Today, more and more companies are striving to make the sales process simpler and more inexpensive. To do this, the business abandons a large staff of office employees, transferring sales to a remote work format. What to choose: your own remote sales department or a remote turnkey sales department outsourced?
What is a remote sales team and who is it for
The organization of a remote sales department provides 2 main options:
- Hiring employees on the staff of your own company, but for remote work.
- The so-called outsourcing of sales, that is the transfer of sales to a contractor company for a fee.
For remote sales, complex and niche products may not be suitable, where consultation and client management require high involvement and awareness of the sales manager.
Remote sales can be considered if face-to-face meetings with the customer are not required – at least in the initial stages.
It is worth giving sales “remotely” only after the sales processes have been established and worked out since the remote department is more difficult to control.
How to organize a remote sales department yourself
Maintaining your own remote sales team has many benefits. The company is exempted from office expenses. The geography of personnel search is expanding significantly. On the one hand, this allows you to find more qualified employees. On the other hand, if necessary, you can reduce the cost of wages. With the right selection of employees and proper motivation, their productivity can significantly increase in the conditions of remote work.
To organize a remote sales department yourself, you need:
- Thoroughly debug business processes and work out all stages of sales. Without this, it will not be possible to standardize and control the work of managers. This means that there is a great risk of reduced efficiency.
- Write down clear sales algorithms, taking into account various situations, create instructions and work standards for sales managers. Training and adaptation of new employees will take place remotely, so documentation is indispensable.
- Find the right software. The minimum set includes service for maintaining a customer and transaction base, a platform for holding meetings and meetings, a time tracking program, and service for creating reports.
Outsourced remote sales department
Another option for a remote sales department is outsourcing. This kind of remote sales force works for a percentage of every transaction. Sales are a key link in any business, so you can consider outsourcing both the entire sales cycle with the full support of transactions and part of it like only outsource sales calls or others.
A remote outsourced sales department can be delegated tasks, which are often performed by full-time employees without much desire, for example:
- Search for leads using cold databases
- Demand monitoring
- Informing about discounts, promotions
- Preliminary negotiations
Outsourcing the sales department can also be beneficial in the initial stages of doing business:
- For small companies that cannot yet hire a full-fledged sales department;
- When the market expands with access to new regions;
- When new products are launched.
In addition, it is appropriate for the outsourcing sales department to give away individual products, the sale of which takes a lot of time, but does not bring significant profit. These should be products that are readily enough bought without additional convictions and explanations, which do not require special knowledge for consultation.
The advantages of a remote outsourced sales department are obvious. The owner of the company is freed from all worries about hiring, training, and organizing the work of personnel, paying salaries and taxes. All these tasks are undertaken by a company providing services of a remote sales department.
Outsourced sales companies also can provide highly professional staff with a deep understanding of product nuances and advanced sales skills and techniques.
How to get around the complexities of organizing remote sales
There are 3 main rules to follow when transferring sales to remote employees or a contractor company:
- Set clear goals and objectives. In a remote sales environment, it is critical to be as specific as possible about what is expected of remote employees. The more clearly the task is set, the more accurately it will be possible to assess the quality of its implementation.
- Develop a KPI system. It is worth considering in advance what criteria you will use to assess the progress towards achieving your goals. When staff members are in the office, one glance is enough to understand who is working and who is not. When organizing remote sales, the effectiveness and quality of work can only be assessed using a pre-formed KPI system.
- Prepare work algorithms for different situations. With remote sales, the involvement and awareness of sales managers decreases. It is necessary to exclude the risk that the manager will not be able to answer the client’s question, provide comprehensive information or work out objections. Therefore, before transferring sales to outsourcing or “remote management”, you need to write down all the processes in detail (if necessary, write scripts), and then test them in operation.
The question of whether it is worth trusting the main business process to a remote sales department has existed since the day this service appeared. Of course, both outsourcing and remote sales have both pros and cons. But if you anticipate possible difficulties in advance, both types of sales organizations can be beneficial and profitable.
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