4 Principles Why Proactive Approach is Crucial in Sales Outsourcing

Why Is Initiating First Contact With Customers Important In Sales Outsourcing?

Sales outsourcing has been a fundamental solution for SMEs aiming for better profitability. There is a higher chance of getting your annual profit by offshoring salespeople than by creating your own.

Besides profit, outsourcing sales teams also prevents you from exerting effort in recruitment. Especially if you always need to hire new agents to fill those vacant positions.

A recent study shows that the annual attrition rate for sales reps is as high as 34%. This is not good considering all the time you must utilize just by training your in-house team. Most companies spend 26% of their time training agents and newly hired employees.

Once done training, sales personnel only allot 35.2% of their time selling the products. The rest of their time is for solving after-sales issues and lead management. Outsourcing these tasks will help your team focus on core business functions.

Be that as it may, not every company fully utilizes the potential of outsourcing their sales team. Some would like to hire agents that will assist customers in calling their business. However, other ways exist to engage with your prospects to gain more traction than your competitors. This is where proactive sales pitching comes into place.

Unlike a response-based sales approach, proactively calling your prospects gives you an advantage. Moreover, this allows you to discover other markets where your business can thrive.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the four critical reasons why a proactive approach is essential to small and medium enterprises:

More Product Information Doesn’t Mean More Sales

Most companies tend to swamp their catalog or advertisements with information about their product. 68% of businesses believe that more information generally helps customers buying decisions.

This belief is one of the reasons why 75% of new products failed to reach their target sales during the first year. Customers prefer to use their usual item than read the long list of reasons why yours is better.

On top of that, there is an 18% decrease in sales rate for those companies that tried this type of strategy. That’s why having proactive sales personnel explain your product is better than putting all that information to read.

Sales agents should assume that the customer knows your product at the primary level. 77% of prospective purchasers already did their research before talking with an agent. Your agent’s role is to discuss the importance of these essential features.

However, you shouldn’t force your customers to purchase your product. 86% of professionals agreed that helping customers consider all possible options is essential. You have to appeal to their emotions and explain how your product will help them in their daily activity. They will never get these explanations if they read your catalog or online ads.

Reduce the Sales Cycle

Having a proactive sales team also reduces your customers’ purchase journey. As mentioned, customers would like to research the product first before calling the company. It might take them a long time to gather information about your service. Then, they will call your company and wait for someone to answer.

65% of customers said they’ve been spending too much time purchasing compared to what they expect. The call queue in inbound sales service plays a significant factor in prolonging the sales cycle.

However, initiating contact with your customers reduces the time spent waiting for someone to answer their phone call. It will speed up the sales process, and you can also close more business deals. A proactive approach makes purchasing easier by 86%. Imagine how many additional sales you can complete by having a faster transaction with customers.

You Will Reach Them on the Most Convenient Platform

Having an outsourced sales team opens up more channels where you can reach your customers. Initiating contact with your buyers helps them prioritize your services first. It is because they no longer have to look for your contact details.

You can maximize its potential by having a proactive approach when interacting with your prospects. Instead of waiting for them to contact your business, your sales agents can check which platforms your customers use the most.

Here are the top 5 platforms your clients use to purchase products:

 

Buyers’ Preferred Communication Platform	How Likely They Will Use It To Purchase
Live Chat	92%
Phone Call	88%
Email	85%
Facebook	84%
Twitter	77%

 

This data shows that more consumers prefer to exchange messages through chat. It makes the conversation more convenient; regardless of the noise condition, they can do it anywhere. Moreover, the discussion provides accurate time responses from live sales agents rather than sending emails.

However, most sales professionals still use email to communicate with B2B clients. 86% of salespeople send emails since they can put all the product details that the B2B prospect needs to know.

They also use more traditional approaches like phone calls since it’s more formal than chat messaging. 78% of corporate managers and decision-makers made an appointment from an invitation through email or cold call.

Higher Appreciation for Your Company

Initiating contact to offer your product shows you’re paying attention to your customers. Your sales agent can help them decide which effect is more beneficial. They can quickly determine if someone is guiding them throughout their research. Salespeople can provide scenarios where each product is helpful in certain situations.

Prospect buyers like a company that will make their purchasing process easy to comprehend. No wonder 62% of consumers prefer proactive salespeople to reactive sales teams.

Customers think that corporations with a proactive process are always one step ahead. They have more chances to anticipate issues and eliminate challenges customers will face in the future.

Outbound sales calls are also helpful for after-sales support. 78% of buyers expect a quality assurance call after buying your product. It shows how you appreciate and care for their business as your customers.

Who Are The People Behind a Sales Outsourcing Team?

A successful sales outsourcing campaign isn’t just in the hands of the sales associate. Several people are working together to create the best strategy to close business deals. The average number of people involved in the sales purchase process has increased from 5 to 7.

Hiring all these people will cost you more time and money. You need to invest in recruitment and training them. However, as mentioned above, the average attrition rate of employees is not favorable for small and medium businesses.

Thus, outsourcing your sales team is the ideal solution to improve your closing rate. They could provide people with expertise in several fields, like nurturing clients. Moreover, they can assign a team that will monitor your sales growth.

