subject: Sales Outsourcing – What can be outsourced ? [print this page] True to the fact that Sales & Marketing can't be outsourced completely. The question arises "what should be out sourced and how". Exact definition can be arrived only after evaluating the sales process on a company and anticipated role of the Sales & Marketing Outsourcing partner. At the outset let me make one thing clear, I am not covering companies who provide field sales staff as a Sales & Marketing Outsourcing partner. These reps perform their jobs as the sales teams of the company and for us it doesn't come under outsourcing paradigm.
From generic point of view the aspects related to customer interaction and that too towards the decision making/closing shouldn't be outsourced. Also the aspects related to Account mining of existing customers and key account management is something best done by in-house teams. Does that mean, all other activities should be outsources, answer is no again. First step is identification of the process which can be outsourced from a given sales process. Next, they should be aligned to the roles and capability of individual(s) expected to perform it successfully. Finally identifying a SMO partner who will execute it that too in a phase wise manner.
Sales & Marketing outsourcing fails for sure in two conditions. One when you have outsourced something which you should not have and two when you haven't outsourced the activities which you should have. Which creates a big gap in terms of value delivered by SMO partner.
As compared to Sales, marketing is a function which can be outsourced in entirety. From creating a plan to content development and deployment, every aspect can be outsourced in a very easy manner. But companies should keep a good check on the effectiveness of marketing programs and pro-actively work with their partners in order to improve effectiveness and return on every dollar spent.
For instance let's take a company which sells licenses (B2B) of a Software product which sits on top of Microsoft Sharepoint. The company promotes this product online heavily and also consider that as a distribution channel. Company have field sales team, Inside sales team and an Ecommerce engine to attract and acquire customers.
Some of the aspects which can certainly be outsourced includes
- List development
- Lead Generation
Direct Marketing
Email campaigns
Telemarkeing
- Appointment setting services for field sales team
- Lead Scoring
- CRM Management
- Lead nurturing
- Opportunity Management
- Web to lead management
- SEO/SEM
- Web Analytics
At CandorWorks we have proven processes to identify the "Outsourceables" and evaluate effectiveness of "outsourced activity".
