Companies are trying to fill their sales pipelines with qualified leads more than ever, and it’s getting competitive out there! Outsourcing BDR and SDR roles can be a great way for businesses to save time and money, as well as gain access to experienced professionals in the sales development field.
There are many reasons why organizations rely on outsourcing business development and sales development representatives, but leaders must take the time to evaluate and consider before committing to this strategic decision.
In this article, we’ll look at what is BDR and SDR outsourcing, what factors to consider when deciding if it is right for your business, and how to go about finding the right resources to meet your outsourcing goals.
What Is SDR Outsourcing? (and BDR Outsourcing?)
Business development outsourcing is the process of hiring an outside firm to operate as your business development representative team. Operating the business development team may include recruiting, training, managing, and tracking sales performance on behalf of your company — from lead generation to closing deals.
Sales development representatives (SDRs) help target external leads that fit in with an ideal client profile (ICP) that match the product and services your business provides. They focus on pipeline generation and booking sales appointments through outbound outreach like cold calling, email outreach, and identifying informed decision-makers. SDRs also carry on outreach efforts to leads generated by the company’s marketing department.
Business development representatives (BDRs) focus on closing leads who come through from SDR activities, working these leads down the sales funnel. As the role focuses on closing deals, BDRs tend to focus more on sales strategy, conducting product demonstrations, negotiations, and finalizing sales contracts.
But hiring and managing a team of salespeople can be time-consuming and expensive. Even more so, in the US, where there are up to 700,000 vacant sales jobs—it’s been difficult for businesses to hire sales talent even at a high salary bracket. That’s why more companies are turning to SDR and BDR outsourcing as a way to hire readily available talent and save money, while still getting the same results.
Types of Business Development Outsourcing
Outsourced business development comes in different service models, meaning that you can choose to be charged per hour, by activity (calls per day, amount of cold emails sent, sales meeting with a potential customer), or even per sales targets met. Alternatively, a retainer model can work for businesses that need a BDR team at a certain geographical location or to satisfy a certain market.
In terms of services, outsourcing can provide companies with support and special skills depending on their business needs. Small businesses often benefit from management-level expertise to develop and put in place a proven business development system, setting up new teams for success. Larger corporations may require outsourced support to act as an extension of their existing team during peak seasons, or specific knowledge in a more complex industry vertical to increase conversion rates.
Benefits of BDR and SDR Outsourcing
If your growing business has a small team of salespeople and a lack of team expansion, staff may be managing too many tasks doing their own sales development and struggle to hit their quarterly business objectives and quotas.
Here’s how outsourcing may support your sales efforts as your business scales.
Lower salaries and overall costs
Partnering with an SDR outsourcing company, your business has the opportunity to save on salary costs by a large margin. For example, salaries in Latin America are 30%-70% less than the market rate in North America. This can significantly cut down average customer acquisition costs (CACs).
Building an internal BDR team takes time and demands overhead costs such as management, onboarding, training, and retaining the team. Hiring external partners can lower overhead costs, helping your company save on the overall cost of sales in the long run. It’s a much cheaper option than building a large in-house team, since you don’t have to worry about internal turnover replacements within a team of sales professionals, nor shoulder recruitment costs and employee benefits packages.
Flexibility according to business demand
Outsourcing allows rapid scalability, which is especially beneficial for startups or small businesses that may not have the bandwidth, sales tools, or resources required to hire an entire team from scratch. With outsourcing, you can scale up or down depending on your needs without making long-term commitments or investing in staff training.
Highly qualified and specialized talent
Building an SDR or BDR team from scratch requires vigorous investment in training. Outsourcing SDRs and BDRs to quality agencies mean they’ll be onboarded quickly and their prospecting and closing skills have been vetted. Talent acquisition is typically much faster, as opposed to having to source candidates in-house and waiting weeks for inbound applications to come in. Outsourced sales reps and teams are likely to be trained with a tested sales framework and equipped with a list of target companies that match your ideal customer profile.
Diverse team and perspectives
Sourcing remotely from another country or culture can help your firm create better business outcomes at lower costs while driving a better employee experience.
By outsourcing SDRs, access to sales development experts who are familiar with best practices and the latest trends in the industry can help your business and the rest of the team stay competitive. Experienced professionals who know how to generate qualified leads and close deals will inevitably translate into higher sales revenue for your company.
That being said, opt for finding outsourced sales partners from locations with minimal language barriers and similar time zones to help to deliver a strong relationship. These benefits are evident when US companies hire Latin American talent.
Outsourcing vs. In-House Sales Teams: When Hiring for BDR and SDR Roles Is the Right Choice
Hiring internally for sales development roles may be the right choice if your organization has existing teams that need extra bandwidth, training, and support. For companies that have a developed sales playbook or a proven sales process, outsourcing sales specialists can be an efficient way to hit quotas and scale with minimal onboarding.
Sales numbers are more often than not the primary focus of any business and a reliable predictor of company growth. However, the sales rep average tenure sits at a mere 1.5 years, signaling high turnover. Adding on the ramp-up time of 3.2 months means longevity is a huge problem in sales roles.
