How to outsource B2B sales (+ 5 best companies reviewed)
Author
Yuriy Boyko
Head of AM at Belkins. Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
Updated:2023-03-31
Reading time:10 m
Seventy-seven percent of salespeople report working more hours now than before the pandemic, and 74% spend most of their workday on non-sales activities. Selling has also become tougher — 89% of buyers want to be challenged by sellers who can change their way of thinking. All this makes sales leaders now wear multiple hats — prequalification, sales calls, and B2B outreach are just some areas that need attention.
With the pressure of meeting sales targets, unstable economic conditions, and a shortage of high-quality sales reps, crucial sales activities are bound to get overlooked. That’s where outsourced B2B sales come in.
Sales team outsourcing enables sales leaders to tap into third-party experience across multiple industries. This results in access to new markets, increased accountability when meeting sales goals, a laser focus on the sales funnel, and, ultimately, lower costs.
In this article, we’ve gathered the best B2B sales outsourcing companies and what you need to know before outsourcing.
It’s possible for a company to specialize in just B2B sales outsourcing or to offer it under the umbrella of other services. Remember, sales itself is a broad field. Researching, prospecting, qualifying, nurturing, closing deals, and maintaining customer relationships are all part of the process.
While it takes a sales rep an average number of 8 touches to generate a desired conversation, this may very well vary by industry, buyer persona, and product. Given these factors, here are 5 non-negotiables you should look for when outsourcing B2B sales.
Industry expertise
The right B2B outsourcing company must have industry knowledge, specific skill sets, and access to the right resources. The buyer personas for every company are different, but relevant industry experience gives sales teams an idea of what their prospects expect. It also saves time when you don’t have to get the team up to speed on market trends and best practices.
Proven track record
The modern customer trusts reviews regardless of whether they’re in the B2B or B2C domain. For B2B companies, a proven track record exists in logos from past customers and case studies. Belkins’ case studies page, for example, highlights a range of clients who experienced specific challenges and solved them with Belkins’ help.
You can also research further and reach out to these clients to get firsthand feedback. Ask questions about engagement, problem resolution, customer support, and overall satisfaction.
Sales process
What’s the workflow process? How flexible is it? What methods do they use to track progress and prioritize tasks? Is there an analytics component?
Complete visibility into what’s happening behind the scenes gives you the freedom to plan, adjust tactics, and measure KPIs. For example, if past experiences show you July and August are slow months for sales due to the summer holidays, give your input and shift resources to other high-value activities.
Dedicated experts
Many marketing and sales service providers offer complementary services, and that’s all right. It allows you to scale up or down without switching vendors. What matters, though, is whether it involves multiple dedicated teams or 1 team managing multiple clients.
The latter’s a problem because you need experts who understand even the most complex problems. It may also be an issue if multiple teams report to the same person, who may be spread too thin to handle the demand.
Tech stack
Prospecting, nurturing, appointment generation in B2B — the list goes on. Each of these activities requires different tools, and it’s essential to select a vendor with an integrated tech stack that minimizes system-hopping so you can access customer data across platforms. Data security and ownership, too, should be non-negotiables here.
Data-driven methodology
Although data-driven methodologies are the foundation of sales processes, some vendors may not have the resources or systems to measure and address customer touchpoints. Keep an eye out for best practices like customer segmentation, lead scoring, and personalized messaging that deliver tangible results. You should also look for a vendor who can provide weekly or monthly reports on progress, sales trends, and customer feedback.
5 best companies to outsource B2B sales
Finding the perfect B2B sales partner involves scouring reviews, researching the market, and asking for recommendations. To make your search easier, we’ve rounded up 5 of the best companies to outsource B2B sales. Whichever one you decide to go with, make sure they meet the criteria mentioned earlier.
Pro tip: If information isn’t available publicly, make sure you ask all the relevant questions during a meeting with the potential contractor. Don’t hesitate to ask anything that bothers you: After all, your revenue and reputation are at stake.
