by Glen Springer | Nov 30, 2016
This article will address five indicators that may suggest that it could be a good time to consider sales outsourcing and marketing.
Outsourcing different functions to service providers is becoming more and more accepted. Companies can now outsource a variety of tasks like HR, staffing, product development and finance. But companies are often more cautious when outsourcing sales and marketing. But when executed correctly by an experienced provider, sales outsourcing can have a meaningful impact especially in helping you to build a modern sales and marketing organization.
Here are several reasons you may want to work with a modern sales outsourcing and marketing company:
Feature selling is not working – You need to start selling against pains with solutions. A sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to help you quickly shift your early stage messages and process to focus on the buyer instead of your product.
Your Rolodex Reps have stopped producing – A fair amount of companies are able to grow their business through their founders or the early sales hires’ set of relationships. At some point this runs out of steam. A sales outsourcing company can provide a process that generates a more consistent flow of leads.
Sales model must change – Startups and small businesses grow markets in different ways. But most companies reach a stage where they need to go after a new market quickly. A sales outsourcing and marketing company can help you quickly shift:
- Selling to the enterprise to selling to SMB
- Generating leads for larger enterprise companies
- Transitioning your sales process from an outside sale to an inside sales
- Using content marketing to do your early stage sales education
You need to build a repeatable sales process – After a company has closed their initial 6 to 12 deals there you will have enough information and experience to build a repeatable sales process. A modern sales outsourcing and marketing company will have the frameworks to quickly help you build a repeatable and integrated process that can be scaled.
You have gaps in your internal team – A sales outsourcing and marketing company will be able to help by supplying:
- The right marketing talent and a sales talent to execute parts of your sales process
- The right automation and CRM systems experts
- Access to a database to market to and the talent to help you manage that database
- Content marketing and content production specialists
The right strategist and consulting experts for marketing, lead generation, lead qualifying and closing assistance are also typically part of any sales outsourcing and marketing engagement. These strategists will be able to provide a fresh perspective to help you remove barriers to your sales.
Conclusion
Sales outsourcing and marketing provides a number of benefits, like controlling costs, providing access to highly skilled sales talent, sales and marketing strategists, technologists and marketing professionals. You also avoid the costs and delays of building on your own. You get a team up and running faster that will be aligned around enabling growth.
Gabriel Sales specializes in helping Start Ups and Small and Mid- Sized Business build modern sales and marketing operations. To learn more about our approach we invite you to check out our About Us page or you can also check out our Sales Outsourcing and Marketing Case Studies to evaluate if we may be able to help
by Glen Springer | Nov 28, 2016
In 2015 Live Webinars were one of the top 3 content formats leveraged by buyers to help them learn more about a company’s solution. But according to DemandGen’s 2016 Content Survey webinars slipped slightly from this position in 2016 for the following reasons:
- Lack of time to view a full webinar: 88% of buyers surveyed said they prefer shorter content formats
- Too much content available in general: 83% of respondents said they are overwhelmed by the amount of available content
- The need to watch webinars live: 73% of respondents said they prefer to access audio/video content on-demand.
But on the positive side…if you create compelling webinars buyers that do invest the time are more likely to convert into Sales Qualified Opportunities. So as an outsourced sales and marketing we still love webinars because they are a killer piece of content to make it easier for your buyer to buy and a great predictive tool in your lead scoring strategy.
So as an outsourced sales and marketing company here are 5 tips we give our clients to ensure they get the most out of their Webinars to maximize their content marketing investment.
Turn one webinar into multiple pieces of content Outsourced Sales and Marketing Team can leverage
We can get a dozen pieces of content because that one webinar can typically be repurposed into:
- 4 to 5 Short Weblette Videos
- 4-7 Blog Posts
- A White Paper and/or an Ebook.
These also are shorter pieces of content which buyers now prefer.
You don’t need to always have live webinars.
Having live events are a great way to generate leads but you don’t need to always go into the extra work of making these live events. If you do have live events you should expect as many as 50% to 60% not to show. But this does not need to be a huge cause of concern. You can still follow up with these with additional content marketing. Remember to send them a notification when the live webinar is recorded. And we have also found that if senior buyers sign up its worth as many as seven follow up calls to these senior decision makers because they signed up for the event because they had a problem they needed to solve. It’s worth as many as 7 calls.
Simply Start with an On-Demand Webcast
Building on two of the points above, doing webcasts live puts more pressure on the presenter and the moderator. Now that buyers prefer on demand webcasts you can start there.. Simply simulate a live webcast. With video editing software it is now easy to clean up any mistakes if you don’t like how you presented a section. So in one session with some basic editing you can create an impactful piece of content that can be used for an extended period of time faster and with less pressure.
