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Avoid mistakes outsourcing your Sales or Telemarketing efforts

 

Hiring a service provider to prospect for you or sell your product or service can be a very effective solution. However, you can also waste valuable time, money, and have the reputation of your company tarnished very quickly. There are a few good, professional, and legitimate service providers with solid business models and there are those that do not. Be very careful. Whether you choose to partner with us or not, we want educate you and help you develop an understanding of what to expect in this industry in order to make a wise decision.

Beware of 100% pay for performance arrangements. Don't give in to the NO RISK temptation. When providers are compensated for quantity instead of quality, you can imagine what happens - the quality of each lead drops, as quantities rise - and your in-house sales team has to work twice as hard to weed out the "garbage leads". You want a provider to SELL your product or service? People who work for free will turn over fast if money is not made quickly. These type of arrangements fail the majority of the time due to constant turnover, recruiting, poor management, re-training, and re-ramping. No real momentum or business continuity is ever established. Finally and most importantly, your companies reputation will be adversely effected due to the lack of professionalism. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Realistic Expectations. Many sub par providers of this service will tell you just about anything you need to hear to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain more sales. Your provider should want to know your business in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider will tell you what is realistic within a certain amount of hours. There are many variables, so its not feasible for any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. However, they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times and potential production. They should come up with a customized strategy recommendation for success. A good provider should be focused on how to maintain a long term partnership. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Training prior to starting the program. - Good providers will want you to be directly involved with the training. After all it is your business and you know it best. Preparation is key to success. A good provider should be able to take your marketing collateral and create an initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented callers will not read a script word for word. The script should be nothing more than a training tool and reference until they have it down.

Caller Talent. - How do you want your company represented? Avoid hiring providers that use high school, college, inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B company will have mature, experienced professionals representing your company.

Be aware of your service provider's quality control system. The last thing you want is for your existing customers - your revenue generating customers - to have a bad impression of your company because of relaxed quality standards. Good providers have a professional management staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and communication between management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and database access does the provider offer? Is it online and fully accessible to you? Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Look for professional communication and management. A business development company should be giving you regular updates, and have data available to you on demand - not having this could be a warning sign that the data isn't there at all. Consistent feedback and communication between management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual success. Does the provider offer you the ability to be involved in the program and speak directly with the callers? Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Beware of companies offering short tests (less than 50 hours). The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a provider based on the results of such a short test, you may end up getting "short changed" in the long run. This is equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over one weeks worth of work. Pipelines take time develop. Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just wasting your money. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Find out the exact location of the agents working for your service provider. Offshore agents aren't usually held to the highest quality standards, and the communication barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your campaign - actually costing you money in the long run. While costs may be appealing, quality will most likely lack severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your company. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Avoid companies who charge less than $25/hour for their services. All companies have to profit somewhere, and if they don't charge enough for their services, you can be sure they will cut back in other areas - such as employee quality and training, equipment, and consultation time.
You can see how important it is to not only know what you're outsourcing, but exactly who you're outsourcing it to. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Lists and dials per hour. Good providers will be educated on the best list resources for your particular program. They can typically provide you with or assist you in procuring the nest list. Don't make the mistake of thinking the more dials per hour, the better. That is a big misnomer! EX> Lets suppose you are selling a sophisticated software application and need a company to properly qualify the prospects for you. If a provider tells you they can make 30 dials an hour on average, that's 2 minutes per call! How is it possible to effectively have a quality conversation with a prospect in 2 minutes? Its not. These are usually "telemarketing agencies" that use predictive dialers. Essentially they are just burning through your valuable lists of contacts and letting Quality slip by the wayside. A professional organization is focused on the quality of the lead or sale. Therefore they should be able to give you a realistic idea of the average dials per hour for your specific program. Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

Contact a Business Development Advisor for more information.

 



 

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Control Fixed Costs - -Outsourcing your marketing function converts fixed costs into variable costs, simplifies your management responsibilities, and enables you to focus more energies towards “rain making” and client retention. For “new accounting firms,” this enables you to pump capital directly into revenue generating activities like lead generation and appointment setting while keeping your headcount and office space to an absolute minimum.
 
IIncrease Efficiency and Effectiveness - Companies that try to do everything themselves have a much higher cost structure, that must be passed on and integrated into the fees. They are also more complex to manage.
 
Reduce Variable Costs - Outsourced marketing keeps your headcount down, thereby reducing your labor costs, training and turn-over. In small organizations, hiring and training low level staff for short-term or peripheral projects can be expensive, especially when you factor in re-training, re-hiring and day-to-day management responsibilities. Not to mention all the W-2’s that this generates.
 
Speed to Market– An excellent outsourced marketing company can get your new initiative up and running quicker. Doing things in-house sometimes start with good intentions but never get off the ground. And hiring people takes time as well.
 
Increased Focus on YOUR Core Competency – Every business has limited resources and can only tackle a couple large initiatives concurrently. Outsourcing marketing can help you focus on client acquisition, processing the work and client retention. Keep it simple and your clients will refer more business.
 
Level the Playing Field – Most small firms simply can not afford to match the in-house staff of larger firms. Outsourcing functional responsibilities like marketing provides expertise that large companies enjoy.
 
Reduce the Risk – Every business initiative involves a certain amount of risk. Outsourcing marketing to a “reputable” company that truly understands YOUR industry can be extremely valuable because they have much more information to make informed decisions and know what issues to look out for.
 

 

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