Growing your business is difficult and there are always hundreds and hundreds of decisions to make. One of the key one is how to grow your revenues and build your mindshare in the market. To do this, you have two main options including hiring internally or outsourced sales through a person or firm.
Hiring internally is a good idea, however, the hiring process is costly, employee benefits are now at all-time highs, if you don’t have the management structure and infrastructure in place, it may be hard to manage your sales person. Sales in any B2B company typically take 6 to 18 months to materialize. So knowing this and then committing to a full time salary is a big investment.
Outsourcing your sales is a second option. Obviously it is one we recommend and there are a few core reasons to consider this as a viable option for your growing business. These include:
Human Capital
Hiring a salesperson particularly if you are not in sales or have a background in it can be difficult. The process takes time and there is an onboarding process which takes internal resource and then what happens if the person leaves? Outsourcing your sales to a firm that specializes in it gives you some satisfaction in that they most likely have redundancy within the organization should a person leave. They look for and hire people who are effective in sales already given it is their business to sell.
Financial Resources
Hiring a person full-time when you know your sales process from start to finish can take 6 to 18 months requires a solid investment. On top of that, you have employee benefits and laptops and phones and all those items to consider. Outsourcing your sales provides you with an opportunity to pay a fixed amount per month for a dedicated resource most likely on a part-time basis which makes it more cash flow friendly. Early on if you don’t have a lot of sales and you are still working to identify target markets, using an outsourced sales team can be a much more effective means to an end.
Methodology and Process
Most sales organizations will already have a sales process and methodology they follow to drive success. This will most likely include the sales infrastructure aspect (sales CRM) and then a model outlining the steps to a close, as well as a methodology to follow when undertaking an outbound campaign or social selling and then how to support all of this to drive the best conversion rates.
Proven Track Record
Particularly when you are selling something that is relatively new to the market you need to invest in a resource that has a proven record of driving results in a similar environment. Taking a person who has done corporate B2B for years but has no experience in startup sales can be problematic. Why? Well, there are no resources, leads are not coming in and it takes a significant amount of grunt work to get the fly wheel spinning. There are a lot of people who are great sales people but they simply don’t excel at this aspect of the process. Using a firm that specializes in early stage sales and understands the work involved will drive more success as they understand the messaging required and understand the level of heavy lifting needed to get things off the ground.
If you’re looking for outsourced sales and marketing assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. For great insight into startup sales and marketing, feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
