No matter what line of work you’re in, almost all businesses can agree that consistently generating new opportunities is no easy task. Bringing in new business through referrals or word of mouth is one thing, but consistently filling your sales pipeline with qualified leads and converting those leads into customers is a process that few companies can master.
You shouldn’t have to master inside sales to generate leads and grow your business. As a well-established business, you should be focused on what you know best—your company and the products or services you offer. If you want to achieve sales success fast, outsourced inside sales is the answer.
In this blog, we’ll highlight the following topics:
What Is B2B Outsourced Inside Sales?
Outsourced inside sales is when a company hires salespeople through a third-party vendor to take advantage of untapped business opportunities. By outsourcing inside sales, you gain access to an experienced sales team that works on behalf of your company.
Outsourced sales teams consist of sales managers, account executives (AEs), business development representatives (BDRs), and sales development representatives (SDRs) to prospect, qualify, and set appointments with leads. From these appointments, your internal team has the opportunity to give a more detailed pitch about your company’s product or service and convert them from leads into customers.
By hiring a B2B outsourced inside sales provider, the responsibility of generating leads is taken out of your hands. Outsourcing your sales department gives you more time to focus on your core business operations.
How To Generate Leads With Outsourced Inside Sales and Outbound Marketing
Outsourced inside sales and outbound marketing is when a BDR or SDR directly reaches out to potential customers that could benefit from your company’s product or service. Overall, the goal of B2B appointment setting services is for your outsourced sales reps to schedule a sales meeting with qualified leads in the sales pipeline. From there, your internal sales team attends the appointment and persuades them that they need your company’s product or service.
These appointment setters connect with prospects through various platforms, so they have the opportunity to build and nurture a relationship with them for when they’re ready to buy or make a change to their current solution. Here are some ways that outsourced inside sales providers nurture relationships with potential customers:
Cold Calling
Although outsourced cold calling gets a bad rap, it remains an incredibly effective approach to generating new business opportunities. With an effective cold calling strategy, outsourced sales reps can pitch potential customers and identify pain points in their current business solution.
For example, if an outsourced inside sales rep is calling on behalf of a managed services provider (MSP), the SDR can ask the prospect what they currently have in place when it comes to IT management. If they are happy with their current IT provider, they can ask the prospect why they are content and what makes their current MSP a great fit for them.
On the other hand, if a prospect is unhappy with their MSP, an SDR can ask why they are unhappy and what they would be looking for in a new outsourced IT partner. This allows SDRs to gather more insight for the client and set them up with a high-quality sales appointment.
If a prospect is currently uninterested in learning more about your company’s product or service, SDRs input them into a lead nurturing campaign. For a lead nurturing strategy to be successful, the outsourced sales rep will follow up with them again in about three to four months to see how things are going with their current solution. In the meantime, the SDR sends monthly email drip campaigns to the prospect to provide top-of-mind awareness for when they’re looking to make a change.
Email Marketing
As mentioned above, email marketing is a significant component of outsourced inside sales. Outsourced sales reps most commonly use email marketing as part of their lead nurturing strategy. However, many SDRs also take advantage of email marketing when they can’t reach potential customers over the phone.
Email marketing is most effective when outsourced sales reps send relevant content to leads. When SDRs send sales emails after a pitch with a lead, the email must relate to their previous conversation. For example, let’s suggest that an SDR is pitching a prospect for a software company. After the pitch, the prospect wants the sales rep to send them more information about the software process and why it’s valuable for companies like theirs. An outsourced sales rep can send the prospect an email that contains marketing collateral like an infographic or a short explainer video about the software program and why it makes day-to-day tasks less tedious for businesses.
By sending relevant emails to potential customers, outsourced inside sales reps increase the likelihood of setting up an appointment with the client.
Sending LinkedIn Connections
Many B2B companies use social media to post relevant and engaging content, but these platforms are also great for connecting with key decision-makers (KDMs). Sending LinkedIn connections is one of the most recent additions to outbound marketing efforts. Outsourced inside sales reps connect with leads on LinkedIn through the client’s profile so they can send relevant thought leadership blogs to them and direct prospects to check out the company website.
