MarketStar Blog

Key Takeaways

• Outsourcing sales leadership allows businesses to welcome positive sales prospects, thus providing enough room for scalability. 

• Effective communication is an essential prerequisite of an ideal outsourced sales leader.

• Businesses can minimize costs by outsourcing sales teams instead of hiring in-house teams.

Introduction

Ever wondered why global tech giants like Google, WhatsApp, and Slack still consider outsourcing part of their work to other companies? 

From virtual assistant work to beta testing development tools, these companies have relied on outsourcing to make their job easier. 

Moreover, outsourcing can help find the right individuals with adequate experience to perform complex functions before launching their product. 

Outsourcing sales leadership is also in vogue with a business’s regular sales operations. In this blog, we will investigate the essentials that make sales leadership outsourcing a part of a robust sales strategy. 

Defining Sales Leadership Outsourcing (Why Outsource?)

Growing at a constant rate of about 8% annually, the global sales outsourcing market is worth about $92.5 billion. But how exactly can sales leadership be outsourced?

Most small and medium business enterprises often employ their own CEOs and marketing specialists to meet the growing sales demands. But experts believe that a lack of experience in sales leadership and spending too many resources in harnessing new prospects may impede growth. 

Sales leadership outsourcing is hiring an external company or individual to manage and lead a company’s sales team. Companies may outsource their sales leadership for various reasons, such as a lack of internal expertise or resources, a need to focus on core business functions, or a desire to reduce costs. 

Outsourcing sales leadership can also provide access to a wider pool of talent and specialized sales expertise and help companies quickly scale their sales teams as needed. 

Additionally, outsourcing sales leadership can provide a more flexible and cost-effective solution than hiring a full-time internal sales leader. 

The Basic Traits of an Outsourced Sales Leadership Team

Sales outsourcing enables leaders to create, develop, and execute sales strategies from scratch.

This revenue-driven approach ensures that your sales operations and processes are aligned with your marketing strategies thus putting more emphasis on capabilities than cost. But how exactly can you identify the basic traits of an expert outsourced sales leader?

Here are three fundamental characteristics of an ideal outsourced sales leader.

1. Communication

Communication is a fundamental trait of outsourced sales leadership. 

Effective communication is crucial in building and maintaining client relationships and providing clear direction and feedback to sales teams. It enables sales leaders to effectively convey their vision and goals to their teams and communicate clients’ expectations and requirements to ensure that all parties are on the same page. 

Additionally, communication lets sales leaders stay informed about their client’s needs and respond quickly to any issues or concerns. 

Data shows that 71% of employees in an organization recognize the importance of effective communication. 

With it, outsourced sales leaders can guarantee productivity, engagement, and retention. Even amidst a hybrid work model, you can expect a revenue increase of about 20-25% by outsourcing sales, according to McKinsey. 

2. Uninterrupted Evaluation

Outsourced sales leaders should continually evaluate their teams’ performance to ensure that they meet their goals and objectives. 

This can be done through regular performance reviews, where the leader can assess the team’s sales figures, customer feedback, and overall performance metrics. 

Additionally, regular meetings and check-ins can be held to discuss any areas of improvement or success and ensure everyone is on the same page. 

By continually evaluating the team’s performance, outsourced sales leaders can identify issues and adjust to improve overall productivity and success. 

Outsourced sales leaders can also help evaluate performance by gauging every interaction between potential prospects and customers. Evaluation involves providing quality assurance programs that use a data-driven approach to leverage the sales prospects. 

Sales and marketing intelligence groups claim that proper assessment of all essential variables can boost your sales performance by about 32% annually. 

3. Efficient Usage of Sales Enablement Tools

Sales enablement tools are critical for outsourced sales leadership as they help to streamline and optimize the sales process. 

By using tools such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales automation, and marketing automation software, sales leaders can ensure that their team is utilising best practices and staying on top of key metrics such as lead generation and conversion rates. 

Additionally, these tools can help to improve communication and collaboration between sales and marketing teams, leading to more efficient and effective lead nurturing and sales follow-up along with also building a robust sales pipeline. 

Outsourced sales leaders should be proficient in using these tools and should also be able to train and mentor their team members to use them effectively. This will help to ensure that their team can maximize their productivity and achieve their sales targets. 

Additionally, outsourced sales leaders can bring about significant change and educate your entire sales and marketing teams on handling difficult situations. They can organize weekly training on specific themes like handling sales data, working with sales enablement tools, etc. 

Furthermore, a successful outsourced sales team helps prepare for the worst and helps make proposal guidelines and call scripts that can improve your sales performance. 

Cost Effective?  

