Anyone have experience of outsourcing a sales team or marketing team?
How did it go?
Value for money or a headache?
Who did you use?
I imagine the usual caveat of getting what you pay for will apply, but it is an interesting avenue to explore, but some real life experiences would be good.

Cheers in advance.

I’ve been the one that marketing has been outsourced to. Advantages are that you see a product or service with fresh eyes and with out bias, when in-house are too close to it. The value aspect depends on how much you value your time, and how long it may take you to get similar results. Sometimes it’s as simple as making a strapline say more in half the words, but then a client things you’re charging too much – but they had x years to do the same and couldn’t. Swings and roundabouts.

A fiend of mine runs a company that provides bid work and sales pipeline for companies. Id never heard of such a thing before but he seems to be pretty good at it. Theyve recently been targeting SME and theyre very much buying the sale pipeline service, whereas the bigger companies want bid assistance.

Theyve recently been targeting SME and theyre very much buying the sale pipeline service, whereas the bigger companies want bid assistance.

That sounds wonderful, I only wish I knew what you were talking about!!! 😳 😕 But I could still be interested in having a look at who they are and wht they do, email in profile. 😀

The value aspect depends on how much you value your time, and how long it may take you to get similar results.

Agreed, but in my case the time question is in respect to the sales side whereas in respect to marketing I’m looking at making up for a lack of skill/experience.

No experience of sales/marketing outsourcing, but based upon IT outsourcing (from both sides) do not under-estimate the management of the contract/supplier costs/effort – it’ll be far more than you could imagine.

Also as they say, just because another client succeeded – ‘you can’t buy history…’

I’d have to ask you what your motivations are for outsourcing Sales and Marketing?

For small companies building close relationships with their customers (which you only really get via sales) is usually vital. You get direct feedback from your customers, you inform you customers better of your products (hopefully) and you save money by not employing a third party. The problem is usually resources/lack of sales expertise but i’d hope you will have a better idea of who your customers are than a 3rd party sales orgnaisation and could sell to them well?

Business jargon – SME small/medium enterprise. Sales pipline. Moving people along from first contact to repeat purchase customer. Usually in a CRM (customer relationship management) software.

I provide an outsourced sales & marketing function for IT and technical companies.

Without coming across as an advert the real benefit is for those companies who could not justify a full time salesforce, but when they need one, they need a good one. Just like hiring a lawyer.

One of my clients is a software house and a big project will usually keep them fully occupied for up to 18 months. So if they employed me full time, when I brought in a deal, they’d have to sack me! And firms like that are not usually the best at cold calling new business and conducting effective sales campaigns.

Where it works less well from my viewpoint (but well for the client) is when they are a bit commercially naive to start with. I can go along and introduce some effective procedures and get the ball rolling. Then after the first few sales the company realises that a) it now knows how to do it, b) it really ought to be a prime function of the business, and c) it’s a cheap solution when you’re not selling much but it gets quite pricey when you’re successful.

In other words – as a client there is very little risk and an awful lot of benefit in giving it a go – as long as you have an escape clause.

I’d have to ask you what your motivations are for outsourcing Sales and Marketing?

My main motivation is looking at alternatives and the associated costs, as a new business I’m just to look at a few alternatives. As a salesman I understand exactly what you’re saying regarding customer contact and feedback.
Third party sales teams are something I know are used in the pharmaceutical industry, but I don’t know what degree of success they have, hence the question here. As I’m looking for potential funding I have the opportunity to look at a local roll out or think nationally. The manufacturing side would cope without really batting an eyelid, so that’s not an problem.
For the marketing side it’s simply to support my lack on knowledge and skill or what little I have.
Re business jargon- I don’t do it and berated my students who tried to baffle/impress me with it. 😀

Id want a different teacher if they didnt know what an SME was 😉

As a SME ( :D) we outsource some telesales (scientific sales not double glazing) to try and contact a larger customer base and sales leads get passed onto our own sales people. This combination can work well too.

Id want a different teacher if they didnt know what an SME was

PYMEs were more important than SMEs. 😛

As a SME ( :D) we outsource some telesales (scientific sales not double glazing) to try and contact a larger customer base and sales leads get passed onto our own sales people. This combination can work well too.

Funny you should mention double glazing…
I’m not really looking a lead generation, but more like having a team knocking on doors in a B2B environment also with nothing stopping them doing a bit of B2C work when called on. (but not out of the question).
At the moment I am responsible for local work and happy with that. I also have the option to look at a national launch, where I’ll need help, or simply develop it myself employing people as and when needed. I am working from a previously experienced model that worked quite well.

b r – Member
No experience of sales/marketing outsourcing, but based upon IT outsourcing (from both sides) do not under-estimate the management of the contract/supplier costs/effort – it’ll be far more than you could imagine.

+ lots and lots. The sales people will always sell a good story and may well even provide examples of customers where it work brilliantly but I wouldn’t believe it until you’ve tried it yourself. Some outsource will allow for a trial period to prove themselves – the key thing there is to get a commitment on key services to ensure it’s maintained. As ever with outsourced functions, turnover of the people actually doing the work can be a major issue depending on what they’re actually doing.

Along the way I have advised various people who where outsource sales/marketing and got into dispute. Biggest problem seems to be the failure, at the outset to set expectations and more importantly manage these.

The sales people will always sell a good story and may well even provide examples of customers where it work brilliantly but I wouldn’t believe it until you’ve tried it yourself.

Is it possible to bullshit a bullshitter? This is why real life experiences count, hence my question.

I think it can be tbh – especially when well established customers may well back them up and not mention the negatives (because they may well have made the decision to outsource and not want to admit that it doesn’t work as well as they claim)

Depending on how well you utilize it, outsourcing could bring you great success in your business venture.

Take a look for example at this successful online entrepreneur in this interview. He was able to utilize outsourcing well and now he’s making it big.