Why outsource your sales team?

I often have people ask why I would suggest that people outsource their sales team. Mainly for the fact that people think that product knowledge is the most important thing when it comes to sales they think that an outsourced BDM approach cannot be effective.

I challenge this notion on the basis that someone who knows a product really well doesn't necessarily have the abilities to sell really well. Many people develop products in the world marketplace. Many are great people with great ideas. Many are people with intelligence that vastly out-shadows my own. However, these people often just don't know what it takes to sell really well.



I am not here to provide you all the tools to sell your products. That would put me out of a job. However, I am here to show you the benefits of outsourced sales consultancy.

1. Experience.

Often, someone like myself has the experience in a variety of fields which enables him or her to move into new industries and formulate an effective system of selling based not on the product, but on the sales cycle demands of the sales team.

2. Objectivity

Many businesses owners can be precious about their products; they are subjective. When I owned a Cheese Factory I had to stop being involved in the production of the product and move into a 100% sales role because I got offended when people were negative about the product which I had made with my own hands. Moving into a more objective sales role meant that I didn't get offended any more, I would just work and work and work to turn a "no" into a "yes". That was my role.

3. Reach

As a Business Development Consultant I have a great database of people who, although rarely directly, can put me in touch with key decision makers who I can introduce products and services to.

4. Outsourcing

I too outsource. When a company pays me good money to enhance their business sales, they don't want me sitting on the phone cold calling. My job is on a larger scale than that could suffice. I would outsource this type of work and then concentrate on where my skills shine - presenting and closing.

5. Information management

I know through years of selling CRM and CRBM systems that many businesses owners see this as a secondary need in a sales environment. For me, and this is me, I see it as one of the most important things. Be it a CRM system or an effective spreadsheet, information management is key to effective selling. A BDM consultant is going to have these systems in place already, therefore saving tens of thousands of dollars in setting them up.

6. Financial

I do not work full time for anyone, and therefore I do not get paid for full time work by anyone. In the WA market you will pay in excess of $100k per year as a base for any sales rep worth their weight. I outsource for a fraction of this and bring to the table a service which outweighs the effectiveness of any single consultant. On some jobs I may have a small team working to full effectiveness, or I may be doing it myself. In every case I am going to work out much cheaper than hiring staff directly.

So as you can see here, there are a few reasons as to why I recommend outsourcing your sales team. You can do it for a short time with a view to building your own sales team, or you can run it permanently at a fixed rate with performance incentives. Let's face it, your sales reps should never be in the office anyway, and yet if you hire them they need a desk. Your sales reps will want phones, laptops, cars and bonuses. Do you want to manage all of this, or let someone else worry about and just get on with the job of selling your products and services?