In most other categories, vendors listed come from a world-wide pool ranging from top-tier, full-service, large organizations; second-tier, specialty best-of-breed vendors; and small, strategically located vendors.
However, in the Outsourced Sales & Business Development sub-list they are exclusively US based.
I was surprised to see some of the vendors included in the list as, to me, they are effectively provide marketing services rather than pure-play sales outsourcing vendors. And there are certainly a couple of UK-based companies that I would have expected in this list ahead of other US players.
I suspect that this simply illustrates that the sales outsourcing sector is still developing, rather than a reflection of selection criteria.
Having just ordered the latest "black book", it'll be interesting to see whether any UK players have made the cut for 2007.
Labels: sales outsourcing
I couldn't agree more! I've just started promoting a sales outsourcing business in the Midlands working with guys who recently set up in Edinburgh. The amazing thing is the reaction from most folks you talk to. Once they understand what sales outsourcing is (a very quick process) the next comment is "how useful, I can think of several companies that could do with that"
Why don't you check out the guys in Edinburgh. www.salesgap.co.uk
great series of articles - keep it up!
two comments I have to your original blog:
- how do you *scale* on a true sales outsourcing operation (i.e. Dedicated Manufacturer Representation)... taking on more clients would presumably create a conflict of interest between companies... if you therefore specialise in different markets then aren't you a jack of all markets/trades ;) ?
- is the limited take-up of sales outsourcing in Europe (compared to the US & Japan) due to the number of countries & languages involved...?
regards
Justin
Thanks for the comments, Justin.
My thoughts are:
- in the manufacturer representative model they usually handle a number of non-competing clients and sell into the same customer base. This does limit its scalability as you say, which is common with many professional services.
- companies that address different markets usually specialise on either part of the sales process (such as lead generation) or clients at particular stages (such as start-up). Therefore, their specialisation is in their capabilities rather than the markets they address (if that makes sense?)
- you point about Europe makes sense, although I would say that Europe has a higher take-up of interim management resource compared with the US.
Cheers