For any medical device manufacturer, the sales team is a critical part of the company’s success. While engineers help design top-notch products and marketers help build brand awareness, it’s the sales reps who close deals and build long-lasting relationships with customers.
So, building a top-notch sales team is a must for any company in the medical device industry. However, manually building a sales team with the right skills and level of motivation is a difficult and time-consuming task—one that is very easy to get wrong.
What Is Outsourced Sales (Or a Contract Sales Team)?
Outsourced sales is a practice where a company uses a team of external sales representatives to help meet sales goals. However, the specifics of how different contract sales organizations (CSOs) handle the relationship can differ from one instance to the next.
For example, some CSOs may have their outsourced sales team work like they are just 1099 contractors who aren’t on payroll and don’t get benefits. Others, meanwhile, may have their outsourced sales reps work as though they’re full-time members of the client’s sales team. This means they wear the client’s uniform and name badge, work regular work hours on a set schedule (like 8 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday), and act as though they are a part of the client’s company.
3 Benefits of Using a CSO for Your Medical Device Sales
So, the question is this: What are the benefits of hiring sales teams through a CSO vs. hiring internally for a medical sales company? Here are a few of the benefits that CSOs bring to the table for medical sales operations:
- Instant Access to a Large Pool of Talent. One of the problems with traditional hiring practices is that they often leave your business limited to the talent available in a small geographic area. For example, a company with its headquarters in Tampa or Houston might have access to a fairly large talent pool because those are major cities with large populations, but that organization would be competing with a lot of others for the same talent pool. With a CSO’s services, companies can access a large pool of talent without having to compete as much for attention.
- Saving Time and Money on Recruitment Efforts. The cost of advertising for an open sales team position, spending labor on reviewing applicant profiles and interviewing them, then onboarding said applicants can be significant. According to HR Daily Advisor, the typical cost to hire a new salesperson is “about $15,000 in hiring costs, plus $20,000 in training.” So, on average, the cost to recruit and onboard a new rep is about $35,000. By offloading that responsibility onto a CSO, companies can save a significant amount of money on recruitment while avoiding the headaches of sifting through piles of unqualified applicants.
- Reducing Turnover Costs for Sales Positions. Turnover is a fact of life for any business. Even with highly motivated, skilled, and engaged employees who don’t want to quit, people will eventually find new opportunities, retire, or suffer major illness or injury that removes them from the workforce. When employees aren’t sufficiently skilled or motivated, they often end up leaving quickly (or underperform until they’re removed). This means not only having to “eat” the cost of hiring a new salesperson—it means dealing with reduced productivity because of an understaffed team or the lack of proficiency of a new hire. By pre-vetting new sales reps and offering “Hire-Right” guarantees, CSOs can help to minimize the cost of employee turnover on top of minimizing initial recruitment costs.
Long story short: the reason to use a contract sales organization for your medical device sales recruitment efforts is to save time, money, and headaches on your hiring workflow. With the right CSO, you can reliably grow your sales team without having to worry about if you’re getting the best people for the job (because you’ll know you’re getting quality talent).
What to Look for When Hiring a CSO for Medical Device Sales
So, what should you look for when hiring a CSO for your medical device sales team? Some key things to look for include:
- How the CSO Communicates with You. Does the CSO offer ongoing communication and status reports on their outsourced sales team? Are you told when they plan to have their sales reps undergo extra training? Or, do they simply present you with new sales reps and avoid further contact? Your CSO should be a business partner—and that means regular communication and updates about sales goals, results, and ongoing education.
- What Sales Skills They Instill in Reps. Do the sales reps recruited by the CSO have the right skills for the job? For example, do they know how to use relationship-building techniques to create long-term success with clients? If the CSO isn’t offering personnel with advanced selling skills, are they really providing value?
- Their Previous Track Record. How successful has the CSO been at driving sales for their past partners? It’s important to look at the success that they’ve driven for other medical device industry partners to get a picture of how well they can operate in your industry.
- Their Ongoing Education Program. Does the CSO offer ongoing education for their medical device sales reps? Staying up to date on training is a must for minimizing risk in medical device sales and maximizing results by keeping sales reps aware of the best sales strategies.
- Their Compliance Track Record. Has the CSO ever had a major compliance violation when working with another company? While mistakes can happen even with well-trained employees, chronic violations can be an indication that there’s a problem with the sales reps the CSO provides. Ask about the CSO’s track record on compliance with medical device sales regulations before partnering with them.
Hiring a CSO is a major step in resolving your medical device sales recruitment problems—but it’s important to find the right partner organization.
Axxelus is here to help you build your medical device sales efforts with outsourced sales teams and contract sales services designed to be as convenient and efficient as possible. Are you ready to transform your medical device sales? Reach out to Axxelus now!
