Outsourcing is becoming more and more common these days. In fact, 66% of companies outsource their vital business functions these days, due to lost costs and high expertise—and B2B lead generation outsourcing is no different.
While many companies prefer to keep their operations in-house, it can often negatively impact their bottom line, especially if they’re growing small to medium-sized businesses. But the question we’re all asking is… is it worth it?
Like any outsourcing venture, hiring a B2B lead generation partner has its pros and cons. In this blog, we’ll cover all you need to know before investing, including the following:
Advantages of Outsourcing B2B Lead Generation
Outsourcing B2B lead generation can offer several advantages to companies looking to expand their book of business and boost revenue. Here are some pros to outsourcing your B2B lead generation efforts:
Proven Sales and Marketing Expertise
Outsourcing companies that specialize in B2B lead generation have extensive experience and expertise in the world of sales and marketing. They are equipped with sales, marketing, and lead generation experts who have proven themselves effective in identifying, qualifying, and nurturing leads. Additionally, they stay up to date on the knowledge of the latest tools, technologies, and strategies to identify and target potential business prospects effectively.
Greater Cost Savings
Outsourcing lead generation can be cost-effective compared to hiring and training an in-house SDR and marketing team. By doing this, you can avoid the extensive staffing costs associated with recruiting, training, salaries, benefits, and overhead expenses.
Additionally, while outsourcing reduces the cost of the employees involved in the B2B lead generation process, it also reduces or eliminates the need to invest in sales and marketing tools and technologies.
For more insight into the true cost of lead generation, read our blog here.
Ability to Scale as Needed
B2B lead generation outsourcing allows you to scale your lead generation efforts up or down quickly based on your business needs. You can adjust the level of service to match fluctuations in demand without the complexity of hiring or firing employees.
Opportunity to Focus on More Pressing Tasks
By outsourcing lead generation, your in-house sales and marketing teams can concentrate on their core everyday functions. This leaves them more time to sell, further develop your product or service offerings, and provide customers with excellent service, boosting client retention. While outsourced SDRs and marketing teams focus on prospecting and nurturing relationships with leads, your in-house team can keep doing what they do best—run a successful business.
Access to Advanced Tools and Technology
Outsourcing partners often have access to advanced lead generation tools, CRM systems, and data analytics platforms, which can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your lead generation campaigns. As we mentioned earlier, while having access to these tools is great, outsourced SDR and marketing teams know how to use them to the best of their abilities, resulting in a more streamlined B2B lead generation process overall.
Achieve Quicker Results
Experienced outsourced teams can hit the ground running and generate leads more quickly than an inexperienced in-house team, helping you reach your sales goals faster. Since they work with a multitude of companies in a variety of industries, they have a tried and true, proven-effective process that provides small to medium-sized businesses with results.
Increased Lead Quality
In-house lead generation teams often focus too much on getting more leads rather than better leads. Luckily, professional B2B lead generation firms focus on delivering high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into paying customers. This can result in a higher ROI from your sales and marketing efforts.
To get the most impact from your lead generation efforts, you need to have a perfect blend of lead quality and quantity. Read our blog here to learn how to do this effectively.
Reduced Risk of Loss
When you outsource lead generation, you share the risks and responsibilities with the outsourcing partner. If your sales and marketing campaigns don’t perform as expected, you can adjust the strategy or switch to a different provider without the financial burden of terminating employees.
In-Depth Data Analysis and Optimization
Outsourcing companies often provide detailed reports and analyses of lead generation campaigns. This data can help you refine your sales and marketing strategies and make informed decisions for future lead generation efforts. Additionally, all the lead gen tools and technologies they use make it seamless to gather and integrate into one place, ideally your CRM system for quick access between sales, marketing, and lead generation departments.
Greater Focus on Relationship Building
With an outsourced lead generation team handling the initial prospecting, company introduction, and qualification stages, your in-house sales team can focus on closing deals with qualified leads. By taking these business growth tasks off their plate, sales execs can spend more time crafting the perfect sales presentation catered to the needs of the sales opportunity.
Assurance of Compliance and Privacy
Outsourcing firms are often well-versed in compliance regulations and data privacy laws, ensuring that your lead generation efforts adhere to legal and ethical standards. This reduces the risk of company email domains being blacklisted and phone calls being identified as spam, which could negatively impact your lead gen efforts, and the overall reputation of your business.
