Let’s face the truth: Every startup needs a top-notch sales team. Otherwise, you’ll lean on a patchwork approach to sales — or no approach at all. Neither of these paths is an ingredient for success.
Now, it’s one thing to recognize the need for a successful sales team. It’s another thing to build a successful sales team. When you’re assembling a sales team, you must consider:
- When to hire.
- Who to hire.
- How to hire.
With a thinly staffed sales team, you run the risk of losing revenue and stalling growth. But putting together a sales team too soon leads to premature scaling, which can kill your startup before you’re able to deliver your first product or service. Meanwhile, hiring the wrong sales professionals can gobble up time and money.
So, considering those potential obstacles, what should your startup do? Consider outsourcing your sales activities, at least early on. This can be a cost-effective way to scale your startup sales team, enabling you to establish new relationships, accelerate revenue growth, and boost your reputation as a legitimate business.
Overall, the expertise of outsourced professionals can provide “a competitive edge in the market,” according to Small Business Trends.
Let’s dive into the three primary benefits of hiring an outsourced sales team for your startup.
Key Takeaways
- Employing an outsourced sales team helps you control costs
- Outsourcing sales functions offers greater flexibility
- Creating partnerships and tapping the expertise of your outsourced sales team paves the way for effective growth
Benefits of Hiring an Outsourced Sales Team
As a startup, it makes sense to employ an outsourced sales team. Many companies prefer to control their sales processes, including who sells their products or services. But hiring temporary salespeople and outsourcing at least some sales functions offers three big benefits for a startup.
1. Cost Controls
Of course, growth is a key goal for startups. But premature scaling can set back growth and derail the business.
Startups must stay on top of their expenses, especially payroll. Hiring permanent salespeople, whether they’re junior- or senior-level pros, can be costly. In addition to their salaries, you must take into account taxes, benefits, office expenses, computer and equipment costs, and cellphone bills, among other expenses.
The time and cost involved in training and onboarding new hires can also drain your resources.
By contrast, an outsourced sales team lets you better manage HR expenses. An external, temporary sales pro can cost half as much as a full-time salesperson. The beauty of this arrangement is that you need to pay outsourced salespeople only when you need them, and they devote this paid time to your sales needs.
Outsourcing sales functions ensures you don’t hire employees before your startup is ready to expand, and preserves cash for current and future needs.
2. Increased Flexibility
Employing an outsourced sales team also provides more flexibility. You can increase or decrease the number of sales representatives based on your needs. You can ramp up when launching a new product or entering a new market, or scale back during seasonal slowdowns or at times when current sales needs are already being met.
Avoiding long-term commitments to permanent sales teams offers the freedom to apply resources where they’re most needed.
“Outsourcing can lead to a more streamlined and efficient sales process, enhancing lead management, conversion rates, and overall customer satisfaction,” says Small Business Trends.
Furthermore, working with outsourced sales teams allows you to experiment with new markets and offerings. Rather than employing a full-time person for a specific market or offering, you can outsource sales to a firm specializing in a targeted area. This means you can cost-effectively test a new market or offering. And if the test succeeds, you can expand the outside sales team’s efforts or train internal salespeople to take over those efforts.
3. Deeper Pool of Expertise
You’re likely working with outside bookkeepers, IT professionals, lawyers, and other specialists to offer expertise that you lack internally. So, why not outsource at least some of your sales functions to outside experts if your team has a gap in sales expertise?
Many outsourced sales firms follow methodologies and best practices that make them effective at selling. They know how to create a sales funnel, use a sales CRM, make cold calls, pitch prospects, generate and manage leads, and close deals.
You can tap into this expertise to improve your startup’s sales activities and free up resources to commit to other areas of your business.
“By delegating sales activities to external specialists, your company can shift its attention to core competencies and strategic growth initiatives,” according to Small Business Trends.
Fortunately, an outsourced sales team can do more than sell your products or services. They can act as channel partners, providing expertise and knowledge about your industry that would take significant time and effort to accumulate on your own. Partnering with an outsourced sales team that knows your market, and that understands your business and value proposition, can help generate more revenue.
Building an Outsourced Sales Team for Your Startup
Working with an outsourced sales team makes so much sense for startup because it:
- Enables you to tightly control HR expenses.
- Gives you flexibility with sales staffing.
- Delivers sales expertise that you lack.
- Providers a partner who can help grow your business.