Can you afford to let sales growth be the one thing that isn’t managed effectively?
As integration firms and IT companies grow, we often see them attempt to fill gaps in sales leadership by spreading tasks among employees or asking a team member to take on revenue-related functions while continuing on with their own duties.
But, after attempting to run regional operations, serve as president, and manage sales, ECC President and CEO Kyle Habben says it best:
“I couldn’t give sales the attention it needed with so much else going on. We needed to build a sales playbook, and we needed a sales process that was repeatable and scalable. I didn’t have time or bandwidth to do that, or to fix things that were broken. We needed help.”
When your team is spread too thin, something will inevitably fall through the cracks.
Can you afford to let sales growth be the one thing that isn’t managed effectively?
For many integrators, outsourcing sales management is the answer.
Outsourcing sales management works well when:
You need dedicated sales leadership, but it doesn’t require full-time attention
Your C-suite needs to focus on company-wide strategic initiatives instead of managing salespeople and answering questions about opportunities and deals
Your company is in a state of transition and needs interim leadership and guidance
Your internal team lacks the time, resources, and/or expertise to do the work
You need third-party insight to bring a fresh perspective to revenue-related issues
You need to fill sales leadership gaps quickly but don’t have time to recruit and hire
If you’re considering outsourced sales management, then here are some points to consider so you can find the right fit.
1. Data Should Drive Revenue-Related Decisions
There shouldn’t be any guessing when it comes to managing your organization’s revenue-related activities. For best results, there should be solid data and reasoning behind what your outsourced sales management provider is going to do—and why.
For example, Revenueify begins every engagement with a REVUP Assessment. This identifies exactly what’s missing within your organization to drive sales and provides tailored, data-driven insights and recommendations to help you engage more buyers, boost revenue and margin, increase win rates, and reduce sales turnover.
To drive revenue in your organization, we take a deep dive into the metrics and use those insights to decide where and how to spend our time.
The REVUP Assessment results act as a roadmap that tells us exactly what needs to be improved and where to start.
2. There Should Be a Clear Sales Plan in Place
You may know where and what you want to improve, but your outsourced sales management provider should be able to tell you whether that’s the right approach.
For example, we worked with one integrator that was ready to improve its managed services sales. But after a close analysis, we determined that the company and its staff weren’t quite ready to do this. There were gaps that needed to be filled first, so those became the priority. Once those issues were addressed, then it was time to narrow in on managed services.
Based on what your company data reveals about your sales, there should be a clear plan and strategy put in place. Ask to see a schedule, program, or timeline that maps out the first 90 days of your engagement. It should address questions like:
What will be accomplished during this time?
How will these accomplishments align with your business priorities?
How will your organization move closer to achieving its sales goals during this time?
3. The Sales Provider Should Be Willing to Listen to Feedback
Although your outsourced sales management provider should be able to guide you on where and how to improve revenue, they should also listen to your suggestions and expectations.
For instance, we worked with an integrator that wanted to prioritize margin and make a profit on every dollar, even if it meant taking a step back in top-line revenue. We took that feedback into account as we worked with the company’s sales reps, helping them determine which deals would meet that goal—and which wouldn’t.
For integrator ECC, the team mapped out three goals it wanted to address:
1. Build a repeatable, scalable sales process and turn it into a playbook
2. Increase margin through consultative/outcome-based selling
3. Teach the sales team how to sell the company’s managed services programs
We prioritize those goals as we oversee the company’s revenue-related activities.
4. Sales Reps Should Have Full Access
From the perspective of the sales team, engaging with a provider of outsourced sales management services shouldn’t feel any different than working with an in-house sales leader. They (and you) should have just as much access to that sales leader as they would if they were down the hall. It should be about providing hands-on, always-available guidance—personally and professionally.
To make sure Revenueify provides this level of service, we conduct an account planning session at least once every month with each sales rep. Through this process, we work together with each rep to determine their top accounts. Then, we discuss tactics to work those accounts—even before opportunities exist.
With outsourced sales management, your sales team should have not only a leader to oversee revenue activities, but also receive sales training. We weave outcome-based selling strategies and our AIM (analyze, implement, and move forward) approach into outsourced sales management services so that you come out with a better-performing sales team that drives more lucrative opportunities and more new business.
Or, if you prefer, we can coach your sales managers and show them how to do what we do. They get to learn our tactics, and we’re here to train them as they carry those strategies out.
5. Sales Should Focus on Continuous improvement
To help you gauge the return on your investment, there should be metrics in place to gauge sales progress. You deserve to know what kind of a difference outsourced sales management is making for your company.
Revenueify conducts a new REVUP Assessment every month and compares metrics from month to month to track improvement.
You can see exactly how far your team has come and how close your company is to meeting its sales goals and KPIs.
6. Document Everything
Outsourced sales management isn’t a permanent solution, so that means the work your service provider offers should be documented so the next person in that role knows what was done, what the results were, and how to repeat it.
As long as someone reinforces and oversees the established processes and strategies, then successful sales should be able to continue.
At the end of your engagement, if you’re ready to hire a full-time sales leader or pass the reins along to someone else, then look for an outsourced sales management provider that can steer you in the right direction.
Read more about how we help integrators through our outsourced sales management services.