While outsourcing B2B lead generation offers numerous advantages, it’s essential to choose a reputable and experienced outsourcing partner that aligns with your business goals and values to maximize the results of your sales and marketing efforts.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing B2B Lead Generation
Outsourcing B2B lead generation can have its advantages, but it also comes with some potential disadvantages and challenges that are important to consider, especially if you don’t do enough research on the lead gen agency you hire.
Here are some of the drawbacks you should consider when looking into outsourced lead gen:
Less Degree of Control
When you outsource lead generation, you relinquish a degree of control over the process. You may have less direct oversight and influence on how leads are generated and nurtured, which could impact the quality of leads or the alignment with your brand’s messaging.
However, this depends on the level of involvement you’d like to have in the overall outsourced lead gen process. The more involved with the outsourced lead gen partner you are, the more likely you are to get the results you want.
Lead Quality Concerns
While outsourcing firms aim to deliver high-quality leads, there’s no guarantee that the leads generated will meet your specific criteria or expectations. Misaligned leads can lead to wasted time and resources for your sales team.
Therefore, it’s important to firmly paint your partner with a clear vision of what a qualified lead looks like from an unqualified lead. A good way to approach this is by defining and sharing your ideal client profile (ICP) with your outsourced partner.
We understand the impact lead qualification has on sustainable business growth. Our lead generation experts work with you to find and nurture quality leads and beyond. Here are some ways that Abstrakt can help you consistently hit your sales goals.
Communication Challenges
Effective communication is crucial in lead generation. Working with an external provider may introduce communication challenges, such as time zone differences, language barriers, and misunderstandings, which can affect campaign outcomes.
Today, many outsourced lead gen companies offshore their business growth efforts, meaning they hire employees from outside of the country they reside in. If you want to reduce language barriers, it’s important to consider hiring a lead gen company that keeps their resources onshore, ensuring that SDRs call the appropriate timezones and are able to have clear communication between your business and the prospect.
Dependency on the Outsourcing Partner
Relying heavily on an external vendor for lead generation means you become dependent on their expertise and availability. If the partnership ends or experiences issues, it can disrupt your lead generation efforts.
As we mentioned earlier, the results of your B2B lead gen strategy heavily rely on the strength of involvement you want from your program. The more you collaborate and work with the company you hire, the more control you have over your program, resulting in less dependency.
Additionally, lack of involvement could cause a dilemma where you can’t remove the outsourced vendor because you are dependent on them for leads, even if the business needs to trim expenses.
Risk of Poor Reputation
If the outsourcing firm employs aggressive or unethical lead generation tactics, it could harm your brand’s reputation. Make sure the vendor’s practices align with your company’s ethical standards. This is what makes having a strict cold talk track or email template incredibly important. Ideally, your outsourced lead generation partner should be working with you to craft the right messaging behind your brand, that way they can align more with your values and how you want to be perceived as a business.
Limited Industry Knowledge
Outsourcing firms may work with clients from various industries. They might not possess deep domain expertise in your specific industry, which can affect their ability to generate highly targeted leads. Therefore, it’s essential to select an outsourcing partner that showcases expertise in the industry you serve.
Before deciding to outsource B2B lead generation, carefully weigh these disadvantages against the potential advantages. It’s essential to conduct thorough due diligence when selecting an outsourcing partner and maintain open lines of communication to address any challenges that may arise during the partnership.
Top Signs You Should Consider B2B Lead Gen Outsourcing
Deciding whether to outsource your B2B lead generation efforts is a significant strategic choice for your business, but it can be difficult to decipher whether you’re ready to outsource your business growth efforts. Here are some signs that indicate it’s time to consider outsourcing:
- You have an inconsistent lead flow in your pipeline
- You lack sales and marketing expertise
- High costs of DIY operations negatively impact your bottom line
- You have slow and unsustainable sales growth
- You have a limited reach to your target market
- You don’t have time to prioritize filling your sales pipeline
- You have an insufficient business growth process
- Your conversion rates are declining
- You have limited access to the necessary data and analytics
- You have a lot of competitors in your target market
Questions to Consider Before Hiring a B2B Lead Generation Company
Not sure if it’s time to invest in an outsourced partner? Here are some questions to consider that you should ask yourself before hiring a B2B lead generation company:
“What’s my long-term goal with B2B lead generation?”
While there are many benefits to outsourcing lead gen efforts, it’s not for everybody. A common mistake businesses make when they initially start their B2B appointment setting program is anticipating an immediate ROI. However, it’s important to remember that creating a sustainable sales pipeline takes weeks—even months—of development before getting the opportunities you want and closing large-scale business deals.
