What is Sales Outsourcing

Sales outsourcing is when you purchase sales functions (outsourced lead generation, cold calling, etc.) outside of your own in-house sales department to help promote your company’s products or services.

Sales outsourcing has been at the center of sales management debates for over a decade now.

Many companies prefer to be in “full control” and are hesitant to trust sales outsourcing companies to operate crucial parts of their pipeline.

To outsource, or not to outsource, that is the question.

To outsource, or not to outsource, that is the question. Click To Tweet

The answer is, unfortunately, that there is no definitive answer. Sorry!

Every company’s infrastructure and products are different and will require various combinations of in-house and outsourced sales resources.

Before you start shopping around to outsource your entire sales department, it is essential to consider the best option for long-term sustainability and affordability for your unique sales pipeline.

Nowadays, there are many options for finding specialists and agencies to help with your pain points or a function in your sales department you do not have the personnel to execute well.

They are there to help, and many sales outsourcing companies are incredibly reputable, bringing better results than a company could produce on its own.

In other cases, employees can be the best advocates for your product, and might only need help with one smaller area, or perhaps no help at all, they are entirely self-sufficient.

3 Outsourced Lead Generation Benefits

Lead generation can be a real struggle.

Most entrepreneurs learn this from the very beginning.

People are flooded with information from all sides and their attention spans are getting shorter by the year.

In such a marketplace, where traditional advertising methods are buried in the sand of ignored content, businesses are struggling to attract the attention of potential customers.

Have you thought about outsourcing lead generation responsibilities?

There are three main reasons to consider this option – saving time, increasing quality, and saving money. 

1. Save time

Time is the most precious resource we have at our disposal.

Outsourced lead generation can save you a tremendous amount of time.

Has cold calling and being rejected 95 out of 100 times started taking a toll on your psyche?

And what about spending an entire afternoon now and then looking for email addresses, contact info and figuring out what to write and when?

Let’s not forget the need to create specialized spreadsheets that hold contacts, scour social networks, write personal notes, etc.

All of this amounts to countless hours that could have been spent on something more important, like developing a better product/service, or taking some time off and going away for the weekend.

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Now, imagine what would happen if you put your lead generation in the hands of professionals with many years of experience.

Obviously, you’ll regain all those minutes and hours lost in trying to figure out how to get a contact’s email address, how to create quality email content, and much more.

But, you’ll also free your mind from the constant worry that you might not be doing everything you can to generate interest in your business.

In other words, you will not work overtime and get stressed.

By recharging your mental batteries, you can do wonders in all the areas that truly matter to you.

Of course, you don’t have to employ a person in-house to achieve this, especially if you are in the B2B sector.

This is where outsourced lead generation comes into play.

2. Increase quality

Are you noticing that the quality of your current leads is sub-par?

You probably know the reason why. It’s because you can’t spend the required amount of time building these leads.

It’s not that you don’t know how to do it; It’s just that you lack the time necessary to produce the lead generation results that will make you happy.

If you do outsourced lead generation to a team of professionals, you will receive the expected result – quality hot leads.

Moreover, this will contribute to the quality of all the activities mentioned above.

Imagine that you realize there is no need to advertise anymore since the forwarded hot leads reach enough clients at the moment.

That way, you will have more time to meet deadlines, improve your products or services, and get in touch with contacts.

3. Save money (in the long run)

There is nobody in the world that can achieve everything on their own.

Huge accomplishments are usually the result of collective action between multiple participants working together and sharing a common goal.

This means that spreading the effort between more agents will result in a bigger return on investment (ROI) in the long run.

Yes, you will be investing a certain amount of money for outsourced lead generation.

But, it is something that will benefit you in the long run.

Instead of chasing after the leads yourself and letting everything else suffer in the process, they will be waiting for you daily, while you continue improving your business in many other aspects.

As you can see, outsourcing your lead generation is a smart idea.

outsourcing your lead generation is a smart idea Click To Tweet

It will save you time, money, and nerves while increasing the quality of leads and other business activities you undertake daily.

And, you won’t have to employ dedicated staff members for this.

Therefore, we wholeheartedly suggest that you consider outsourced lead generation for your business.

How Do Sales Outsourcing Services Work?

For example, we, at LeadFuze, have developed software that lets you automatically find email addresses from contacts inside a particular branch and social network you’re using.

You can use LeadFuze and get relevant contact info related to the contacts you are seeing on your screen.

LeadFuze is the tool of choice for sales outsourcing companies because we allow them to build lists of accurate leads automatically for their clients while integrating with sales outreach tools to allow them to contact those freshly verified leads.

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An automated email finder can go a long way, but you still need some time to generate all the communication yourself.

Therefore, the most important thing that sales outsourcing companies offer.

It’s the completely done-for-you component of outsourced lead generation and it’s exactly what you need if you are really short on time or sales skills.

How does outsourcing lead generation work? It’s very easy.

The only thing you are required to do is provide sales outsourcing companies with is an explanation of your business, what type of business leads you are after, and any extra information you want to share.

That’s it!

You’ll probably need to set them up with an email account as well so they can handle the lead generation and prospecting under your brand.

They will then use our specialized software to search for the contact info of all potential clients that match your criteria.

