3 examples of when (not) to hire an external sales expert and how such collaboration works
Kelly Carrow
2/5/2025
Sales
A startup is taking off, has marketing under control, begins to sell, and there’s demand for its services. Everything is happening somewhat intuitively. Things are going well, and the company wants to grow further. And then things start to stall. Deals aren’t coming in as expected. Or experienced salespeople are missing, and hiring them is time-consuming and expensive, with no guaranteed success. Is it time to seek the services of an external agency with sales experts?
We talked with sales consultant Martin Mlčoch about when it’s the right time to hire external experts and when it’s better to push through sales on your own. He works at SALESDOCk, a company that provides external salespeople and helps set up sales processes in startups like Yieldigo and Roivenue, as well as large companies such as Kentico.
1. When You're Struggling to Kick-Start Sales
Once you close the first few deals, you confirm that there’s customer interest in your services or products. That’s the foundation of success—a salesperson must know their customer, understand their typical pain points, and know how to help them.
To get sales running at full speed, the company needs not only skilled salespeople but also properly set-up processes.
“We usually step into companies that are technological experts in their field, but sales is a black box to them. They don’t know if or when a customer will buy and have no control over it. And without properly defined sales processes, they simply can’t gain that control,”
says Martin Mlčoch
Well-structured processes make the job easier for salespeople and save them a lot of time. At the same time, they professionalize the entire sales operation.
“A well-structured sales process has its phases and milestones that the salesperson must go through. Thanks to this, it’s immediately clear what stage the deal is in, and more importantly, it becomes much easier to predict how the deal will turn out and what the chances of success are,”
explains Martin
3 Steps to Professionalizing Sales
The key value of external experts like SALESDOCk lies in setting up sales processes.
“Our know-how isn’t unique. But we know how to advise a company and create a sales framework, then help adapt it so that salespeople understand it and take the right steps to close deals,”
Martin explains
According to Martin, the process of professionalizing sales at SALESDOCk consists of three steps:
- Sales Audit – The external agency assesses how sales work within the company: how salespeople operate, whether and how they use a CRM, how they communicate with customers, and how successful they are at closing deals,
- Process Setup – The agency recommends improvements to the current sales approach, defines new processes and goals to enhance efficiency,
- Implementation in the Company – Through workshops, training, and mentoring, salespeople are taught how to correctly apply the newly established processes.
2. When You Lack a Sales Team
Some companies don’t yet have a sales team at all. The owners then face a decision: should they hire an in-house salesperson or outsource sales? They need:
- to acquire salespeople as quickly as possible,
- who are skilled, experienced, and capable of selling,
- and who also have knowledge of the industry they will be selling in.
“In B2B companies in particular, sales skills alone aren’t enough—salespeople must have a deep understanding of the industry. When they enter a tech company to offer specialized software, smooth sales talk won’t convince the customer. They need to show they know the field and truly understand what they’re talking about,”
notes Martin
But finding an expert quickly who meets all the necessary sales qualifications is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Instead of betting on a single person whose qualities you’re unsure of in advance, it’s better to turn to a proven agency. You’ll gain access to an entire team of salespeople who understand sales and have experience across various industries—or can find such specialists. The agency can provide a single salesperson or build an entire sales department.
3. When You're Just Starting Out with Sales
At first glance, hiring an external firm to manage sales may seem expensive.
“Companies often expect an external agency to quickly deliver leads, sales meetings, and closed deals. They expect it to be fast, high-quality, and cheap because the agency already has a system in place. But that’s not where our value lies. We cost more than hiring a new salesperson, but we identify what’s working and what isn’t in the company’s sales. That’s something they can build on in the future,”
explains Martin
The value they receive for the higher cost is usually not appreciated by small, early-stage companies with little to no sales experience.
“We always tell them that they have to grind through the first deals themselves. Only then can they truly appreciate our services and understand why we recommend certain processes and how those will improve their sales,”
adds Martin Mlčoch, noting that at the beginning, consulting alone can be helpful for companies
Once they’ve been through a few deals, we can help them review and set up their processes.
And what about you—do you have your sales processes properly defined, and does every salesperson know which milestones they need to pass through to successfully close a deal? If you need to clarify any steps, we’ll guide you in our hub for sales managers.
Kelly used to work as a freelance translator and later got into marketing, content creation and software localization. At Raynet, she works on making the CRM system more friendly towards English-speaking users, expanding the Knowledge Base, and writing articles.
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