If you’re looking for a quick fix to boost company revenue, then B2B appointment setting may not be the best solution for your business. Outsourcing sales and marketing efforts requires patience and time to work with the outsourced sales team to perfectly craft a pitch and position the voice of your company.
“How involved do I want to be with my lead generation strategy?”
Hiring an outsourced lead generation team isn’t a hands-off experience, at least not if you want to see substantial results. Your involvement with an outsourced lead gen team is crucial for an effective B2B partnership—the more involved you are, the more success you’ll get in the long run.
If you want to gain the most benefit from your partnership, you must do the following:
- Understand their sales and marketing qualification process
- Train them to understand your business and your brand voice
- Provide them with relevant content marketing materials
- Communicate with them regularly to see how campaigns are performing
- Set measurable and attainable goals for them to hit
“How much do I want to spend on B2B lead generation?”
Research shows that businesses spend an average of $180,000 on in-house lead gen employees’ salaries, at least $100,000 on various tools and technologies to optimize their efforts, and more than $100,000 on having an office yearly. Not every business has the funds to gather an in-house team, which is why many companies decide to outsource their growth efforts.
The cost of hiring an outsourced lead gen company is significantly less than an in-house team, making it more of a budget-friendly option for small to medium-sized businesses that want to keep costs low. In addition to being lower cost, outsourced firms also save valuable company time hiring, training, and onboarding new employees.
Before selecting a provider, here are some things to consider:
- Your sales and marketing budget
- What’s important to you in regard to lead generation
- How full you want your sales pipeline to be (for both leads and prospects)
- How many qualified sales meetings you want (and can handle internally)
- The number of team members you want working on your lead gen team
So, what’s the TRUE cost of lead generation? Read our blog here to learn the total costs of an in-house team, technology, and more.
“What’s included in the B2B lead generation company’s tech stack?”
When looking at different companies to partner with, it’s important to consider the different tools and technologies they’re working with to generate leads. How do they find prospective businesses? How do they maintain communication with prospects?
A big mistake that companies often make when looking at B2B lead gen outsourcing companies is focusing too much on the cost and not enough on their capabilities. By choosing a low-cost option, you sacrifice expertise, technology, and the ability to achieve the results you want.
“How will I know if the B2B lead generation strategy is working?”
There are a variety of ways to measure the success of your B2B lead generation program. One of the most efficient ways to measure your ROI is having an efficient CRM tool to track progress. CRM tools provide both you and the sales outsourcing company with dashboards and reports about leads in the pipeline, opportunities available, and how much you’re getting back for what you’re putting into the program.
Additionally, it’s important to have consistent meetings between you and your outsourced lead gen team. Weekly or monthly results meetings with account managers are necessary and are a two-way street. While the account managers provide you with information about how the program is doing, it’s up to you to ask questions to gather further insight.
It’s worth remembering that if your current B2B lead gen provider doesn’t take action to meet on a consistent basis, this may be a red flag with your partnership because it shows that they don’t value the success of your business.
Here are some questions you should ask account managers during results meetings:
- How many dials did it take to get an appointment?
- What products and services are we highlighting? Do the prospects seem interested in these company offerings?
- What trends are SDRs finding in the market?
- What objections are the prospects giving?
- What do prospects say they’re looking for in a B2B partner?
Asking these questions allows you to have full transparency of your program and ensure you’re getting the most impact out of your investment.
“What if I want to add more strategies to my lead gen approach?”
Many B2B companies make the mistake of hiring two different outsourced companies: one for cold outreach and another for digital marketing. If you plan on focusing on one over another, this could be a decent approach if you know you’ll never plan to extend your business growth efforts.
However, to get the most impact from your overall lead generation strategy, it’s worth looking into partners that offer both outbound and inbound approaches to lead generation. That way if you see the impact of one strategy and want to continue growing your pipeline through other methods, you’re already with a company that knows your business from the inside out, allowing you to accelerate your additional business growth methods.
Key Takeaways
In-house lead generation efforts sound good in theory, but it takes a lot to get one up and running for long-term success. When you partner with an outsourced sales development and marketing company, you have immediate access to high-performing SDRs and marketing experts and a proven process that yields results. So if you’re still wondering if outsourced lead generation services… the answer is yes.
At Abstrakt Marketing Group, we pride ourselves in having a proven-effective business growth process and are able to give growing small to medium-sized businesses the opportunity to fill their sales pipelines with qualified leads—through both B2B appointment setting and digital marketing efforts.
When you’re ready to start outsourcing your lead gen efforts and getting the most on your ROI, contact the business growth experts at Abstrakt
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