The Challenges of Recruiting Skilled Salespeople in Romania
In Romania, companies are increasingly facing difficulties in finding skilled salespeople.
According to recent Eurobarometer data, 58% of Romanian SMEs report that finding employees with the right skills is their most pressing problem (CCINA) . This talent gap is driven by several factors, including the lack of specialized training programs, high competition for qualified candidates, and the evolving demands of modern sales roles.
The shortage of skilled sales personnel is exacerbated by several key factors:
Insufficient Training Programs: There is a notable gap in specialized training for sales roles.
High Job Turnover: Sales positions often experience high turnover rates due to job pressure and performance demands.
Market Competition: The demand for experienced sales professionals surpasses the supply, intensifying recruitment challenges.
In response to these challenges, many companies are shifting towards outsourcing their sales functions. This trend is gaining traction due to several advantages outsourcing offers over maintaining in-house sales teams.
?? Be honest, do your salespeople hate cold calling or “hunting” for new customers?
In-house sales teams are advantageous in terms of strong alignment with company culture and direct control over training and performance. However, they also come with high costs related to recruitment, training, and retention. Additionally, senior salespeople often resist lead generation tasks, and companies must constantly manage high employee turnover.
On the other hand, outsourcing sales functions provides access to a pool of experienced sales professionals, lower operational and overhead costs, and the flexibility to adjust sales efforts based on demand. While there may be potential issues with cultural alignment and communication, these are often outweighed by the benefits.
Cost Comparison
Maintaining a full-time internal sales team for prospecting and lead generation can be substantially more expensive than outsourcing. Consider the following:
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Outsourcing costs:
Effective Strategy
? A smaller, dedicated in-house team focusing solely on closing deals, supported by outsourced prospecting and lead generation, proves more efficient.?
Senior salespeople can leverage their expertise in closing contracts without the burden of lead generation, which they often find less appealing.
The talent shortage in Romania’s sales sector needs a strategic shift towards outsourcing. By leveraging external expertise for lead generation and prospecting, companies can optimize costs, improve sales performance, and increase job satisfaction among senior salespeople. This approach offers a pragmatic solution to the current recruitment challenges, enabling businesses to maintain a competitive edge in a demanding market.
What we usually do at TO THE TOP is that we act as an extension of our clients’ internal sales teams. We do what their salespeople don’t want/know/like to do - the hunting.
Our sales agents begin with comprehensive training sessions where they learn about our clients’ services, unique selling points, use cases, qualifying criteria (what defines a promising potential customer), and target market.?
Once equipped with all pertinent information about our clients' value propositions, we compile a database of prospects that align with essential characteristics such as turnover, industry, region, and number of employees.
Following this, we create the pitch and engage in internal roleplay exercises. We then start contacting the respective companies from the database, reaching out to decision-makers to assess if they meet our clients' qualifying criteria. If a prospect meets all the criteria, we proceed to schedule a meeting.
What’s your view on internal lead generation vs outsource?