Startups are no strangers to outsourced services. As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably enlisted the help of a book keeper, an accountant, or a lawyer to help you run your business.
At VA Partners, we’re also big believers that part-time sales and marketing assistance can be a big help for growing startups. Some consultants use the term outsourced sales and marketing, but we like to use the term part-time sales and marketing.
This is a conscious decision on our part. We feel that any sales and marketing effort needs to be looped into both the leadership and product development side of the business in ways that an ‘outsourcing’ model isn’t capable of. This feedback can help startups pivot and tweak their solutions as required.
There are 6 main benefits that part-time sales and marketing resources typically bring to startups.
1. Experience
There’s no denying that entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do. But, passion and experience are two very different things. Many startup founders and entrepreneurs tend to lack applicable sales and marketing experience, a significant drawback to scaling a business quickly. In the early days when trying to gain users and customers, experience matters.
2. Flexibility
A part-time sales and marketing resource should be able to add more or less time depending on the cycles of your business. At VA Partners, we frequently trade engagement time between sales and marketing resources, depending on the short term priorities of every business we work with.
3. Execution
Entrepreneurs are busy people. The ‘founder’ job description is almost mythical and includes such responsibilities as product development, hiring staff, and raising money to fund expansion, in addition to many other vital tasks. Because of this, generating revenue is often overlooked. A part-time marketing and sales resource should bring the focus required to keep revenue as one of the highest priorities.
4. Cost-Effective
Perhaps the biggest benefit of part-time resources, part-time sales and marketing staff will cost your business much, much less than a full-time resource. When you embrace the power of part-time sales and marketing, your organization can typically get access to experienced resources for less.
5. Go Faster
An extra fractional resource should help your startup move faster in the short term and become more agile and adaptable in the long-term.
6. Hiring and Managing Sales & Marketing Resources
Many entrepreneurs have never managed or hired sales and marketing reps. It’s a very different hire than a tech team hire. Once the new employees have been hired, it’s important to plan ahead to be effective. This process can take a lot more time and expertise then the entrepreneur may have. A part-time executive can solve this problem.
If your business is looking for help with your sales and marketing efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a quick conversation to discuss your sales and marketing challenges. Also, if you’d like to get great sales and marketing information delivered right into your inbox, subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
