Sales b2b lead generation

When to Outsource Lead Generation?

Lead generation is essentially about attracting people to the business and then encouraging them to become leads by taking an interest in the product or service that the company has to offer. Simply put, the more people who show interest in the business, the more likely it is to convert them into customers. Thus, eventually increasing the sales. We have discussed about ‘Lead Generation’ in our previous blog – 8 benefits of Outsourcing Lead Generation wherein we defined what is lead generation, laid out different types of leads, and as the title suggests we detailed the benefits of outsourcing lead generation which serves as to why a company should opt for outsourcing their lead generation activity. We subtly touched upon, when the company needs to opt for in-house lead generation or outsource it. However, in this blog, we’d like to discuss more about when companies need to opt for outsourcing their lead generation activity.

Having a hands-on approach to running a company has many benefits, especially when you’re just starting up. However, as the company grows, it is necessary to take a step back from micromanaging and begin delegating more and more tasks to keep the business operating smoothly. When it comes to sales in general or lead generation in particular- most of the time, it is not an easy task to generate enough leads to guarantee a quick return on investment (ROI) or any profitability, for that matter. Lead generation activity is time-consuming, labor-intensive whatever may be the approach be it Inbound or Outbound. Having said that, this raises the question- does every company or the business owner has the time, resources, and expertise to handle the ever-evolving space of lead generation or sales?

Outsourcing B2B lead generation is a smart move; as per statistics, it is at least 43% more effective than in-house lead generation. But while choosing a lead generation or sales outsourcing partner/vendor the companies must consider the below questions to determine whether they can grow their sales:

  1. What are the credentials? – the companies need to look in if the outsourcing partner has expertise in their specific market and what kind of value they are adding to their customers and what they offer beyond deploying and managing campaigns
  2. What will the relationship look like? – the companies need to determine what the success look like beforehand and how many leads they expect from each week/month/quarter etc., the time and commitment required from the vendor to make the partnership work.
  3. What’s in the toolkit? – the companies need to check which outbound solutions does the outsourcing partner/vendor utilizes to contact potential leads? Is it through calling or email campaigns? The tech stack that they rely on like power dialer or latest CRM etc.
  4. Are the representatives internal or outsourced? – the companies need to check if the vendor provides them with dedicated representatives, how they are screened, recruited and what kind of training is being provided to them and also, companies need to have an introduction with the team before making their decision to go with the vendor.

Many of the times, lead generation companies are professionals who are good at what they do, and one can expect a good return on investment as one would be paying for a service done by experts who have required skillsets unlike building a lead generation team in-house from scratch with less or no experience or investing on experienced candidates who are usually expensive to afford. Lead generation companies have access to a wealth of databases and can precisely map out ideal buyers’ persona as per the requirement of their clients. However, if a company’s culture is driven on privacy, the operating margins are extremely low to that of the sales volume, and the company has a highly tech-driven product or service which is too complex for an outsourcing partner to understand and articulate to the right audience then opting for an in-house lead generation or sales team makes complete sense than reaping the benefits of outsourcing. Having looked at a few of the above reasons as to why companies need to outsource lead generation or not, let us try to list down when does a company needs to outsource its lead generation?

When to outsource your lead generation?

One of the best ways to decide whether to outsource lead generation is to perform a cost/time calculation. It is essential to establish clear goals and communicate them with the outsourcing partner/vendor to increase efficiency and streamline the process. Companies should really consider outsourcing their lead generation activity when they:

  1. Plan to tap into a niche market and meet bigger sales targets
  2. Plan to expand to another geographical location with a different market
  3. Run out of steam with conventional sales strategies and need fresh ideas from experts
  4. Lack knowledge about how to generate leads quickly especially if they have no existing data sources to build their own campaign
  5. Want to leverage on latest cutting-edge sales tech stack used to access contact databases, prospect, cold-call tools, email automation, CRM, etc. but can’t afford it
  6. Has limited budget and wants to take advantage by opting for a commission-based system (pay-on-results) where they have to pay only if the leads turn in profits.
  7. Want their lead generation efforts to follow the best practices and don’t have time to learn
  8. Want to have more hands-on-deck but can’t hire people internally
  9. Need to focus on business-critical, core competencies
  10. Need time to focus on business/sales strategies
  11. Want to supplement internal marketing efforts with new channels
  12. Want to save bandwidth of the management (attrition, hiring, reviews etc)
  13. Want more accountability in the task
  14. Need to just focus on booking appointments with warm leads for the core sales team
  15. Want data or metrics-driven feedback on lead generation process
  16. Are scaling too fast or need to pivot the business

We at VAST Tec, help our clients save time on several activities involved in the lead generation or sales process- a team of professionals at VAST Tec is prospecting, identifying the most qualified leads, nurturing those leads, scheduling appointments on our client’s behalf, and so on, even to the extent of deal closures. These activities are extremely beneficial to our clients as it allows their core sales teams to focus on serving current customers and delivering detailed sales pitches while our team handles all the leg work. Finally, instead of experimenting with lead generation internally delegating it to an outside firm allows you to leave filling the sales funnel to the experts so that you can focus on the much bigger task of actively growing and running your business.

Want to Outsource your Lead Generation activity?