Outsource Sales to Philippines Based Teams
If you are looking to outsource your sales to Philippines based teams, here is a quick little guide to help you out. We’ll cover:
- Pros and cons of an outsourced sales team
- How much you can save with a fully remote team in the Philippines
- How to hire an outsourced Philippines based sales team
- Advantages to hiring people specifically in the Philippines
Pros and Cons of An Outsourced Sales Team
Like any other business solution, outsourcing your sales to Philippines based teams comes with advantages and considerations. In short, the advantages are:
Sales teams are driven by money and experience and it’s critical to understand the foundation of a sales team first and foremost. A good sales team will:
- Have a quota or some metric to hit
- Be experienced in sales (this is important)
- Get paid based on their performance
The name of the game is incentive. Finding a salesperson is easy. Finding a great salesperson is harder. Motivating and incentivizing a salesperson is even harder. This is why most companies hire sales teams through recruiting agencies.
Hiring a sales team abroad works just the same. In this case, you would work with a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company like GlobalityNet to help you with the process. The difference? There are two main points to consider. First, the cost of hiring is so low that you get better people for a significantly reduced cost. Second, those savings are also felt when working with a BPO when compared to local hiring companies. The savings stack upon each other and the outcome is less work and less investment on your part.
You can get a sales team without the hassle and expense of setting up your own office in the Philippines
Housing employees in your local office can be expensive. Outsourcing your sales team to the Philippines means you save on that cost right off the bat. These savings go well into the thousands upon thousands. The cost of an office for 5 employees can go up to $10,000 or more per month. And that doesn’t include salaries.
An office would entail the following costs:
- Rent: $2000 – $5000
- Utilities: $300 – $600
- Internet: $100 – $200
- Furniture: $500 – $1500 (one-time, maintenance required, OSHA compliance expected)
- Other office costs: $300 – $500
- Total: $4000 – $10,000 per month
This doesn’t include the risk of lawsuits such as:
- Sexual harassment
- Age discrimination
- Disability claims
Obviously, deciding to outsource sales to the Philippines comes with savings at nearly every level. The being said, you have to consider the following as well:
- Managing a remote office comes with its own unique challenges
- Team unity is harder to develop when you are not face to face
- KPIs and metrics are more important than over when managing a team overseas
All this is solvable if you hire the right BPO company. They will essentially solve all those considerations at minimal cost. Thus, your savings remain high and the workload is significantly lessened.
The Philippines is a well-educated country with a large English-speaking population
The Philippines ranks 3rd in the world for English proficiency. According to a survey by EduFind, 65% of the Philippine population speaks English. The same study found that the Philippines had the highest levels of English proficiency in Asia.
Furthermore, the Philippines has the 4th largest population of college graduates in Asia. That’s over 2.4 million college graduates. As you can see, the talent pool in the Philippines is ultra deep.
The challenge? Finding the right people. Finding people in the US is hard enough already. This is why local headhunter firms or staffing companies exist. A hiring team within your company can cost you a lot of money as well. You have to pay for:
- Airfare
- Hotels
- Meals
- Rental cars
- The opportunity cost of having your employees or yourself away from the office
And that’s just to interview a few people! If you do hire someone, you still have to pay for all the other costs associated with the process here in the United States. With a BPO company like GlobalityNet, we do all the hiring, interviewing and training for you. This, in turn, saves you even more money and time at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself.
Outsourcing firms can provide you with a fully-fledged, ready-to-go sales team complete with managers, salespeople, and back-office support
As we mentioned, the process to outsource sales teams to the Philippines can be just as elaborate as doing it locally. But, a BPO like ourselves, can help reduce the workload significantly. A traditional BPO will:
- Recruit and screen applicants
- Conduct phone interviews
- Conduct initial face-to-face interviews
- Do reference checks
- Do background checks
- Do skills testing
- Make job offers
- Handle on-boarding
All this is done for you so that you can focus on your other business processes. You have full control over every phase of our recruiting efforts and you just focus on the home stretch of the hiring journey.
You are presented with vetted and ready to go candidates who you can then interview yourselves knowing that the groundwork has been already done. The best part? Working with a BPO is very affordable, especially when you consider the savings you get with an outsourced sales team in the Philippines.
Fully remote teams cost less than maintaining a local sales team, and the Philippines is one of the most affordable countries to outsource to
Hiring isn’t the end of the road when hiring anyone anywhere. The next step is employee maintenance. This entails:
- Paying salaries
- Paying for health insurance
- Paying for office space and equipment
- Providing training and development resources
- Managing employee performance
All these considerations are important when hiring salespeople in the Philippines. But, they don’t even compare to the cost of doing all this in the United States. Why? Because a BPO covers the cost of everything in that list. And, with the exception of health insurance, it comes included in the service if you want it.
if you were to do the maintenance for your employees in California, for example, the costs would be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per employee. In the Philippines, that cost would be around $800 onward. It simply doesn’t compare.
The benefits of an outsourced sales team in the Philippines are numerous: from the initial cost savings of setting up and maintaining the team to the increased productivity that comes with having a fresh perspective on your sales processes. The advantages are numerous. The savings are huge. The complexity is minimized through a BPO. It’s a no-brainer in the modern world of business processes.
