9 Key Considerations for Outsourcing to a Lead Qualification Agency
Nowadays, outsourcing different elements of your business has become a relatively normal occurrence.
In fact, according to a You Gov survey, 70% of UK B2B companies outsource their key business functions. While over 84% of the outsourcing deals globally happen in the US, making them the world’s largest country for outsourcing.
Some of the top outsourced services are IT support, accounting, payroll, marketing and customer service, which includes lead qualification.
There are a number of benefits to outsourcing your lead qualification, but this doesn’t mean the decision to outsource is easy, as it comes with numerous challenges and considerations.
In this blog we’ll offer up some tips on how you can make the right choice to ensure you feel 100% comfortable with your outsource partner – and most importantly, get the results you want.
1. Shop around
Outsourcing your lead qualification isn’t something you do on an impulse. Finding the right agency to meet your business objectives needs some research and a few comparative options.
A quick Google search for lead qualification services will throw up an array of different companies all promising to deliver a good ROI, quality leads and more, but be sure to dig below the surface to discover if they’re a good fit for you.
Obviously, cost will be a major factor in your decision making, but don’t forget to think about other elements that are important to your business such as global coverage and multilingual services, flexible resources, data security and reporting.
2. Check their credentials
As part of your research, don’t forget to check your potential vendors credentials through case studies, client testimonials and online reviews.
These can give you a good view of how a company operates and the type of results they have delivered with previous clients. It can also demonstrate if they have expertise or experience working in specific industries or market sectors -and whether these align with your brand.
For instance, if you’re a B2B company operating in the manufacturing sector, it would be prudent to outsource to a vendor who understands that industry, even if there’s a difference in cost.
3. Create customer profiles
If you don’t understand who your customers are and what their customer journey looks like, then it’ll be even harder for a third party to comprehend. So, it’s essential to create clear customer profiles, customer buying journeys and an outline of your ideal customer. A good agency will be able to help with this, if needed.
Quantifying what you usually encounter as your customers’ needs, wants and pain points, will give a good steer on how best to engage them.
It’s also a good idea to provide any additional criteria that can be used to inform the categorisation for lead qualification, such as key buying signals or other behaviour traits.
This key information can then be passed onto your lead qualification agency to give them a clear outline of their target audience and the relevant touch points customers go through during the sales cycle.
4. Define your objectives
Identifying that you need to implement a more effective lead qualification strategy is the first step, but you also need to outline a clear set of objectives that go beyond the top-level goal of ‘better sales leads’.
Providing your lead qualification agency with more granular detail on how you want to achieve this bigger objective or particular areas you want to focus on is key and will go towards getting better results and ROI.
For instance, pinpointing specific areas in the sales cycle where marketing and sales team currently struggle or indicating particular regions or sectors you’d like to focus on, will give them clear indicators for KPIs.
5. Ask about the process
When choosing a lead qualification agency, make sure you ask about the processes and systems they use. From the onboarding process and data processing to calling practices and reporting, having a solid understanding of how they operate will ensure you feel confident with them reaching out to your prospects.
For example, when they reach out, will they present themselves as part of your team or as a third party? In our experience, business development teams who act as an extension of a client’s internal team, deliver better engagement and brand perception than those who contact people as an independent third party.
Will they work in your CRM or their own? TCB give clients the choice. We have a secure platform on which we can create bespoke CRM applications for individual clients and projects, but we’re also experienced users of SalesForce, HubSpot and can work in our clients’ systems if required.
What is the process when a prospect can’t be reached on the phone? Some agencies work exclusively on the telephone, but at TCB we prefer a combination of phone, voicemail and individual email. For each client (and for each campaign), our copywriters create email templates to deal with various scenarios, which are translated into all the relevant languages. Our business developers are then able to personalise these templates for higher levels of engagement.
6. Clarify reporting requirements
How frequently and in what format will reporting be? Clients need numbers, so it’s obviously vital to report on conversion and attrition rates so that you can calculate the cost per lead. You need to agree KPIs at the outset and you need to agree how frequently you will receive reports.
A good agency will also identify trends and provide anecdotal feedback and actionable insight.
7. Compare the costs
Lead qualification helps to sift through large volumes of generated leads, vetting them against a set of defined criteria to identify those with the highest chance of becoming paying customers. This means your sales team is reaching out to leads with the highest conversion potential every time, rather than wasting time on the ones who aren’t showing buying signals.
This process requires manpower to make those live interactions on the phone to establish a customer’s needs (or lack of), which can be time-consuming and expensive to do in-house. However, outsourcing this resource-heavy process to experienced business developers can be a more cost-effective solution as they have the right skills and focus to process leads more quickly.
When considering whether outsourcing is right for your business, make sure you fully understand the cost and time implications of keeping this process inhouse or seeking help from a third party. More often than not, the latter will be cheaper in the long run as qualified leads will deliver a better ROI.
Also be mindful of comparative prices between lead qualification agencies. Cheaper isn’t always better, so be sure to consider all the other elements like experience, flexibility and how they fit in with your business objectives before opting for the cheapest solution.
8. Check contractual agreements
For many organisations, head count and resource availability are issues that hinder them from implementing lead qualification strategies internally – particularly if it’s only needed on an ad hoc basis.
This is where outsourcing lead qualification can help. Whilst some agencies insist on long term fixed contracts, many will offer flexible terms, enabling you to dial your level of support up and down as required.
So, if you have a particular event coming up or a seasonal downturn in lead generation, you can increase and decrease the level of service you want to suit your business needs, which is an important consideration to ensure you don’t end up paying for an underutilised service.
9. Detail data security protocol
Data has become an integral part of business operations and a highly valuable commodity that needs to be stored and handled safely, securely and in line with the latest data laws.
So, when you’re outsourcing business functions that involve data processing, you need to be extra diligent that your supplier is adhering to all data protection and privacy laws in all the regions in which they operate, as well as ensuring there are no data breaches.
At TCB, we operate a stringent data processing policy ensuring all our clients’ data is kept safe and used correctly.
Why outsource your lead qualification to TCB?
At TCB, we deliver a professional, flexible and results-driven B2B lead qualification service to enhance your customer’s experience wherever they are in the sales journey.
From initial engagement with marketing generated leads or long-term customer nurturing and lapsed customer re-engagement, we have a multilingual team with the right skill set to deliver business growth and improved ROI.
Using tried-and-tested qualification and engagement techniques via phone, email, voicemail and live chat, we build meaningful relationships with your customers throughout their journey, all while safely storing and processing data.
To discuss your needs with our lead qualification team and get your project off to a strong start, give us a call on +44 (0) 1489 665900 or email us on info@thecallbusiness.com.