On-demand webinars are essentially DVRed TV shows, Demand Gen Report’s 2016 Content Preferences Survey showed that 73% of respondents prefer to access audio/video content on demand.
Send Email Promotions Strategically: Blasting multiple emails with the same message and content is not the right strategy. Send the first mail about two weeks prior to the event, the second two days before the event and the last mail the day of the event. And articulate what they will learn from the event with slightly different subject lines and content.
Conclusion
Webinars should be a staple of any marketing, education and lead scoring program. But they are just one important part of an integrated outsourced sales and marketing program. Marketers should stop thinking about them as events and start thinking and using them as part of an overall strategy to tell their sales story to the market in a substantive way.
To learn more about how Gabriel Sales can help you get more out of your webcasting and overall content marketing and sales efforts and how we can help you build more modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to check out our outsourced sales and marketing outsourced sales and marketing or the About Us section of our website.
by Glen Springer | Nov 25, 2016
Sales outsourcing give you access to the modern Business Development Rep (BDR)
In today’s business environment buyers have access to a wealth of information and educational material to help research and evaluate products and solutions. As a result the roles and responsibilities for Business Development Reps are constantly evolving.
The days have past when BDRs are given a list to make cold calls. Modern BDR’s are now supported by tools that give them insights into a buyer’s needs, content to educate those buyers and the ability to score leads with automation technologies so they know where to focus their time.
Let’s take a quick look at what you can expect from your modern sales outsourcing business development rep.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will be targeting your Ideal Customer Profile
For a sales rep to succeed they need to focused on buyers most likely to buy. When working with a sales outsourcing company you will have a strategy in place to target your ideal customer. You can also expect your sales outsourcing rep to understand that customer, what makes them a great fit for your company and what group of buyers and influencers will be part of the decision making unit. Different buyer personas that you have defined in your ICP targeting will have different needs and the modern business development rep will have the ability to personalize their approach to meet the prospects’ needs.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will know what problems your buyers are trying to solve
To close business you need to have a great product. But before pitching the product you need to know what problems your buyer is trying to solve. Modern BDRs will be aware of product features but more importantly they will also be aware of the problems and pains the buyers have. Today’s buyer is more concerned with solving problems and not features and benefits early in the buying cycle. Understanding the problems a buyer is trying to solve will help your closers and sales engineers present the product to potential customers in a way that highlights the solution to their major problems.
Your modern sales outsourcing rep will have content they can share with the buyer to prove they understand the buyers needs and pains
In 2017 top sales outsourcing companies will have the ability to create content like headshot videos, blog articles and webcasts to help educate the buyer. This content can be shared directly by the rep and will also be shared as part of ongoing drip nurturing campaigns for buyers that are not ready to buy.
Your sales outsourcing rep will have the automation tools to prioritize leads
One of the most valuable features of automation technologies is the ability to help you prioritize leads. These tools score your buyers likelihood to buy based on their Ideal Customer Profile fit and your buyers’ engagement with different types of content. The modern sales outsourcing rep will know how to access these scores in the CRM and will also be able to observe the specific pieces of content your buyers are engaged with to help them personalize the questions they ask the prospect.
Your sales outsourcing rep will follow a repeatable sales process
Modern BDR’s know that smart work flow is critical. Your sales outsourcing partner will help your sales reps leverage technology to enable your sales team to follow a persistent and measurable process with outreach that combines a mix of phone, email and social. This approach drives better conversion rates.
Your sales outsourcing reps mind set has shifted from always be closing to always be helping
With all the educational tools at your buyers disposal more and more products are first “bought’ and the buyer educates themselves digitally. Your modern BDR’s number one focus needs to be to help your buyer facilitate that part of your buyer’s process. As your BDR does this they will be building trust. As you are sharing content, scoring leads and asking the right questions as part of your repeatable sales process your buyer development rep will know the right time to ask for the appointment and ask for the business with one simple question “Are you ready to speak with a sales executive?”
Gabriel Sales provides sales outsourcing and marketing services to help Start Ups and SMBs modernize their sales and marketing operations. To learn more about our approach to helping companies address the new digitally driven buyer you can also check out our About Us page.
by Glen Springer | Nov 23, 2016
10 years ago the number one way to generate new leads was through the proven method of targeting the right market, picking up the phone, telling your prospect a great sales story and setting an appointment. The more calls you made, the more appointments you could set. But times have changed and you can no longer throw bodies at the problem.
