If your B2B or medtech company wants to generate a profit, then sales and marketing must focus on generating new revenue for the top line, and on tasks that will improve the bottom line. That efficiency should run end-to-end across your sales process, from the first contact your company makes with a prospect, to the day contracts are signed and you close the sale.
Unfortunately, there are a number of time-consuming activities that can impede your efforts if not handled effectively. From coaching and training sales professionals, to salaries and benefits for full-time employees, to the ups and downs of seasonal sales cycles, there are many factors to consider when staffing your business development and inside sales function.
Maximize your best internal resources
Many successful medtech and B2B companies use an outsourced approach with their inside sales function. It’s a great way to keep your sales pipeline full with qualified leads and up-to-date contact information, without burdening your highly paid field sales reps (aka your best “closers”) with the day-to-day routine of cold calling, prospecting and data entry in the CRM system.
Common activities for inside sales outsourcing include:
- Cold calling and prospecting with purchased lists or through the contacts in your CRM system.
- Qualifying inbound inquiries, such as marketing-generated leads from your website, events or email campaigns.
- Generating leads that are qualified, complete and ready for discussions about your product or service.
- Nurturing cooler leads until these opportunities are ready for hand-off to the in-house sales team.
- Setting appointments on your field sales reps’ calendars for product demos, in-depth discussions or follow-up calls.
Outsourcing helps marketing and sales organizations do more with without adding unnecessary headcount.
Here are three ways outsourcing your inside sales function can positively impact your bottom line:
1. More attention to the top of the sales funnel
The most successful sales teams focus simultaneously on the long term and the short term. Prospects at the top of the funnel might not be close to impacting the bottom line yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. When you give these prospects, who are early in the decision-making process, dedicated attention with regular follow up calls and communications, they’re more likely to convert down the line. That’s the long-term view.
However, if the in-house sales team focuses all their efforts on opportunities that are further through the funnel, then the organization only makes progress on short-term deals. Sales and marketing are forever scrambling to refill the sales funnel. It’s a common issue because the skillsets needed for early-stage cold calling and lead nurturing and very different from those needed for relationship-building and closing deals. It’s tough for a single sales force to handle every step of every opportunity—and do it well.
An outsourced inside sales team can help by focusing on continuous top of the funnel sales prospecting. This ensures that all prospects receive periodic engagement. It keeps your sales pipeline full for long-term success, and lets the in-house sales team concentrate on selling for immediate revenue.
2. Greater focus on all revenue sources
An in-house inside sales team typically spends the majority of its time working with the largest deals and keyaccounts. However, these big opportunities aren’t the only potential sources of revenue. Small and midsize accounts can also improve your bottom line—often with sales cycles that are shorter and more efficient.
An outsourced inside sales firm can ensure all your accounts receive individual attention. These professional business development representatives (BDRs) can also stay in touch with existing customers to provide ongoing account management or generate interest in new products or services. This team coverage ensures your medtech or B2B company takes full advantage of all possible revenue opportunities in your market, no matter the size. (And even small and medium-sized deals add up for bottom line impact.)
3. Easy ability to flex resources
If you’re like most B2B and medtech companies, your sales cycles ebb and flow throughout the year, based on seasonal factors, budget cycles and other events. (The current COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of this variability.) Ideally, your sales resources should correlate with this calendar, to balance the expenses you make in marketing and sales with the likelihood of new revenue coming in.
However, working with full-time internal resources makes this difficult. Outsourcing, on the other hand, makes it easy to scale your sales team up or down as market conditions (or inbound leads) dictate, without impacting FTE employment levels. (The outsourced company simply assigns resources to various projects as client work dictates.)
This flexibility provides a key competitive advantage, particularly during busy times. When you need additional volume, simply dial up the capacity with your outsourced partner. There’s no lag time to place an ad, screen candidates and train new employees—only to find 90 days or more have passed and you’ve missed the window on advantageous market conditions.
Curious if outsourcing your sales prospecting, lead generation or appointment-setting activities makes sense? Let us run the numbers and show you the ROI opportunity for your business. Contact us today.