There are multiple grounds on which outsourcing sales leadership looks profitable in the long run. But how can you evaluate the efficacy of an outsourced sales leader? The answer is cost-effectiveness! 

But before discussing how cost-effective outsourcing sales leaders is, let us look into the cost of maintaining in-house leadership. 

1. Recruiting

The cost of recruiting, sourcing, and maintaining an in-house sales leader is not minimal. Add to it the management costs, costs of advertising, background checks, etc. In addition, hiring a single candidate who can motivate the entire sales team requires up to 10 weeks and it can take a few months to train them well. 

2. Employee Benefits

Hiring a competitive and passionate sales leader usually costs more than any sales professional. Data obtained from labor statistics show that in addition to the monthly compensation, you must provide them with employment benefits like health insurance and travel allowances. Additionally, you need to consider employment taxes and additional overheads. 

3. Cost of Resources

Apart from imparting motivation and having innate selling skills, your in-house sales leader must be tech-savvy and analyse data obtained from various sources. To facilitate the same, you require an office with well-maintained telecommunication equipment and expensive software licenses. 

The expense of hiring an outsourced sales leader, however, depends directly on your sales approach. You might be looking for a dedicated performance-enhancing leader who can assign responsibilities to your in-house team or a prospect-specific leader for a particular geographic location. 

Outsourcing costs can follow a definite resource model that charges a specific monthly fee. Some outsourced sales leaders charge on a per-appointment basis, where you will pay only for appointments that generate positive leads. 

Bottom Line 

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” 

Confidence, motivation, and uninterrupted optimism are some basic traits that an ideal sales leadership should possess. 

A high performing sales leader combines quality with quantity and fixate on targets that might otherwise sound unachievable. 

Furthermore, a high-performing sales leadership helps maximize the performance of the entire sales team because they select individuals who can build relationships above everything else. 

There is a common misconception that sales prospects plummet beyond imagination during severe economic circumstances like recession or hyperinflation. If you have enough capital to carry out regular business functions and managing a quintessential sales leadership, your sales will maintain traction. 

For best results, leverage your technological assets and outsource your sales leadership for a more promising future. 

Key Insights

• In today’s competitive world, customers expect immediate, transparent, and accurate delivery of their purchase

• Customer experience has become the key to building loyalty and trust in on-demand delivery services

• Brands can make it a reality by putting the right technology in place. This will help them to communicate efficiently and strike deeper connections with customers. 

On-demand delivery services have witnessed steady growth over the years, charting the path for innovation and success.

With the pandemic, the steady expansion gave way to a sudden explosion in demand. 

A report by IBM states that the wide-scale disruptions of the past two years have powered a shift away from stores to online shopping by close to five years. 

This sudden growth of the e-commerce ecosystem has brought sharp focus to the capabilities of on-demand delivery services. 

An on-demand delivery service can be described as a business that provides an order to a customer within hours or even minutes. Many SaaS providers have changed the way on-demand delivery works. Take DoorDash and Uber for instance. 

What these services require is hyperfocus on creating a better customer experience from the customer’s perspective. 

But before we jump into approaches that can be employed to be customer-obsessed, let’s understand why it is vital. 

Why is Customer Obsession Important?

Customer obsession is essentially a business that puts its focus on delivering the most value to its ideal customers. Connectivity is the key. So are user interfaces, customer service channels, top-down and bottom-up team communication, and customer feedback cycles. 

As customer obsession entails a consistent effort to better the buyer’s journey, your clients are more dependent on you and your brand. Consequently, they begin augmenting their frequency of purchases, and in the process, advocate your brands to more people. 

What is the Difference Between Customer Service & Customer Obsession?

Think of customer service as the individual interactions your customers have with your company. This includes the assistance they are provided with before, during, and after their purchase. 

On the other hand, customer obsession is your customer’s overall journey with your company, and how it made them feel. The overall customer experience is the foundation on which they will talk about you to people in their lives. 

Some of the most successful companies across the globe are focusing on becoming customer-obsessed brands. Take Disney for instance. 

Disney goes above and beyond to create a world-class customer experience. And it’s reflected in everything they do–from treating all guests to their parks as VIPs to cutting-edge training for their staff. 

How Do You Achieve Customer Obsession?

In most cities, on-demand delivery is now a part of everyday life, making the customer experience a critical game-changer. 

A common assumption is that the customer experience journey starts when the customer has placed the order. However, the customer starts interacting with the logistic provider much before that. 

To help you navigate the ecosystem, we have listed down steps that you can incorporate into your on-demand delivery for a better customer experience. 

