5 Reasons to outsource your telemarketing and lead generation
I am often asked what the “real” differences are between a professional telemarketer and an in-house telemarketer. Over the years I have had this discussion many times with clients and colleagues; it is often the case that they are seeking a reason to support their decision to outsource.
Below are the top 5 reasons to outsource rather than bring your outbound telemarketing in house.
Reason 1# Cost:
Whilst high-level professional outbound telemarketing may look costly as an initial outlay it is often not compared to what the “real” in house cost implications are. For example an outbound telemarketing contract may cost £20,000 that is £20,000 for a team of professional, experienced telemarketers to go out of a targeted market, delivering education on your business, brand, product or service and generating face to face appointments for you or your sales team to go out and meet.
Yes you could bring in an in-house telemarketer at the same cost per year but what is the real cost? Have you factored in your training costs, your overheads including equipment costs, bonus, holiday, national insurance? Suddenly a £20,000 salary has jumped well above the initial £20,000 and that is before they have even picked up the phone and started generating new business opportunities.
Reason 2# Experience:
Throughout the last 5 years I have spoken to many recruiters who are looking for that quintessential experience within telemarketing. Everyone involved in sales has had some level of telemarketing, where they have been asked to make some cold calls. It is finding that ideal candidate that has the experience and drive to come into a business and hit the ground running. Most telemarketing companies especially those who focus on B2B have a much lower staff turnover than that of a typical call centre and retaining that experience is key to their success.
Why risk bringing an untested individual into your organisation when you can levy the risk against a telemarketing firm that not only has experienced expert diallers but also diallers passionate about your industry? Experience is key, not only do you want the maximum return for your investment but an established formula which allows you to turn on and off your lead generation to match your business capacity.
Reason 3# Brand awareness:
Communicating your brand can be difficult, finding that right formula of professional and engaging telemarketing paired with product and industry knowledge and experience is tough. Outsourcing your telemarketing allows you to take advantage of years of experience across industry targeting very different levels of decision makers from CEO’s through to office managers.
Maintaining a consistent message which delivers results is essential to telemarketing success, why risk contacting prospective clients with a message that is in the process of being shaped by in-house telemarketers and may not deliver?
Reason4# Transparency, feedback and control:
For any investment in services you will want to see what impact and return your investment is generating. In-house you may see the straight reporting, how many calls have been made, what have these calls led to? Appointment, lead, hot call back? Outsourced telemarketing will enable you to receive much more transparent reports, pipeline of opportunities, reports on metrics that are important to you as a business. The majority of telemarketing is spent profiling and cleansing data to ensure every opportunity passed to you is as qualified as possible.
The real value of telemarketing doesn’t sit within just those opportunities that have been booked as Face to Face appointments but the pipeline of opportunities. Building your businesses profile and brand awareness coupled with an effective sales or marketing message is the real inherent value of any outbound activity. Being able to see who and what industries you have penetrated, proactively targeting these prospects and reacting to the market’s changes and reactions to your messaging is crucial. Why risk using an in-house telemarketer who may not react quickly enough to capitalise on these essential pieces of information gained?
Reason5# Return on Investment:
The most important reason for any marketing/telemarketing campaigns is to generate a return on investment, establishing new business relations and ultimately finding new revenue flow for the business. Whilst ROI can be established through a variety of different matrix’s be it a straight return, x amount of investment equals x amount of return or a more complex ROI structure wherein costs and established costs, projected value, margins etc. are taken into account it can be said that a clear ROI must be established from the outset.
One of the key benefits of outsourcing your telemarketing is that targets and ROI can be calculated from the outset. Outsourcing will establish what your conversion rate is from sat appointments to converted business, what level of ROI would you see from these converted appointments, would one sale generate enough ROI to justify the activity? All of these questions are taken into account and factored into a campaign ensuring that the activity delivers.
So what is the real difference between professional outsourced telemarketing compared to an in-house telemarketer?
Everything other than their job title!