Complete Guide: B2B Sales Outsourcing Services

• T-ROC Staff
• Jun 23, 2021
• 11 mins read

Sales Outsourcing And The Difference The Right Third Party Team Can Make For Your Sales Business.

How brands and retail companies are using B2B relationships to impact the sales process and increase revenue.

 

What is Sales Outsourcing?

Sales outsourcing, as it pertains to retail sales and marketing, refers to the B2B relationship entered into by a brand or retail business and an outsourced sales company in which the latter provides sales and marketing services designed to optimize performance. These outsourcing services might include sales staffing, sales team management, new product launches, technology and software solutions, inventory management, customer engagement, and many other aspects of sales development.

Why Outsourcing: The Advantages Of B2B Companies

So what are the benefits of outsourcing to a third-party sales and marketing partner? First and foremost, the right sales outsourcing company brings a new vision and perspective to your business that’s often hard to come by when relying solely on inside sales and operational divisions. The reality is that sometimes being too close to the sales challenges you are facing can prevent you from seeing the forest through the trees. A B2B sales team will likely see things from new angles and uncover new opportunities that might never have been recognized or explored by relying on house sales alone. Specifically, what are some of these sales advantages? We’ll dig into a few of them in the following section.

Are you considering an outsourcing company to drive performance for your sales team and improve how they’re closing deals, but aren’t quite sure if outsourced sales is right for you? Learn more about outsourced sales for retail by visitingwww.trocglobal.com and register for afree outsourced sales and marketing consultation.

Companies are using B2B sales outsourcing. Should you?

Beyond bringing a fresh new set of eyes to the business and its challenges, why are brands and retail companies partnering with B2B companies? The short answer is because outsourcing done right pays off in increased sales and measurable ROI. This happens in a lot of different ways.

Proven Best Practices

One of the biggest advantages third-party sales outsourcing companies bring is a list of proven best practices. Remember these B2B partners are retail sales and marketing experts who have built their businesses and their reputations by providing both small businesses and leading brands with a proven sales process, qualified sales reps, marketing services, social media marketing, inventory management, merchandising services, new technology solutions, customer service solutions, and many other services that are key to increasing sales. By working with a sales outsourcing company, you have access to methods of doing business that can help you realize untapped potential and optimize performance across your operations.

B2B Outsourced Sales Staffing

One of the most difficult areas brands and retailers are currently facing, particularly post-pandemic, is recruiting and retaining the best sales professionals. A good B2B retail management partner will have access to a vetted pool of sales talent nationwide as part of its outsourcing services. Additionally, they’ll handle all aspects of the hiring process on your behalf – recruiting, vetting, drug testing, and the entire onboarding process. This includes providing extensive sales and customer service training. Staffing alone is why many brands and retailers are so fond of outsourcing. It takes this difficult responsibility off of their shoulders and places it on the shoulders of a sales and marketing provider that is, in fact, positioned to do it far more effectively.

B2B Sales Technology Investment

New advancements in retail technology are changing the way sales are done and redefining what customers expect from brands and retailers. Whether it’s using data technologies to track sales development and manage inventory, or deploying the latest omnichannel sales engagement tools to integrate online and brick-and-mortar sales, investing in retail technology is a must for any successful sales growth strategy. There’s simply no plan b in this area. The hurdle, however, is how much that technology is going to cost you. Again, this is another advantage of outsourcing sales. A B2B partner will bring you software and data technology solutions that are cost-leveraged among its many clients. In other words, you don’t have to make a tremendous investment. Your B2B sales partner has already done that. You simply pay a fee to put their proprietary technology to work for your business. It’s an economy of scale that is just not possible unless you’re working with a sales outsourcing company.

Expansion/New Product Launch

One key benefit that outsourcing is sure to bring, along with best practices and expertise, is scalability when it comes to expanding your reach into new markets and introducing new products. The beauty of outsourcing is that you pay for the sales and marketing services that you implement. For instance, if you’re entering a new geographical market, outsourcing allows you to quickly staff up stores with trained sales reps, create and staff events, introduce new marketing and promotional campaigns, implement sales technology, integrate online and physical channels, measure sales performance, and more. You select the sales and marketing services you need as you need them – your B2B sales provider is poised to execute them. Conversely, should for any reason you need to scale back sales teams or market expansion, it can usually be done far more efficiently and affordably if you’ve partnered with a B2B team. The flexibility and scalability of outsourcing is truly one of its greatest advantages.

Focusing On Core Business Responsibilities

Outsourcing companies allow brands and retailers to avoid spreading themselves too thin. Sales development, staffing, training, marketing, technology deployment, and the countless other aspects of optimizing sales require an inordinate amount of attention. Beyond the cost savings and measurable ROI outsourced sales companies deliver, they also provide brands and retailers with the freedom to focus on other core areas of their businesses – new product development, exploring new markets, developing strategic partnerships, international expansion, and other new opportunities.

Capitalizing On An Ever-Changing Retail Industry

Outsourcing is probably the most affordable and risk-managed way for brands and retailers to stay on top of whatever is coming next in a retail industry that is anything but static. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is evidence that no one can be 100% sure what the future will bring. However, one thing is absolutely certain, positive or challenging, every change brings with it new opportunities and outsourced sales providers can give you an upper hand when it comes to identifying these opportunities and capitalizing on them before your competition. Outsourcing companies are adept at overcoming barriers. In fact, the core of their business lies in anticipating and responding to industry changes from a sales and marketing perspective, as well as from a technology perspective, and when you have someone else looking out for you in these areas it makes staying on top of an ever-changing industry a whole lot easier.

What outsourcing services do B2B companies provide?

This, of course, entirely depends on the individual outsourcing company, but the most experienced and entrepreneurial leaders in the field provide an extensive range of services that usually extend well beyond typical sales and marketing. A full range of B2B outsourcing services might include:

– Assisted Sales/Outsourced Staffing

– Recruiting, training, onboarding

– Sales team management

– Marketing and promotions

– Visual merchandising services

– Competitive intelligence

– Consumer insights

– Customer engagement solutions

– Data capture and analysis solutions

– Inventory control and management

– RFID programs

– Field management solutions

– Omnichannel sales solutions

– Omnichannel engagement solutions

– Managed technology services

– Real-time sales and performance reporting

Okay, so how much does outsourcing with a B2B sales partner cost?

Retail is a bottom-line business and making sure your outsourced sales partner is worth the investment is an important part of the equation. Again, one of the beautiful things about outsourcing sales is that you pay for the services you deploy. So, there shouldn’t be any waste and little or no risk of paying for services that you don’t require. That being said, it’s impossible to say exactly how much outsourcing is going to cost you. It all depends on the sales program you implement and the outsourcing company you choose.

However, there is a general rule of thumb and it’s a simple cost-benefit analysis. Whatever you pay for an outsourced sales company should yield more than that investment in cost savings, time savings, and measurable increases in sales. There is no point in contracting with an outsourced sales company if, at the end of the day, that team can’t show you actual cost reductions and increases in sales. The good news is most third-party companies provide detailed reporting that measures performance against costs, so you will be able to see exactly where your money goes and what it yields in terms of added sales and revenue.

“We hold ourselves absolutely accountable for performance,” says Chris Green, Senior Vice President of Business Development at The Revenue Optimization Companies (T-ROC), a leading sales outsourcing provider for Fortune 100 brands and retailers. “Our outsourced sales solutions are built around transparent and real-time reporting that measures performance and provides our clients instant access to exactly how well their T-ROC sales teams and solutions are doing. We understand that our clients put their trust in our people and technology. We certainly appreciate that trust and we understand that proving ourselves each and every day is part of the job,” concludes Green.

How do I find the right B2B outsourcing company?

To start with, it’s important to find an outsourcing company that is highly specialized in your industry. For example, there are many B2B outsourcing companies that focus on growing inside sales or outside sales for various types of businesses. The retail industry operates quite differently, and typical B2B sales outsourcing services don’t necessarily apply to the needs of brands and retailers. For our industry, you’re not looking for a sales team to go out there and sell to other businesses. You’re looking for a sales team that can help build and guide the team in each of your stores and provide the sales and marketing support to help you better engage customers and increase overall sales performance.

So, step one is making sure you find a third-party management partner that specializes in retail sales. It’s also important to ask yourself some questions to make sure that your partner matches your needs. For instance, do they have a large enough sales staffing network to handle your team requirements? Can they bring you the latest retail technologies? Do they provide a full range of capabilities, including marketing services, merchandising services, operations management? Can they prove their ROI with detailed reporting? Are they experienced retail experts or just sales consultants?

There are a lot of outsourced sales choices out there. Do the research. Check out the case studies. Go over the client roster. Most importantly, sit down and talk to the team who’ll be driving your sales. They should be more than happy to provide afree consultation detailing realistic expectations, potential sales solutions, and some pretty solid costs for you. If they can’t do that, it’s probably a good idea to keep on searching.

If you found this post helpful, we invite you to learn more about B2B sales as it pertains to retail, staffing solutions, business intelligence and retail best practices at www.trocglobal.com. Be sure to check out our other retail-focused blogs at https://trocglobal.com/company/#blog.

TROC is the leading provider of premier staffing outsource, software, managed technology services, and consumer insights for the top global brands, retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and distributors. The company’s distinctive solutions address the entire lifecycle of brick and mortar brand and retail operations by combining retail expertise, best practices, and technology to help its customers achieve sales and operational excellence as well as a sustainable competitive advantage. As a Retail 4.0 thought leader, T-ROC enables companies with high-value products in the physical world to thrive through the digitalization of the physical shopping experience. To learn more about T-ROC, visitwww.trocglobal.com.