In the current business landscape, your operations must be lean and it is often best to focus on doing what you are good at. Outsourcing marketing and sales is a cost effective way to boost growth and improve profitability. Especially for small businesses where the budget is tight, the owner is still able to drive revenue while concentrating on other vital parts of the business.

I had an opportunity to speak with the head of a clean-tech firm and found out that he was searching for assistance in sales and marketing. Since his expertise is in engineering, whenever warm leads are sent his way, he would often reply that he is an engineer by profession and is used to building products not selling them. He recognized what he can bring to the table and what aspects of the business he needs help with.

By outsourcing marketing and sales, you are able to fulfill various roles that can have the most impact on your business without hiring an entire team. This flexibility is a great advantage to smaller firms. We look into the various roles that an outsourcing marketing and sales provider can offer you.

Sales Rep

We believe that it is essential for business founders and leaders to drive their own sales especially at the very early stages. Getting insights from this experience is necessary to understand what the actual pain points of their prospects and customers are. They can then understand the types of solutions needed to solve them. Gathering insights on your target market and articulating how your value proposition fits is key.

In order to grow, it may make sense to hire a part-time sales resource. Outsourcing marketing and sales can build on your early successes and add much needed push while working within your budget.

Your sales rep can help evaluate inbound leads, do follow-ups, send emails, make cold calls, attend trade shows, maintain the CRM system, check-up on contracts, and all other activities associated with sales. This extra help can be a huge boost to productivity for business owners or start-ups founders.

Sales Leadership

We all have heard the dire statistics of companies that fail, but its often not because of lack of brilliant ideas or hard work. Lasting and sustainable success is challenging even in a bull market. Expanding your sales team is a necessary investment. You want to make sure you choose the right people, develop an effective communication plan, lay out the appropriate sales infrastructure and set up the correct processes to ensure repeatable success.

You can benefit from outsourcing marketing and sales to experts to help guide you through the first stages of development. This will be an important stepping stone in taking your firm to the next level.

Inbound Lead Generation

Having plenty of leads is good. But having high quality leads is always better. This is where sales and marketing begin to overlap. One of the fundamental objectives of the marketing team is to develop a process that drives leads – known as inbound Leads. Inbound lead generation is a combination of content marketing, social media, email newsletters, SEM, SEO and paid ads.

The aim is to grab people’s attention online and pique their interest so that they will connect with you. When experts speak about SEO or Search Engine Optimization, this is what they are referring to. One of the main elements of success is consistent effort. It is more of a marathon than a sprint. There must be ongoing commitment, so a plan must be put in place. Another ingredient is investing in paid advertising on certain platforms. This could be highly targeted ads on LinkedIn, or more general GoogleAds. Based on what you are offering, there are a number of inbound lead strategies you can utilize. Outsourcing marketing and sales can help you decide which ones will be most suitable for your needs.

Marketing Leadership

Effective marketing communications is key for your organization to be able to send the right message, at the right time to the right targets. Developing a marketing strategy at the beginning, measuring the right KPIs, and being agile are essential. You can consult a seasoned marketing resource to help build out your marketing strategy, give you new ideas and provide expert advice on the correct messaging and marketing tactics to employ.

Marketing Manager

In today’s market, there is a wide array of marketing tactics that can be applied. Usually, the marketing manager would be responsible in overseeing and executing them. This role can be done on a per project-basis such as when developing or updating a website or providing support during a live event like a conference. Or you can engage an outsourced service provider for long-term initiatives like writing blogs or posting on social media platforms. To rise above the noise and generate viable leads, one must have a consistent effort. Many tasks like social media, content creation, website updates, SEO, and other adhoc activities take time to show results and will require regular investment. A part-time resource can be a great option to maintain consistency in marketing efforts at a lower cost.

As a growing company, there are many activities that you need to do to move your business forward. You and your team may not have the experience or time to do it yourself. An outsourced sales or marketing resource may be what is needed to help keep up revenue generation momentum.

If you’re looking for outsourced sales and marketing assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. For great insights into startup sales and marketing, feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.