Although many factors can spur growth in outsource call centers and telephone answering services, the key growth driver remains sales and marketing. While reputation, quality service, and referral programs all help produce sales, the most results come from strategic marketing and professional sales initiatives. Yet many outsource call centers and answering services struggle when it comes to self-promotion and generating sustainable growth. To address this, some operations continue to throw more money and staff at the problem but still fail to achieve the desired results. Others resort to growth through acquisition, buying accounts instead of earning them. A third option, however, recently emerged. Hire a proven sales and marketing firm to handle this challenging task. Here are three common solutions third party sales and marketing support organizations can offer: Assist Existing Sales Staff: If your existing sales team just needs a bit more direction to achieve success, an outside sales and marketing provider can come alongside your employees to provide management, encouragement, and support. They’ll also insist on accountability. The expected results are a sales staff that produces more and does so consistently. This approach is ideal for an otherwise capable sales team that simply needs a nudge of professional sales expertise to move them from floundering to proficient. Supplement Existing Sales Staff: An outside sales and marketing provider can also work in tandem with your existing sales staff. As your current sales team continues to follow up on internally generated leads and prospects, your outsource sales team pursues a different, non-competitive path. As a result sales flow in from two sources, building on what you already have. This approach is ideal for sales teams that are producing at a cost-effective level, but aren’t able to bring in the desired number of sales each month. The outside sales and marketing team can fill the gap. Replace Existing Sales Staff: Some sales teams struggle so much that assistance won’t help and supplementing their efforts makes no sense. In this case, the best solution is to simply outsource all of your sales and marketing efforts. In this scenario, the benevolent manager has concern for the displaced sales staff. In most cases, these employees can easily move to other areas of the company. Customer service is one likely consideration. These three levels of support from outside sales and marketing companies can help outsource call centers and telephone answering services turn sales and marketing from a weakness into a strength. Janet Livingston is the president of Call Center Sales Pro, a premier contact center consultancy that offers IT and programing services for telephone answering services to better handle technology concerns. Contact Janet at contactus@callcenter-salespro.com or 800-901-7706 to learn more.Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan.