Strategic Use of Sales Outsourcing

Sales outsourcing is commonplace - over 90% of businesses report using vendors for at least some of their Sales functions. Small and mid-sized businesses use outsourced sales teams to enable them to compete with large companies. Companies outsource sales functions to reduce costs without reducing revenue or negatively affecting their sales pipelines. Many companies use outsourced sales teams to accelerate the pace of new market entries. Some companies use sales outsourcing to expand their capabilities and credibility in specialty markets.

Even though almost all companies use sales outsourcing, the strategic use of sales outsourcing to accelerate sales is rare. I recently spoke with a few sales innovators to see how they were using sales outsourcing as a rapid sales growth driver. All of these business leaders had achieved sales increases - even in this tough economy.

New Territory

A CEO of a large manufacturing firm told me he accelerated his company's market entrance into new territories by partnering with a sales outsourcing company who had existing relationships and market presence in places where his company did not have sales reps but had untapped market share. A market entry that would have taken them a year to accomplish was completed in less than half that time by leveraging the resources of their sales partner.

New Product Introduction

The VP of Sales for a technology company said that one of the main reasons he adopted sales outsourcing is that it is the most cost-effective way he can launch new products that fall outside of his company's current product set. He keeps his in-house staff focused on existing markets and developing current clients. He then expands the company's new product marketing efforts by contracting with a sales outsourcing company that has a proven track record in selling similar technology. By doing this he has been able to move rapidly and beat his competitors by being first to market.

Digging Deeper

The head of Sales and Marketing for a business services firm actually lets an outsourced sales team compete with her in-house sales force. She says that the competition has kept everyone motivated to sell more and dig a bit deeper. Because of leveraged compensation plans, her sales reps were motivated to produce results where they can get them quickly and easily. They went after the low-hanging fruit, leaving much of the available market for the competition. Adding additional outsourced sales resources has enabled her company to gain additional market coverage, at a lower cost, and got her internal sales team to look at prospects more carefully before passing on them.

Running with the Big Dogs

My final conversation was with the CEO and owner of a mid-sized company who needed to do a better job competing with much larger companies. He also needed to reduce costs and reduce the company’s sales and marketing investment risk. After careful evaluation, he and his executive team decided to outsource the company's entire Business Development effort. Using a shared sales force allowed the company to dramatically expand their sale force reach while passing on some of their inherent risk to their service providers

Four different companies, all who had achieved sales increases in the past year. Four different companies who adopted innovative ways to integrate sales outsourcing into their growth strategy.

What's your growth strategy? We can help you with sales outsourcing.

Photo credit: Knokton.