Let’s take a look at some people behind a successful outsourced sales team:

• Sales Support Representative

Sales representatives assist and connect with customers interested in your product. As your first line of communication, they should have the patience to persuade them to buy your product. Outsourcing companies also provide an omnichannel to reach a broader range of customers.

• Content Writer

The function of a content writer is to create messages to attract more leads and prospects. Their primary focus is to provide transparent communication materials that you can use to build relationships with your clients.

Aside from writing, content writers must also find the best way to describe your product. They must study your customers’ behavior to create a successful content piece. BPO companies have several software programs that generate customer data. You can use this to identify the most effective approach to writing content.

• Corporate Trainer

They are responsible for providing skills training for your sales team. Corporate trainers will help sales representatives to focus on core areas that will benefit your business. On top of that, they can also relay protocols and monitor if agents follow these rules. Call center companies have dedicated trainers for their sales outsourcing service.

• Quality Assurance Analyst

Their primary function is to ensure the high quality of every business transaction. They keep track of interactions between the agents and prospective clients. In addition to that, they can provide recommendations to the team on potential improvements.

Among those outsourcing countries stated, India and the Philippines compete in the pricing. Indian BPOs indeed offer cheaper service. Unfortunately, that’s their only advantage over the Philippines’ outsourcing industry.

• Business Development Representative

They are responsible for connecting with the leads and setting up an appointment. Most of the time, these leads already have initial contact with your business. However, BDR can also make the first contact through email or ph.

These agents are helpful for a B2B transaction since they can set up a meeting with the decision maker if they reach their secretary or staff.

Some BPO companies train their sales representative to be BDR too. However, you can have two separate agents for this function if you want your sales rep to focus on closing sales. You can let them call those appointments BDR set up for your business.

• Customer Success Manager

As the name suggests, they are responsible for managing the overall operations of your sales team. They connect your business with a third-party service provider. This manager approves recommendations to optimize your team’s performance. It is their job to identify issues arising before they can affect your team’s performance.

Although you can hire your Customer Success Manager, outsourcing will also be better. Sales team members can easily approach the manager if they’re just nearby. On top of that, it might be hard to manage an overseas team since they can’t discuss face-to-face.

How Much Do Sales Outsourcing Services Cost?

Offshoring may seem costly. However, it would be best if you considered many expenses that make in-house teams more expensive. These in-house costs include:

• Insurance and retirement benefits
• Commissions and bonuses
• Back-office personnel
• Continuous software upgrade and maintenance
• Facility

Outsourcing your sales team eliminates these possible expenses since the BPO company will handle everything.

However, some are just concerned about the salary of the outsourcing agents. So, here’s the salary comparison between US sales reps compared to your possible outsourcing destination:

 

Country	Sales Reps’ Estimated Annual Salary
USA	$65,509
Ukraine (Eastern Europe)	$6,621
Philippines (Asia)	$4,921
India (Asia)	$2,860

 

Meanwhile, here’s the estimated salary of a Sales Manager in each country:

 

Country	Sales Managers’ Estimated Annual Salary
USA	$77,208
Ukraine (Eastern Europe)	$17,098
Philippines (Asia)	$15,275
India (Asia)	$6,842

 

As you can see, there’s a significant discrepancy between the annual salary of the US sales team compared to these outsourcing countries. You get the same service quality or even more if you outsource with the right BPO company.

 

Philippines Outsourcing Vs. India’s BPO Services

Among those outsourcing countries stated, India and the Philippines compete in the pricing. Indian BPO indeed offers cheaper services. Unfortunately, that’s their only advantage. Many businesses preferred outsourcing their sales team in the Philippines because of their neutral accent. An understandable accent is a great help in persuading customers to buy your product. Thus, it’ll be easier for your company to close more sales.

So, having the most affordable price in the market is not a guarantee that you will have a faster investment return. You must ensure you get what you paid for when outsourcing your sales process.

Aside from quality, cultural compatibility is also one reason the Philippines is the “Call Center Capital of the World.” Having an identical cultural background makes Filipino representatives more relatable than Indian call center agents.

For around 68% of consumers in India, a pleasant conversation with a representative is the key to a positive service experience.

If you’re still not convinced that the Philippines is better than India because they’re more affordable. Remember that 64% of people consider quality business interaction more important than pricing. So, if you’re still not improving because you are worried about the price, you may be targeting the wrong goal.

 

Sales Outsourcing Firms in the Philippines

If you are a small or medium business looking to outsource your sales team, go to Magellan Solutions. We have over 17 years of experience providing services for SMEs from different industries.

We are an ISO-certified BPO company that strictly follows a high standard of service from recruitment to the onboarding process. Besides that, we guarantee onboard protection for your data. Our tech support team has different security protocols to prevent online breaching.

Our Business Developers can help you set up your key performance indicators (KPI), guide you, and monitor the progress of your business with us.

We also offer guaranteed flexible pricing options based on several factors, like service and the number of agents you need. Magellan Solutions understands that start-up businesses have limited funds for outsourcing services.

Contact us today and get a free 60-minute business consultation. Please fill out the contact form below.