by Glen Springer | Jan 11, 2017
Outsourcing and cloud computing are still frequently referenced as the two most important business shifts since the turn of the millennium. Both are based on the principal “If it isn’t your business’s core competency, then you need to take that activity, technology or business process and outsource it.”
According to the Outsourcing Institute the Top 7 Reasons a company outsources any function is to:
- Reduce and control operating costs
- Improve company focus
- Gain access to world-class capabilities
- Free internal resources for other purposes
- Resources are not available internally
- Accelerate reengineering benefits
- Limit functions difficult to manage/out of control
And with the addition of marketing automation and CRMs, outsourced sales and marketing are now becoming part of this outsourcing trend. In fact according to Dun & Bradstreet, with the visibility these tools now provide, outsourced sales and marketing is now just behind outsourced financial services and technology services as the third most outsourced function. Below are just some advantages you can now expect with outsourced sales and marketing:
Sales process improvements –An outsourced sales partner will have expertise across multiple products and can typically cross pollinate best practices. In addition executives at an outsourced sales and marketing company live to improve their processes daily and is required to stay current with all the competitive advantages of new approaches and new trends. And probably most importantly a sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to benchmark your current sales performance, which is necessary for any sales outsourcing program. Your sales outsourcing partner will typically point you in the direction to simple and powerful solutions that quickly remedy any shortfalls you make have. And if you do not have a set of metrics you are constantly trying to improve upon, an outsourced sales and marketing company will help you set them quickly. Bottom line, an outsourced sales and marketing company getting sales processes right is a matter of their businesses ability to thrive, so in turn, you will get an immediate lift to your organization as well.
Sales and marketing agility – Outsourced sales and marketing companies design their technologies and processes to scale quickly. This ability to scale and pivot quickly allows you to test new markets and products within months without the need to build, design and deploy new teams, messages, content and solutions on your own from scratch. An outsourced sales and marketing company is an ideal fit for companies that want to test or scale new products or solutions in the market.
Company needs sales and marketing expertise – Many small businesses are launched by engineers, or operations experts. These executives and founders are able to scales their business to a specific level, but in order to achieve their next level of growth, they need to look outside their organization for sales & marketing expertise.
Tactical focus – Sales outsourcing can range from lead generation, to lead qualification, to lead development to closing. Many companies have one or two areas of these covered and an outsourced sales and marketing can help fill in a specific gap to help you grow your sales funnel quickly.
Speed to market – Another reason companies consider outsourced sales and marketing is the need to get to market faster and more effectively. It is much faster to have a well-trained and managed outsourced sales and marketing team, that already knows how to work well together to take you to market than it is to launch or rebuild a team on your own.
To learn more about Gabriel Sales approach to outsourced sales and marketing we invite you to check out our outsourced sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 10, 2017
When outsourcing sales and marketing we help companies build modern sales and marketing operations. As we help build these integrated marketing and sales automation engines we focus on selling to your buyers the way your buyers want to buy. According to Forrester Research and Marketing Sherpa Surveys in 2016 70% of your buyers now prefer to learn about your product solution by an introductory email followed by additional education content.
This means that Email Marketing to rented opt in lists and email nurturing with a marketing automation tool is now critical to a lead generation and deal development process. What follows below are the two types of email support you should expect when outsourcing sales and marketing. We also share a handful of best practices we use when providing outsourcing sales and marketing services.
Email Blasts to Opt In Lists through a Third Party Provider
The first step to being able to educate buyers with digital content and lead nurturing programs is to build a database to market to on a regular basis.
While buying a list and simply blasting it is an option; as an outsourcing sales and marketing company we highly discourage this approach for several reasons:
- Compared to renting a list it is typically more expensive
- You will quickly run into CAN-SPAM issues and will get your email server blacklisted
- In some cases your delivery will be less than 50%.
