by Catherine Brown, President, Initial Call

Is “outsourcing” a bad word? Admittedly, the idea can have a negative connotation, but in B2B sales, seeking expert outside help for key professional services is becoming more and more acceptable. I experience this personally not only as we help other businesses decide whether to outsource their sales work but also in the running of my own business. For example, when tax season comes, I am reminded how much I enjoy outsourcing accounting. Although I appreciate my competent Certified Public Accountant throughout the year, I am especially grateful for her services in April. Why? Because although I could do my business taxes myself, I am freed from a tremendous burden in time and management energy by trusting this to a professional. Recruiting is a similar function. Some companies hire only through HR, but others utilize a competent contract recruiter to help. The inside sales role is similar for sales executives. When deciding how to build or grow your organization, ask yourself, “Do I want to run this process myself or am I willing to delegate?” Evaluate what is best for your business model as well as for your personality. If you lack the bandwidth to find, hire, and actively manage resources, then outsourcing may be best for you. To make a final decision, consider two more key points - Training and Budget. 

Regarding training, do you have a product or service that contract labor can be trained to learn? Even if your product or sales qualification process is complex, the answer to this question is usually “yes.” Of course trusting someone else with your messaging is a big hurdle. Remember that, in reality, you must do that very thing if you hire an employee. There is no other way to grow. Rest assured, if you have a definition of what a “qualified opportunity” means for your company, it’s likely that you can provide the information that an experienced contractor needs to be successful in finding sales for you. A good vendor will have an established project launch process to guide you.

The other important consideration is budget for the work relative to your offering price. Analyze your cost of sale. Determine what your budget would be if you were to hire someone for the role then research what that dollar amount buys when outsourced. Contractor prices vary, depending on the level of resource appropriate for your pitch. The vendor price may appear either very affordable or very expensive at first glance. You must dig deeper and consider what’s included then compare the hidden costs of employees. From the intangibles such as lost time when a person doesn’t work out to the add-on costs of taxes and benefits, employees can be expensive too. Contracting the right level of inside sales talent tends to cost about the same as hiring when you analyze the whole sales cycle, from the process of building a target list to qualifying opportunities. 

Elements of your sales cycle may dictate in-house operations. For example, does the same person who cold-calls also do an on-the-spot in-depth demo? Thinking about your management style, you may simply enjoy building inside sales teams, training people to cold call, and overseeing performance. If you want to listen to cold calls in person and see your team around the water cooler, you will likely be more satisfied with a team of people in your physical location. If you are a person who needs high control over your whole sales organization, you may be dissatisfied with outsourcing, no matter how good the vendor. Embrace that you want to own all sales operations--even the gory details! But, let’s say that the above does NOT describe you. You simply want good sales opportunities and you don’t have to be intimately involved with every detail of acquiring these opportunities. If you lack the bandwidth to find, hire, and actively manage resources, then outsourcing may be best for you. 

Determining whether to outsource or hire requires careful thought as to what is better for your business in addition to your own preferences. We talk more on our blog about Eliminating the Risks of Telesales if you’d like to see more suggestions. I’d also welcome the opportunity to discuss our findings about true costs of outsourcing if you want to contact me to talk further. cbrown@initialcall.com