Foreign employees, when hired correctly, will have greater loyalty and be more qualified than local teams hired at the same cost
A foreign employee is just as qualified as any other candidate here. The difference, however, lies in the circumstances of their country. With no option to come to America, many people in the Philippines make a living in their own country. What is that like?
The minimum wage in the Philippines is $0.60 per day and the average salary is $288 per month. In comparison, the minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour and the average salary is $3,570 per month. What would someone who makes $300 locally do for a job that pays 3 times that amount? Consider that and you’ll understand why a sales team in the Philippines can be the thing that takes your business to the next level.
You may also think that the cost of living and average salaries are correlated to performance or the quality of a Philippines based hire. Not at all. Academically, when compared to the United States, the Philippines has an average graduate rate of 82%. In the United States, that number is a mere 59%.
Philippines based employees also have an edge in terms of technology. The country is 4th in the world for social media usage with 90% of the population using some form of it. The literacy rate in the United States is 87% while in the Philippines it is 96%.
What all of these statistics point to is that a Philippines based sales team, when hired correctly, will have greater loyalty and be more qualified than local teams hired at the same cost.
Points to Keep in Mind Before You Outsource Sales to Philippines Based Teams
The quality of salespeople you can hire will vary depending on the outsourcing firm you use
BPO companies, in a post-pandemic world, are a dime a dozen. But like any other industry, the quality varies from company to company. One key factor in the quality behind a great BPO company is its location.
Many BPO companies are based abroad, GlobalityNet, however, is based in sunny California. As a Los Angeles company, GlobalityNet, is equipped to help you hire your sales team in the Philippines like few other companies are.
GlobalityNet is:
As we said, based in Los Angeles, CA
Also based in the Philippines meaning you get the best of both worlds
Rated and reputed in the BPO
Philippine owned (Gino Gatmaitan is a Los Angeles native and Dodgers fan)
A BPO based in the US will understand the needs and have the positioning to provide solutions better than a company that isn’t local.
You won’t have as much control over your sales team as you would if they were in-house
This is true only if you manage it on your own. A solid BPO company, like GlobalityNet, solves the control issue by hiring, training, and managing the sales team for you. You’ll have a dedicated account manager so you are up to speed in every facet of your new sales team.
We also have people in an office as opposed to people working from home. In-office productivity is, on average, 35% higher than productivity from home. And we offer you the ability to see what they are doing, how they are doing, and where they can improve on a regular basis.
Outsourcing firms typically require a long-term contract
Unlike other outsourcing firms, we don’t obligated our clients to lock into a long term contract right off the bat. We share the risk and cost, to an extent, by offering flexible agreements that benefit every party involved.
Every relationship is different but the best thing is to give us a call to see what your options are and answer any questions you may have.
Doing it yourself is possible but requires attention and dedication on top of your normal day-to-day duties
Wearing many hats is both a challenge and, almost, a guarantee for a drop in efficiency. People assigned to dedicated roles will outperform a person wearing 2 or 3 hats. As a business owner, outsourcing your sales team is a priority you want to have oversight in. But to do every step yourself may prove to be difficult.
Again, a BPO solves this for you by saving you time and money in the hiring process. Check out our case studies to see how we’ve impacted the businesses who work with us.
If disregarded, just like a local team, optimization will decline
Oversight for a sales team is critical. A sales team with no oversight will have no optimization and will lose steam over time. The goal is to have a well-oiled machine that keeps making sales month after month, year after year.
This is especially important for a Philippines sales team as, traditionally, the country has been known for its high turnover rate in sales.
The key to having a low turnover rate is, again, in the management. A good BPO company will manage and train their sales staff so they are always improving and, as a result, have a low turnover rate.
The Philippines is 12 hours ahead which can limit productivity
Time zones matter. The Philippines is 12 hours ahead which can limit productivity if not managed correctly. A BPO company will take this into account when hiring and training your sales team.
We, at GlobalityNet, also have an office in the Philippines so there is always someone available no matter what time it is in Los Angeles. The goal is to have a team that is productive no matter what time it is. There is a reason why many of your competitors are outsourcing their sales to the Philippines.
Simply deciding to outsource sales to Philippines based teams is something that requires serious thought. The act is an altogether different beast. A BPO, again (and again and again), relieves you of the work, saves you money and mitigates risk.
You have no legal recourse with someone in another country
This is only true if you do it yourself. If you go on a hiring site and hire from the US, you have no legal recourse in the country your remote employee is in. To have legal recourse in the Philippines, for example, you would:
- Have to be physically present in the country
- Retain a local lawyer
- Prove that you were wronged
All of this is a lot of work and, frankly, not worth it. The BPO company you outsource to will remedy all of this with no extra work or cost on your part.
A good sales team becomes great with great management
Sales teams, no matter where they are located, will always need management. A good sales team becomes great with great management. The best thing you can do for your sales team, whether they are in-house or outsourced, is to give them the guidance and support they need to succeed.
If you do decide to outsource sales to a Philippines based team, then GlobalityNet is here for you. Contact us to set up a no commitment and quick call to know what your options are. As one of America’s leading BPOs, we are equipped, prepared and experienced enough to know that this may be one of the best decisions you ever make for your sales goals.
