Outsourced Sales and Marketing: Is it Right for Your Startup?

outsourced sales and marketingIs outsourced sales and marketing right for your startup? While the term ‘outsourcing’ does tend to conjure up a few negative connotations, it’s not a new concept for startups or most small businesses.

Many growing companies benefit from outsourced sales and marketing and frequently use the outside help of book keepers, accountants, and lawyers to keep their operations running smoothly and fill in knowledge gaps. Given that most entrepreneurs don’t have in-depth accounting skills or law degrees, this intuitively makes sense. Should entrepreneurs consider marketing and sales outsourcing?

As a startup, being close to customers and prospects is very important, so to completely outsource sales and marketing wouldn’t be a great idea. That being said, I do think there is a place for consultants to help startups with their sales and marketing efforts, areas in which passionate entrepreneurs typically lack formal training.

Recently, Mark Evans wrote a great blog post titled Should Startups Use Consultants? in which he highlighted where and when startups should consider reaching out for help. At Venture Accelerator Partners, we provide part-time sales and marketing services to startups and growing firms, and much like Mark Evans, we provide both strategic and tactical assistance.

We believe that even when entrepreneurs elect to outsource sales and marketing, and use consultants like ourselves, they should still be heavily involved in all sales and marketing activities. In essence, a good consultant should become an extension of the startup organization.

Here are a few of the top reasons that startups should consider part-time sales and marketing services.

1. You Don’t Have Funds for a Full-Time Hire

Hiring experienced full-time sales and marketing talent can be extremely expensive for a startup. Additionally, often times the best marketers and salespeople aren’t willing to take on the unique challenges that working in a startup presents. A part-time sales and marketing arrangement is a great way to tap into the expert resources you need to grow your business without the full-time headaches.

2. You Don’t Have the Time

Running a startup can keep you extremely busy with development challenges, finance issues, operations, human resources, and sales and marketing. Bringing in an experienced sales and marketing consultant can help you use your time more effectively as part of the sales and marketing cycle. As well, many startups just don’t have the runway to adequately develop a sales and marketing team before their business starts to face financial challenges. Part-time sales and marketing services allow entrepreneurs to start selling from day one.

3, You Don’t Have Expertise in Sales and/or Marketing

While there are lots of free sales and marketing resources available to growing companies, startups just can’t afford the learning curve. Furthermore, hiring a sales and marketing team without having the experience needed to manage those type of employees can be tough. Part-time services can help you go faster with a great plan, and are flexible enough to help your organization pivot as your product pivots as well.

Every entrepreneur should examine their own situation and decide whether or not outsourced sales and marketing makes sense. If you have the funds, time, and expertise, you should hire full-time employees. You should consider a consultant to help you grow your business if you are lacking in any of these key areas. Please connect with me if you would like to talk and determine whether part-time sales and marketing help could be right for your organization.

Outsourced Sales and Marketing: Is it Right for Your Startup?