Freelance Sales: 7 Benefits {+ 5 Tips to Getting the Best out of Freelance Sales Reps}

Freelance sales reps are usually tremendously good at what they do. They can help you bring in revenue quickly and affordably.  Plus, outsourcing frees your team the hassle of finding and qualifying leads and allows them to focus on closing.

At least, that’s what every freelancer says. To clients, these vague and unquantified promises are more likely to get them disillusioned. Experienced entrepreneurs and managers know that outsourcing is much more complicated.

Having been in the technology industry for over a decade, we can confidently say that outsourcing your business development and sales is one of the best decisions you could ever make if you do it right.

The bad news is, you won’t know if you got the right team until you’re already in it. However, we’ll do our best to present a more holistic and realistic picture of the advantages of hiring freelance sales representatives to help you make up your mind.

1. Niche Market Expertise and Experience To Help You Penetrate New Markets

When you need to break open a new market or penetrate an already saturated one, you need highly specialized industry expertise. A sales team with years of niche experience gives you a priceless edge when it comes to sourcing and nurturing leads.

For example, Martal Group has extensive experience helping tech companies in over 50 verticals break into the North American market. With so many tech startups trying to make a name for themselves, it takes supremely skilled and experienced sales teams to help new entrants find a niche and become profitable.

Indeed, it takes more than mere experience. The best agencies maintain years of industry data to help them predict market movements and discover potential opportunities. Most businesses lack this kind of street-level data in their sales departments.

2. An Edge To Help You Break Into New Markets

Specialized industry knowledge is particularly important when you’re trying to introduce a new product. On your own, you would need to set up the groundwork for the rollout, including tech stacks, market research, databases, networks, and personnel.

It might take months or even years to successfully rollout a new product or feature, and it’s often prohibitively expensive to do so.

On the other hand, working with an established agency in the field allows you to leverage existing resources and quickly set up marketing and sales teams. You have existing data to validate market fit, experienced consultants to help with strategy, and a large database of contacts to get you started. 

Working with people who already know how to work with prospects in your target market is the secret you need to hit the ground running. This is just one way how hiring freelance sales agents for B2B marketing gets you much more than what you pay for in terms of industry expertise and experience.

3. Flexibility and Scalability to Suit Prevailing Market Conditions

The pandemic of 2020–2022 taught us many painful lessons, one of which is the value of being able to pivot quickly in the face of adverse market conditions. The only businesses that will survive the current economic and market conditions are those that remain adaptable and flexible. 

Unfortunately, sales departments are famously bad at adapting to changing market conditions. They love their “tried and tested” methods and won’t be divorced from their favorite metrics and processes.

If we’re being honest, it’s very difficult to abandon familiar tactics and have to draw up new strategies, implement different roadmaps, and commit to novel action plans. It requires company-wide dedication to see new strategies through. 

We have all seen this in the companies that took years to embrace social media marketing. Some were still debating the merits of eCommerce by the time the pandemic broke out. A different mindset is critical in today’s fast-changing business environment.

4. Out-Of-The-Box Thinking Reveals New Growth Opportunities

By the nature of their work, independent sales agents must stay at the forefront of industry trends and maintain cutting-edge innovation. Working with many clients over time sharpens instincts, reveals new methodologies, and allows them to gauge the effectiveness of different strategies over time.

Many sales departments are siloed even within their own companies and remain blind to new opportunities. Pressure from above can force them to acquire tunnel vision, focusing only on performance metrics rather than the larger goal of business and revenue growth.

Hiring a freelance sales agency exposes you to new and exciting opportunities. When it seems that your team is stuck in a rut, bringing in an outside perspective could give you the traction you need. Outsourced teams have several advantages in their favor:

– A large and diverse talent pool creates a melting pot of fresh ideas, creativity, and innovation.

– Diverse experience in the industry sharpens instinct and helps sales reps develop mastery of specific markets.

– Advanced technology and data analytics allow for confidence in trying out new approaches in segments such as outbound sales or customer service.

– Networking, collaboration, and cooperation among sales experts naturally lead to mutual growth.

When you need a marketing strategy for a new product or service, it’s a good idea to get the input of B2B marketing experts to build a sales and marketing campaign.

5. Low Cost of Customer Acquisition

A more obvious advantage of outsourcing sales appears when clients have seasonal markets or can’t afford full-time sales teams. One of our clients had a very niche product in a saturated market, making outbound sales extraordinarily difficult. But with our expertise, we were able to help them generate $10M in revenue within eight months.

The client was able to obtain such results without having to worry about additional fees, payroll, or overhead. Similarly, outsourced services such as lead generation can be tailored to suit your business needs to minimize costs and risks. 

Rather than hire, training, and maintaining a sales team, you can offload these resource-intensive processes to a freelance sales agency. The result is a much lower cost of customer acquisition when you eliminate recurrent costs such as payroll, tech subscriptions, training, and administration.

6. Multichannel Engagement Maximizes Conversion Rates and ROI

Many businesses lack the resources to run a truly multichannel approach to customer acquisition. Between email, social media, cold calling, chat, and web, the required infrastructure and talent required to run a successful multichannel campaign may be out of their reach.

