Internal Sales Team vs an Outsourced Sales Team: Complete Cost Breakdown

• T-ROC Staff
• Jun 17, 2021
• 7 mins read

 

Sales Outsourcing Costs: Internal Sales Team vs Outsourced Sales Team.

Outsourcing retail staffing and sales team needs is a big decision with a lot of considerations revolving around it. How will it impact your budget? Are you better off handling things by building your own house sales team? How much will sales outsourcing really cost you? Does the cost of hire justify the performance level you get from an outsourced sales team?

The questions are many and there aren’t always easy answers. However, as a general rule outsourced sales should be a business investment that delivers measurable sales and revenue returns in hard numbers. On top of the bottom-line benefits, sales outsourcing should also alleviate a lot of the time and effort investment building a house sales team requires.

Sales Outsourcing: What does it actually cost?

Measuring the exact cost of outsourced sales is something that can’t be done in a blog post. There are far too many variables to pin down any specific numbers, including required coverage area, number of sales reps needed, number of brands and products being sold, best practices and so much more.

That being said there are some important considerations to weigh that can help you make more informed cost and budget-based decisions regarding house sales versus sales outsourcing.

Need a little help deciding if outsourced sales is right for your brand or retail business? Talk with the experts at The Revenue Optimization Companies (T-ROC), a leading provider of staffing and sales solutions for Fortune 100 brands and retailers.

What is the cost of an internal sales team?

This is where a lot of brands and retailers miscalculate the value of outsourcing. The cost of building your own sales team extends a lot further than those initial hiring costs. Remember, when you go with house sales you’re taking on the responsibility for managing your sales professionals and providing them with the necessary tools and benefits they need to perform at their best. Those costs can add up to quite a substantial investment. A good sales team requires a lot of support and you need to factor this into the cost of internal sales. Some costs to consider include:

Recruiting

Where will you find your in-house sales team? Doing it on your own means you’re now required to invest in retail recruiters, additional HR personnel, vetting processes, drug testing protocol, interviewing processes and much more. These are all added costs than can be minimized, if not eliminated entirely, by outsourcing sales to a reputable 3rd party sales solutions and staffing provider.

Training

A great sales team needs ongoing training support in order to stay great. Are you staffing the trainers? Are you providing the classroom space or mobile devices to enable remote learning? Have you put together a training plan that can be updated and augmented as corporate and market needs evolve? Training is a huge component that must be factored into the cost of hiring an in-house sales team. Exactly what that cost is depends on a company’s size, scope and needs. However, training is a cost that absolutely applies to any sales development and staffing program.

Management/Oversight

While it’s true that outsourcing your sales involves some internal management, the scope of it pales in comparison to onboarding your own staff of retail sales professionals. You’ll need to build a strong management team to hold each sales rep accountable for performance and make sure those pay per hire costs led to creating the best possible sales team. Outsourcing once again takes much of the management responsibility out of your hands in puts it squarely in the hands of your outsourced sales provider.

Technology Assisted Sales

More and more brands and retailers are adding the latest customer engagement solutions and retail management technologies into their sales equations. Why not? It’s a great way to boost those sales figures. However, investing in the latest tech-driven sales solutions can cost a lot of money. Taking things in-house means companies either make the investment in technology themselves or sign an agreement to use solutions designed by other companies. Outsourcing companies, however, usually have proprietary technology already developed and in place to improve the services they’re able to provide brands and retailers. As an outsourced sales customer, you can enjoy these advanced resources as part of your outsourcing program at a fraction of what it would cost to handle it internally.

It’s not the cost of outsourcing, it’s the ROI won by outsourcing

The cost of building an outsourced sales team is very likely to be more than a nominal retail investment. After all, a quality third-party provider will assume the vast majority of the responsibility for building that team, from recruiting to training to onboarding the best and bright sales experts. It’s a lot of work. More importantly, it’s work that companies no longer have to handle themselves.

The true cost of sales outsourcing is best measured by the sales and revenue it generates; by the performance increases companies see; and by the cost reductions and eliminations companies enjoy by contracting with the right outsourcing partner. In other words, the best way to know if outsourcing is right for your brand or retail company is to measure the ROI, not just the cost.

The reality is outsourcing companies are usually far better at finding effective sales experts and providing them with the training and resources necessary to excel than brands and retail companies. Why shouldn’t they be? Their sole focus is to improve sales development by putting together the right team. So when you hire an outsourced sales partner, you should expect to see some dramatic performance and bottom-line improvements in your business.

Outsourced Sales Team Advantages

– Increased sales due to more qualified, better trained sales professionals

– Advanced technology that improves customer engagement and increases sales

– Proven best practices already in place to streamline costs and drive performance

– Comprehensive training programs built around your standards and requirements

– Flexibility to onboard talent quickly for seasonal and event-based sales staffing

– Turnkey services that handle recruiting, vetting, interviewing and onboarding

So what will sales outsourcing cost you? In theory, given all the different variables, the costs you pay for the right outsourced sales partner should more than be made up for by the ROI that outsourcing company provides. Part of this return comes in the form of lowering the cost of business. Part of it comes from improving service and increasing sales. Part of it comes from taking tasks and responsibilities off of your plate so you can focus on growing your business.

At the end of the day, outsourcing has to deliver ROI. If you can achieve better results more affordably or effectively on your own, then your sales outsourcing company has let you down. The right outsourcing partner, however, is one that proves itself day in and day out by delivering a sales team and best practices that move the needle and control costs in ways you just couldn’t do on your own.

If you found this post helpful, you can learn more about outsourced sales, staffing and retail technology at www.trocglobal.com. Be sure to check out our other 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, visit www.trocglobal.com.