According to Forrester Research over 70% of buyers now prefer to receive an email and be educated digitally before meaningfully engaging with a sales rep. Couple this with the fact that buyers now pick up the phone 50% less than they did several years ago. You can see why you and your outsourced sales and marketing company now need to approach cold calling and their phone approach to sales and lead generation differently.
So now when you outsource sales and marketing in 2017 you can expect your outsourced sales and marketing team to generate leads through a combination of one integrated process that includes:
- Email Marketing Campaigns
- Content Marketing
- PPC Campaigns
- And Cold Calling
All culminating in the ability to score leads so your callers are focused on buyers that are most likely to transact.
This aligned sales and marketing process implemented by an outsourced sales and marketing partner will impact your teams approach to calling in the following ways:
When cold calling your outsourced sales callers will start by simply introducing content
If buyers prefer to learn about new solutions through educational content this is where your calling efforts will start. You should use your callers to target customers that fit your ideal customer profile – buyers that are in the right vertical, buyers and influencers that should have a need for your solution that can help them hit their own personal annual bonus this year, and buyers that you have a proven ability to serve. Your goal of that initial call should be to get to pitch your solution in under 30 seconds, confirm that they have at least a little interest in your solution and that they are the right person at the company to share the information with. Once these goals are achieved you should share the information and get off the call and move on to putting more early stage deals in the funnel.
Your outsourced sales team should focus on helping and not selling
You callers initial focus needs to be more customer service and buyer education focused. Not trying to set appointments immediately with closers. Your callers need to shift their mind set to discovering if there is a real possibility of a fit. Your initial aim needs to qualify, not force or convince. Forcing a fit is a waste of your buyer’s time and your time.
One of the primary innovations of automation technologies is that it gives you’re the ability to observe a buyers digital footprint so you can see what buyers are most curious and interested in your solution. Once the lead has been generated your outsourced callers should focus on these leads first.
Your callers should focus on understanding your buyer’s needs
If your callers are calling on buyers that are highly scored this means the buyer is educating themselves about you digitally. Your callers don’t need to pitch, they need to understand what the buyers specific needs and goals are. Your callers need to change their language from “sales speak” to natural language. You need to ask smart questions, then listen. Doing these two things will immediately set yourself apart as someone who is patient, open minded and willing to listen. Ask what more educational material the buyer would like to see.
Finally your callers need to close on the sales appointment
When you follow this process that allows the buyer to buy the way they want to buy you will know that:
- The buyer is a fit for your business
- What the buyer needs
- That the buyer is educated
At this point your outsourced sales team is ready to hard qualify the deal for your closer and ask for the appointment. At this point the buyer is either ready to buy or not ready to buy. The buyer will trust you so you will be able to ask hard qualifying questions and expect accurate and truthful answers because trust will have been established in both directions. And most importantly when you pass to your closer they will have all the information they need to service and close the buyer for a mutually beneficial long term relationship.
Gabriel Sales builds outsource sales and marketing teams for Start Ups and Small Businesses. We help companies build modern sales and marketing operations for buyers in this new digital landscape. If you think this may be a fit for your company we invite you to visit our outsourced sales and marketing services page to learn more about what we can do for you.
by Glen Springer | Nov 21, 2016
Many small businesses are built on the backs and carried by their founders. They build the business through their professional relationships, hard work and skill as sales professionals and strong account management and customer service skills.
We also find that many successful early stage businesses are successful because the entrepreneur that founded that business touches every area of the business. We have found that when a founder starts to consider what happens when they outsource sales they are drawn by the speed to market and the infrastructure cost savings but they have some trepidation about loss of control. This article will address several areas where control of the sales process is actually enhanced when you outsource.
When You Outsource Sales You Can More Control of the Sales Process
Concern “When I outsource sales, I may lose control of my sales process.”
When a company has closed are there initial deals it is sometimes unsettling to hand the keys to an outsource sales partner. This will not occur especially if your outsource sales and marketing partner is committed to helping you build modern sales and marketing operations. Most successful outsource sales and marketing in 2017 are committed to helping their customers build a repeatable sales process. At Gabriel Sales we actually help our clients document each stage of their buyer process and their sales process. And in 90% of the cases we find that when our clients outsource sales and we document this process they actually have more control of the process itself. .
When You Outsource Sales You Can Gain Visibility
Concern- “When I outsource sales I will lose visibility.”
