5 Key Success Factors for Outsourced Sales

We all know that the biggest challenge in sales today is keeping the top of your funnel full. The sales development process is expensive and difficult to manage, monitor and evaluate. According to the Bridge Group, the top 5 challenges in running an inside sales or sales development organization are

1.           Productivity and performance

2.           Recruiting and hiring

3.           Forecast accuracy

4.           Ramping new hires

5.           Coaching and development

These challenges combined with the cost factors have driven many companies to look outside and consider partnering with an outsourced sales development or outbound sales company. If this characterizes your situation, there a few things you need to carefully consider while evaluating an outsourced solution.

1.      The sophistication and maturity of the sales team. Even if all you are looking for is supplemental assistance in driving through your prospect list and setting appointments, the outsourced sales team needs to be able to speak authoritatively on your product or service.

This means the ability to sell across multiple verticals like SaaS, hardware, IT and Cybersecurity services, real estate, wealth management, talent acquisition, etc. You should meet the team and assess the skills directly before you make the decision to place the communication of your value proposition into the hands of untrained strangers. Any reputable and competent outsourced sales team should have verifiable testimonial references from a variety of industry segments.

In addition, you will want a team that mirrors the demographic profile you would hire yourself if you were to build your own internal SDR function. This likely means college educated, language proficient, personable and aggressive, well-trained sales reps who understand the modern customer journey and are fluent in the most effective sales and marketing technologies.

2.      A proven track record of performance. Since the reason you are going outside is to grow your revenue, you want to be sure that the outsourcer can provide documented evidence of actual revenue growth for its customers. You will want to see specific case studies with verifiable pipeline growth statistics on campaigns like the one you wish to conduct. You will want to know that they can scale their operation rapidly up and down to suit your requirements as they develop and change over time.

You may want to hire just the top of funnel or a full sales cycle capability. You may want to outsource your whole sales function, or just part of it as a supplement to your existing sales team. You may want to hire an outsourcer who can simply set you up with a best of breed sales tech stack, train your SDRs in some proven sales process techniques, monitor and coach your team for a few weeks, even do some selling themselves to demonstrate their approach to cold-prospecting and then leave you with a fully trained and operational sales team of your own with a sales tech stack in place.

3.      Sales technology stack. One of the keys to success in modern sales is deploying a fully integrated sales tech stack that advances the performance opportunity for the sales team and increases their productivity at the same time.

 Sales automation and engagement tools like auto-sequencing and orchestration, contact acceleration platforms, lead intelligence, analytics, AI-powered email bots, ABM, in-context prospect insights, etc., all seamlessly integrated into a leading CRM system are essential to outsourced success just as they would be to an internal SDR team.

You want to be sure that the outsourcer is using technologies that increase their team’s productivity in outbound dialing, connecting, email campaigns and social touchpoints, so that you will be getting the maximum performance from your new sales partner.

4.      Principles and fundamental beliefs. If you believe that the most successful approach to selling is found in a certain formula or approach, you must be sure that your outsourced team is on the same page.

For example, you may want a campaign that is led by email blasts, followed by phone calls and social touches. Conversely, you may believe that live conversations are the only way that things of value get sold.  You may be convinced that Artificial Intelligence is the wave of the future in prospecting and selling and you will want a partner who is leveraging all of the AI-enabled sales technologies that are available. Alternatively, you might think that AI technology when used in sales is risky and the cost of an alienated prospect is higher than the value obtained through efficiencies in sales robotics.

Whatever the core philosophy of your outsourced partner might be, you will want to be sure that you are aligned in your outlook, as the outsourced may tell you what you want to hear but will immediately begin executing to their own guiding philosophy once the ink dries.

5.      Growth metrics and data privacy. In the era of GDPR and mounting privacy regulation within the U.S., you will want assurance that your contact lists and the subsequent solicitations are being conducted within the data privacy regulatory rules and guidelines.

Email profiling is defined by more than just the collection of personal data; it is the use of that data to evaluate certain aspects related to the individual and often determines the choice to send a particular targeted email campaign instead of another one. As the existing and near-term regulations impact profiling, you or your 3rd party agent acting on your behalf must demonstrate that you are in compliance with the requirements in order to continue sending personalized and targeted emails.

You will want to be sure that your outsourced provider had engaged counsel or has on staff, an information security analyst whose role it is to assure that the regulatory rules are being followed. Otherwise, you may be held liable for your providers mis-steps.

In addition, since your management decisions will obviously be based on sales data and reporting, you will want a partner who is able to pre-define those KPIs with you to ensure you always receive the right reports at the right time and in the right format. Since you will be paying for a specific performance, the metrics should be supported by an objective accounting process based on an audit-ready system of record.

If you've determined that outsourcing the outbound sales development process is right for you, this guidance should come in handy as you evaluate among the many varieties of outsourced sales partners on the landscape.

The core requirements should include the use of a leading sales acceleration platform like ConnectAndSell, which has proven that it can produce live conversations at a factor of 10X above what an unassisted human sales rep can produce on their own and a sophisticated and mature sales team with a proven track record of performance.

But whichever way you go, remember that your sales development partner is just like, and should be treated as your own team, and an extension of your internal culture and personality. Choosing a partner with the right style and fit will impact your growth and evolution just as surely as their metered sales performance will impact your bottom line.