In an increasingly digital first world, it is perhaps inevitable that companies look to technology solutions to solve pain points such as pipeline acceleration before they look at how to fix internal workflows and processes that should be supporting their sales teams.
But how many times has a new technology implementation failed to deliver its promise to magically harmonise the sales and marketing function or improve the customer experience or more importantly help generate revenue growth?
The answer is all the time.
But this is not to say that companies don’t need the latest and greatest technologies to manage and process great swathes of digital information from suppliers, partners, customers etc. They do.
The issue is often that internal teams spend more time collecting, analysing, and processing the data from these platforms than selling or speaking with their customers.
So, what can be done to optimise your technological investments with your human resources, both of which take a lot of funding, to get an optimised and data rich sales operation?
For the larger corporations that have the deeper pockets, the solution could be to increase investment in inside sales teams but this might not be a viable option for companies with more limited resources.
And just because you can afford to staff up, should you when there are agencies that can provide the necessary expertise and processes to offer business development representatives (BDRs) that can enhance your sales strategy, close more deals and boost revenue?
If your current pain points are involved in looking to build sales pipeline and scale faster, you probably should seriously think about working with a partner to provide you with a virtual sales team to instantly add more skin to the game.
Outsourced teams are also extremely useful when you want to reach new markets and to take advantage of the outsourced team’s expertise, technology, and extensive services that you might not otherwise have access to in-house.
And as mentioned above, another reason why companies outsource BDRs is because it tends to be more cost efficient than hiring a full inside sales team.
So, if you are considering going down this route, here are a few things you should consider when outsourcing BDRs:
Business development efforts often require a sizeable financial investment. Clients will need to weigh the cost versus the benefits to ensure they can gain a proper but realistic return on investment.
To do this, firms must consider how much it would cost to build an in-house team, their goals, and the timeline to reach these objectives. This will give a better understanding about the direction to go in and identify actual budget and expectations.
Setting up a whole in-house team of BDRs takes a long time. Outsourcing is a lot quicker. The best agencies can start by working with clients’ messaging, customer journeys and playbooks because they already have the experts and infrastructure in place. They can start delivering warm, qualified leads in a matter of days, not months.
Realistically, clients will need to be involved with the outsourced BDRs. How much, depends on the agency selected. In the beginning, they may require a lot of information. But the best agencies provide clients with a dedicated Account Manager who is the main point of contact and can provide campaign reporting with a high degree of agreed frequency.
Pricing is the most common objection BDRs hear when they are meeting with prospects. Clients may think it costs a fortune and that you don’t have direct control over the results. This can make it scary to venture into the unknown if you’ve never used these kinds of services. But instead look at the actual value that comes with the cost. Cost savings is usually one of the main reasons for outsourcing BDRs in the first place. Bringing on an in-house team is quite expensive with recruitment, salaries, benefits and real estate to consider. Not to speak of the time and cost investment in training new team members.
Control is another reason why companies opt out of outsourcing sales. Some might think that because BDRs are in direct contact with prospects, there is concern about if they will represent the client company well. It may seem like total loss of control to have sales reps out of sight. But consider this: In-house staff can’t be monitored all the time as they complete their tasks – especially in today’s increasingly remote working environments.
Good BDRs are self-managed most of the time, but the best agency teams have strong developmental support systems and feedback loops. Also outsourced sales agencies have a system of checks and balances to ensure their BDRs are performing the proper activities by quality control, mentoring and coaching.
Remember, agencies are only as successful as their clients are. They will have a vested interest in providing clients with the best results possible. The best success is achieved through trusted partnerships. And The best route to success, is a physical team of well-developed and mentored BDRs underpinned with state-of-the art tech.