Step #1. Pre-purchase Customer Experience

Your customer’s expectations begin before the order is even placed. Suggest the best possible slots to them but the flexibility of making a choice should rest with the customer. 

Automation will allow you to provide instant quotes to your users. However, it is necessary that you have those delivery times and convenient fulfillment options set up in the first place. 

Step #2. Synced-up Process

From the moment an order is placed to the time it reaches your customer’s door, your delivery process should be coordinated and digitized end-to-end. 

This will enable you to have visibility over your operations. When you have visibility across the entire last-mile flow, you are better equipped to utilize your existing resources to complete demand deliveries. 

Step #3. Discounted Delivery Services

Cart abandonment is at an all-time high. Why? Because 40% of customers will leave a shopping cart if there is no free shipping, according to the survey of European customers by Sendcloud. 

When consumers are increasingly driven to choose brands that offer discounted rates, make way for such a model in your own on-demand delivery service. 

Step #4. Third-Party Services

On-demand delivery entails the ability to meet your customer’s demand, irrespective of the time or day. You can enhance your capabilities by adding third-party delivery solutions to your existing fleet management tools. 

By doing this, you can also enhance brand awareness and sustain your customers’ satisfaction. 

Step #5. Automation

Automation during the purchasing stage is just a small facet of its potential. 

Automation must be embedded into every aspect of your on-demand delivery process to augment customer experience. 

An automated system will make the right decisions based on business rules pertaining to cost, volume, and other goals. It can also help you to determine whether the delivery should be done in-house or outsourced to third parties. 

Step #6. The Human Element 

While automation can free your teams from more repetitive tasks, it is important to remember that your customers would want a human touch to get their queries solved. 

So, you can make use of chatbots who will take care of your customers’ queries, but make sure to design the automated system in a humane way with the possibility for your customers to speak to your personnel at the end. 

The Way Ahead

On-demand delivery services are more than just offering an app to customers. 

It is about restructuring your entire last-mile delivery operations for enhanced customer experience and fast and quick fulfillment. 

With customer behavior changing, putting speed and convenience at the top of the list, customer-obsessed companies are recalibrating their model to deliver a smooth last-mile experience. 

This is the first installment in our series on Customer Obsession where we look into the benefits of having a customer-obsessed mindset and how it will help businesses understand what’s motivating their customers. 

Head over to Growth Hub at MarketStar and discover more insights. 

Key Takeaways

• Data is the single most valuable resource that a business can utilize to make better strategic decisions

• The internet is responsible for producing astronomical amounts of data every day that companies can capture and analyze for better market understanding 

• Data-driven marketing can drive better lead generation and helps personalize sales and marketing campaigns

Introduction

‘Data is the new oil.’ 

The online streaming app Netflix devoted six years to developing a data analysis algorithm to launch its first show in 2013. 

To ensure its efficiency, Netflix employed two crucial elements: view preference knowledge and understanding of viewing habits. 

Amazon utilizes a data-driven AI algorithm that predicts customer demands, evaluates supply availability and optimizes its supply chain. Acquiring and analyzing big data eases the process of understanding consumer patterns, thereby augmenting internal efficiency. 

Likewise, collection and analysis of data aid in lead generation, increasing customer reach and dealing with competition. 

A data-driven approach is indispensable for making informed decisions, thus optimizing business performance. 

This blog discusses the importance of data analysis for building better sales and marketing strategies instead of relying on trial and error.

Data as a Resource

Data and its analysis are the new frontiers for competition, innovation, and revenue maximization.

Leading entrepreneurs in every sector are now putting their focus on big data and not just minute data-oriented analysis. In fact, several organizations leveraging big data have seen up to 8% increase in revenue. 66% of data leaders also emphasize the crucial role that data and analytics play in driving innovation within their organizations.

Category of Data

Depending on the variables that trigger business interest, data can be categorized into four different groups: 

• Demographic data collect information about groups of people according to specific attributes such as age, sex, and place of residence.

• Technographic data measures the contribution of technology in generating positive sales opportunities. It involves examining a company’s technological stack, which includes its hardware, software, and applications.

• Chronographic data studies the intrinsic changes businesses can undertake to find high-quality leads. It also provides information on significant changes in funding or acquisitions, etc.

• Intent data studies customers’ buying patterns and interests to improve their purchasing experience.

• Qualitative data can provide valuable information about a business’s working culture and customer patterns.

• Quantitative data gathers objective information on sales, expenses, and revenue figures that helps measure the performance of specific departments. 

B2B sales and marketing teams utilize data collected from websites or 3rd party resources to make informed strategic decisions and understand changes in demand for a product or service. 