1. Belkins
Overview
G2: 4.8/5 (64 reviews)
Clutch: 4.9/5 (143 reviews)
We provide sales appointment setting services to fill your pipeline with qualified leads that have a high chance of converting into sales. Our team is well versed in sales acquisition for IT and SaaS companies, digital marketing and creative agencies, B2B healthcare companies, hardware manufacturers, FinTech solutions, and nonprofit organizations. Our clients include UC Berkeley, GoHealth Urgent Care, and Cemtrex. Since Belkins’ inception in 2017, we’ve generated over 4.7 million leads and scheduled over 200,000 appointments for over 1,000 clients.
Sales process and dedicated experts
We start with thorough lead research and analyze your ICP and TAM to find and match the right contacts to your account. Then, our team of qualified specialists launches tailored campaigns and monitors results in real time.
We book sales appointments with hot leads and pre-qualify them on your behalf. Detailed reports and feedback after each campaign help you evaluate ROI and make the necessary adjustments to maximize sales performance. We also dedicate an entire team of experts — account managers, SDRs, lead research specialists, email deliverability specialists, and content writers — who can quickly scale up and manage any project.
Customers praise the transparent and collaborative workflow of our account managers. We act as an extension of their team and work with them to focus on lead quality rather than quantity.
We were impressed with Belkins’ communication and responsiveness throughout the project. Belkins exceeded our expectations. Initially, Belkins committed to providing 18 appointments during our engagement, but have thus far booked 30 appointments. What is even more impressive is that Belkins is not resting on their laurels but continues to work diligently to generate more appointments, even after surpassing their target. — Jacob James, Chief Strategy Officer at Burch Energy
Tech stack
We use a range of sales tools to manage our operations, including CRM, sales intelligence, sales acceleration, and sales gamification tools. For sales prospecting and lead generation, we use and recommend LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Crunchbase, and specific open data sources. Apart from this, as a certified HubSpot partner, we automate our clients’ sales processes and streamline their sales and marketing activities.
Pricing
We offer different pricing plans for appointment setting, CRM consulting services, and sales enablement. The rate varies depending on your project.
Takeaway
With an experienced team of specialists dedicated to each project, customers can rest assured that their campaigns will be managed with the utmost care and attention to detail, making Belkins a reliable appointment setting partner.
Get up to 300 new opportunities yearly with our sales lead generation services. We use the right combo of tools, people, and processes to help you achieve predictable revenue and over 15% closing rate.
2. CIENCE
G2: 4.0/5 (162 reviews)
Clutch: 4.7/5 (143 reviews)
Overview
CIENCE offers B2B lead generation solutions with its software and dedicated SDR team. The lead generation company specializes in the software development, IT, financial services, marketing, biotechnology, and education and training industries.
Working with over 2,500 organizations, including Google, Uber, and Microsoft, CIENCE implements deep research, multi-channel outreach, and appointment setting to create outreach campaigns to get qualified leads.
Tech stack
Where CIENCE stands out is through its proprietary GO Platform. It creates your ideal customer profile and builds a smart list of potential customers for you. The sales intelligence software produces up-to-date records, broad account data points, and accurate contact details to maximize your outreach. Customers praise CIENCE’s persuasive and diligent approach to sales outreach and their dedicated customer support teams that are available to answer any query.
Sales process and dedicated experts
The sales process is straightforward — companies provide CIENCE with a list of target prospects. After that, CIENCE researches target companies and identifies relevant contacts for outreach campaigns. CIENCE’s team then collaborates with their clients to create a calling script, email cadence, and/or LinkedIn messaging campaign. Weekly meetings covering outreach metrics and valuable KPIs keep clients noted.
