Understand sales outsourcing thoroughly, expert advises

Companies looking to undertake sales outsourcing must ensure they have a thorough understanding of what they aim to achieve before they begin the process.

This is the view of Bryan Baker of Xerox Global Services, who stated that the firm must discuss the process with its potential outsourcing partner in order to create "a blueprint for a successful future relationship".

He urged firms considering outsourcing to take a number of factors - such as technical issues, cultural differences and costs - into consideration, as agreements that have been reached with insufficient planning are often "prone to fail".

Once the outsourcing contract is in place, businesses should be aware that making changes to their operations, such as altering programmes that are used for lead generation, can have a "dramatic impact" on the work being done by the outsourcing specialist.

"Understanding upstream changes that can impact the scope of work being outsourced is crucial," he remarked.

Finally, Mr Baker observed that sales outsourcing is likely to be most successful when approved by company leaders, stating that the success rate "dramatically increases" when the plan has the backing of "high level executives".

Research firm XMG Global recently conducted research showing that the economic downturn is not causing firms to postpone outsourcing arrangements, as the industry is still showing signs of growth.