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In-house or Outsourced BDRs

I have built both in-house and outsourced BDR teams in the past, but this will be the smallest company I've done it with so far. Does anyone on the management side of the cycle have an opinion on whether you'd hire an in-house (remote for now) BDR for your first hire in the modern market, or would you dip your toes in the outsourced options that are widely available today?

In-House of Offshore?

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

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Update: Going in-house.

MrBravado

WR Officer

VP of Marketing

Benefits of outsourced SDRs when you are a very small company:

- They have systems in place to track results and measure metrics that you probably don't.
- They have have benchmarks for performance that they expect from their people, that you don't have established yet.
- They have access to databases and sales tech that you probably don't have yet.

They have the systems and processes.

What they don't have is the solution knowledge, or customer context, or problem knowledge.

So, it becomes all about your ability to provide initial and ongoing training.

You have to make the time to do training - not once and done, but on-going, regular sessions from different people who can offer different ways to expressing the same information.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Great reply here--however, we do have the process and the tech stack that any good SDR team needs. We simply don't have the resource and my time is split between building the machine and operating it.

I've worked with a few firms at this point and the training process was frustrating, to say the least. One such firm didn't allow us to train the reps; we had to train the trainers and managers who would then train the team. It turned into a game of telephone that ended up translating terribly on their calls and really pissed off our territory managers.

I think we may go in-house for the first hire and use that resource as the archetype to scale up and down an outsourced firm.

MrBravado

WR Officer

VP of Marketing

The challenge with having a single SDR is it can be harder for that one person to meet expectations set by others.

That single person will need the same cadence of ongoing training as you would give to a team. But sometimes, when it's just one person, this doesn't happen.

Another potential irony - in our WFH environment - the difference between "in-house" and "outsourced" is almost lost. Part of the benefit of an "in-house" team is the mutual support and energy the team can share among themselves. When we're all in the same room, that happens more easily. WFH SDRs have a tougher job (IMHO).

Personally, I would not bring SDRs "in-house" until we were at a scale to hire 2 or 3.

But I'm not you, and don't know the context of your situation. So, my thoughts are just ideas. I don't know the whole truth or the only truth. There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer. You'll make the right choice for you. We only want the best for you.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Some of the language here makes me think you work for an SDR-as-a-Service company...but I could be wrong and I honestly don't care if you do or don't. You've raised a lot of good points that I will continue to consider as I get ready to launch a formal process to find the best solution in the next two weeks. Have an upvote, on the house.

MrBravado

WR Officer

VP of Marketing

I don't now, and never have, worked for an SDR as a Service company.

But I have managed SDR teams - both internal teams and external teams.

The first time I was asked to use an external team, I though it was going to make my life a lot harder. I thought, "How will this team of randos learn our solution? Our customers? Their struggles?... How will I know who on the team is good and who is bad? How will I succeed as the only manager with an external team, while my peers in the same company all had internal teams??"

What I discovered was in 4 months, "my" external team of 8 SDRs was performing better than all the internal teams.

Why?

1. As external SDRs, they were not trying to become AEs in the company - so they were not looking for ways to "add-value" and "prove themselves worthy" to Sales Managers. These added value actions can break into the day - and become the main event for internal SDRs who want to be AEs. Not the case with external SDRs.

2. The external team wasn't copied on dozens of internal Sales emails each day.

3. They never turned into "secretaries" for AEs - booking meetings with customers when reps traveled (remember traveling?? :) )

4. They received much better call tactics training, call management and call coaching than I would have been able to provide to an internal team. They had a manager who lived and breathed this all day long - I and my peers could only be "SDR Manager tourists".

5. I structured a process of weekly "lunch-and-lean" webinar training sessions (that were recorded) with instruction coming from the a mix of Product Managers, Sales managers, AEs, myself. I made sure the team of 8 external SDRs were receiving regular and ongoing training. Knowledge would be their superpower.

6. They had far better call results tracking than the internal teams - which seems ironic. But the external SDR company had refined their process and metrics during 10 years and dozens of customers.

7. Aside from the weekly web-based training, I would meet with them physically at least 2x a quarter to listen and learn from them. I took them out to dinner 1x a quarter and awarded prizes for various achievements. Most meetings. Highest pipeline value from their meetings. Most improved...

