Quality B2B inside sales representatives can be difficult to come by, especially for companies that occupy a niche industry and sell complex solutions, products or services.
Once the search is over and you have finally hired a rep with the appropriate caliber for lead generation and sales, they’re ready to get started, right? Think again.
The overhead of hiring a full-time inside sales rep is high. First because of hiring, training benefits, supervising, high turnover, etc., and then because of the time that gets eaten up by internal tasks, mismanaged time, and more.
If your sales numbers are not what you would like them to be, it could be because your inside sales reps are not actually selling.
How are your inside sales reps spending their time?
Between internal responsibilities, administrative tasks, and obstacles relating to a company’s organizational structure, sales reps are not spending the bulk of their time selling — according to most research, that amount of time is not even half.
Sales reps spend 35.2% of their time selling and 65% on everything else.
A typical company can spend up to two-thirds of a salary per rep per year to pay him or her for tasks they were not even hired to perform.
Sales reps must juggle the time they spend on internal tasks and the time they spend on sales, which is decidedly not enough. When time management becomes a more pertinent skill for employees than fine-tuned business acumen for lead generation and sales, change must occur.
To outsource or hire?
Imagine the increase in revenue you would experience if your sales reps could spend more than half their time making outbound calls to prospects.
Now consider what they could bring to the table if all of their time was spent making calls and qualifying leads. While the upfront cost of outsourcing may seem high, when you consider how much time an outsourced team spends making connections and uncovering real opportunities, it’s worth it.
That amount of time? It’s 100%.
Additionally, by hiring an outsourced B2B lead generation team to uncover opportunities and qualify leads, you are hiring experts who excel at what they do. B2B cold calling is a core competency that comes from business experience and is a skill that not all salespeople have.
Outsourcing to experts who can bring in qualified leads as well as begin making calls as soon as the program is initiated will have a positive and immediate impact on your sales pipeline growth.
Outsourcing also offers the ability to scale up or down as needed. Many industries experience cyclical sales cycles and having the option to increase headcount only when needed is a real benefit. This saves a significant amount of time and money for companies, particularly when compared to the overhead of carrying a full-time employee that stays on the team even when the cycle has slowed.
Another issue with full-time sales reps can be sub-par organization skills, improper use of a CRM, and insufficient tracking. When internal sales reps are bogged down with administrative responsibilities, consistent reporting gets pushed to the wayside as teams struggle to achieve sales success in an increasingly complex world.
An outsourced company can provide clear, focused reporting that can help you easily and accurately determine your ROI.
If your inside sales team is underachieving, outsourcing your lead generation efforts is a viable and proven solution that can help by getting qualified, actionable sales leads into the sales pipeline.
The boost a sales department can get through outsourcing their lead generation is unmatched by any other route your leadership team can take to improve your bottom line.
Jim
