Telemarketing – To Outsource Or Not To Outsource

Although the English was a little painful to read (outsourced content writing, anyone?), someone looking for a call center might find the following (extracted) checklist handy:

• Call center agents are highly experienced in B2B calling
• They have a large in-house database- cultivated over the years of being in business
• They offer a variety of telemarketing services
• They offer a variety of marketing services in addition to telemarketing
• They have sufficient and up-to-date technology infrastructure

Source: Outsourced Telemarketing – Narrow Down Your Selection, Decisions Must Be Quick!

Maybe you’re not sure if you should outsource at all? Interestingly, Jonathan Catley over at ITMarketing World put together his own list of 5 scenarios where outsourcing telemarketing makes sense:

In a recent Marketing Sherpa Benchmark Report, they note that spending on telemarketing/lead generation programs continues to increase.  As the trend of SMO (Sales/Marketing Outsourcing) continues, organizations are being forced to find more efficient, scalable, and effective solutions to generate revenue. With the economy on the upswing, and the IT industry continuing to be a dynamic arena, when does it make sense to partner with a vendor for your teleprospecting campaign?  So, in honor of the NIT Semifinals, and its big brother, the NCAA Final Four, I present four common scenarios (there are many more) when outsourcing completely makes sense for your organization. Source

1. Start Ups: Everyone knows the statistics on start-up success rates.  I’m curious to know, for the start-ups that fail, what was their teleprospecting and lead generation strategies.  A majority of start-ups will outsource many different functions of their business due to lack of experience in the respected field, from payroll/HR to marketing services, so why would inside sales be any different.  When looking for a new set of golf clubs, would you seek out advice from a plumber or a PGA Professional?  So, again, why should it be different in regards to qualifying prospects that your outsourced marketing team provided.  Keep your sales team focused on what they need to achieve in order to help your business grow, closing business, and let a professional supply a steady, sustained sales pipeline.
2. Inside Team stuck in a rut: We all see it or experience it.  It is human nature to become comfortable when subjected to a routine, and we lose our ability to look at a current process objectively.  Bringing in an expert from the industry to benchmark your existing staff, and gain new insights and perspectives into your existing process will produce a renewed energy and increased productivity with which to operate your inside team.
3. Branching into a New Market/Product/Service: You’ve had an inside team in place, and, by all accounts, have succeeded because now you are charged with expansion.  There are new markets/products/services to offer or target and now you are responsible for continuing the success.  Your familiarity with your own program gives you some confidence, but the unknown new market/product/service is outside of your past experiences.  While you expand your inside team, it makes sense to supplement the lack of production with a professional, experienced teleprospecting firm to provide market data, lead qualification, and demand generation while you are busy developing and training.
4. Employee turnover exceeds your hiring capabilities: Unfortunately, Inside Sales Representative is a high turnover position.  The ones that succeed move on or up the ladder, the ones that don’t are removed from your team.  On average, you can expect to spend three months training your new hires and feeling comfortable with their productivity levels.  Having a mass exodus of promotions has left your inside team operating as a skeleton crew.  To limit loss of production, you partner with a vendor to supplement this time period and keep production levels on the upswing.

Each scenario is open for debate, and there are many more situations which may warrant outsourcing or partnering with a teleprospecting company, I’ve only presented four common ones.  There are tools available, such as 3forward, to provide sales readiness assessments for your organization.  Phillip McKenzie, a successful lead generation consultant in IT Telemarketing, writes about vendor specialization in his blog Outsourcing is a Good Choice for IT Lead Generation.  Phillip states how “no one can blame why some IT business organizations are sailing an angry sea in their journey to obtain qualified appointments. Others have been drowned because of their inability to plan, process and execute the right tool.  Is your firm one of the thousands suffering the same fate?”

Let me know what you think and other scenarios where it makes sense to outsource your teleprospecting campaigns.