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Journal Articles Business Horizons Year : 2005

Should you set up your own sales force or should you outsource it? Pitfalls in the standard analysis

William T. Ross
  • Function : Author
Erin Anderson
  • Function : Author

Abstract

Should you set up your own sales force or should you outsource it? The standard analysis is cost based and assumes that the direct sales force is a fixed cost and that the outsourced sales force's cost varies with sales. The standard analysis then calculates the sales volume at which the direct sales force's costs equal the outsourced sales force's costs and suggests that for sales volume above that quantity, firms should use a direct sales force. This analysis has two problems. First, several other cost factors are not considered in the standard analysis. Second, the standard analysis considers only cost, ignoring coverage efficiency and selling effectiveness differences between the two sales forces. Both problems will be detailed and developed in this paper.

Dates and versions

hal-00457733 , version 1 (18-02-2010)

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Frédéric Dalsace, William T. Ross, Erin Anderson. Should you set up your own sales force or should you outsource it? Pitfalls in the standard analysis. Business Horizons, 2005, Vol.48, n°1, pp.23-36. ⟨10.1016/j.bushor.2004.10.005⟩. ⟨hal-00457733⟩

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