Like human or financial resources, the cost of acquiring data varies on the business model and may include tracking transaction details, online surveys, etc. 

The Importance of Data

Businesses employ data to create value. 

Data enables the collection of more detailed information on variables that define or affect the performance of sales, marketing or management segments. Here are five reasons why data collection is imperative to business growth. 

1. Transforming Lead Generation

Converting your potential prospects into customers is indeed a daunting task. 

Before businesses could realize the tremendous power of data, lead generation was facilitated by studying sales figures or mere estimation of key variables. Thanks to data analytics, lead generation for sales has undergone a complete makeover. 

Data is transforming lead generation in several ways. One of the most significant ways is through data analytics and machine learning algorithms to identify and target potential leads. 

Data helps predict behavior and buying patterns of their potential prospects through lead generation algorithms. 

Analysis of data obtained from these algorithms helps sales and marketing teams to convert leads into opportunities. Analyzing data thus helps gain more insight into customer segments and improves retention. 

Data-driven marketing techniques have assisted about 86% of business executives to obtain an increase in return on investment. 

2. Targeting the Right Customers

Creating a purchase intent for an actual product or service is crucial. But how do you understand your target customers without even launching the product? 

Data can help businesses target the right customers by providing insights into customer behavior and demographics. 

By analyzing data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic information, businesses can identify patterns and trends that can help them understand their target market better. 

This information can then be used to create effective marketing strategies to drive sales pipeline, as well as to develop products and services that better meet the needs of their target customers. 

Additionally, data can help businesses identify new markets and opportunities by identifying untapped customer segments and identifying areas where there is a high demand for their products or services. 

3. Radical Change in Your Communication Processes 

Experts believe that a data-driven approach to communicating with potential prospects is essential to succeeding and growing sales. 

Understanding data from various channels can help sales and marketing teams identify the best times to send messages and the type of messages that can effectively hook your customers to your content. 

An effective communication strategy can boost sales by 68%. 

A common tool adopted by numerous companies for communicating directly with online traffic is a live chat or a chat-box application. 

Live chat applications can communicate directly with customers and understand their requirements. Data obtained from these applications, subscription forms, and pop-up messages transform your communication strategy. 

McDonald’s utilizes their data-driven decision logic technology to optimize operations and to communicate with their customers better. Coca-Cola uses their online brand presence to understand and identify the right customers. 

4. Analyzing the Sales Team’s Performance 

Business entrepreneurs believe that data analytics has revolutionised sales teams’ performance. Data helps you to adopt an optimistic approach to handling your sales pipeline. 

For example, a typical sales analysis system uses data to define your primary sales objectives and KPIs to create reporting systems that can upgrade your forecasting ability. 

More than 57% of sales personnel spend a significant amount of time on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. 

Analytical CRM tools can raise productivity by 29% thus helping sales teams to meet their monthly targets. Moreover, these data highlight the potential improvement areas, so your in-house teams can work on them through training. 

5. Targeting Your Marketing & Sales Campaigns Better

Ever wondered why most websites let your browser send specific information? 

Business enterprises utilize data collected from cookies and embedded links to develop new services, improve usability, and judge the effectiveness of their sales or marketing campaigns. 

Data helps businesses to personalize content and show information or advertisements strictly based on your preferences. 

Sensitive information like browsing location, contact information, and access to audio recordings allows businesses to ease trendspotting. Data collected helps you to make content that resonates with your target customer’s lifestyle, interests, and online activity. 

These advertisements can boost brand awareness by 80% and can raise customers’ buying interest by about 155%. 

Additionally, data-driven sales and marketing strategies create huge opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling your products. You can utilize the post-sales data as valuable insights to keep your customer engaged. 

Data-driven approaches allow the board of directors to make concrete budgeting decisions. 

Analyzing data provides definite information on statistics like click-through rates, view count for online content, and acquisition costs per customer. 

Bottom Line

Analysis of post-pandemic data reveals certain anomalies in B2B customer behavior. 

An unobvious bias towards digital platforms bears testimony to the fact that 90% of businesses aim to sustain their hybrid sales structure. Tech giants are eventually aiming to transform their user experience based on data obtained from various sources. 

Disney employs machine learning models to improve customer services and commit to fraud detection and content personalization. 

Smart entrepreneurs rely on data analytics to upscale their sales prospects through value propositions. Evidently, the data analytics sector is set to create more than 11 million career prospects by 2026. 

Key Takeaways

• Pipeline management and sales forecasting are often confused – they’re closely related, but not the same.

• Sales pipeline management is about changing today’s activities, whereas forecasting focuses on predicting future results.

