Often it’s not necessary to have full-time staff with boots on the ground when expanding into a new market. Instead, outsourcing commercial activities like sales is an excellent choice, especially for suppliers of complex tech and software solutions.
An alternative to Do It Yourself
Setting up your own inside sales team can put a strain on your organization back home. Managing expectations, quality, and productivity will add considerably to a sales leader’s workload. The direct costs can add up fast too.
Nearly two-thirds of B2B companies outsource marketing.
Companies entering the US often need marketing support to update messaging as well as content like blogs, case studies, and buyer guides.
Implementing a full-service, outsourced sales partner to augment your efforts. An outsourced sales team can help build up your presence without a large upfront investment while mitigating many of the risks associated with expansion. Our Sales as a Managed Service Blueprint has the details.
In addition to the total cost advantage, these six reasons explain why.
Market knowledge
Each market has its own characteristics. If you have done business internationally, you know that it is hard to build up a successful and scalable structure remotely. The lack of language skills and knowledge of the culture adds to the degree of difficulty.
You can build a team of people who already have experience in the target markets, but such people are hard to find, and “they come at a cost.” Outsourcing organizations like ours have local knowledge – in this case, the US market. They understand how business is done, they speak the language, and have knowledge of the relevant laws and regulations.
Prospect information
Modern sales outsourcing companies are data and information-intensive. Reputable ones have extensive local buyer persona experience and the tools to get the relevant prospect data necessary to execute.
Some may already have knowledge of your buyer’s ideal customer profile, decision processes, market alternatives, and pain points. For a company entering a new market, it is impossible to rapidly build up such a level of knowledge and network of contacts.
Shorter time-to-market
Identifying, recruiting, and onboarding staff who will sell your product or solution in the US is a time-consuming and often costly process. The selection procedure usually takes several months and once you have found the right person or the team of people, it will take several months to get “up and running.”
Professional sales outsourcing companies are organized in such a way that they can make resources available swiftly – typically within four weeks. As a result, your time-to-market can be shortened significantly.
Minimizing risk
Expanding internationally is often a leap of faith. Even though a market survey may have been carried out, there is no guarantee that new activities will lead to the projected results within the expected time.
By working together with an outsourcing partner, you are able to test new markets and postpone major investments until you have found a model/structure that works for your organization. In instances where product-market fit is hypothesized rather than proven with demonstrated results, services like market validation can help.
Your core competency
Sales is a profession. Complex technology sales is hard. It requires a methodology and process. Professional sales outsourcers have this expertise baked into the service they offer.
In comparison, your expertise may be in developing the solution, building an innovative product, or launching a promising service. Engaging an experienced agency lets you concentrate on developing, building, and extending great solutions, products, and services.
Flexibility
Investing directly in a new market such as opening a local office or attracting new people suggests your organization is committed for the long haul. Adopting such a policy based on specific market conditions or new insights gleaned along the way is not always easy.
By working together with an outsourcing partner, you can respond swiftly and flexibly as the market or situation evolves. It can quickly and easily adapt to the team of people in terms of size, required skills, seniority, and background.
Picking the right outsourcing partner
If you’ve made the decision to use an outsourced model, where do you begin? Google or DuckDuckGo searches are starting points. So is tapping your professional network for referrals.
After assembling a list of viable candidates, the next step is to choose the right provider. These 7 steps to selecting the right provider for B2B outsourced sales will help you make the right decision, saving you time and money. Opportunity cost, too.
Getting started
While not insurmountable if time and resources are plentiful, entering the US market is a daunting task. Outsourcing can streamline your expansion, making it as effortless as possible and mitigate risk at the same time.
Let’s start a conversation. We want to understand your market expansion goals, objectives, and timeframe. Then we can tailor an outsourcing solution to help you win new customers in the US.