While many businesses believe they need to choose one outbound B2B lead generation approach over another, we’re here to tell you that the sales process is most effective when each of these sales and marketing strategies is practiced. This ensures that your outsourced sales reps have the opportunity to connect with prospects over various platforms.
Why Do Businesses Hire Outsourced Sales Departments?
The term “inside sales” can be confusing for many companies because it suggests that businesses should handle their sales operations internally. However, inside sales can be practiced internally or externally by a third-party lead generation provider. In fact, hiring outsourced sales departments can help your business grow more than an internal inside sales team could.
Here are some reasons why businesses hire outsourced sales departments:
Outsourced Sales Reps Are Less of an Investment
The true cost of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and providing competitive pay to an in-house sales team is a major long-term investment. According to Harvard Business Review, the average annual turnover in the sales industry is close to 30%, which means you’d need to hire and train new internal sales employees consistently. This takes up a significant amount of company time and money that could be focused elsewhere.
Outsourcing inside sales not only saves you a ton of time but also helps you avoid a substantial investment. A credible outsourcing partner already has a fully trained and vetted team of marketing and sales professionals who are ready to perform on behalf of your business. Your sales partner is entirely focused on revenue-generating activities that align with your marketing goals because they already have the right people in place to do the job.
Companies Have Instant Access to Sales Tools and Technologies
You can’t build an effective sales enablement program without the right customer relationship management (CRM) platform and sales tools in place. The investment in a high-functioning CRM plus other sales and marketing tools alone will cost you the same as an outsourced inside sales program.
An outside sales partner enables you to access multiple tools for prospecting, data, communications, marketing automation, customer interaction, and more. In addition, an outsourced inside sales team is already trained on how to use these cutting-edge sales tools and technologies. This allows you to cut training time and spend more time selling leads provided by your outsourced BDR and SDR team.
Lead Gen Providers Have an Effective Strategic Prospecting Process
Even if you decide that your company can take on the required investment of an in-house sales team and the tools needed to build a successful program, you still have the challenge of building a successful outbound marketing and sales process. If everything you do isn’t baked into a process, your team won’t be able to perform at optimal capacity and close business deals.
Outsourced inside sales teams specialize in consistent processes that have proven to grow businesses. When you outsource to a trusted lead generation partner, you benefit from:
- A sustainable and effective cold calling process
- Sales reps who know how to pitch, handle objections, find KDMs, and guide leads through the end of the sales funnel
- A well-thought-out sales process that includes lead prospecting, nurturing, qualifying, and appointment setting
- A team of outsourced sales reps who know how to use sales tools and technologies to their full capabilities
When Should Companies Consider Outsourcing Inside Sales?
Are you unsure if outsourcing inside sales is best for your business’s operations? Many companies consider hiring outsourced sales departments when they want to:
- Free up company time: An internal sales team can take a lot of time out of a company’s day-to-day responsibilities. Many companies consider sales outsourcing when they want to devote more time to other company departments.
- Expand their market: Outsourcing inside sales gives you more opportunity to expand your company’s product or service into new markets. This is a great way to find out if it resonates with prospects in other regions.
- Keep sales costs low: As mentioned previously, outsourcing sales reps is much more cost effective than hiring internally. Many companies outsource sales departments to keep overhead costs at a minimum.
- Follow sales best practices: Lead generation service providers are always up to date on sales and marketing best practices. By outsourcing inside sales, you have the opportunity to score more sales opportunities.
- Or they can’t find high-quality sales talent: Finding high-quality sales experts can be difficult in this day and age. B2B outsourced inside sales teams are full of experienced sales professionals who understand the ins and outs of the sales industry.
Key Takeaways
While finding new business opportunities is no easy task, it can be made easier by outsourcing inside sales teams. Outsourced sales teams have all the sales experts, tools, and technologies available to make sure your business is consistently generating high-quality leads year-round.
If you’re ready to maximize your outbound marketing and sales processes, contact the sales reps at Abstrakt Marketing Group!