• Accurate pipeline management can help drive both short-term and long-term forecasting.

Sales pipeline management and forecasting are two terms that are commonly thrown around interchangeably in a sales force. They are significant to any business, and most companies invest big in the latest tools and technologies to manage these two activities.

However, pipeline management outshines forecasting when it comes to business growth.

Before we find out the top reasons why organizations should focus on pipeline management, not the forecast, let’s discuss the difference between them.

Pipeline Management vs Forecasting: The Difference

Sales pipeline management is tracking and managing incoming sales leads across the different stages of the leads’ journey until the deal is closed.

Forecasting, on the other hand, is the act of predicting future business activity/outcome. It is based upon specific assumptions, such as a defined sales strategy or targeted prospects.

The Importance of Focusing on Pipeline Management

Your sales team has the potential to double the current revenue they are currently generating. 

All you need to do is ask your sales managers to hold an additional meeting focused on pipeline management along with their regular data scrubbing meetings. This helps the sales team members evaluate the leads in their pipeline, retain the good deals, and release the bad ones.

Here are the top 5 reasons why it is important to focus on pipeline management and not forecasting:

1. Enables You to Know Your True Opportunities

Pipeline management encourages better conversations between your sales manager and sales reps.

Your sales force can go through the pipeline and understand what opportunities came in new, what left the process, and what opportunities are where in the process stages. This will enable your team to better understand the sales reps’ activities and ensure the right actions are performed to close deals.

2. Calculate Metrics Easily

It is easy to calculate metrics such as sales closing ratio, cycle length, etc. if you have an effective sales pipeline which is being tracked and managed with a defined set of steps.

The data thus collected will help your organization understand the current quarter’s closures and foresee future quarters, helping you make better business decisions.

3. Build an Accurate Forecast

With pipeline management, you can easily and accurately forecast the lead conversion probabilities based on current and past data.

Pipeline forecasting is a comprehensive approach to revenue forecasting that considers every factor of each potential deal. Sales pipeline forecasting calculates a deal’s probability, based do how long it has been in the sales pipeline compared to an average sales cycle.

Not only does this help predict future sales, but also helps improve pricing, marketing strategies, and product development. 

4. Nurture Leads

Using information gathered from a sales pipeline, it is considerably simpler to guide potential clients through the various stages of closing a deal.

A sales representative has greater freedom to create more tailored interactions with leads based on their requirements, wants, and interests when they have information about them. The bonus is that sales representatives can establish rapport more easily.

5. Provides Marketing Direction

Most organizations are implementing automation processes to keep their contacts warm until they become active leads and to keep existing customers engaged by providing customer success and upsell opportunities – this will help the sales teams actively work the prospects in the pipeline. 

Wrapping Up

Managing a pipeline is not as difficult as you imagine.

It can be a cost-effective and profitable business strategy. Some businesses rely on a healthy pipeline to succeed, expand their revenue and attract more customers.

Therefore, follow these best practices to build a robust sales pipeline and ensure it is in the finest shape if you want your company to triumph when it comes to outselling rivals in the sales game. 

Introduction

Have you heard the term "RevOps" floating around and wondered what it's all about? With the traction it’s been getting, it’s safe to say it's more than just a passing trend. In a nutshell, RevOps, short for Revenue Operations, is a cutting-edge approach that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success teams. The result? An innovative, well-oiled revenue-generating machine. In fact, companies that have embraced RevOps have witnessed 3x faster revenue growth. Did that grab your attention?

Introduction

“Give the people what they want” has taken on a whole new meaning. In a world where customer expectations are soaring, revenue operations, also known as RevOps, is reshaping the way companies now approach customer experience. Going beyond mere processes and adding meaning and value to customer relationships, it empowers businesses to create personalized experiences that genuinely connect with each individual. 

Partner Channel: A Real Game-Changer

Partner Channel has become a must-have tool in any company's arsenal. In a constantly changing landscape, they give you the promise of results and reach that you just can’t get on your own. The key to success is using the right partner channel to deliver exceptional experiences for customers. Businesses with solid channel sales partnerships experience a 35% higher customer retention rate!

The year 2024 paints a vivid picture of the future of sales: a turbulent landscape of intensifying competition, evolving customer expectations, and relentless pressure to adapt. To thrive in this environment, businesses must embrace holistic growth strategies that transcend traditional models. In this context, Sales-as-a-Service (SaaS) emerges as a transformative approach, offering unparalleled efficiency, scalability, and access to specialized expertise. 

Key Takeaways

5.06 billion
That’s how many people use search engines worldwide, adding up to around 98% of internet users!