How Outsourcing RevOps Can Transform Your B2B Operations

12 December 2024

Executive Summary

Outsourcing Revenue Operations (RevOps) can significantly enhance your B2B business by streamlining processes and boosting efficiency. If you're looking to reduce your digital marketing expenses without sacrificing results, explore "How to Cut Digital Marketing Costs While Boosting Performance". Additionally, understanding the true expenses involved in acquiring B2B sales can help you make informed decisions; check out "Unveiling the True Costs of Acquiring B2B Sales".

You'll Discover:

The key benefits of outsourcing RevOps for your B2B business.
How outsourcing leads to improved efficiency and scalability.
Strategies to implement RevOps outsourcing effectively.
Deciding if outsourcing RevOps is right for your organisation.

This article aims to help business owners understand how to build a new business infrastructure by outsourcing revops, using external contractors for various tasks, including copywriting, web design, video production, live streaming, and social media promotion. By leveraging external expertise, businesses can scale quickly, reduce costs, and maintain flexibility in a rapidly changing market. This guide outlines the process of identifying, selecting, and managing external contractors to maximise efficiency and achieve business goals to drive and enhance Revenue Operations (RevOps).

The Benefits of Using External Contractors for RevOps
RevOps - Identifying Your Business Needs
Finding the Right External Contractors
Establishing Clear Contracts and Expectations
Managing Your External Contractors
Ensuring Quality and Consistency
Communication and Collaboration Tools
Evaluating and Adjusting Your Approach
FAQs
Conclusion & Key Takeaways

1. Outsourcing RevOps and Using External Contractors

There are several benefits of outsourcing RevOps and using external contractors for your business:

- Cost savings: Outsourcing tasks to external contractors can significantly reduce overhead expenses. You only pay for the services you need when you need them, avoiding the costs associated with hiring full-time employees, such as salaries, benefits, and office space.
- Expertise: External contractors often possess specialised skills and expertise in their respective fields. By utilising their services, you can access a diverse pool of talent that may not be available in-house.
- Flexibility: Working with external contractors allows you to scale your workforce up or down based on demand and project requirements. This flexibility helps you adapt to changing market conditions and business needs more efficiently.
- Time savings: By delegating tasks to external contractors, you can free up internal resources to focus on core business activities and strategic growth initiatives.

2. RevOps - Identifying Your Business Needs

Before hiring external contractors, it's essential to identify your business needs and determine which tasks can be outsourced effectively. Some steps to consider include:

- Assess your current workforce and identify skill gaps that external contractors can fill.
- Determine which tasks are non-core and can be delegated to external professionals.
- Evaluate your budget and allocate resources accordingly.

I want to take a different approach to all the business gurus out there and say that B2B sales and marketing is broken. It hasn’t changed since the 1950s and even with the introduction of more Technology, SaaS and PaaS you can poke a stick at, B2B organisations are still not doing more than approximately $120 - $150,000 per person per annum and when comparing to Amason, Microsoft and Google who are doing $300, $1m and $2m respectively, you just know there is a big problem that no one seems to be getting it.

In a nutshell, businesses are forced down a 1:1 selling route when they could be selling one-to-many. B2Bs don’t understand what needs to be done because they all too busy positioning themselves as number one in the company.

There is no humility, everyone wants to be top-dog and the people who are tasked with revenue generation are simply lying to themselves and each other that they know what they’re doing. All this posturing is the reason you need to review RevOps and reduce digital marketing costs.

FYI; if they knew what they were doing, they would have worked out that the current sales and marketing strategies don’t work, the revenue per person per annum is too low to sustain a business and that digital practices have never worked as desired. Hence every business reverts to BDRs and telesales to try and find interested parties and you’re back to a 1:1 ratio.

It is also the reason so many businesses keep applying for investment to cover debt. This exemplfies the need to pivot to Pivoting to Digital Selling. If there ever was a reason to be brutal at reviewing the cost of getting B2B sales, it's now.

To double-down on this and really make you cringe, CMOs have a tenure of between nine to eighteen months. Marketing recruitment companies know this statistic implicitly and absolutely love it. Why wouldn’t they as they’re guaranteed to replace £100k plus salaried senior people at a constant rate. Also, you would never find an HR person telling a CEO this 100% accurate fact, because no one knows what else to do – it’s just always been this way.

It's a sorry state-of-affairs. I know it’s harsh, but you could fire your whole marketing team and not see a change in your income – ever. So, what is a CEO to do? First things first; you must see the wood for the trees. This means to understand how people buy and adjust your business to meet this head on.

This is where digital selling comes in to play and will be the focus of your external contracting strategy, you first need to identify the areas which can be accurately addressed or should I say realigned with contractors. It is easier to plan this in line with our recommended strategy as shown on our Go Live page beginning with Stage One: -

Stage 1

Starting with content; your prospects want to self-educate in their own time and engaging with content they feel like reading, watching, or listening to. Just like you do. You current marketers keep producing content, which is hidden behind an email, expressly to achieve and demonstrate a KPI. Prospects like you and me cannot stand this feeble attempt at getting our contact details and either click away, give false information, or immediately unsubscribe to stop the phone calls.