Then, they create a tailor-made email series that is focused on conversion.

Some sales outsourcing companies may even make cold calls in addition to cold emails. 

Once you approve the content, they will start contacting your potential customers by email.

This is done through cold email tools we integrate with so that leads automatically get added to sequences. 

Once leads respond, they are taken out of the sequence and if they are interested, they’ll be sent to you (or your sales team) for closing. 

As you can see, outsourced lead generation can save you hours and hours of your own personal time.

In addition, you would probably fail to attract the same interest and quality with a campaign on your own because you wouldn’t have the know-how or the time to consistently perform prospecting responsibilities.

HOWEVER… 

There are some risks associated with choosing between sales outsourcing companies. 

5 Considerations to Make with Outsourced Lead Generation

Every business is different, and every sales manager and operations executive has their own strengths and weaknesses to consider, in addition to their budget, and existing personnel.

Before sales outsourcing, stop to consider these 4 things to help customize and optimize your department for maximum long-term sales results with minimal costs.

1 Consider your sales cycle and product

Your particular sales development style might not suit an outsourced lead generation model.

Especially if you are B2C or B2B2C. Any product with a contract value priced below $1,000 has difficulty fitting into many outsourcing services. It might be hard to balance account executives and SDRs in a meaningful way.

If your product is over $1,000 and has a longer sales cycle, you might be a better fit for outsourcing.

When personas are more important than reaching a large pool of prospective consumers, outsourcing lead generation makes more sense.

If your business has a short sale cycle with endless potential leads, your strategy, more so, needs to revolve around getting as many people to know about the product as humanly possible.

Cold-calling could be a good fit, but inbound marketing strategies might be a better use of budget. Consider your product and customer before outsourcing.

2 Budget and bottom line

Budgets, every company has one.

This number might carry the most weight in your decision to outsource, and in many cases, the decision starts and ends here. While it is incredibly important to stick to your sales department budget, remember to not limit yourself to this point as the sole thing driving your decision to outsource or not.

At a glance, fees for outsourcing firms can seem like an unreasonable monthly burden on a budget. It always feels “extra” because it exists outside of the company.

When pricing out services it is important to remember your total insourcing costs, and the potential in-house costs that could be cut, and the potential sales there are to gain through outsourcing.

When pricing out services it's important to remember the total insourcing costs, the potential in-house costs, and the potential sales. Click To Tweet

In-house SDR salaries are quite expensive and they range from $47K to $62K, just for the base.

Then there is training to consider.

For the first year, an SDR might only cost the company money. It is these hidden costs we forget to weigh against the seemingly hefty price tag of outsourcing. Remember to look at the whole picture and don’t forget that you aren’t just trying to find the cheapest labor.

But you are trying to build an incredible sales department that will increase their revenue each quarter and develop long-term relationships with your clients.

3 The illusion of control

Those who are actively against outsourcing lead generation often think they are more in control by keeping their sales department completely in-house.

This tends to be a total myth, and if control, or rather the illusion of control is your reason for insourcing, you might need to reevaluate your motives.

It is natural to feel protective over your potential clients, but similarly, you cannot hover over every shoulder in your own office.

While you think you have more control over your SDRs, you cannot control every word they say or type; sales is very much a solo operation.

Outsourcing lead generation can free up your in-house SDRs to help them execute your strategies more effectively.

So, residual benefits like this can bring you the control you are seeking.

You get to decide where the energy of your in-house employee goes, by paring away more draining tasks and entrusting them to the care of specialists.

Control isn't about eavesdropping on every conversation, it's about deploying and delegating tasks to the parties best equipped to handle them. Click To Tweet

You can have control when it comes to both insourcing and outsourcing, control isn’t about eavesdropping on every conversation, it is about deploying and delegating tasks to the parties best equipped to handle them.

4 A fresh perspective

You might think you have a 360-degree vision of your company when everything is in-house, but you could be missing out on a useful perspective from an outsourced lead generation agency.

They will have more specific reporting systems and record potential buyers’ attitudes and opinions on your product. Completely in-house agencies can have a lot of blind spots that hiring a third party can illuminate.

5 The most outsourced sales function is lead generation

Why? Lead generation agencies will systematically produce results.

They do so by using tried and true methods that are then customized to fit your product or service.

There isn’t just one kind of lead generation or sales process to outsource. You can hire inbound lead generation agencies for content marketing and social selling or outsource to outbound lead generation agencies that specialize in cold calling and email prospecting.

There are also lead services that focus on relationship building. And SDR’s to follow up on opportunities to free up time for your account executives.

Conclusion

Every business is different. Outsourced lead generation is only successful when you have fully considered your options. Without analyzing your existing capabilities and setting a realistic goal — it’s not going to work.

Don’t expect outsourcing or taking everything in-house to be an overnight cure!

Whatever sales issues you were facing last quarter will likely still be there.

Refining your sales department is a constant process and will continuously need evaluation as your company and product grow and evolve with your client base.

Editors Note:

Want to help contribute to future articles? Have data-backed and tactical advice to share? I’d love to hear from you!

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Monica Bogayong
About Author: Monica Bogayong
I'm a Content Writer for LeadFuze.