Creating a Hybrid Sales Force:

Balancing Direct Sales Teams & Outsourced Reps for Max ROI

You’ve seen it time and time again: When headcount stays flat but revenue targets go up, the in-house sales team gets squeezed — covering too much ground with too little support.

That’s where a hybrid sales model can make the difference.

Combining the powers of in-house sales reps with outsourced independent manufacturer representatives (IMRs) can create a well-balanced equation to deliver the ROI you need to meet — and exceed — your targets.

This guide will provide sales leaders with the information needed to understand if a hybrid model is right for them and how to make it work.

Spoiler alert: It’s not about replacing in-house teams, but maximizing strengths on both sides.

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Why Should You Consider a Hybrid Sales Force Model?

Done right, direct salespeople and IMRs create a unified force.

  • In-house reps are product experts and exceptional account managers.
  • IMRs bring speed, flexibility, and deep-rooted relationships from working across multiple product lines to uncover new opportunities and close deals fast.
Is Your Business a Good Fit for Outsourcing Sales to an IMR?

Sales Efficiency & Cost Savings

IMRs are driven to boost your sales efforts with their strong focus on closing deals. They don’t receive the benefits of the direct sales team; instead, they operate on a commission basis, taking a percentage of sales from their assigned territory or accounts.

Faster Time to Value

Adding IMRs to the mix means they can hit the ground running with their deep, existing relationships. And if the IMRs provide local inventory support, your business can reap huge benefits in new markets.

With the right approach, there can be a significant amount of collaboration in hybrid teams, says Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales – East GWS Tools Group, who has been on both sides of hybrid teams, once owning his own IMR agency.

Is Your Business a Good Fit for Outsourcing Sales to an IMR?

IMRs who provide the ability to store your products closer to customers make sales easier. Your brand becomes sticky in the minds of distributors who want to make shipping easy and quick.

“We see a tremendous value in Durrie Sales’ warehousing support — especially for small and local distributors who may not have the resources to stock large inventories like national accounts … You really have to have that local inventory to be able to support the customers and retain the sales — and grow sales — with those types of products.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

Is Hybrid Right for You?

If you’re wanting to improve your sales or make your team’s efforts more sustainable during a growth period, these considerations will help you decide whether a hybrid model is right for your business right now.

This model works best when:

It might not be ideal if:

  • Your direct sales team is already high-performing and well-resourced with low turnover.

  • Your production is maxed out and you don’t want to grow.

  • You’re not ready to integrate IMRs with your direct sales teams, not adaptive to change, or don’t have a sense of urgency.

Not sure if outsourcing sales is right for your business?

Start with our Manufacturers’ Guide to find out.

Read the Guide

How Do You Make a Hybrid Sales Team Work?

“A strong hybrid sales force relationship can create dynamic and explosive results, rather than having each side of the partnership simply staying in their own lane. They can do some great things if they’re on the same page and they like each other.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

Early Alignment Is Everything

You can make working together effective if you agree on key areas at the start, and keep checking in.

  • Schedule quarterly or monthly joint planning sessions including direct sales reps and IMRs to ensure alignment and focus on getting on the same page.

  • Clarify territory, product focus, roles, and go-to-market plans: IMRs may go-to-market differently than direct sales teams, but with shared goals, the two approaches to sales benefit each other. Sales managers who trust an IMR’s expertise give IMRs more selling time in the field, allowing them to see more potential customers.
Review Your Numbers
Review Your Numbers

Play to Strengths

Direct reps and IMRs have different strengths, but all work together to sell more products.

  • Determine who has the best relationship and experience with accounts: IMRs can amplify touches on national accounts with their deep expertise in the field and are generally longer-term partners than direct sales teams, which often have higher turnover. IMRs also offer deeper visibility into end-users, supporting multiple brands and product lines.

Onboarding for Success

IMRs are most successful when they have the right data and information on the product line to determine customers and markets.