Best practices dictate that you identify a vendor that has buyers that fit your target market that have opted in to receive educational content. You can then rent this list and send a series of three emails to that opt in list with educational offers that address a business need or a business problem they are trying to solve. The vendor will be responsible for sending these emails through their white listed and approved servers so you will not be violating any SPAM regulations.
The email themselves should not be flashy. In some cases those email can simply be text only with a link to the content offer. The content offer should be educational. You do not want to try and sell on the first contact. Once the email recipient opens the email you can continue to market to them with additional nurturing emails.
Nurturing Emails
Once a buyer is interested in your area of expertise your next goal should be to build trust and to stay top of mind with your potential buyers until they are ready to buy. This is when a marketing automation platform to deliver the emails and to score the buyers engagement becomes important for the following reasons:
- You can schedule the emails on a regular basis
- You can track opens
- You can score your buyers interest in your solution when they engage with content
As an outsourcing sales and marketing company we typically recommend that companies start nurturing once they have a database of over 1000 targets and that once again you keep the emails simple and educational.
We also recommend that you keep the content easy to digest and informative. Blog posts, short articles and both short and long form webcasts or short videos will all work.
Always end the email with a way for the potential buyer to contact you directly. And if you discover through your automation platforms lead scoring process that a buyer is giving off potential buying signals you should have your outsourcing sales rep call the lead to qualify and set an appointment.
To learn more about how an outsourcing sales and marketing company can help with your email marketing and other lead generation and marketing needs we invite you to visit our outsourcing sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 6, 2017
Today’s buyer is overwhelmed. The buyer is being pitched nonstop by countless vendors selling countless products and solutions. And buyers have less time than they did to make a decision than even three years ago.
So in many cases buyers don’t even have the time to figure out what products they need. So calling a buyer and pitching your features and benefits or making the claim that you have an “award winning” or “number one rated” product or service is a waste of your time and your buyers time.
In the face of the ever-changing B2B technology and services landscape, many sellers overwhelm customers with useless information about products that buyers don’t even know they want or need. This is especially true when you are pitching a busy executive or manager.
So here are five ways an outsourced sales and marketing company can help you stand out from your competition:
An outsourced sales and marketing company can help you do your research:
An outsourced sales and marketing company can work with you to understand your Ideal Customer Profile. They can then help you acquire the databases, phone numbers and email addresses of these buyers and load your CRM with buyers to target that have the need for your product or solution so you are focused on selling to the right buyer.
An outsourced sales and marketing company can help you create compelling content that addresses the buyers needs
An outsourced sales and marketing company will have a team of content production experts that can help you create blog articles, videos and webcasts that provide valuable education for buyers about the problems you solve for customer and how you solve them for the customer.
An outsourced sale and marketing company can help you share that content.
An outsourced sales and marketing company can supply the team and the inbound and outbound marketing efforts to share your educational message with companies in a non-threatening and educational way. This approach builds trust with the buyer without requiring the time of your closers who should be focusing on closing and not educating early stage buyers.
An outsourced sales and marketing company can help you automate your marketing
Technology now makes it possible to share content with buyers through email marketing, your website and across social media. An outsourced sales and marketing company will have the technologists and the marketing automation best practices and expertise to help you build trust with buyers not ready to buy digitally. And these tools will allow you to track a buyer’s digital footprint so when they are ready to buy your closers will be notified so they will never miss a deal.
As technologies evolve and the noise continues to grow you need to shift your sales and marketing efforts to making it easy to build trust and drive value for your buyers digitally before you “sell”. An outsourced sales and marketing team can make this shift to modern sales and marketing operation fast, easy and effective.
Instead of being the irritant that bugs the buyer with information about why they are so fantastic you can shift your organization to one that help the buyer and builds trust first with effective outsourced resources and automated tools.
To learn more about how an outsourced sales and marketing team can help you stand out from your competition and build modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to check out our About Us page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 4, 2017
If you are a small business or a start-up building a sales and marketing team can be a daunting task. This is especially true if you do not have an executive on your team that has the experience or proven track record. Most executives are already swamped with addressing other critical areas of their business so if you do not have this sales and marketing experience and background it may make sense to consider an outsource sales and marketing team.