”CIENCE has a very robust process and completely surrounds the opportunity. Targeted ads, drip email/LinkedIn, multiple contacts per prospect, and phone calls/voicemails are all leveraged tactics. The CIENCE team has a specialist in each area that contributes to the overall success and then a project manager and account manager who were both top notch.”— Mark Berry, CEO at NightDog Energy Management
Customers appreciate CIENCE’s proactive and collaborative approach. It offers transparency, complemented by access to dashboards that provide an overview of progress, gaps in the process, and areas for improvement.
Pricing
The company’s service portfolio is vast, so it’s not easy to outline a separate pricing plan. Their GO Platform implies an annual subscription. And other services, such as outbound SDR team or CIENCE Go Show, are available on a monthly subscription.
Takeaway
CIENCE’s primary data-driven approach, combined with its proprietary GO Platform and dedicated customer support teams, makes it a top choice for B2B lead generation. High-quality data allows clients to map their customer universe and dedicate resources to pre-qualified prospects.
3. Martal Group
Overview
G2: 4.6/5 (82 reviews)
Clutch: 4.8/5 (72 reviews)
Martal Group is a lead generation and sales agency specializing in B2B client acquisition for tech companies. Its team of SDR and sales executives extends a company’s internal sales team. Its customers, which include Monday.com, Wix.com, Samsung, Pinterest, and Zoho, span industries like IT services, marketing, retail, analytics, AdTech, telecom and connectivity, and SaaS and enterprise software. Martal Group has been in business for 14 years and has over 100 U.S. sales executives.
Martal Group has an exclusively North American team that understands the market and customer preferences. This grassroots approach to sales enables Martal Group to develop a proprietary workflow that drives prospect engagement with multiple personalized sales touches. The team routes active prospects to its clients’ sales departments or onboards new customers for them.
Sales process and dedicated experts
You can choose your team profile, which would include a sales operations manager, fractional VP of sales, fractional marketing manager, and dedicated SDR. The team spends up to 20 hours learning about your company and business landscape, after which they execute their action plan, including developing pre-qualified lists, facilitating partnerships, and setting appointments.
”Martal’s sales development reps ask thoughtful questions in our weekly meetings to better understand our value proposition and core solutions. They take our industry expertise and campaign improvement suggestions seriously to deliver more booked appointments and better qualify prospects for our internal Directors of Business Development. They also utilize resources provided by our marketing team to nurture leads more effectively, establish their credibility, and provide value to our prospects.” — Verified User in Human Resources
Customer reviews rave about the company’s omnichannel approach to targeting customers. Martal Group uses multiple channels such as cold calling, cold email outreach, LinkedIn, and social media marketing to maximize engagement for outbound campaigns. This allows them to fill a competency gap that many companies have and helps companies save hours on finding qualified leads.
Pricing
The company offers a 3-month trial for outbound lead generation services and a 4-month trial for their complex offerings. After the pilot period, clients are offered a monthly subscription.
Takeaway
Martal Group’s laser focus and expertise in the North American market make them an ideal choice for companies that want to expand their market share. Multiple channel focus and highly personalized lead generation ensure the best results.
4. SalesRoads
Overview
G2: 4.9/5 (12 reviews)
Clutch: 4.9/5 (26 reviews)
SalesRoads is an award-winning sales outsourcing solution for midmarket and enterprise-level organizations. With 15 years of experience and over 500 SDR teams built, SalesRoads is used by America’s leading brands and Fortune 500 companies such as Shell, Parker, Microsoft, and Quest Diagnostics.
The company provides appointment setting, lead list building, sales intent data research, and SDR outsourcing service to help companies generate leads and close more deals. Its expertise lies in partnering and strategizing with industrial and manufacturing companies to provide a tailored approach to their sales cycle.
Sales process and dedicated experts
SalesRoads dedicates a team of experienced SDRs, sales coaches, researchers, client success managers, and account executives to provide clients with personalized consultations to ensure each company reaches its goals on time. The team reviews metrics every week and provides detailed reports to clients to maintain transparency.
