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Lead qualification: Insource, outsource, or both?
We just had a great conversation on "who" should own tele/lead qualification. First let me define the role, people whose job it is to follow up and qualify inbound leads before send them to sales. Here is what I see on the market today, I'd like to get your take on what works or doesn't work:1. Insource -- Company employees 2. Outsource --- Leveraging an outsourced call center 3. Both -- I have seen this now a number of times with marketing leveraging outsourced call centers to qualify their lead generation efforts. These leads are passed to an internal term to further qualify and own. Tell me your opinion
Best Answer
In my opinion, I'm going to select 2. Outsource. Why?
In this economic downturn, companies are very, very lean. They have each person doing the jobs of 3-6 employees. This means people have no free time whatsoever.
High quality phone conversations with prospects takes planning and deep thought. Companies cannot do that today.
Besides you have high quality telephone sales organizations like The Bridge Group http://www.thebridgegroup.com/ Green-Leads http://www.green-leads.com/ and InTouch http://www.startwithalead.com/. All of those are terrific and do great work.
So why put the load on overworked, in-house staff? You can get much better results with 2. Outsource.
Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
http://www.findnewcustomers.net
I only believe in using outsourced call centers when the situation demands it; such as for things like high volume one-time promotions or for doing simple verification work.
I have found that the disconnect between outsourced staff and the sales organization makes for an obstacle that just never gets overcome. People in these outsourced organizations just have no connection to the people and data within the company. They can never do more that you can script and most of them, in my opinion, are not good at scripting despite their claims.
Though there are high level call centers it's my belief that for the same money, often less, the company can hire far more competent people giving them better training and the support of being within the organization which offers a lot more options and opportunities.
In genera,l I am convinced that most companies can do a far better job internally for less money. There may be situations that generate large volumes of activity in short periods prohibiting the internal resources from doing the job. In this circumstance I would consider using an outside resource but would limit them the the simplest function possible handling the real qualification and selling with internal people.
Another great question Craig!
I have to agree with Jeff on this one. He makes a sound point in regards to the state of the economy. Companies have let their inside teleprospecting teams go, and are running leaner in that regard. Now is not the time to re-build those teams.
To start, who's going to manage that team? Someone who's already got other responsibilities, be they more marketing focused or sales focused, is not going to put their full attention to developing a team of highly trained business development reps. Often, the person put in charge of teleprospecting hasn't ever picked up the phone in the first place.
Additionally, do you really have the time it takes to train someone to manage a teleprospecting team all while building said team? Add on top of that everything that goes into paying a new team, from salary, benefits, and bonus plans to boot; the cost is just too great to build it from in the inside. Oh yeah, and do you know how best to motivate teleprospectors? Its a high burn out type of job, but it tends to be the outside vendor who is very good at keeping their high performers employed for greater lengths of time.
Can it be done both in and out at the same time? Sure. Its been my experience though, that the outsource team typically performs better.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with Flyn when he talks about "people in these outsourced organizations just hav[ing] no connection to the people and data within the company." I know that, for me, it's critical to our success to build relationships with our clients, and get as much training from them as possible before we go on the phones for them. We do connect with their sales and marketing teams, and we use that relationship to ensure that the leads that get passed to them are of the highest quality.
Great question again!
Chris
First, let me clarify. My firm, The Bridge Group, does not provide outsourced services (sorry Jeff). But, having said that, we often recommend vendors to our clients when the situation warrants that type of partnership.
Your question was very specific in that it refers to qualification of inbound leads which are a precious commodity. In this instance if the company had the capacity, experience and passion to build an internal team - we would highly recommend they do so. If the stars were not in alignment in that regard, we would then suggest they outsource the activity to a capable partner who understands that there is a difference between "processing" a lead and "qualifying" an opportunity. Hope this helps.
Great question. How does the process of lead qualification look from the outside in? Outsourced or insourced--will your prospect find the experience positive? Whichever method you select, put yourself in the prospect's shoes, and build your resources around his or her expectations.
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For the teleprospecting lead function, I would recommend that this be outsourced rather than internal.
The key to the success of any lead program depends on the alignment of sales and the teleprospecting team in the definition of a qualified lead. If there is a lack of alignment on lead quality the result is the 80% of leads that go to waste regardless if the lead generation is internal or external. To consistently deliver quality leads requires the accurate and timely closed loop feedback from sales to the marketing and lead teleprospecting team.
I think there are several advantages to an outsourced vendor
1 Managing a productive teleprospecting operation requires expertise in the three elements of the program (people, process and technology) Most internal sales organizations do not have the experience to effectively manage this lead function in a productive manner.
a. With an outsourced teleprospecting operation there is no confusion on the role of the lead generation function. The output of the team is qualified leads that sales will work. Too often I have seen internal teams get mixed roles of trying to be both the lead qualifiers and the inside sales selling function. The result is neither of the functions are done well
b. Most internal sales organizations do not have the experience or the technology to manage the internal team to the productivity level that a quality outsourced teleprospecting vendor can deliver
c. Flexibility with an outsourced vendor; you can increase or decrease the headcount as the program budget is invariably adjusted . Increasing headcount can be a very difficult thing to get approved in many of the larger organizations. They do not want to take on the headcount and burden. Outsourcing has a much higher flexibility to adjust headcount as needed.
d. Hiring and training , this tends to be a high turnover business, outsourced vendors do this as a regular part of the business, most internal organizations do not do this as effectively as outsourced vendors
e. Management process utilizing CRM metrics and technology. This is a very specialized business that requires the skills, management processes and technology to insure you are meeting both productivity and quality standards. My experience has been the at the outsourced vendor had superior metrics reporting than we had internally
f. Accountability the outsourced vendor is very accountable for meeting the KPIs of lead quality , cost and productivity. You have much more flexibility and leverage to change with an external vendor than an internally staffed organization.
Dennis Head
eDemand Leads LLC
www.edemandleads.com