Here is a short list of 3 things you can expect from an outsource sales and marketing team to help you build a high performing sales effort.
Your outsource sales and marketing team will hire the right people
An outsource sales and marketing team will hire individuals with the right attitude, right personality for their assigned task and the right work ethic. An outsource sales and marketing company will understand how to recruit the right talent for the right job. This gets rid of a great deal of your time and investment building a team on your own.
Your outsource sales and marketing team will close competency gaps quickly
An outsource sales and marketing company will already have the sales and marketing support functions in house to cover any gaps you have in your internal team. This includes:
- Sales and marketing strategists
- Content production specialists
- Database managers
- Database marketers
- CRM and marketing automation technologists
- Marketing coordinators
- Cold calling and buyer education reps for prospecting
- Business development reps for qualifying and developing buyers
You will be able to access a blended team that you would not be able to quickly build on your own even if you have the budget.
Your outsource sales and marketing team will measure what matters
Beyond closed deals many small businesses and startups often will not have enough data to benchmark what matters to take a lead through the sales funnel to closed revenue. Obviously closed deals is the most critical measurement but to scale a sales effort you need to have a disciplined approach to lead generation, lead development and lead qualifying on a daily basis. We’ve all heard that what gets measured gets done. An outsource sales and marketing company will know how to use CRM and marketing automation technologies to hold your entire outsource sales and marketing team accountable for hitting these targets and accomplishing these tasks on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
When all three of these qualities are aligned, your outsource sales and marketing team will help you build a high-performing sales effort. The end result is that an outsource sales and marketing team will help you build a sales culture of continuous improvement. They will recruit and retain the right people, create metrics that are meaningful at the individual, team, and organizational level. And they will help you measure and pursue what matter most.
To learn more about Gabriel Sales outsource sales and marketing services we invite you to check out our outsource sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Jan 2, 2017
As an outsource sales and marketing company we speak to many small business owners that are struggling to increase the efficiency of their sale and marketing processes. It’s understandable that some small businesses that have been selling for years can be a little anxious with keeping up with modern sales and marketing operations and the advances in online business models and digital marketing. And according to a recent survey of 1200 buyers 85% of most organizations now prefer to make all are part of their purchase decision through digital channels. But it’s important to note that 75% of those buyers will not make a purchase decision without engaging with a sales rep at the end of the buying process.
As an outsource sales and marketing company we help companies address these challenges by helping companies build digitally integrated sales and marketing sales/buyer processes. When it comes to empowering companies with their outsource sales and marketing efforts we focus on four core digital areas:
Creating enough content to support the buyer journey and the outsource sales and marketing process
We help companies to create digital content that supports their sales process at each stage of the buying process.
We look at creating content for four different stages:
- Creating content to share educational facts and information that helps them start to frame their problem and the challenges they will need to address
- Content that helps buyers realize that we understand their problems
- Content that frames how we help them to solve the problem
- Finally content that discusses how the problem was solved and the business results you can gain from solving that problem
We provide our Outsource Sales and Marketing clients with the content management tools to make it easy for buyers to self-educate.
Once you have your content created it’s important that you make it easy for your buyers to access that content. Getting your content on the web is only the first step. In today’s digital media age you also need to make it easy for buyer to self-discover information about your solution easy and simple. So we have created a simple to manage tool called Digital Demand Center™ that makes it easy to organize all 4 stages of your content on one microsite.
Organizing your content this way allows your buyer that is hungry for self education to go through all states of their buying process to solve one specific problem easy and simple. It also gives buyers that prefer one format over another (video, blog articles or downloadable assets) to educate themselves the way they prefer.
