to include the phone, physical mail, email and voicemails throughout the sales process.  Lead Management depends on tracking these activities in a CRM and trying to automate as many of the connections as possible.  However, while technology can help in the efficiency of how we contact a lead or prospect and develop them into an opportunity, it can not replace individual b2b sales experience.

Happy Selling!!!!

That said, companies are starting to realize that through outsourced sales management they can obtain optimal sales results with minimal internal effort.  Outsourcing sales management allows an organization the ability to concentrate on their core competencies and also allows them to focus on the continual enhancement of their products and/or services.

If you are looking to Outsource your sales management don’t hesitate to contact Acquirent ASAP!

Happy Selling!!!!