Clients also praise SalesRoads’ flexibility and attention to detail when designing an outreach campaign. The company adjusts a strategy based on early results, which shows its commitment to delivering results. SalesRoads only focuses on industries where they have experience.
”Only appointment setting service we’ve used that works with some intuition. We started with a basic list and target parameter set; over time SR has done their own research and made their own recommendations based on conversations they’ve had, and now we more or less collaborate on strategy when it comes to prospect targeting. Initially, we had worked with 3 outbound companies and pretty quickly went solely with SR.” — Andrew Melchiorri, Sales Director at Automata LLC
This commitment to quality ensures that every campaign is tailored to the client’s industry and requirements. As a result, clients experience a high volume of calls, close rate, and quality of appointments, among other success metrics.
Data-driven methodology
SalesRoads follows a 4-step methodology — discover, strategize, test, and accelerate — to drive sustainable results for businesses. The process involves an in-depth understanding of clients’ businesses and the marketplaces they operate in. The team creates a strategy from scratch, adopts a results-measured testing approach to gauge how the campaign performs, and adjusts the strategy based on that. A constant iteration process and regular performance improvement ensure successful outreach campaigns.
Pricing
Pricing starts at $9,250 per month.
Takeaway
SalesRoads offers a highly personalized approach to sales outsourcing solutions and only works with clients in industries in which they have expertise. Their strategic focus, attention to detail, and commitment to quality guarantee success.
CloudTask is a B2B sales services marketplace that provides access to vetted and experienced sales professionals. This is a great solution for those who struggle in doing research: These guys can help you choose from hundreds of candidates, focusing on your niche, region, and other factors.
The company has served clients such as NotionDrop and Aloware and offers sales development, sales consulting, sales training, and customer success to agencies and sellers. Clients can hire anyone from the marketplace and have them work remotely on their sales projects.
Sales process
CloudTask’s team of experts has decades of experience in the B2B market. This makes them ideal for companies looking to accelerate sales cycles. The structured process and access to qualified candidates allow clients to quickly build their teams and benefit from the skill sets of the marketplace’s sellers. Access to remote professionals also makes CloudTask an attractive option for businesses interested in expanding their operations while keeping overhead low.
Satisfied customers praise CloudTask’s proactive approach and attention to detail:
"I appreciated how hands-on they were when finding the perfect fit for SocialBloom. It was also helpful to have them advise me in the right direction based on their expertise. I felt like I was guided from start to finish. The fact that they support outsourced sales providers and sales services like SocialBloom was comforting. We didn’t really have a focus on hiring in LATAM. CloudTask opened our eyes to what is possible from a budget perspective, and we were pleasantly surprised by some of the talents in LATAM." — Caleb Sinn, Founder at SocialBloom
Pricing
CloudTask retains 15% of each payment transaction, as defined in the purchase agreement, when a buyer hires a seller through the CloudTask Marketplace.
Takeaway
CloudTask facilitates partnerships tailored to B2B clients’ specific needs and challenges. They provide access to experienced professionals who understand their clients’ needs. This attentive customer service and focus on delivering results make them an ideal option for companies who don’t have enough time to search for and select contractors on their own.
FAQ
What is included in outsourcing costs?
Outsourcing costs vary depending on the project, the service provider, and other factors. Generally speaking, they may include setup fees (usually one-time payments) and ongoing monthly/annual rates. Depending on the project, additional fees may be required for services like data collection or legal advice. It’s critical to discuss all costs and payment terms with the vendor before starting a project.
Why do companies outsource to agencies when they have the resources in-house?
Outsourcing to a specialized agency allows businesses to access expertise not available in-house. It also helps them scale quickly, save time and money by tapping into the vendor’s existing resources, and redirect internal resources to focus on core objectives like deal closing.
What are the benefits of partnering with an outsourced sales team?
These include access to a larger talent pool, faster onboarding, reduced operational costs, improved customer service and engagement, better scalability and flexibility, and increased ROI.
Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
