All successful businesses need a reliable sales team to scout for potential leads. The sad truth, however, is that many sales representatives need help to hit their quotas.
Industry experts suggest that sales representatives often have too much on their plate. Instead of focusing on engaging clients and closing deals, sales reps also have to generate leads, handle paperwork, write sales scripts, make marketing materials, and take on other time-consuming tasks.
A recent study uncovered that only a mere 23% of sales reps have enough leads to meet their quota. And if that isn’t bad enough, almost half (48%) of sales leaders openly admitted that they don’t have enough leads for their reps, making it an uphill battle for sales teams.
The good news is that there is a way for companies to set their sales team up for success: through nearshore solutions that can provide sales support.
What Is Sales Support?
Behind the success of every sales representative is an equally hard-working sales support team.
Often working behind the scenes, the sales support team remains a strong foundation in ensuring that your sales team runs like a well-oiled machine. One of their more crucial tasks is to provide administrative assistance, such as managing customer databases, lead generation, and researching sales opportunities. They find clients so that the sales team can close in on the deal.
These unsung heroes are integral to any successful sales team, providing the support, guidance, and expertise that keeps sales representatives moving forward. While all businesses need solid sales support staff for success, many are struggling to hire due to the severe labor shortages.
Outsourcing is an effective strategy for navigating the staffing crisis. By partnering with a nearshore call center, they can get the administrative, technical, and operational support they need from a deep global talent pool with a comparative cost advantage.
How are outsourced sales support different from in-house support? Let’s dive in.
In-House vs. Outsourced Sales Support: What’s the Difference?
Advantages of In-House Sales Support
Greater Control
When an organization hires from within, it can leverage the knowledge and experience of existing employees who are already familiar with the company’s culture, processes, and team dynamics. This can reduce the learning curve for new hires and ensure a smoother integration into the team.
While this is generally true, your outsourcing partners have human resource experts who can seamlessly integrate their employees through specialized remote training and onboarding. So, businesses can rest assured that collaboration won’t be an issue when working with nearshore BPOs.
Fewer Data Privacy and Confidentiality Concerns
An in-house team means the organization already knows the employee’s background and work history. Data breaches and theft are less risky, especially for organizations that handle confidential or proprietary information, such as financial institutions, law firms, or healthcare providers. This doesn’t necessarily mean that internal employees no longer pose privacy risks.
Many other factors come to play in an unfortunate employee data theft scenario. For instance, an employee who leaves the organization could take sensitive information with them, or an employee who is disgruntled or malicious could intentionally leak confidential information.
So ultimately, internal hiring still needs to be a hundred percent guarantee of data security.
Advantages of Nearshore Outsourced Sales Support
Significant Cost Savings
When it comes to running a business, the bottom line is king.
Since business owners are always finding ways to drive down expenses to make room for more profit, forward-thinking executives turn to outsourcing as an effective cost-cutting strategy.
The primary reason is that labor costs are more competitive in Colombian offshore call centers. Working with companies in nearby countries is more cost-efficient than hiring employees onshore.
In addition to competitive labor costs, outsourcing call centers can reduce overhead expenses due to the lower standard of living in outsourcing destinations. Businesses that outsource can save money on office space and equipment.
Moreover, BPOs offer the most cost savings by providing access to specialized expertise. Rather than hiring and training employees to perform specialized functions, organizations can outsource these functions. This can be particularly beneficial for short-term or project-based work, allowing organizations to access niche skills without committing to long-term employment.
Access to Experienced Sales Support Agents
With the rise of online shopping and the growth of e-commerce platforms, organizations need skilled sales support agents who can navigate digital channels now more than ever.
Sales require unique skills, including a deep understanding of online platforms and the ability to analyze customer data to identify growth opportunities. Sales staff must also be able to adapt to changing market conditions and new technologies, as the digital landscape is constantly evolving.
Unfortunately, the tight US labor market is struggling to keep pace with the demand for talent, making it difficult for businesses to hire locally. To overcome this challenge, companies need to consider alternative strategies, such as outsourcing sales functions which would allow them to tap into a larger pool of skilled talent.
BPO companies are certified customer service and sales experts with deep industry expertise and cutting-edge sales tools that can help businesses elevate their customer experience and boost their revenues.
Better Flexibility and Scalability
The e-commerce industry is filled with peaks and valleys. For instance, in the holiday season, retailers can expect an influx of sales and customer calls, but there are also slow days when they barely make any sales.
Businesses may need to quickly scale up their sales operations to handle increased traffic and sales volume during periods of high demand.
Fortunately, they can outsource sales functions to a larger pool of sales support staff skilled in handling high-volume sales and quickly ramp up sales operations to meet increased demand.
When demand dies down, they can just as quickly and seamlessly scale down their sales operations to reduce costs and maintain profitability. This eliminates the need for costly and unnecessary hiring and termination on the businesses’ end.
Ultimately, when weighing the pros and cons, it is clear that outsourcing still heavily outweighs the benefits of maintaining an in-house support team.