  • Provide IMRs with data early: Give IMRs as much information as possible upfront — including sales history, ship-to addresses, top-performing SKUs, and details about end-user customers and open quotes. This comprehensive approach allows IMRs to quickly identify the most promising opportunities and effectively target customer needs without overwhelming them with unnecessary product decisions.

Review Your Numbers

“IMRs can’t succeed if they’re left in the dark; real-time data makes them faster, sharper, and more effective.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

Day in the Life: Direct Rep vs. IMR

Task Direct Rep Sales IMR
Product Knowledge Deep, specialized Moderate, multiple lines
Relationship Depth Narrow but focused Broad, well-networked
Admin Burden (CRM, Meetings) High Low
Time in Field Moderate Very High
Performance Metric Pipeline Growth Closed Sales
See Our Industry Network

How Do You Avoid Channel Conflict in a Hybrid Sales Team?

Hybrid sales teams might step on each other’s toes if challenges are not anticipated and channels are not defined early. Here’s how to avoid common challenges and move towards harmony in your hybrid team.

Establish Clear Lanes

Define ownership, such as who contacts customers, who is responsible for post-sale support, etc. Mistakes might happen, but as long as the team works together to realign ownership and reestablish trust quickly, they may even be productive.

Flexibility Breeds Innovation

Be willing to adjust accounts based on trusted relationships with distributors and end-users, rather than relying solely on geography.

Overcome Tension

Address the perception that IMRs are a threat. Remind the direct and outsourced sales teams that they are one team working towards shared goals. Avoid micromanagement by building trust through regular check-ins and sharing wins.

“Treat IMRs as part of the team, not vendors; include them in decision-making.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

What Data and Tools Help Maximize ROI in a Hybrid Sales Model?

Sales data can tell you everything you need to know to keep your business in the black. Data helps simplify decision-making by understanding what to prioritize when quotas fall short and which sales methods are the most effective. Your tools and tech should do the same.

Rather than overcomplicating collection, analysis, and reporting with advanced tools, aim for metrics and tools that bring clarity and ease to your performance management.

Simplicity Wins

There’s no need to change what has always worked. Use your CRM, spreadsheets, or simple bar graphs to track performance, trends, and opportunities. Simplifying your data also makes it easier to identify errors in assigning credit for sales.

Tracking accounts that are at risk is essential — but it’s just as important to monitor open quotes and understand why quotes are lost. If you suspect an account may slip away, identifying the warning signs early allows you to act before it’s too late.

As Durrie Sales President Patrick McKeever puts it, sales reporting should protect the business, not complicate it.

Key Metrics to Track

  • Sales growth, using month-end numbers
  • Quote hit rate, with weekly benchmarking
  • Pipeline velocity, from open to close
Review Your Numbers

“Metrics should be shared across the hybrid team — and benchmarked against both targets and each other. When IMRs see how their performance stacks up alongside direct sales reps, it encourages healthy competition and deeper engagement. Treat IMRs the same as your direct sales team. At the end of the day, we’re all part of the sales family.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

Review Your Numbers

Using Data to Drive Collaboration

Encourage competition and inclusivity: Weekly or monthly reporting and regular reviews create healthy competition among direct sales teams and IMRs. Bar graphs showing IMR vs. direct sales team wins can also provide further analysis about what’s working and what’s not. Data provides a gateway to share best practices.

Learn from the data: Regular calls with the hybrid team can help the team learn from the data in real-time. Pull pipeline data frequently to identify potential leads and determine who is no longer a prospect. Review open and closed deals and this year’s results versus the year before, to keep performance high and avoid pitfalls.

Durrie Sales President Patrick McKeever recommends hybrid teams dig into every lost quote: Why did we lose it? Where was the breakdown — pricing, delivery, or a history of challenges with that account?

