Should your company outsource or insource? It’s an easily debatable question and there are definite pros and cons on both sides. Yet sometimes it just makes sense to outsource certain tasks to help with your immediate business needs. For example, some companies will use employment agencies to help find hourly workers and some companies outsource their payroll. Both are very time-consuming tasks that need to be done, but neither is what their company specializes in. I find it the adage, “do what you do best, and let others do the rest” to be the best guide.
ADVANTAGES FOR YOUR SALES STAFF
Outsourcing can be a great advantage to your sales team. Hiring an agency to make cold calls or to set appointments, not only frees up the time they need to sell, but it also gives you the time to invest in their skills. Offering continuing education to your staff is the only way to help them hone their skills. Helping them to do what they do best, will also prove that you are vested in their future, hereby creating an employee that is more loyal and willing to stay longer on the job. We all know the high-cost of turnover. The investment into training is well worth the turnover loss.
FASTER RESULTS
There are only so many hours in a day, and top performing employees walk a fine line before they feel burnt out. Alleviate some of the mundane daily tasks and allow them to do what they enjoy: spending more time with customers and providing great customer service. A great experience for the consumer will create a loyal consumer. While your team is closing sales, you can have an outside team making those appointment setting calls for them in the background. You will see more appointments being set and better results in your team’s close rates.
COST EFFECTIVENESS
There are many costs to hiring a direct employee and most of those are mandatory.
Some of those mandatory added costs of an employee are as follows:
- Employer share of FICA (7.65% on compensation up to the annual wage base, which is $132,900 in 2019, plus 1.45% on compensation over the annual wage base).
- Federal unemployment tax (FUTA) of $42 per employee. The FUTA tax rate is 6%, but most employers can take a FUTA credit of 5.4%, resulting in a mere 0.6%.
- State unemployment tax, which varies with your state and your claims experience (the more claims made by former employees for unemployment benefits, the higher your state unemployment tax rate will be).
In addition to saving money on the mandatory costs, you will also save by not paying for your employees’ down time or any of the time wasted on them completing administrative tasks. For example, when you are paying for appointments to be set, you are generally paying per appointment and not paying for the time it takes to generate the appointment. All these savings don’t even include the cost of not offering benefits. Outsourcing is the clear answer.
ACCESS TO EXPERT TALENT
Just as your sales team is the best at working with customers and helping to close sales, an outsourced Business Development Center is the best at generating leads. This is what they do all day every day. They are professionals and get paid to help provide you more business. It’s easy to get too busy to answer the phone, or to miss a voice mail, we have all done it. However, what business did you just miss and what is that saying about your business to your potential customer? Outsourcing ensures nothing slips through the cracks and allows you focus on what you do best.
Want to improve how your dealership handles phone calls? Check out our Dealership Phone Training or Active Coaching Services and see how Phone Ninjas can help you!
As the COO | Partner of Phone Ninjas, Chris delivers leadership, coaching, and mentorship to 55 team members providing software sales and phone skills coaching. He fosters powerful partnerships and collaborations with leaders across various business sectors, establishing expectations, communicating vision, and escalating performance to maximize productivity and effectiveness.
Chris is an innovation-driven business executive with over 25 years of experience delivering leadership to teams of up to 75 overseeing development, launch, and sale of website lead acquisition, reconditioning process software systems, and technology that support automotive dealerships across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