Outsourced Sales Support Tasks You Can Delegate to a Call Center Nearshore
Lead Generation
Lead generation is a critical component of sales support.
Consider it the first step in building a relationship with your clients. It’s about reaching out and making a lasting impression with a great touchpoint, whether it’s through social media advertising or content marketing.
Lead generation is identifying and engaging with potential customers interested in your products or services and guiding them through the sales funnel toward a successful conversion.
BPO companies leverage customer data and analytics to tailor their lead-generation efforts to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. They aim to create a more engaging and personalized experience for potential customers, leading to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty.
Leveraging lead generation strategies and technologies, BPOs can drive growth and revenue while creating meaningful connections with customers and building brand awareness.
Outbound Calling
Outbound calling or telemarketing is pretty straightforward but is equally as important.
As the term suggests, it’s basically when sales support staff make outbound calls to connect with potential customers. Introducing a new product or offering a promotion is an effective way of generating leads since prospects are more likely to trust a business that has taken the time to reach out to them directly.
Unlike other forms of marketing, outbound calling allows sales support staff to have honest conversations, which often leads to higher engagement and increased sales. Outsourced telemarketers also offer a certain level of customization and personalization that helps businesses connect with potential customers on a much deeper level.
Telesales
Unlike telemarketing, which is focused on creating brand awareness and generating interest, telesales is focused on closing deals and generating revenue.
Support staff tasked to do telesales are in it for the home run.
Another way to describe it is that they are reaping what the telemarketers have sowed. Their primary goal is to convert leads into paying customers with persuasive and targeted messaging. As such, an outsourced telesales team is typically trained to identify potential customers’ needs and pain points, so they can use that information to make a compelling sales pitch.
Growth Specialists
Sales growth specialists work closely with businesses to analyze their current sales strategies and develop targeted and effective sales growth plans.
They typically have sales management, operations, training, and process optimization expertise. They may also have experience working with various industries, including B2B, B2C, and e-commerce.
Technical Support Team
This team ensures that customers are satisfied with the product or service and that technical issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.
Sales Account Manager
Their specific role is to build and maintain strong relationships with key customers, identify growth opportunities, and ensure that sales targets are met or surpassed.
Business Development Specialists
These sales support staff are responsible for identifying and pursuing new business opportunities for a company. Their primary role is to generate new leads, build relationships with potential customers, and develop strategies for increasing revenue and expanding the company’s market share.
Customer Service
BPO companies are ground-breakers in personalized customer service.
Backed with decades of experience, they employ highly skilled agents trained to handle customer inquiries, complaints, and other issues effectively. They also leverage advanced technologies such as chatbots and predictive analytics to streamline customer service operations and deliver quicker, more efficient solutions and exceptional customer experiences.
Data Entry and Administrative Support
As jacks of all trades, sales support staff aren’t just confined to generating leads and nurturing client relationships through customer service. They are also proficient in data entry tasks, including updating and creating customer profiles in a company’s CRM system, managing customer data, recording sales activities like emails, phone calls, and social media interactions, and scheduling follow-up meetings and calls.
Data is crucial to sales because it unlocks valuable insights that completely transform your business.
By analyzing data, outsourced sales support staff help businesses gain a deeper understanding of customers’ needs, identify new leads to pursue, and measure their sales efforts’ effectiveness.
These data points can personalize a business’ sales approach and create a fantastic customer experience that fosters loyalty and satisfaction. But that’s not all – data can also help them optimize their sales processes, work more efficiently, and close deals more effectively.
And let’s remember how data can inform your product development and marketing strategies, ensuring that you’re always offering the right products to customers at precisely the right time.
Where To Nearshore Your Sales Support?
Over the years, Colombia has grown to become a formidable player in Latin American nearshoring.
The country’s excellent ratings on the Offshore BPO Confidence Index 2022, which measures various factors, including political and economic stability, government support, security, real estate market, availability of multilingual talent, and strength of the BPO industry, is a testament to Colombia’s competitive edge.
The Latin American nation boasts a highly skilled workforce, ranking third in the availability of qualified labor in the region ahead of countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Medellin, named one of the most innovative cities in South America, is quickly becoming a popular BPO destination as it continues to foster a thriving IT startup ecosystem. This burgeoning business hub is just a 3.5-hour flight from Miami and offers affordable flight options from New York.
Due to the geographical proximity, language barriers, and different time zones won’t be an issue in nearshoring. It also shares many cultural similarities with North America, thanks to the historical and diplomatic ties of Colombia and the US.
Drive Your Sales Success With Colombian Nearshore Solutions
Businesses are facing increasing pressure to keep up with the demands of online sales. Outsourcing can be a valuable solution for companies looking to scale their e-commerce operations while maintaining efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
By partnering with SuperStaff, a BPO positioned for massive success in Colombia’s nearshoring market, businesses can streamline their operations, improve the customer experience, and stay competitive in the fast-paced world of sales.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you grow your business with our complete nearshore solutions for sales support.