Define the content you need to fully engage your prospects. It is the titles, or should I say the questions your prospects are asking that are to be the focus. To define the titles or questions, ask your salespeople to provide all of them; they are the ones talking to prospects and customers.

Appoint a Copywriter; to write as many articles as possible, starting with a minimum of thirty (there is no upper limit, aim for at least 120), answering the questions provided by sales. All articles can be created via ChatGPT and edited by the copywriter to ensure accuracy.

The copywriter will also edit and create content that reflects all the products you sell and services you provide, in line with the content categories, Primary, Secondary, General, Product and How to Buy. for more information on this strategy, take a look our Copywriting page.

Your content is to act as bait. Potential prospects ask questions. Your articles answer the question within the search and once they click through, your article page is to be viewed as a landing page. The web designer below will ensure there is one Call-to-Action on the page and between the copywriter and the web designer they will ensure all the necessary internal links are included and work properly.

Personally, I do not subscribe to appointing a separate SEO or SEM consultant because this is B2B and not B2C. The copywriter should know the products sufficiently to be able to prompt an A.I. like ChatGPT and your sales team be capable of proofreading the content before it is posted on the website.

Appoint a Graphic Designer; to create all the corresponding images to accompany the articles. Mid Journey, MS Designer or any other A.I. image generating platform can be used, using the sales question as the prompt to create the image.

Appoint a Web Designer; To ensure correct or effective navigation on your website. They will also ensure that the content categories above are identifiable within your analytics. Which leads me onto setting up Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Both these platforms are necessary to analyse the effectiveness of your content.

Appoint a Google Analytics; Tag Manager and Data Studio Consultant, this person will ensure all website metadata is work and work in conjunction with the web designer to ensure the required Tags are firing where and when needed. Once the system is set up, they will be instructed to set up Google Data Studio which will provide a business-wide dashboard, visible to anyone with access rights. Read our explanation regarding Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager.

Appoint a Videographer; to film and record all your internal activities, from introductions to the business and your various teams through to filming the work your teams do. Contact all your preferred customers and enquire if they would agree to allow your videographer to film a short documentary about their business for you to use as a customer story on your website.

Stage 2

Appoint an Audio Engineer; to assist with recording of everything you do and editing your podcasts which will be hosted by your outgoing and gregarious salespeople. Your podcast guests will be customers, suppliers, partners, and anyone else who will contribute to making a great show. The audio engineer will be responsible for uploading the podcast to the podcast platforms for RSS distribution.

They will also be responsible for providing the video, podcast and live stream transcript to the copywriter for editing prior to it being uploaded to the platforms.

Appoint a Broadcast Engineer, who will set up and manage your weekly live streaming shows, incorporating all of the activities used by the videographer and podcasts teams.

Appoint a broadcast scriptwriter, to write up the live stream show flow and show outlines. This person can also be instrumental in developing the outlines for both the podcasts and to create documentary and various video screen plays.

Video & Live Stream Grip, this is a film industry term that relates to a person who understands all of the supporting kit needed from tripods to lighting and so on. They are a great help when organising set design and preparing all of the peripheral components to deliver a professional video or live show.

Appoint a Social Media Executive; who will structure and set up our recommended strategy called Social 444 and the 300-450 adverts to be auto-posted simultaneously on all social platforms.

There is an important aspect to using social media; the platforms intend to keep browsers on their sites, it’s called ‘dwell time’ therefore it is important, especially when working with LinkedIn, is to replicate your content on LinkedIn as well as your website. Yes, this requires more work to get it set up, but it will level off.

When creating an auto-posting advert, the link on the advert and graphic image will link to an article which has been written within LinkedIn in your Company Page Articles section.

Stage 3

Appoint a Video Editor; whilst this may be the same person as either the videographer or audio engineer, the video editor has an important function to deliver the finished product to your hosting platform(s). The live shows will need the transcript embedded in the video. Both the video and live streams will require graphics to be inserted and so on.

Appoint a video/live media director; everything mentioned above will require project managing and directing. We have provided documentation to outline all the work necessary, in the form of Gantt charts and project outlines.

Who Should be Contracted?

Once you have a clear understanding of what has gone wrong with B2B sales and marketing and spent some time analysing the possibilities relating to digital selling, you will identify which activity can be contracted and who would be best suited to being fully employed.

When looking at the above list of appointees, compare this against your existing marketing team and contrast against their existing workload and output.

I believe you will be surprised at the actual ineffectiveness of current digital marketing expectations.

3. Finding the Right External Contractors

It seems that hiring external contractors is becoming the new normal. To find the right external contractors for your business, follow these steps:

Research: Look for reputable platforms or agencies that specialise in providing the services you require. Examples include Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, or specialised agencies for web design, copywriting, and video production.
Review portfolios: Evaluate potential contractors' portfolios to assess their skills, style, and experience. Look for examples of previous work that align with your business needs and expectations.
Conduct interviews: Speak with potential contractors to discuss your project requirements, expectations, and timelines. This will help you determine if they are a good fit for your business and can meet your needs.
Check references: Contact previous clients or read reviews to get a sense of the contractor's reliability, professionalism, and work quality.

