If a company’s first move is to focus on the basics of the business be it a start-up or established business, everything boils down to acquiring leads. Following the deployment of the most valuable resources on whatever products or services are being offered, the next step is always going to be in the direction of seeking new clients. Lead generation is one of the most critical aspects of a marketing strategy, statistics show that 85% of B2B marketers consider it an important marketing goal.
Due to the demands and complexities involved, lead generation is not a simple exercise – the process can be challenging and time-consuming because there is no one-size-fits-all formula. Companies, therefore, are faced with the dilemma of having to build in-house lead generation teams or outsource this function. Before getting into lead generation outsourcing, when to outsource, and its talk about the benefits, we would like to first touch upon what is lead generation and look into different types of leads.
Defining lead generation-
According to Gartner, “lead generation is a process of collecting a set of contacts from prospective buyers with a goal to nurture and qualify them as sales opportunities to grow the business.”
Lead generation in simple terms is, “the action or process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business’s products or services.”
Inbound and outbound marketing tactics are used to attract customers and move them through the sales funnel. Inbound and outbound use a variety of channels such as running social media campaigns, telemarketing, etc. to reach prospective customers. Inbound and Outbound marketing is itself a different topic altogether!
Different types of leads:
We all know what a lead is, but it’s worth having a quick reminder of the different types of leads that a business will see in its sales pipeline.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)- A marketing qualified lead is an individual who has engaged with marketing material in some way. Someone who may have downloaded a whitepaper or an ebook can be considered as a marketing qualified lead as they have shown some interest in the product or services offered, but an MQL is not ready for a sales call yet.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)- A sales qualified lead is an individual who has engaged in a way that explicitly indicates that they are interested in buying the product or service. An example of SQL would be someone who has responded positively to a prospecting email.
Product Qualified Lead (PQL)- A product-qualified lead is an individual who has used the product (on a trial basis), thereby showing interest in becoming a customer. PQLs generally apply to businesses that run free trials or offer free tools.
So now let’s get into what is lead generation outsourcing? – Lead generation outsourcing means getting an external company to build your company’s sales pipeline. Such companies do this by performing a wide range of lead generation activities including cold calling and product or service promotion for your company.
This makes us question, when does a company need to outsource lead generation, what differentiates it from having an in-house lead generation!
Using in-house lead generation
In order to focus on internal business development companies needs to:
- Have a dedicated, experienced team working on lead generation full-time
- Know which channels and specialisms to focus on
- Focus on inbound marketing methods to generate leads
Outsourced lead generation
Companies need to consider external business development (outsource) when:
- They don’t have the resources to hire and train new staff and build out internal marketing teams
- They want to supplement internal marketing efforts with new channels
- They want or need to just focus on booking appointments (through cold calling or email prospecting – common in B2B lead generation)
- They want to launch new products or services
- They need to pivot the business
Sales lead generation outsourcing is perfect when companies are looking to launch a new product or service or need to pivot the business, as it can deliver a rapid go-to-market strategy that could take internal teams far longer to achieve.
In order to come up with a highly scalable business model, it is advised to outsource lead generation as the lead generation companies do what they are assigned for i.e. to generate SQL (Sales Qualified Leads). The inherent idea is to hand over all the market research, contact database development, and run lead generation campaigns to lead generation companies, while the company can invest time in doing what they do the best and focus on the activities like making the products/services better, speaking to your customers, adding value in the conversations, and closing deals.
The benefits of outsourced lead generation can add up and come in a package. Lead generation is not like any other sales process but a combination of arts and science that some companies specialize primarily in just that phase of the sales cycle. We have list down some of the major reasons, why one should consider outsourced lead generation services:
Benefits of outsourced lead generation (OLG):
- Generate Sales-Ready Leads: OLG helps to add other data resources and mining to expand the current marketing database as the SQL (Sales Qualified Leads) are learned and well-resourced to bring out the best results for the business.
- Improve Time Efficiency: OLG helps to eliminate the non-sales time by taking the burden of prospecting (calling, emailing, messaging etc.) away from the core sales team and help them focus on closing more deals.
- Cost Effective: The best part about OLG is that one can cost-effectively increase the team by paying for results, rather than the time and efforts invested in training. This is a great advantage over hiring an in-house team in which the management only is responsible for the results and expenses are the same irrespective of the results.
- Empower core Sales Team: with OLGone can feed leads to struggling sales team and that will save time as the core sales team will not have to sit around searching for prospects.
- Get Real-Time Data: OLG helps to strengthen existing market data with new contact information and updated dispositions.
- Get Time for Effective Marketing Campaign: with OLG one can test marketing campaigns on the side without distracting from your main outreach efforts. Lead generation companies have enough expertise to start gaining momentum and insightful information the moment they start a campaign. This is helpful especially if one wants to take control of their sales strategy in days to come.
- Get Time for Market Research: If the in-house team is doing lead generation activities, they comprise many moving parts like identifying markets, database & process management, data analysis, and content creation, they hardly get time to do research on the market for enhancing your product features and make it better.
- Expand Your Horizon: the core sales team can save ample time without worrying much about lead generation, companies can open new markets or push new products without distracting from main revenue generation activities. It will add extra revenue to the business.
Lead generation is certainly a practice that one should leave to the experts. Lead generation services from VAST Tec will help manage campaigns to discover and qualify leads for businesses. These services can be highly beneficial in filling an organization’s sales pipeline with potential clients; We also assist with establishing initial communications and building interest in the brand (demand generation). We assist with follow-up campaigns and “lead nurturing” to ensure the best possible conversion rate. One of the myths is that Lead generation services, or lead gen services, are typically used by sales departments but they can be useful to marketing teams for planning targeted outreach or advertising efforts.
Working with lead generation services providers like us can eliminate the guesswork of sales cold calls and present brands with high-quality leads (HQL) based on the brand’s ideal customer profile. This can streamline sales and marketing strategy, making sales quotas more easily attainable and setting the company up for success.
Want to outsource your Lead Generation activity?