The benefits of outsourcing many of your company’s processes and responsibilities can be plentiful, especially when it comes to repetitive, specialized tasks that are not part of your core competencies. Perhaps you already outsource your accounting function or certain marketing and communication tasks. And you probably call on external specialists for event or travel planning. But what about the strategic leadership and executive responsibilities that are so critical to your company’s success? Can you realize significant benefits from outsourcing at these levels, too? Yes! The benefits of outsourcing certain highly specialized C-level roles can be enormous. Let’s take a look at how outsourcing these roles – including the sales leadership function – can position your company for rapid and sustainable growth:
What’s in a Name?
First, let’s lay out some terms that may or may not be interchangeable. What some may refer to as an outsourced role (as I am using it here), others may refer to as “part-time” or “fractional” or even as “Executive as a Service” (or “EaaS”). These terms are essentially the same as “outsourced”.
Another term that is not necessarily the same, however, is “consultant”. A consultant often will be hired by a company to perform a study and/or make recommendations, and then will leave the responsibility of executing the recommendations to the company’s primary staff. On the other hand, a professional such as an outsourced VP of Sales could also be in charge of executing strategy and implementing the tactics necessary to drive growth.
The Benefits of Outsourcing at the Executive Level
Outsourcing may not be the right option for some companies, but for more and more small- to medium-sized businesses today, the benefits of outsourcing C-level sales leadership responsibilities have become apparent. These benefits can include:
- Freeing up executive time for strategic overall company management. As a company owner or senior level leader, you can focus on the strategic operations of your business without being distracted by new (even if necessary) initiatives.
- Activating and accelerating growth-oriented activities without taking away from day-to-day responsibilities of core team members. In other words, you can maintain the necessary operations of your business while expanding your vision to functions that will help your company grow.
- Taking advantage of expertise not related to your core competencies. Simply put, you can keep your internal team focused on what they do best within your industry while also being able to utilize key specialized expertise to help advance new areas of outreach and growth.
- Gaining access to exceptional skills without incurring the continuing salary costs and administrative burdens associated with a full-time employee. These burdens can include the considerable expenses of recruiting, hiring and onboarding, along with ongoing HR management and benefit programs necessary for full-time employees. Because your outsourced sales executive will most likely be classified as an independent contractor, you can avoid these full-time requirements.
- Taking advantage of professional “big picture” and market-based perspectives. With an outsourced VP of Sales working for you part-time, this professional can maintain industry-based objectivity that can help your organization avoid problems and seize opportunities.
- Taking advantage of professional “distance” and objectivity to help senior leadership make the difficult but often necessary personnel and operational decisions related to budget cutting or even downsizing.
- Making short-term moves that impact the long haul. By utilizing an outsourced professional, your company can kick-start initiatives that need professional implementation, but not necessarily continuing day-to-day oversight (which can be handled by current full-time staffers).
- Providing ongoing (but not full-time) sales team oversight, management and mentoring.
- Using the time period of the outsourcing engagement as a transition to when a full-time sales executive position becomes viable.
Bottom Line:
An outsourced sales executive can make a big difference during a limited engagement, or as a continuing part-time resource. The benefits of outsourcing the sales leadership function can include positioning your company for strategic, rapid and sustainable growth as you utilize highly-skilled expertise without adding to operational and administrative burdens. Ultimately, you can expand your professional sales leadership capabilities without stretching your organization beyond its ability to support that role full-time.
At Sales Xceleration, our licensed Advisors can serve small- to medium-sized businesses as Outsourced VPs of Sales to bring these benefits of outsourcing to the strategic leadership levels many companies need in order to grow. To learn how a Sales Xceleration Advisor can help your business with sales leadership, implementation and execution, contact us today at 844.874.7253.