by Glen Springer | Mar 6, 2017
How Sales Outsourcing can be applied to many different areas to grow company revenue
Sales outsourcing can be applied to multiple stages of a company’s sales process to help accelerate revenue, increase sales funnel volume and to drive a more consistent flow of real sales opportunities. And with the proliferation of modern sales and marketing technologies like CRMs and marketing automation platforms it is now possible to use outsourcing for point solutions for multiple stages of your sales funnel.
Here are the areas that you can use a sales outsourcing partner to provide a point solution to help you increase your sales lead generation process to grow revenue this year.
Targeting and Initial Lead Generation Database. The first step in building any sustainable lead generation process is to ensure you are targeting the right market and generating targets that are the right fit for your solution. Think of your target database as this foundation. Without the proper database of leads to target your sales funnel never gets off the ground. A sales outsourcing company will have subscriptions to multiple research tools and access to multiple databases that most small business or start-ups don’t have (and that probably would not make sense to invest in). An outsourcing company can help you construct the right database quickly.
Initial Engagement. Meaningful marketing is centered on making the buyer aware you exist. This requires a combination of email marketing, cost effective pay per click advertising and phone reps to introduce your solution. To engage with prospects and potential buyers in a meaningful way, you must develop tactics that use educational content to introduce your company to the buyer. And you need to align the distribution of that content across both digital communication and your reps. To do this effectively, you must have a content marketing strategy in place to provide educational engagement, and well trained reps to support that effort. An adequate marketing and sales company can do this for you quickly.
Conversion. Sales outsourcing companies are now using modern sales and marketing technologies that score leads in real time and delivers profile information that identifies what buyers are most likely to buy. Automated campaigns have higher conversion rates but in some cases companies do not have enough calling resources to help them to convert earlier stage buyers that have not made an inbound request. A sales outsourcing company can help you staff part time or full time reps for specific period of time to help you mine you system for more leads faster.
Sales and Marketing Automation Technology. Businesses are now leveraging tools to simplify and automate parts of the sales process. A sales outsourcing company will understand how these technologies work. The company will also have experience customizing these tools for different types of sales. You may want to consider outsourcing your automation technology to a company that can do it quickly with a blended team of experts to save you time and money.
Gabriel Sales provides full service sales outsourcing solutions for start-ups and small businesses. This also includes providing point solutions for companies looking to build modern sales and marketing operations. You can click here to learn more about our specific sales outsourcing solutions and click here to learn more about our approach to outsourced sales.
by Glen Springer | Feb 3, 2017
Companies of any size can benefit from outsourcing sales. Outsourcing sales for small businesses can often have the most significant impact because these companies often need it the most, especially if success requires modern sales and marketing operations. Below are just a handful of the ways a small business can benefit from outsourcing sales.
Immediate sales and marketing infrastructure
Many small businesses don’t have the most critical infrastructure for modern sales and marketing operations in place. In today’s market success, especially if you are competing against larger companies, they require multiple pieces of infrastructure and technology to compete against larger competitors including:
- Access to databases
- Marketing automation platforms
- A CRM solution
An outsourcing sales company will have both the tools and the expertise in place to give you access to these tools immediately.
Professional sales recruiting and management
Most small businesses don’t typically have professional sales recruiting and management in house or a process to recruit sales talent. This may lead to hiring the “wrong” sales personnel. Even if a business does hire the “right” sales person, without effective and daily sales management, that individual has a higher propensity to fail.
Using a partner for outsourcing sales will allow you to access sales recruiting, management and culture/environment that most of your larger competitors have. .
Quickly focus on specific gaps to accelerate your sales funnel
Most small business owners are wearing multiple hats, and in many cases the owners are also qualifying leads, creating the marketing material, and closing business. They are doing this on top of delivering the solutions and running day to day business operations. They have the knowledge and skill to run sales and marketing but they simply lack the bandwidth. An outsourcing sales and marketing solution can help the small business owner cover specific gaps at specific stages of the sales process. This includes:
Lead Generation – An outsourcing sales and marketing company can quickly turn on a multiple tactics for lead generation including:
- Email marketing
- Outbound calls
- SEO and SEM
- Social Media Marketing
Lead Development – An outsourcing sales and marketing company will be able to implement a content marketing strategy and marketing automation platform to help you develop leads in your funnel digitally.
Lead Qualification – An outsourcing sales organization will be able to staff an outsourcing sales rep or outsourcing sales team to help you qualify and educate early stage buyers and set appointments for your senior team.
Depending on your sales cycle, an outsourcing sales and marketing company can help a small business accelerate sales in as little as 90 to 180 days. A small business can retain an outsourcing sales company and get access to a pool of talent and tools with less risk and more certainty.
