Insights

How to Shortlist Your Sales Staffing Agency?

It is often seen that organisations with large field sales force, outsource their sales force for many obvious advantages. It is a very important & critical decision for any organisation to choose right partner.

Before we get into the specifics of as in how to get through the glorious credentials of any partner, one very important premise to be set – that you are looking for a partner not vendor. The difference is in the approach – approach of a vendor is transactional whereas a partner will team up with you to realise your organisation’s strategic vision and will act as an extended arm of your organisation.

Here are a few important parameters that can be used to evaluate a partner over and above regular parameters like – previous experience, clientele, geographical presence of the partner etc.

Recruitment capabilities -

  • In-house team vs. outsource model - A partner with in-house recruitment team is always to be preferred as it facilitates more control on execution leading to better quality resource and reduced TAT of recruitment.
  • Team structure – A decentralised team is always to be preferred over a centralised team as it helps increase geographical reach of the partner to recruit.
  • Current recruitment TAT and count of recruitment done per month – Evaluation of these numbers will help set a realistic estimate of timeline and map that against your organisation’s execution plan.
  • Process followed – There are several steps from recruitment initiation to closure and it is important to evaluate the process to ensure traceability of important KPIs like fill rate, TAT of recruitment along with robust mechanism of collection of documents, transparent salary approval ensuring zero leakage of money.

Compliant to govt. laws and regulations –

  • Manpower business is extensively governed by several laws and regulations such as labour law, PF, ESIC, maternity benefit act etc. and your organisation will be principle employer even though you would outsource. Hence, it is important for your organisation to evaluate the partner to be in terms of their compliance to these laws.

Partner resource capability mapping –

  • This acts as a one of the key differentiator between a vendor and a partner. Resource deployed by the partner to engage and drive your field force should be able to align with your organisation’s vision and which can only be done if they have background of deep sales management with good pedagogy.

Technology –

  • Adoption of technology - It is very critical to evaluate the partner on the adoption of technology to drive the different internal processes and on-field operations. A partner with deep technology orientation should be always be the first preference.
  • In-house vs. outsource - Partner with in-house technology tools have significant edge as it helps making the partner more flexible and customisation becomes easier and faster.
  • In-house vs. in-house – two partners with in-house technology should be evaluated on maturity of technology and extent of adoption.

Selecting a right partner to outsource your organisation’s sales force has significant impact on overall success of your organisation and if done right, can transform your business.

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Topics: Sales Staffing & Management

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