In the case of rapid market expansion like an influx of leads, outsourcing eliminates the time required for training and running hiring processes, with specialists who already know your industry inside and out. The choice to outsource sales development teams has led to many success stories for company growth.
“Not only did we double the size of our sales force in four short months, we found top talent.”—Deanna Hunt, Global Senior Sales Recruiter at Metabolic Living
However, a full-time dedicated team gives leaders more control over direct working relationships and processes such as onboarding, training and performance evaluation. This may be beneficial for organizations that prefer keeping business development practices in-house, especially during the initial sales exploration process for a new product or service.
BDR Outsourcing: Offshoring vs. Nearshoring
If you’re confident in outsourcing your business development to a third party, here are some options to consider when choosing where to find your vendors:
Offshoring
Often the most low-cost option, businesses offshore their services to distant countries such as China and India where external sales departments can keep expenses low and cover sales rosters around the clock. However, the time zone difference can also hurt your business—it’ll be more challenging to maintain communication with your internal team members which may be a cause for concern.
Nearshoring
Nearshoring refers to outsourcing services to a nearby country, for example, one of the same continent as where your business is set up. While maintaining cost savings, engaging in a more culturally familiar team and similar time zones mean this is an increasingly accessible option for businesses. For example, nearshoring helps facilitate real-time communications, leading to easier face-to-face alignment meetings to reduce any misunderstandings in performance expectations.
Cost of BDR Outsourcing Services
According to Indeed, the average salary for a BDR is $66,074 per year in the US. Tag on employment benefits, hiring costs, and equipment, all of these costs add up quickly, and total costs may come to well over $90,000.
The average costs of outsourcing also depend on where you hire from, as national salaries differ from country to country. After all, you’ll want to hire quality sales talent at a more cost-effective price than your home nation to increase return on investment. You’ll want to benchmark the difference in costs—consider how on average hiring in the Latin American region will help businesses save up to 70% vs a North American equivalent salary.
How To Outsource Sales Development Roles like BDRs and SDRs
Decided to hire external help? Here are some tips that can support you in getting the most out of outsourcing your sales team.
1. Figure out what support you are looking for
Before you go on your search for the perfect outsourced SDR team, make sure that internally all stakeholders are aligned and understand the primary business needs. That way, you can search for the sales expertise you’re looking for, or address a specific pain point of your existing team.
2. Start looking for firms and talent
Whether you’re nearshoring or offshoring, it’s always great to have referrals for talent. If you don’t have any, use a trusted tool or platform to streamline the recruiting process. There are many remote hiring tools in the market, but look for a solution that’s specific in helping you find a sales rep hire—either in the market you’re looking for or the sales niche for quality candidates. Near’s pre-screened candidates are a great example of a vetted talent pool that businesses tap into while saving operating costs.
3. Conduct virtual interviews
When identifying the right fit, ask the SDR outsourcing companies for successful case studies serving a similar business problem. This is essential to evaluate their knowledge and experience, as you’re looking for professionals with a track record of sales development, and relying on them to grow your business.
As these conversations will most likely take place online, be sure to tap into some virtual interview resources that allow you to streamline interviews, keep track of candidates, and ask the right questions.
4. Getting on the same page through training
Once you’ve decided to bring on an outsourced BDR service, they’ll still need time to be familiar with processes and your product even though you’ll be saving lots of time and expenses compared to running a fully in-house sales function. You can decide to bring the training in-house, provide materials for them to study your customer demographics, or ask them to shadow an internal salesperson on a demo call. When your outsourced BDR teams have a good handle on pitching your product to prospects, they’ll start to drive momentum and the results you set out to achieve.
5. Set up aligned KPIs and reporting cadence
In order to keep your SDR outsourcing company accountable, find out the average close rates for your industry and set up transparent key performance indicators (KPIs). Reports of sales results at a regular cadence will help your business keep a close eye on certain strategies and the quality of leads they’ve generated—this will help keep everyone on the same page and provide insights for valuable feedback or iteration.
Making a Decision on Sales Development Outsourcing
When considering whether or not outsourcing sales development roles is right for your business, it’s essential to consider both short-term objectives as well as long-term goals. Consider the internal resources available—such as existing teams that could benefit from additional support or training that can be provided by an external partner. Additionally, consider factors such as cost savings versus investment into building an internal sales team from scratch (in terms of both financial resources as well as time) when making your decision.
There are many advantages and considerations when deciding whether or not outsourcing BDR and SDR roles makes sense for your business model. While it may seem like an easy option at first glance, owing largely to potential cost savings, there are many factors that must be taken into account, including internal culture, scalability requirements, and project timelines just to name a few. Ultimately, with careful research, planning, and evaluation, outsourcing BDR and SDR roles could become part of a successful strategy that delivers tremendous results.
If you want to learn more about finding and hiring outstanding remote outsourced SDRs and BDRs from Latin America, fill out this form to get a list of pre-vetted candidates now to start interviewing them for free.
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