Hire a sales team or outsource a sales team?

[helpmegrow]

Hello,
Our company is now at a stage when we need to accelerate our sales effort, we have a good base of clients and my time is spent answering enquiries and servicing our existing clients. I try and do some telemarketing when i get the chance but really we need a team of people who can dedicate time and effort to generating new business.
My question is should i invest in an internal sales team and all the support/training/office/hardware and time that is needed or is it possible/advantageous to outsource the telemarketing function?
If anyone has experience good or bad of either strategy then i would be very interested in hearing from them.
Thanks
David

 

[BristolSG]

Hi,

I used to work in a company who were in your exact position. The business owner contemplated outsourcing the sales function and instead hired me as the sole sales person - it was actually my first proper sales job!

I think there are definitely pros and cons and I think it really comes down to personal preference. Having a buzz in the office is great and really good for morale. The other benefit of course is that you can properly train sales staff on your product/service and get feedback from the field.

 

Hopefully my blog will be of use to you. If you do decide to outsource i would be more than happy to have a chat:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/blog.php?b=538

Michael

 

[GSA Business Development]

Hi David


There are definitely pro's and cons with both options and it really is down to your personal choice and needs.

I would be more than willing to have a chat with you regarding how we could help you on the outsourcing side of things.

Please do visit our website www.getsoundadvice.com for more information and hints and tips on telemarketing and give me a call on 0845 658 8192.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm wishes

Viv

 

[salesman_northeast]

again pros and cons, you could look for a self employed sales agent, like my self, or do it in house but its time consuming and costly. Iv outsourced telemarketing before a number of times due to the cost of employing staff and training them and the results iv always got wear terrible. if you can control it in house

 

[BusinessDevelopment2305]

Hi David

I'm the Business Development Manager for an outsourced sales company and we work on a commission only basis with a number of our clients. If this is something you feel could help with your ongoing business ambitions and would like to discuss our services and your product please feel free to PM me your details and I will be happy to call you.

Regards

Iain

 

[GreatSEO]

I would try someone inhouse on a part time basis.

1 - You can refine your offering with them to get the process right.
2 - You can see the effort that goes in
3 - You can help boost their morale to get better results.
4 - You are on hand to talk to any potential customer that might want to know more than the empolyee knows.
5 - It is a good starting point and if it works you could use outsourcing and internal if you needed it.

Don't go guns blazing as it will cost. It takes time to get a good campaign going and to see some profitable return.

However it is an investment not a cost.

I hope this helps

Dave

 

[helpmegrow]

Thank you all for your comment and suggestions. I have gone down the route of employing a sales person part time and working closely with them to help them understand the product and the company and taking over any calls that require more info.
It seems to be working for now.

 

[ktrott83]

Hi, If you need any data for your in house telemarketing pm me for a chat.
Kirsty

 

[FitnessSolutions]

There are pro and cons for both sides.

I would outsource it to be honest, as then you normally do not have pay somebody to do nothing. You could get them to work on commisision. Another benefit is that you can hire them when you need them i.e. bad times of the year for your business.

But in my personal opinion, to efficiently and effectively generate leads and complete sales I would do some targetted marketing first.

For example, Bentley do not just plonk their showrooms anywhere. They place them in areas that satisfy certain criteria the company set such as affluency, demographics ect.

I hope this helps

 

[CKG]

Having experienced with both sides of the coin i'd have to say a directly employed sales team is the way forward without a doubt.

The main worry people have with this step is fronting the wages until the employee contributes positively to the cash flow.

A bit of planning is all it takes.

 

[Vacman2000]

Try Agentbase, just google them, get a sales agent on percentage only

 

[Paul33]

Hi,
without wishing to hijack the thread - Iain (Businessdevelopment2305), please can you get in touch with me to discuss what you have on offer.

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[simon field]

You may be waiting a while - the thread is 3 1/2 years old...

 

[Paul33]

Hi Simon,
I'm counting on the fact that he has this thread watched or visits the forum from time to time.

although if there's anyone else out there offering rent a sales type facilities they can contact me as well

See, the glass is half full - I hope.

Paul.

 

[Newchodge]

If you click on his name and look at his profile you will see that he only posted 17 times since 2009, and was last seen more than 6 months ago. You could try ending him a PM, I suppose.

 

[Paul33]

Hi Cyndy,
I don't have 30 posts yet so can't pm him - don't suppose you could pm him for me could you

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[RainWolf]

It all depends on your business model.

