Boosting Up Sales: Coaching Your Current Sales Team or Hiring Externally?

Should you invest in coaching for your sales team or hire an external sales development rep (SDR) service? 

When it comes time to scale your sales team, there are two main options: invest in your current team or outsource to a sales development company. In this blog post, we’ll break down the pros and cons of each and how to choose the best option for your business.

Benefits of sales coaching

Close more deals

It’s no secret that sales coaching leads to better conversions. Regular coaching can improve your sales team’s win rate by 28% and quota attainment by 10%. The individual nature of coaching allows each rep to concentrate on a few key areas for improvement and devise a custom plan to reach their goals. By improving each rep’s performance, the entire sales team benefits.

Make the most of training

Without coaching; your SDRs will lose most of the knowledge they learn during training. Coaching can help your sales team put their learning into action with real-time feedback. Improv exercises are a great way to put your reps’ skills to the test and help them hone their abilities through practice.

Self-sufficiency 

Coaching can reduce your reps’ dependence on their manager as they learn to operate independently and grow their skillset. The professional development side of coaching can also lead to higher retention rates. According to SalesHacker, when reps feel more connected to their work, their overall satisfaction and productivity go up. 

Barriers to sales coaching

Time investment

Most sales leaders simply don’t have the time to dedicate to one-on-one coaching. Management and coaching are two completely different skill sets, which is why it often makes sense to hire separate people for each role.

Sales coaches are industry experts. They’re up to date on best practices in both sales development and sales coaching, they use proven frameworks, and they know exactly how to help each rep achieve their full potential. 

If someone within your organization plans to take on this role, it will be a major time commitment and may take away from their other responsibilities. 

Additional costs

Building a sales development team is no small matter. Aside from initial hiring and recruitment costs, you’ll need to consider the ongoing expenses like training, salaries, benefits, tech tools, and office space if your sales team is operating in person. Sales coaching is an additional expense on top of all this.

Lack of experience

As mentioned previously, sales managers don’t always make great coaches. For this reason, more and more companies are choosing to work with external sales coaches who are experts in their industry. 

Hiring an external sales team

With turnover rates on the rise and increasingly expensive hiring and onboarding costs, many companies are choosing to outsource their sales development team. This eliminates the need for costly recruitment and training, and if you work with an experienced company, you’ll also benefit from their proven outbound sales methods.

Benefits of hiring an external sales team

Cost-efficiency 

One of the primary benefits of working with an external sales development team is that hiring and onboarding costs are already baked into the fee. There are no hidden costs; the other company is typically responsible for training, management, and any enablement tools your sales reps need. There’s also no need to worry about retention or replacement costs.

Get started right away

Building a well-equipped sales team is a time-consuming process. Not only do you need to factor in rep training and ramp time, but if you’re building your sales development function from scratch, you’ll also need to devote time to documenting your sales process, creating a playbook, testing sequences, etc. Working with an external sales team provides a much faster return on investment. 

Proven processes

The benefit of working with an experienced outbound sales company is that they know what works. At Predictable Revenue, we’ve helped thousands of companies build scalable outbound sales functions from the ground up. Every business we work with benefits from our years of experience across multiple industries.

Barriers to external sales hiring

Finding the right company

Finding an outsourced SDR service that meets your company’s needs may take some time. You’ll need to carefully consider the company’s approach, past results, and experience in your industry. 

Short vs. long-term growth

External sales hiring may appeal more now, but as your company grows, an internal team has its own benefits. A few years from now, you may wish you had invested in an internal team earlier. 

Trust in your external partner

An external sales team doesn’t provide as much opportunity for hands-on leadership, which can be either positive or negative, depending on what you’re looking for. You need to trust that the company you’re working with has your business’s best interests at heart.

Sales coaching vs. sales hiring: which is suitable for your company? 

Whether you hire externally or coach your current sales team will depend on your budget, business goals, and timeline. 

If you have the resources (time, talent, and finances) to commit to building an internal team, then sales coaching can be a great option. Our outbound sales experts would love to help your team grow.

Click here to learn more about our coaching services. 

On the other hand, if you’re not quite ready to invest in building an outbound sales function from the ground up, working with an external SDR service can be a great alternative.

Reach out here to learn more about our outsourced SDR Pods.