Allow your outsource sales team to access that digital conversation
The final step in the process is leveraging a marketing automation platform to:
- Track the buyers engagement with your content
- Score buyers based on what content they are consuming (the later the buying stage the higher the score)
- Notifying your outsource sales team when the buyer reaches a Sales Ready Lead Score
Embracing a digital workflow, scoring leads and sharing that information is not a replacement for sales – it’s a way to free up more of their time to focus on revenue-generating activities.
These digital tools are a way to boost the performance of your outsource sales team.
To learn about how Gabriel Sales can work with you to outsource sales and marketing please visit our outsource sales and marketing services page.
by Glen Springer | Dec 26, 2016
Startups and small businesses are always stretched for bandwidth. So startup and small businesses outsource multiple functions today like product development, bookkeeping and HR. Eventually most companies will consider what sales and marketing functions can be outsourced. Here are the 8 functions that can be considered for sales outsourcing and outsourced marketing.
Outbound Lead Generation
This is one area where a sales outsourcing and marketing company will help you gain quick traction. They will have the database marketing, email marketing and outbound calling reps you need and will be able to turn them on in a matter of weeks. You will not need to invest in the recruiting, hiring training and management of this team.
Inbound Lead Generation
If you have a large audience to target this is an important part of any strategy. Inbound leads are a combination of SEO, social media andSEM. One of the keys to inbound lead generation is a consistent effort and a constant monitoring of spend. This is where an outside company that specializes in this one particular area can be a huge advantage to keep you on track. It is also an area where the rules are always changing and most startups and small business will benefit from working with a company that lives and breathes inbound marketing all day and every day.
Buyer Development Reps
Buyer development reps are there to manage the leads that have been generated. Not as senior as closers, they will be able to educate the buyer about what you do and qualify the leads for your sales reps and closers. Many sales outsourcing companies can provide this person as a part time resource until there are enough leads in your sales funnel to develop.
Sales Reps/Closers
Products and solutions are getting more specialized and more niched. Because of this we believe it’s important for the executive of a start up to steward their business through the early sales efforts. There is critical learning for founders that can help define the solution and improve the product. The executives will also learn more about the key selling points and direct feedback from customers will help them to position the company.
For startups (after those initial sales are closed) and for small businesses it then typically makes sense to hire a full time closer but only after you have a process for filling that closers funnel with deals. We find that it the expense doesn’t make sense for a dedicated closer unless there are deals for them to close (i.e.. you won’t be able to hire top talent without providing a process to fill their sales funnel). This extra sales rep walking into a full funnel will accelerate your revenue and be a huge productivity and time saver for startup executives and small business owners.
Marketing Leadership Outsourcing
Marketing is now a requirement for any company. Creating a marketing strategy that is aligned with sales is one area where sales outsourcing and marketing companies shine. Creating a marketing strategy hand in hand with a sales outsourcing plan will ensure that all your efforts are focused on driving the right deals into your pipeline. A sales outsourcing and marketing company will give you the access you need to marketing strategy when you need it and will be able to scale back those costs once your sales outsourcing efforts are launched. You should expect your sales outsourcing to provide a marketing leader to monitor the effectiveness over time and to optimize that strategy from time to time when necessary.
Marketing Technologist
You may need the part time support of a marketing automation and CRM specialist. A sales outsourcing company will be able to provide this part time support.
Marketing Support
There are many different marketing tactics that will need to be managed; including database management, content marketing support and the day to day management of your marketing automation system. You will also need reporting on all of your efforts on a regular basis. A sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to provide this support.
Sales Management
For most companies short term and long term success requires sales oversight. An outsourcing sales team will have senior oversight as part of their package. They will keep your sales lead generation and your callers on task on a daily basis and keep them focused on your revenue and marketing goals.
Sales outsourcing does not need to be an all or nothing proposition. Most sales outsourcing companies will be able to provide a hybrid model if you have some of the team, talents and tools in house.
To learn more about how Gabriel Sales can help you craft a custom sales outsourcing and marketing team we invite you to check out our sales outsourcing service page.