To learn more about the problems we help small businesses solve with sales outsourcing and marketing services and how we approach building modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to visit our About Us page.
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 | Dec 14, 2016
The Right Time to Outsource Sales
When you outsource sales and marketing this strategy can be a significant competitive advantage if the timing is right and your business is prepared for it. However the decision to outsource is not always the right option for every business. Below, we outline several items and issues that should be considered.
In general, the time to outsource sales makes sense when:
Speed to Market is Important – For startups, new businesses or established businesses that are changing their business model or going through new product launches, an sales outsourcing team provides a very quick path to both a fully trained and managed outsource sales team, and an experienced marketing team for one cohesive sales and marketing team that can provide turnkey support across the entire lead generation and buying cycle.
Your Executives Have Grown the Company and Bandwidth is Tapped – Many small businesses generate their first 500K to 2 million in sales on the backs of one or more of their owners or a single rock star senior sale executive. Companies at this stage typically need these resources to continue to focus on closing so the early stage sales funnel starts to suffer. You can start to outsource sales by leveraging an outsourced sales partner to fill your closers sales funnel with increased real sales opportunities. As your outsourced sales team learns more about your business the can continue to take deals deeper into the funnel.
You Are Ready to Implement a Repeatable Process – If you outsource sales, you will get the best production if you can sell your solution through the same staged process in a repeatable way. If you are confident that you are successful selling your solution in a similar way the majority of your time you can then expect your allow your sales outsourcing partner to document and script the process for methodical results.
Lack of Time or Resources to Build a Team– Many small business do not have a full time recruiter or HR professional on staff. A sales outsourcing company will have both the existing talent in place on the sales and marketing side. In many cases you will get access to a blended team of sales, marketing and executive talent for the price of one to two individuals.
You Need a Part Time Experienced Sales Executive – Many small businesses are started by founders with natural sales skills and closing abilities. But these same founders have also never built, managed and led a sale and marketing team. If you outsource sales executive to manage your account is typically part of the package. This will remove the need for founders developing the skills set and learning the systems required to manage a sales team.
You Have Not Invested in Technology or Infrastructure – Early stage lead generation and development now requires a suite of tools to score leads (marketing automation), and manage leads (CRM). If you have not invested in and implemented these tools, a sales outsourcing team will be able to provide these tools and leverage best practices to implement them at a fraction of the cost of launching them on their own.
Gabriel Sales is a full service marketing company that is adept in sales outsourcing. To learn more about our philosophy and approach, we invite you to visit our Outsource Sales Page Services and About us Page.
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 Carol Springer | Oct 17, 2016
Your buyer now expects you to make it easy for them to buy. So Gabriel Sales now provides both Sales Outsourcing and Outsourced Marketing support for our clients, because content is required to support your sales effort. Here are some rules of thumb and best practices we use to help create powerful content that will support your sales outsourcing without breaking the bank:
Generate Thought Leadership Content – For many companies the production of the content can be tough but the substance of the content is all around them. What we find when doing a content survey and initial interviews is that what our clients believe to be common sense and basic information, is not that common or basic for the buyer. With a series of headshot interviews, we can help them to create a series of blogs, checklists and short informational videos that are authentically educational.
Content Needs to Live Online – You need to make sure your buyers and your sales team can access your content online. This allows your content to be shared easily by your sales team and/or your sales outsourcing team. Your blog is the easiest way to start. And when we work with clients we supply our simple to use WordPress plug-in Digital Demand Center. This allows us to quickly organize content for campaigns to specific buyers. The tools allows you to contextualize all your content for specific buyers and also helps with search engine optimization & email marketing. The more you share the more business you will generate. Below is an example of how you can organize blog posts and videos using a powerful microsite in Digtial Demand Center to automate buyer education.
Use Multiple Formats – Not all buyers like to be educated by the same format of content. Turn this into an advantage for your sales reps and use a mix of video, blog posts, webcasts, checklists, and eBooks. We really like webcasts as anchor content because we find that we can take a well thought through webcast and turn it into multiple pieces of shorter content in different formats. Once again if you take care of the substance we can take care of the production to support your sales outsourcing clients.
Use Automation Technology to Score Your Leads – Automation technologies are here for good. They give you the ability to educated buyers, stay top of mind and prioritize leads for you sales outsourcing team. You should expect any sales outsourcing partner to be using these tools to increase your effectiveness and efficiency.
Don’t Forget Calls to Action – You should end every piece of content with a next step to make it easy for your buyer to buy.
If you would like to learn more about Gabriel Sales and our history please visit the About Us Page or feel free to Contact Us to learn more about how we can help with your sales outsourcing and outsourced marketing needs.