A fair comment is to ask, "Dude, but if you did all the same things with an internal team, wouldn't you get the same results?" It's a fair comment. Unfortunately, I don't think I would have. As an external team, I was paying the bill. So I was able to shield them from stuff that I doubt I could have shielded them from if they were an internal team.

Clearly, I put a lot of effort into their success. And that's how it should be. If they were internal, bizarrely, I wouldn't have been able to do the same things, because - politics. But internal or external, this is the level of effort needed. Many companies hire external teams but aren't willing to do the work needed to help them be successful. But it's only the same work that's needed to make an internal team successful. Just, because they are internal, many managers kind of rely on the SDRs to train themselves. That seems unfair to me.

Again, all of this doesn't mean external SDRs are the right choice for you and your situation. You'll do what makes sense for you. Just wanted to unpackage my earlier reply in a bit more detail for you to see.

Good luck - and I wish you success with the approach you choose.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Have tried both, have used both at same time. If using outsourced make sure a piece of their fee is based on performance. You will also do just as much work and quality control as if they were in house, so I stay in house

MrMoneybags

Big Shot

Account Executive

during my time as BDR I also worked with external BDR who would pre-prequalify leads. there was no quality oversight, so in the end they would just push "qualified" leads through to the BDR team, who would re-qualify the leads and then pass them to the AE.

in your case the leads would go straight to AE I presume; but the point stays the same. without the proper quality management and feedback loop you get stuck with poor quality and low engagement from the AEs who wouldn't care about the external company to find proper leads.

so in my experience the quality and the engagement would be less with external teams.

NoSuperhero

Politicker

BDR LEAD

I can see that happening, but where I'm at we are pushing for an opportunity based comission payout. So qualifying leads is number one thing, engaging in conversation is a higher priority in our KPIs, and I think with that model it allows your sales teams to scale. Just my two cents.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Internal, all the way. My company uses both...the quality of leads provided by our in house reps is WAY better than the ones provided by outside reps. Outside reps aren't familiar with your company's message/culture, and not invested in it's success.

MrBravado

WR Officer

VP of Marketing

Internal teams tend to have better access to knowledge to continuously learn about the solution being sold and the problems customer struggle with.

If the external team is given the same attention for on-going and regular training, they will invariably do better.

Set-it-and-forget-it won't work for internal or external teams.

Internal SDRs that succeed find ways to continuously learn.

With external teams, management needs to invest their time in getting the external team regular and on-going training. If internal management is lazy and doens't spend time with their external teams, the results will suck.

AlecBaldwinsHairline

Valued Contributor

Head of Sales Development

I can't think of any company that has great outsourced BDR work, unless it's an incredibly transactional process just to set an appointment for someone else on your team to truly qualify, build interest, and drive urgency.

NoSuperhero

Politicker

BDR LEAD

I'm an offshore BDR, LMAO

MrMonte

Arsonist

Head of Sales

I've had success starting in-house and then using my trained BDR to run point as mentor/manager for remote BDRs. That is if I helped the in-house BDR hit his/her pace. Getting a people developing machine going is hard but can be super rewarding for everyone.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

definitely in-house, especially if what you're selling is a bit more on the technical side. allows them to speak to what they are selling better. outsourced BD is good for marketing activity follow up and things like that. but for more targeted outbound efforts, definitely in-house.

ChicagoCloser1717

Politicker

New Business Development Representative

I have never worked for a company with outsourced BDRs but my company is actually considering it....how effective are outsourced BDR of they don't actually work for your company?

ChiefGreef45

Catalyst

Account Executive

In-House gives you a chance to really tailor the message and work through trial and error on different campaigns. I also like the idea of mentoring BDR's since I was once in their shoes as well. A good relationship with BDR's keeps people motivated in a role that can certainly be challenging, especially in the beginning.

YoungGoat

Opinionated

Surgical Technology Specialist

In house is best but unfortunately there are still many companies that choose to out source which is unfortunate

NorthernSalesGuru

Politicker

Manager, Outbound Sales

Is this even a question?

Good businesses are built on structure and control.

if you can’t control one of your most powerful pipe generators.....

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Yes, it is a question that has birthed many high-performing outsourced sales companies. Some companies cannot build an in-house team fast enough but need folks to hit the phones while they build out their strategy. Others have an in-house team but want a B-squad to test new markets.

We are going in-house because we have evaluated all of our options. I'm curious, how many sales teams have you built from the ground up? On my third, myself.

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In-house or Outsourced BDRs

In-House of Offshore?

20 comments

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