How to Hire the Most Experienced Team for Outsourced BDR Services [4 Actionable Tips Included]

Your company’s main objective with business development is to identify new growth opportunities and implement them quickly. To carry out your plans you need an experienced team of business development representatives (BDRs).

There are two options to get there:

1. Hiring an in-house business development team

2. Partnering with professionals that provide outsourced bdr services

There are perks and drawbacks on both ends. So, choosing the right approach will depend on your company structure and plans for the future.

But by all means:

In-house sales development comes nowhere close to outsourcing BDRs in terms of results. Despite the pros and cons on each side, outsourced sales development has always been a clear winner when it comes to efficiency.

What Does An Outsourced Team of BDRs Do?

What is a Business Development Representative?

A business development representative (BDR) is an experienced professional who helps companies uncover new growth opportunities and increase sales. They work with the sales team on accelerating the sales pipeline by identifying quality leads and reaching out to them down the sales funnel.

What Do Outsourced BDR Services Include?

An outsourced team of BDRs will help your company execute successful lead campaigns by identifying and qualifying potential leads. And it’s also going to handle appointment setting with key decision-makers at target companies.

Within your organization, the outsourced team of BDRs will work with sales development representatives (SDRs), account executives (AEs), managers, as well as directors from different departments.

The day-to-day responsibilities of outsourced bdrs include:

• Developing solid relationships with potential clients through outbound calling and appointment setting
• Following up with potential clients
• Reporting progress to company managers through sales reports and forecasts
• Maintaining contact with current customers
• Planning and implementing new marketing campaigns

Some of the most sought-after skills when hiring outsourced BDRs are cold calling, email marketing, communication, teamwork, and collaboration.

The Benefits of Outsourced BDR Services

Outsourcing BDRs has lots of benefits, including freeing up time for your internal teams to focus on more essential business tasks. Your outsourced BDR team will serve as an extension of your internal staff to accelerate the sales funnel and boost revenues.

Here are some of the advantages you should expect with BDR outsourcing:

Significant Cost Savings

Hiring in-house BDRs is a costly investment that can quickly exhaust your budget when your business is struggling. The cost of recruiting, training, and keeping your in-house team productive can add up to tens of thousands with no clear benefits in the end. 

On the other hand:

An outsourced bdrs agency offers you straightforwards fees right from the start. You wouldn’t have to worry about any additional or hidden expenses that can threaten your financial stability down the line. 

Proven Expertise and Sales Processes

One of the biggest challenges with in-house hiring is recruiting inexperienced individuals who can slow down your progress. When it comes to business development, the damage is so much greater due to the vital role BDRs play in supporting the sales process. 

Your outsourced business development partner already has a proven strategy in place to help you identify and qualify target leads. They’ll bring years of experience building and maintaining relationships with clients of all sizes. And they can apply different sales approaches using different technologies.

Access to Data and Leads

An outsourced team of BDRs will save you time by granting you access to a winning sales formula built on insightful data and reports. You’ll eliminate all the guesswork from the process by taking advantage of the long years of industry expertise your outsourced BDRs will offer.

That’s how you can enter the market with confidence to implement a strong sales process guaranteed to attract quality leads and increase revenues.

Increased Productivity

As you decide to outsource business development, you’ll increase productivity on two ends:

1. Internally — by freeing up your in-house team’s time so they can focus on other crucial business endeavors. 
2. Externally — as you’ll be hiring a professional outsourced team of BDRs with a proven track record in sales.

What you can expect in the end is a noticeable increase in sent proposals, first meeting success rates, and client acquisition rates. Your sales cycle will be a lot shorter while your employee satisfaction goes through the roof.

Flexible Scalability

As you continue to progress forward, your business will convert lots of qualified leads and close more deals. Eventually, you’re going to start reaching for the high-hanging fruit by introducing new products, upselling existing customers, or even breaking into new markets. 

To keep up with all those demands, your business is going to need even more experienced BDRs as quickly as possible. Yet, that’s impossible to do if you’re hiring in-house.

Outsourcing BDRs gives you the flexibility to upscale your sales team depending on your immediate sales needs. You’ll always be a few steps away from reinforcing your team with experienced professionals. Even when your business is having a rough patch, the option to scale down and rethink your strategy is always open. You don’t have to terminate any contract or be stuck with office equipment you don’t need.

The Challenges of Outsourcing BDRs

Despite all the advantages, there are still some challenges you might face when hiring an outsourced team of BDRs. Here are the ones we see most commonly:

1. Finding the Right Partner

See all the benefits mentioned above?

You’re not going to get any of them unless you find the right business development partner.

Although an outsourced team of BDRs is more effective, finding the perfect partner for your company can sometimes be difficult. You want to make sure you’re hiring putting the right BDR with the right tools in the right place.

