Once a small business has decided that they don’t have the time, expertise, and/or desire to recruit, build, and manage a small sales team, their path to growth will then depend on picking the right outsourced sales team.
For small businesses that have a history of closing business, this typically means that you will need to transition the knowledge and expertise from your organization to the outsourced sales team you will be working with. Asking the right questions early in your search will help you find the best sales organization for your business. It is in the best interest for your company, your end customer/potential buyers of your solution, and the outsourced sales team partner that this fit makes sense for all three parties involved. We have put together a handful of questions you can ask to help you understand how the sales talent will be deployed for your sales success.
What is the Outsourced Sales Team Staffing Model
The first question you need to ask is how your outsourced sales team will be staffed. Depending on your needs and the volume of calls you need to make, you could have multiple people staffed on your team or you could have shared resources. For example, when we are just getting started building outsourced sales team we typically staff at several levels. We will leverage buyer education reps to managed the initial awareness campaigns. We will staff a person that is adept at asking probing questions, qualifying questions, and asking for the appointment. Finally, we will staff closers.
In some cases these resources will be shared., but in some cases, it may make more sense to staff dedicated reps at all or some of the levels. Dedicated resources typically cost more and the more complex your sales, the more experienced the closer will need to be, which will include increased costs upfront. You and your outsourced sales team provider need to be clear on budget and needs to ensure you get what you need.
How will your outsourced sales team be managed?
The next question you need to ask is how will your account will be managed. One of the main advantages of an outsourced sales team is that you do not have to manage the account. Most outsourced sale companies will have an experienced account rep responsible for the day-to-day communication and success of your overall sales (and in our case marketing support). This person will be responsible for day-to-day communication and managing regular sales meetings.
How do they train your outsourced sales team?
You need to ask how your outsourced sales team will be trained and understand how involved you will need to be.
As part of our onboarding process, we do a deep discovery into the clients sales processes; what makes the company, and product or solution we are selling unique, and craft a scripted sales story and all the early stage calls. Because we also offer content marketing strategy and content production, we automate the sales process and clone our clients thought leader. Although this process makes it easy for us to train reps and requires minimum training support from the client, you should expect to attend weekly sales calls while ongoing training occurs.
For new clients, we typically begin the campaigns with experienced proven existing reps, and in that case, we typically can prep our rep on a new client in 3-4 days. They know how to come across smart and intelligent while not having all the details, and if prospects start asking buying questions, we will go for the appointment.
If we do staff closers, it is typically 60 to 90 days after the initial campaign once there is a funnel to close. At that point we will do more technical training. Initially, we require a domain or technical expert on the client side to manage the demo until we are competent.
How We Can Help?
Gabriel Sales builds moderns sales and marketing operations and staffs and outsourced sales team and a blended marketing team to help companies accelerate their lead generation, lead development and revenue production. To learn more about our approach to building modern sales and marketing operations we invite you to visit our outsourced sales and marketing approach page.