I came across this article on Business.com called 'When to Hire a Full-Time Employee vs. Contractor'- https://www.business.com/articles/contractors-vs-employees-benefits-and-drawbacks/. An intersting read.

4. Establishing Clear Contracts and Expectations

Once you've selected your external contractors, it's essential to establish clear contracts and expectations. Some key points to include in your agreements are:

Scope of work: Clearly outline the tasks and deliverables the contractor is responsible for.
Timelines: Specify deadlines for each phase of the project.
Payment terms: Agree on payment terms, including rates, invoicing schedules, and payment methods.
Intellectual property rights: Ensure that your business retains ownership of any work produced by the contractor.

5. Managing Your External Contractors

Effectively managing your external contractors is crucial to ensure smooth project execution and achieve desired results. Some tips for managing contractors include:

Maintain regular communication and provide updates on project progress.
Set clear expectations and provide feedback on completed work to ensure alignment with your goals and vision.
Implement project management tools to track tasks, deadlines, and progress.
Schedule periodic check-ins or meetings to discuss any issues or concerns that may arise.

6. Ensuring Quality and Consistency

Maintaining quality and consistency across your projects is essential to building a strong brand and reputation. To ensure quality and consistency when working with external contractors, consider the following:

Develop clear guidelines and standards for each task or project, including style guides, brand guidelines, or templates.
Provide constructive feedback on completed work and request revisions if necessary.
Implement a quality control process, such as proofreading or peer review, to catch errors or inconsistencies before finalising deliverables.

7. Communication and Collaboration Tools

Leveraging communication and collaboration tools can help streamline workflows and improve collaboration between your business and external contractors. Some popular tools include:

Project management tools: Trello, Asana, or Basecamp can help you organise tasks, set deadlines, and track progress.
Communication tools: Slack or Microsoft Teams can facilitate real-time communication and collaboration between team members.
File-sharing tools: Google Drive or Dropbox can enable easy sharing and access to documents, images, or other project files.

8. Evaluating and Adjusting Your Approach

Regularly evaluating your approach to working with external contractors can help you identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments. Some factors to consider when evaluating your approach include:

Contractor performance: Assess the quality of work, timeliness, and overall satisfaction with your contractors.
Cost-effectiveness: Evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of outsourcing specific tasks and determine if it's worth continuing or adjusting your strategy.
Internal resource allocation: Assess if outsourcing has effectively freed up internal resources for core business activities and strategic initiatives.

9. FAQs

Q: How do I find the right external contractors for my business?

A: Research various platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, and look for contractors with relevant experience, strong portfolios, and positive client reviews.

Q: What should be included in a contract with an external contractor?

A: A contract should outline project scope, deliverables, deadlines, payment terms, confidentiality, and intellectual property ownership.

Q: How can I maintain quality and consistency when working with external contractors?

A: Develop clear guidelines and standards for each task, provide constructive feedback, and implement a quality control process to ensure alignment with your brand and vision.

Q: Which tools can help improve communication and collaboration with external contractors?

A: Tools such as Trello, Asana, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, or Dropbox can streamline workflows and facilitate collaboration between your business and contractors.

Q: How often should I evaluate my approach to working with external contractors?

A: Regularly assessing contractor performance, cost-effectiveness, and internal resource allocation can help identify areas for improvement and inform your outsourcing strategy.

10. Conclusion & Key Takeaways

Building a new business infrastructure using external contractors (outsourcing RevOps) to include tasks such as copywriting, web design, video production, live streaming, and social media promotion can help you scale quickly, reduce costs, and maintain flexibility. By identifying your business needs, selecting the right contractors, establishing clear contracts and expectations, and effectively managing your external workforce, you can leverage external expertise to achieve your business goals.

To revolutionise your B2B sales and marketing approach and achieve better results, it's crucial to shift from traditional 1:1 selling to a one-to-many strategy using digital selling. This transformation can be effectively achieved by leveraging external contractors to address specific business needs. Here are some actionable takeaways to help you successfully build a new business infrastructure:

Identify and prioritise business needs: Analyse your current sales and marketing efforts, and identify areas for improvement. Determine which aspects can benefit from digital selling and decide which tasks should be contracted out.
Find the right contractors: Research and hire skilled external contractors for specific roles like copywriting, web design, video production, live streaming, and social media promotion. Make sure they align with your vision and can effectively execute your strategy.
Establish clear communication and collaboration: Implement project management tools and communication channels to streamline workflows and facilitate effective collaboration between your business and external contractors.
Monitor progress and evaluate performance: Regularly assess contractor performance, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with your business goals. Adjust your outsourcing strategy as needed to optimise results.
Continuously refine your digital selling approach: Stay informed about industry trends and best practices, and be open to adapting your digital selling strategy to better serve your Total Addressable Market (TAM).

By implementing these steps and building a robust business infrastructure with external contractors, your company will be better positioned to capitalise on digital selling opportunities and achieve greater success in today's competitive B2B landscape.

Executive Summary

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