You should do your research and homework before choosing an outsourced BDR partner. Make sure to set your objectives from the start and keep them on top of your mind whenever you’re about to make an important decision.

We’ll get in a bit into how you can choose an ideal business development partner.

2. Mastering Your Prospecting Process

Prospecting can often be difficult to outsource, especially when you have a long sales process with a complex product to sell. It also takes more effort to maintain clear communications and keep everyone on the same page. 

Such challenges can cause you problems when trying to keep everyone in alignment with your sales objectives. As a consequence, the lead quality may suffer, and the sales cycle may take a lot longer than necessary.

To prevent that:

Your outsourced team of BDRs may require some minimal training and preparation to master your business development process. You should also choose a BDR partner who’s willing to be fully transparent by involving you in the decision-making. 

3. Maintaining Sales Control

Obviously, you’re not going to maintain full control over the sales process when outsourcing. And you’ll no longer be able to micromanage the day-to-day duties your outsourced bdr team is responsible for.

On top of that:

Outsourced BDRs are going to be representing your brand and talking to your prospects almost exclusively. Therefore, hiring the wrong sales development agency can get your business in trouble before you even realize it.

4. Choosing The Right Pricing Model

In the bigger picture, outsourcing business development is all about decreasing costs while improving efficiency. So unless you’re getting both benefits, it’s better to stick to your in-house BDRs team.

In simpler terms:

Outsourcing BDRs shouldn’t cost you a lot more than hiring an internal business development team.

One way to ensure that you’re reducing costs is by choosing a pricing structure that fits your business needs. You should always pick a pricing model that minimizes surprises and enables you to plan your expenses up-front.

5. Changes In Team Dynamics

Outsourcing BDRs will bring a lot of changes in team dynamics.

You must set up communication systems and processes to maintain synergy between your outsourced and internal teams. Get your in-house team ready for a lot of back-and-forth communication using email, phone calls, and video conferences.

Workflows and management of internal procedures will also change since your company’s structure is different. This requires your organization to have employees with multitasking skills, adaptability, as well as the ability to wear different hats depending on situational needs.

Tips for Outsourced Sales Development: How to Find the Right Outsourced Sales Agency

Researching and hiring a good BDR partner is the most critical step in the outsourcing process. Once you find a promising business development agency that fits your needs, all the remaining pieces will fall into place.

Here are some expert-driven tips to help you find the best outsourced team of BDRs:

1. Start By Defining Your Objectives

Identifying your business goals from the start will help you to determine your staffing needs. That includes understanding your product, your sales process, as well as your customers’ needs.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What is your company struggling with?
• Is outsourcing the right solution?
• How can outsourced BDRs help you solve those problems? 

Once you’re clear about what to expect from an outsourced BDR, you’ll know what skill set and qualifications to focus on. You’ll look for BDR outsourcing agencies that have achieved similar success to what you’re striving for.

It’s also crucial to set measurable KPIs so you can evaluate your outsourced bdrs team later on.

2. Ask the Right Questions

Of all the steps in the BDR outsourcing process, this is the one you should take most of your time with. Asking the right question means hiring the perfect outsourced team of BDRs for your organization. 

During the interview, be sure to ask the outsourced BDR team about their experience in your industry and if they’ve worked with products similar to yours. Test their knowledge of the industry and try to learn more about how they were able to help their past clients transform. 

3. What Out For Red Flags

There are a lot of red flags to watch out for when hiring an outsourced bdr services provider. Thankfully, most of them are easy to spot at an early stage, sometimes even before you make a hiring decision.

Here are three questions to ask yourself:

Are they transparent?

The outsourced BDR partner is going to be representing your brand most of the time. So it only makes sense to choose an outsourced bdrs team that’s willing to provide detailed progress reports and continuous updates.

Do they have good ratings?

Always look at the client satisfaction score of any outsourced BDR team before recruiting them. Search up testimonials and reviews from previous clients on third-party platforms. 

Chances are, if they already have a low score with most of their clients, they’re not going to change just for you. Avoid these low-rated agencies like the plague!

Do they maintain an ideal communication flow?

If you can’t maintain contact with an outsourced BDR provider during the early stages when they’re trying to convince you, you’re probably not going to be able to do that later on.

A smooth communication rhythm is vital for accelerating your project schedule and meeting all deadlines. And it’s even more vital since your outsourced team of BDRs will be working in collaboration with employees from other departments. 

4. Combine Outsourcing With In-House Hiring

The truth is: 

There is no universal rule about how you should approach business development. And making the right decisions depends on a variety of factors — including your industry, objectives, and your budget.

A simple way of making up for the challenges of outsourcing BDRs is to combine it with in-house hiring. That way, you can maintain more control over your business development while taking advantage of the outsourced BDR expertise.