ROI Checklist: Track What Matters

  • Cost for sales: What the hybrid team costs compared to every dollar of sales, including salary, commissions, benefits, and tools

  • Total revenue by rep type, measuring performance of direct sales teams vs. IMRs

  • Quote-to-close ratios

  • Sales cycle length

  • Order intake trends

  • Number of opportunities, quotes, and tests: Tracking this data helps ensure you’re not overpromising on your ROI projections. Measuring the phases of the sales cycle helps indicate the likelihood of closing and identifies areas for improvement.

There's no shortage of tools out there — the key is knowing which ones move the needle.

See our top 7 picks for manufacturers looking to grow.

Read the Guide

What Are Some Creative Approaches to Hybrid Sales Success?

Hybrid models can unlock innovative sales approaches that drive the kind of success you dream of.

Here are some ways you can uniquely leverage the strengths and motivations of direct and IMR teams, based on insights from experts with decades of experience on both sides of hybrid sales teams.

Is Your Business a Good Fit for Outsourcing Sales to an IMR?

“I’ve seen success by incentivizing hybrid sales and harmony with structured, shared compensation packages. Manufacturers and IMRs who partner to create blended teams can share the financial load. It’s a win for everybody.”

– Justin Verburg, Vice President of Sales, East GWS Tools Group

Cost-Sharing Models

Some manufacturers and IMRs structure their partnerships to share certain costs — such as marketing support, training, or sales enablement tools — especially when both parties are aligned on sales goals. While less common, shared compensation or incentive programs can also strengthen collaboration across the hybrid team.

Support Beyond Sales

Some IMR teams can add value beyond commission-based selling, such as offering marketing or warehousing services. For example, Durrie Sales offers marketing support to small and mid-sized manufacturers, helping them amplify their visibility in competitive markets.

Durrie Sales President Patrick McKeever sees this play out often: when IMRs offer local inventory support, the value is tremendous, especially for customers who rely on quick access to products to maintain and grow sales. He points to businesses with custom offerings beyond the standard catalog, like at GWS, as a case where this benefit is especially impactful.

Additionally, because IMRs are focused on maximizing sales, they often have the creativity/flexibility to adopt newer sales outreach strategies — such as digital prospecting or email follow-ups. They can generate leads beyond their existing network via marketing, respond quickly to inquiries, and provide quotes the same day. However, managing an increase in inbound requests requires strong coordination between direct sales reps and the IMRs themselves to ensure smooth follow-through and efficient deal closing.

How Hybrid Teams Support the Funnel

Generate leads

IMRs generate leads and quotes using their network and long-term relationships.

Direct sales teams

Direct sales teams can focus on targeted end-user accounts.

Collaborate

Both collaborate on closing, retention, and new business opportunities.

Voice of the ManufacturerVoice of the Manufacturer

IMRs can help manufacturers cover more ground and unlock new customers and markets beyond the bounds of what they could achieve with their direct sales teams.

Examples of IMRs in Action:

Monster Tool: Monster Tool enlisted Durrie Sales to provide both sales coverage and warehousing support for their Midwest customers. Durrie housed $2 million worth of inventory in Chicago, ensuring Monster Tool could efficiently supply product to the region. This local warehousing also benefited nearby distributors and end-users, making it easier to access, and pick up products, and increase their sales.

Durrie Sales: Beyond sales, direct sales teams that work with Durrie Sales get the benefits of collaborating on in-bound marketing campaigns and lead generation in the Midwest. Durrie Sales’ in-house marketing team can provide graphic design and social media services to pull your leads into new customers.

How Can a Hybrid Sales Team Help Increase Your ROI?

Hybrid models aren’t about replacing your direct sales team. They’re about optimizing how you go to market, overcoming current challenges, and meeting goals.

If you want to:

  • Grow sales/revenue without adding full-time headcount
  • Reduce the cost per sale
  • Get more value from your existing reps
Is Your Business a Good Fit for Outsourcing Sales to an IMR?
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