Ultimately, in-house always wins if long term customer relationships matter to you. Outsiders are focused on one thing - commissions. Regardless of what anybody says, or promises, nobody really cares about the future of your business as much as you, and possibly your team would.

But chances are, you can actually generate new business WITHOUT hiring new sales people in the first place. Again, I don't know what your business model is, if you could elaborate a little that would help a lot.

 

[Paul33]

Hi Rain,
we're a financial services company and a startup. We've found that we can do the sales thing ourselves but it detracts from everything else (because I'm not a salesman and neither is my partner).

What do you have in mind when you say without hiring sales people - introducing brokers?

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[RainWolf]

(Edit: I assumed the original post was by you. However, the stuff still applies)

Hello Paul,

Thanks for the additional info.

If I understand you correctly, you have a very high quality service that clients recognise once they speak to you. In that case, what I would suggest is that you have a marketing system that gets clients to CALL YOU FIRST.

In other words, get more qualified enquiries in.

From the tone of your post, I just get the feeling that simply hiring a sales team would take out the element of passion that you have for your clients. It seems that your biggest selling point is just that - your desire to service your clients at a high level.

Also, in that respect, sources of clients other than telemarketing might prove more powerful, as well as build stronger relationships.

Let me know if this direction is helpful this far, then I will add some more notes for you. Again, providing more details would help with more specific advice on what you can do.

 

[Barbara McKinney]

Both options are good but your decision should also refer to your budget. If you can afford to outsource, the next thing that you should do is to look for the best outsourcing company that could really help your business. And if you want to hire a sales team, you should hire those who already have years of experience and can contribute to your company's success and not those who just want to receive a pay check.

 

[BOS]

hi, I have run an outsourced sales business for 2 years now and quickly dropped commission only work. A monthly retainer (even a small one) + commission ensures:
1, engagement from the hirer
2, better reporting structure and obligations from seller
3, more likelihood of sales
4, an understanding that both parties will take risks

A 3 month trial retainer shows pretty quickly how the relationship will work
Disclaimer - this may only apply to high value B2B sales, the focus of my business

 

[Paul33]

Hi Bos,
that's very interesting feedback.
We've been interviewing people for the past few weeks now who say that they have years of experience - I've been really dissapointed thus far.

Paul.

 

[Paul33]

Bos,
forgot to mention - if you'd like to post your business name I'd be happy to have a look at what you offer.

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[BOS]

Paul
We don't do financial services; energy and sustainability products/solutions only at the moment with average ticket value above £10k. But good luck, I am sure you will find somebody somewhere.

 

[EMEA Sales]

There are merits in both options however commission only shouldn't be taken lightly. It is extremely difficult to structure a relationship that will work for both parties. And even if it works in the short term for most business models you may create a problem as you won't retain much of the intelligence from the sales cycle in house or ownership of the customer.

For your situation i think commission only should be avoided.

 

[Dan Hodges]

Hi David

I'm the Business Development Manager for an outsourced sales company and we work on a commission only basis with a number of our clients. If this is something you feel could help with your ongoing business ambitions and would like to discuss our services and your product please feel free to PM me your details and I will be happy to call you.

Regards

Iain

Hi Iain,

We would be interested in your services if you would like to contact me to discuss what your business can offer.

Many Thanks

Dan

 

[beasty]

Depends on the complexity of the sale, the margin, the product life cycle, the market size, the competition, budget, location and other things.

Over simplification is the name of the game in this thread

Without knowing the actual offer it is very hard to offer a reasonable judgement.
Anyhow i know it is an old thread, I am just killing a bit of time as waiting on someone to pitch up

 

[HazelC]

Just food for thought - I was ready to grow so I bought in a commission only sales person, we sell a service. He was selling the world and I couldn't give them the world so they left as unhappy clients.

Needless to say this didn't work and I would recommend that you write what you want to sell, maybe even a script to work from, so you know everyone is singing from the same sheet?

 

[MBPH]

Sending any sales person out there without a script is like sending a man into war without a gun!..destined to fail

 

[MBE1]

A script can be of great help or hinderence, depends on how good the script is. There are plenty of good sales solutions, both employed, contracted out etc but both parties need to understand and agree what is wanted and required and implement systems to ensure they both abide by the agreement.

Just as there are many poor salespeople there are just as many poor companies employing good salespeople, letting them down after they have done their part, it cuts both ways and most companies struggle to honestly judge their own performance, preferring to blame someone else.

 

[Shaheryar Khalid]

Hi, We are a technology company offering Bespoke Software design services and we are currently going through the very same issue. Should we hire an in-house sales person or simply outsource the sales function. We do have technical people who can work as pre-sales consultants once the lead is generated but I would like to hear any views relevant to technology and software industry please.

Cheers!

Khalid

 

[toastking]

Sending any sales person out there without a script is like sending a man into war without a gun!..destined to fail

That is terrible advice, it only becomes good advice if you have a terrible salesperson who doesn't know about selling. It sounds like the kind of advice that is given by people who don't sell, to a salesteam, in the belief that is how it works. It shows a complete lack of trust in them and destroys their interest in learning about the product or service and how to sell effectively as it doesn't matter if there is a better way (there always is) as they won't be given scope to use anything other than the script.

The best salespeople would simply take your script, pull out the key messages and go above and beyond this to work out the best and worst of what your product has to offer, the kind of objections that they are likely to face and the kind of customers you are looking to work with. From there they will be able to flexibly move depending on the direction a conversation takes.

Script selling gets found out when people don't know what they are talking about as they revert away from common sense, their experience or the value of the product to instead focus on what the manual says they have to talk about.

 

[MBPH]

That is terrible advice, it only becomes good advice if you have a terrible salesperson who doesn't know about selling. It sounds like the kind of advice that is given by people who don't sell, to a salesteam, in the belief that is how it works. It shows a complete lack of trust in them and destroys their interest in learning about the product or service and how to sell effectively as it doesn't matter if there is a better way (there always is) as they won't be given scope to use anything other than the script.

The best salespeople would simply take your script, pull out the key messages and go above and beyond this to work out the best and worst of what your product has to offer, the kind of objections that they are likely to face and the kind of customers you are looking to work with. From there they will be able to flexibly move depending on the direction a conversation takes.

Script selling gets found out when people don't know what they are talking about as they revert away from common sense, their experience or the value of the product to instead focus on what the manual says they have to talk about.

Love to have a sales off with you calling warm or cold leads, me with a script, you without and see who gets more sales

 

[toastking]

This is again a terrible idea as frankly I don't give a damn you can take the win and tell your mates if it makes you happy, and secondly it frustrates me as it is symptomatic of why people hate salespeople! The typical salespeople always want to enter into macho whose bigger talk and it annoys people...

I get the concept but insisting that my team use a script that I produced assumes that I know better than them and frankly I am not that arrogant. I also hire team members with the purpose of improving on what I can offer. If I could simply do it myself why hire someone else at all? Just to be a robot that adds nothing to my life and business? If its purely short term numbers then why try and excel in business at all, just sell something average by battering the phones with as big a team as possible and a script and never do anything great.

Are you honestly saying that you'd always insist on a salesperson using a script and not being allowed to draw on life experience, things the customer may ask that aren't on the script or to build relationships? If so this conversation isn't worth having and I'll stick by my 'this is terrible' advice comment! If I've gotten you wrong and you mean a script as a basis and of course you move away from it then we're on the same page you just go on the stricter side of me and my teams.

 

[MBE1]

Re using your own people or outsourcing, I would always recommend your own team.

Sales is too important to leave to someone else, imagine outsourcing sales, receiving good sales figures, taking on more staff, warehouse, stock etc to satisfy the orders, and then your sales team leaves on the spot to make more money, your sales stop on the spot, but your overheads do not.

 

[Joe Fos]

Always hire a team.

 

[Annie Starks]

i guess the author of this post doesn't need your recommendations anymore.....considering that the question is dated 2010...)

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

I like to sell myself.... but then again I like other people to sell for me..... I wonder which is best?.....I know.......FIGHT!!!!!!...lol

 

[SJC Consulting]

Hello David
When I started my own business with a partner we made the decision that we wouldn't consider employing anyone until we had developed enough business to create a budget for another team member. We forecast that this would be after trading for one year. So that became our target. we achieved the target well within the year. Towards the end of the year we found exactly the person we needed for our team and ended up employing him at the 10 month stage. We made absolutely the right decision (he is now a Senior Partner in the organisation). I hope this structured approach helps you work out what best suits your Company.
Just to let you know - I specialise in helping developing business with their sales planning, recruitment and training of sales people. Please contact me and see if I can be of practical help.
Steve