10 years ago this may have been the case. But with the advent of CRMs and Automation Technologies the opposite is now true. When you outsource sales and marketing you can expect your outsource sales partner to provide these technologies as part of their package and you will probably experience even greater visibility. You will know exactly:
- How many calls are being made
- How many buyers are entering the sales funnel
- How many buyers are converting through cold calling, email marketing and content marketing
- What content is helping them to convert
- And what tactics and markets are working and what tactics and targets are now working
Technologies and the ability to measure customer engagement at every stage of the sales process has been put on steroids over the past several years and you can expect your outsource sales and marketing partner to be help to help with the implementation of these costs saving and intelligence enhancing technologies.
When You Outsource Sales You Are Fully Represented
Concern “Hiring an outsourcing company builds the sales outsourcer’s brand, not mine.”
This is probably the number one unspoken concern founders have. And it is completely valid. And an outsource sales and marketing company that helps our clients build modern sales and marketing operations this is the fundamental difference between we see between hiring an outsource sales and marketing company vs. hiring a rep company or a commission only solution.
When you hire a rep company their goal is to own that customer and sell them as many solutions as possible. Their goal is to brand their organization as a one stop shop for multiple solutions.
When you hire and an outsource sales and marketing company their goal is to build your brand and your sales operation and not theirs. When you outsource to Gabriel Sales your sales reps use your systems, your email addresses and act as your employees during all business calls and interactions. We define our success in terms of your success.
We hope this blog helps to answer a couple of questions about how an outsource sales and marketing organization can help you increase your executive control of your sales and marketing operations. If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact us.
by Glen Springer | Nov 18, 2016
Why Outsourced Sales and Marketing Makes Sense for Marketing Automation Implementations
So you have decided that you want to transform your sales and marketing operations. This means you need a lead scoring system and marketing automation platform. But you are still a little leery because of the sizeable investment in the software and team of marketers this commitment will represent. You have the following concerns:
- You want to test a marketing automation platform but you don’t have the internal resource to run it
- You want to limit your investment until you know it will work before you make that commitment to both talent and software
- You have enough content to generate leads but not to nurture leads
- You don’t understand the best practices or how to baseline that return
Essentially you want to get started and prove you can get a return on your efforts before you pull the trigger and build your own team.
Here are 5 ways outsourced sales and marketing can help with Marketing Automation as you execute this strategy.
Automation Platform Selection
Most outsourced sales and marketing companies will have deep expertise across the platforms. They will have preferred providers but you can expect them to make solid recommendations based on your needs, sales cycle and budget. .
Outsourced Sales and Marketing Allows You to Try Before You Buy
You can always contract directly with a marketing automation software supplier if you wish. And once you have decided that marketing automation works for you that is what we typically recommend. However almost all the software providers require at least an annual commitment and in some cases an annual payment. They want you to commit because it takes marketing automation about six months to a year if you are building a team on your own. Most substantial outsourced sales and marketing companies will be able to negotiate shorter commitments or in Gabriel Sales case will be able to provide solutions on a month to month basis until you prove concept. This frees up budget to spend on generating leads to help you produce an ROI from your marketing automation process faster.
CRM Data Integration
Key to successful marketing automation is connecting the automation system to your CRM so you have one clean buyer record. This make it possible for your sales reps to see the value from the automation platform without needing to learn another system. An outsourced sales and marketing company will have processes to clean your data and will be able to connect all the data required. This makes the system useful to your sales team immediately. .
Outsourced Sales and Marketing for Campaign Deployment
An outsourced sales and marketing company will have the technical skills to deploy a campaign through your platform in a fraction of the time it would take to learn this systems on your own. This includes; customer and prospects segmentation, best practices for how to launch your campaign, how to scale, and the frequency of your email communications. .
Lead Scoring Best Practices
Lead scoring requires a combination of sales and marketing alignment, a strong content matrix and a strong definition of both implicit and explicit qualification criteria. An outsourced sales and marketing company will be able to work through these issues in a fraction of the time ensuring that your engine identifies buyers most likely to buy.
Sales Team Adoption
Your automation platform only has value if your sales reps follow up with leads. An outsourced sales and marketing company will be able to train your sales reps how to leverage the system and also provide appointment setting support if your team lacks the time to follow up with your new volume of leads.
Reporting
Many of the marketing automation platforms give you the ability to run hundreds of reports, Most executives only want to see dashboards and a handful reports that demonstrate how many contacts you’re marketing to, how they’re segmented and what scores are leading towards pipe velocity and sales conversions. An outsourced sales and marketing company will be able to cut through the noise and provide these reports to you for ROI measurement out of the gate.
Gabriel Sales help companies transform their sales and marketing operations by providing the team and tool you need to generate, score and qualify leads faster at a lower cost. To learn more about our outsourced sales and marketing approach and philosophy visit our About Us page. Or feel free to contact us for complimentary assessment.
