Top 10 Mistakes When Outsourcing Lead Generation Services

When outsourcing lead generation services for any size business, it is critical to avoid common pitfalls that might set back your business instead of propelling it forward. The list below is a comprehensive guide of common mistakes to look out for when outsourcing lead generation services.

1. Using Overseas Firms When Soliciting US Customers

Ask anyone that’s called Dell, HP, or any other major PC maker and they’ll tell you that dealing with overseas support staff has become a continued headache they feared when they picked up the phone. While the staff themselves may be very technical, polite, and eager to help, the companies chose to reduce costs and provide their customer with less service – by forcing you, the user to deal with language barriers.  Again, the support staff is usually very friendly, and helpful, but, having to struggle with language barriers after your PC stops working is the last thing a consumer needs.  It’s no different when an English-speaking customer service agent attempts to help customers in foreign lands.  If you speak Japanese as your native language, the last thing you want to deal with when your iPhone doesn’t restart is an American with an attitude.

Contracting overseas for telesales and lead generation services will not only yield worse results when you’re saving a buck but, will lower your brand standing after 10,000 calls have been made on your behalf.  The next time you think about saving a few dollars and hiring a firm with sales staff with heavy accents, make sure those accents represent value; not low-cost staffing, and cause even more frustration with your customers or prospects.

2. Newly Created Service Providers

It’s easy to start a telesales company, but, it’s very difficult to provide high-quality services to clients year after year.  While we all applaud the entrepreneurial efforts to go it oneself, the clients are taking all the risk by helping the start-up learn the ropes.   Rookie firms will usually drop their prices and maybe even have some new wiz-bang tools at hand, but they all struggle with staffing at the time your project is about to start.   The last thing you want is a new agency, with new, unproven staff, and few resources to swap out sales staff that aren’t working out for one reason or another.

You can avoid common mistakes that may come with a new company by seeking lead generation services from a well experienced company like DJM.

3. Due Diligence on Agencies

Most firms outsource their inside sales activities for a few reasons; lack of skills, outside their focus, reduce costs, or part-time requirements, so they generally don’t have staff that focuses on this set of services or deep experience making it very difficult to qualify and evaluate the different providers.  How can you qualify one versus another?  What questions should we ask? Can we ask? And, at the end of the day – how do we know we’re hearing the truth?

There is no simple answer, but, spending time asking questions and finding a provider with a principal (not sales person) that is eager to share their thoughts with you is the best way to find a partner.  An agency with little or no experience in your market can cause huge delays in their trying to learn simple terminology and business practices that are common to your customers.  Find the principal at an agency that can speak your language, and you’ll likely find an agency that’s right for your firm.

4. Short-Term Projects: Testing The Agency.

Testing an agency for 90 days isn’t enough time.  It just isn’t.  The beauty of choosing the right agency for lead generation services is in their ability to shift-gears, change directions, rotate staff, and figure out how to help you find more opportunities. If things aren’t working during the first 60 days, and you’re agency isn’t changing things up; ask them to.  If they’re working on new tactics, staffing, and creative methods to drive business; support them, help them, and bring new ideas to help push them over the top.  Remember, even though you’re in an industry they’ve worked before; every company, product, market, data set, and timing is different.  It’s a team effort – PERIOD.

5. Poor Support from the Client

The best results come from the best clients. It’s no surprise that firms with a single point of contact that are supportive, active, and show an interest in helping your outsource agency succeed, will result in a better program from day one.  Too many times the person charged with engaging and managing the project may have been responsible for your in-house activities prior to outsourcing, which is generally not a good idea since a successful outsourcing engagement shines a light on their lack of success.

Management should engage the client-side manager early on in the process so they understand all the vetting activities, the reason why your outsource partner was chosen, and of course to help develop a working relationship with complete buy-in.  The earlier in the process the sponsoring manager is involved, the better.

6. Data – Not Enough or Poor Quality

It all starts with data. Start off with small data sets, incorrect phone numbers and/or contacts that are no longer with the target companies and you’ll put your agency at a disadvantage from the start. In fact, your agency should have a hand in data discussions and provide initial feedback immediately after you provide your first data set as they can probably offer some strategic advice from their experience in your field.

Bad data will have a huge, and very negative, impact on your lead generation effort. Review the data on a regular basis and make sure your agency of choice can provide metrics and analysis early and often.  Another key element of data quality relates to the volume of unique contacts at unique companies.   Too little and your agency will spin their wheels by calling the same entities over and over again. Keep your calling mix of ‘new’ and ‘secondary’ calls proper – this ratio should be provided by your agency based on your goals.

Using data provided by agencies can bring risk as well. Ask where and how often it’s been utilized and by which clients (at least determine the last time the prospects were called and if a competing firm was involved) to ensure that you will be using efficient data services.

7. Forcing Your Agency To Use Your Tactics

Remember, you’re hiring an expert. Forcing them to your way of thinking in how to do their job puts your project at risk. Feel free to ask them for logic and reason as to why their processes and methodologies are in place in an effort to understand them, but, let them do their work; on their terms to achieve your results. If they’ve been around for several years, they’ve built a successful business by focusing their efforts on this work and all the processes and tools necessary to succeed.

Asking them to work the way your organization has in the past will likely cause poor results…the results your firm is trying to improve on.

8. CRM and Other Tools

Salesforce.com is not the correct tool for use at the top of the funnel.  It’s slow, requires the ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ of each record in order to make a single call and disposition and worst of all, the metrics are non-existent. It’s a great too, but not for lead generation services.  The only time Salesforce.com should be used at this stage of your sales process is when you have inbound leads that need routing and qualification.  Just recognize that you are not going to hit the target volume metrics, so, allow your agency the opportunity to export the data and leverage their own tools whenever possible.

Agency tools should be a combination of in-house developed applications for calling, email, and managing metrics early on in the sales process. They should be geared toward high-volume calling, and dispositions, and of course metric reporting; not detailed note taking.   Ask your agency of choice about their tools, but don’t be surprised if they are apprehensive about giving too much detail other than the results, after all, it’s part of their ‘secret sauce’ or’ know-how’.  You’re paying for results, not the tools.

9. Metrics, Metrics, and More Metrics

Yes, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. So, the challenge is finding a partner that has a true understanding of the numbers surrounding data and can show you their findings on a regular basis. The further off the beaten path you take them, with custom reporting requirements, the less rigor they’ll have in their metrics and dashboards that were probably set up to do the job correctly. So, ask them what they will provide – even a sample report from a previous client so you’ll have a good understanding of what they know to look for, how they measure, and what you can expect when it comes time to make decisions for new tactics and strategies.

10. Agency Executive Sponsorship and Engagement

The final mistake companies make in outsourcing their lead generation services may be the most important.  If you’re working with staff at a larger agency, the chance they are experts in your unique industry, category, market, and specific needs is unlikely.  Find an agency where a partner or owner is involved with your account in the beginning and works closely through launch and the first month to make sure all activities are launched to success. They’ll always be more candid with clients and bring up negatives important to the engagement at the right time; early on.

Firms that rely on underlings in the beginning of a project risk success early on due to their lack of experience.  You can benefit from years of wisdom by having a partner or executive participate early on and help to make sure positioning of your product or service makes sense enough to ensure prospects show up to meetings ready for an education or demonstration.