An outsourced sales agency gives you the benefits of true multichannel customer engagement at a fraction of the cost. It’s a chance to leverage new and unique ways of reaching and nurturing clients, including account-based marketing and social selling. 

Having the resources to run multichannel sales and marketing is just a start. Leveraging it with unique but consistent messaging is often the bigger challenge. Thanks to their expertise, freelance teams can manage these channels for maximum engagement and conversion rates.

7. Skin in the Game: The Benefits of Individual Accountability

For many businesses looking to outsource for the first time, the biggest issue is the perceived lack of control. How do you retain a reasonable level of oversight over freelance sales reps? How do you ensure consistency and loyalty to your brand?

As it turns out, that should be the least of your worries. Any good contract for outsourced services contains minimum service level agreements and terms of contract. But, a much better motivation for freelancers is their shared interest in your growth.

Like many sales jobs, B2B freelance sales is performance-based, but in the case of a freelance agency the performance of the team is vital to the agency’s social proof and customer retention. Freelance teams, like Martal Group’s, not only have a project manager, but a customer service and operations manager to ensure results are achieved. 

In-house personnel may not have such a strong incentive. Hiring a sales agency whose continued partnership with your company is solely dependent on their outcome is the best way to achieve top-level performance.

Freelancers have to be consistently at the top of their game, innovate, and optimize their sales process. This skin in the game assures clients of the best possible results with very little need for continuous oversight.

How To Get the Best Out of Hired Freelance Sales Reps

These and many other benefits of freelance sales teams are possible but not guaranteed. A lot of the time, clients need to play a more active role to get the most from the partnership, including providing constant feedback.

Every business owner has a different approach to outsourcing. Some have a set-and-forget approach, while others prefer to maintain a close watch. The most successful approaches are ones where the client and the hired SDRs achieve a kind of collaborative partnership. 

Some of our long-term clients have been with us for years and we’ve been able to grow beyond initial expectations. Some of the most important lessons we’ve learned so far include:

Define your outsourcing model and keep expectations real: Are you looking to outsource the entire sales process or a specific stage? Set revenue expectations depending on prevailing market conditions.

Think about the long-term: Commit fully to the relationship even if you only expect it to last for six months or a year. You’ll be pleasantly surpised by the performance when you approach the partnership with a long-term perspective.

Be willing to trust the experts: Outsourced sales reps and consultants often have superior experience and expertise compared to in-house teams, and listening to their proposals could open up new channels of success.

Stay on the same page: Whether it’s how you track performance, measure success, or optimize campaigns, make open and honest communication a priority for both parties.

Define your unique selling points upfront: Every product needs a unique selling proposition to beat the competition, whether that’s a reduced price or an advanced feature. Before your freelance team send the first message, document your unique selling points so each interact is full of value for your prospects.

Hire the Right Freelance Sales Team

This is probably the most important factor of all. The right freelance sales team or agency is one that has existing expertise in your target market, has worked with similar products and clients in the past, and has the resources and talent to supercharge your sales.

More importantly, the team should be closely aligned with your business in terms of culture and mission. It’s vital that both they and your internal team work seamlessly so that you achieve the best outcome.

With that in mind, find out why Martal is your ideal outsourced sales team for the North American technology market.

FAQs: Freelance Sales

What is freelance sales?

Freelance sales is where individual sales professionals, unbound by the traditional ties of company employment, offer their expertise on a contractual or project-centric basis. These adept and independent trailblazers, often representing multiple products or companies, derive their earnings from sales commissions or predefined terms in their agreements. In the ever-evolving business landscape, they provide a unique blend of flexibility and agility, allowing enterprises to amplify their sales endeavors without the enduring overheads or long-term commitments associated with full-time personnel.

How do I hire a freelance salesperson?

Embarking on the journey to hire a freelance salesperson can be both exhilarating and daunting, especially in today’s competitive market. But with the right approach, it can be a game-changer for your business. Here’s a quick and easy breakdown of the process:

1. Identify Your Needs
2. Research and Shortlist Agencies
3. Engage with Potential Candidates
4. Ask for Case Studies or References
5. Discuss Compensation Structures
6. Ensure Cultural Fit
7. Draft a Clear Contract
8. Maintain Open Communication

How much money do freelancers make?

The earnings of freelancers vary widely based on several factors:

Industry and Niche: Freelancers in specialized fields often command higher rates than those in general fields.

Experience and Expertise: Seasoned freelancers with a proven track record can charge premium rates compared to newcomers.

Geographical Location: Freelancers in cities with a higher cost of living or in developed countries might have higher rates than those in developing regions.

Project Complexity: Larger, more complex projects typically come with heftier price tags.

Working Hours: Some freelancers work part-time, affecting their annual earnings, while others might work more than the typical 40-hour week.

Payment Structure: Freelancers might charge hourly, per project, or on a retainer basis, which can influence total earnings.

Opting for a freelance sales agency over individual freelancers on platforms like Upwork offers distinct advantages. Agencies bring a collective wealth of experience, a team approach to problem-solving, and often have established processes and tools in place. Moreover, they provide consistency, reliability, and a broader range of services, ensuring that your sales objectives are met with professionalism and efficiency.