Lots of our clients do telemarketing in-house. And, in truth, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to deciding whether to make outbound calls in-house or to use an outside telemarketing agency. Both have their pros and cons. You might think that it depends on the size of your organisation. That might be true to some extent. However, there are lots of large companies that outsource aspects of their lead generation or data validation on a project-by-project basis or ongoing. Equally, many small companies prefer to have an in-house telemarketer within their operation.
In this blog, we’re not trying to compare since external resourcing can also work well alongside internal callers. Check out our video about in-house versus outsourced telemarketing https://goo.gl/nNr9mx
So, what are some of the benefits of using an external telemarketing service either instead of or alongside internal staffing.
Benefits of an Telemarketing Agency
A Boost at Key Times
Sometimes, all you need is a boost. It may be due to quiet time for incoming leads. You might have a new sales person. There may be sickness or other absence amongst your current lead generation team. You may have just lost an important client or simply need to grow based on budgets or new targets. Whatever the need, an outsourced agency can provide the impetus you need quickly and efficiently.
Maximize Event investment
Events are expensive. And, you’re there principally for one reason i.e. to generate sales leads. But, one of the biggest lead generation sins is failing to gather, process and follow-up leads gathered from a show quickly. That’s where agency resource may come in. Pass the leads swiftly to your agency and they will call every lead quickly and follow these through to categorise the into immediate opportunities, medium-term interest, future interest and no interest.
Check out our video on how to maximise event investment.
Results Orientation
Telemarketers in agencies are usually KPI driven, results-oriented and need to deliver a given number of calls and outcomes ever hour/day of activity. There is a constant drive for results. Whilst that may also be the case for many organisations with internal staff, agencies live or die by their results and these cannot, therefore, be allowed to slip. Hence, call rates and activity levels tend to be higher compared to those where the focus isn’t 100% on the job and where systems don’t allow for call speed and efficiency.
Dedicated and focused resource
This is always a challenge. Office staff often become distracted by other activities and daily responsibilities. Their full focus is rarely on the task at hand i.e. lead generation. The temptation is always there to focus on other, perhaps more interesting, tasks. As a consequence, call rates suffer, call-backs remain uncalled and the sales pipeline dwindles. With a dedicated external resource, the focus is not allowed to slip.
Skilled callers
It may sound obvious but a telemarketing agency employs staff that does telemarketing as a profession. They are trained on the skills to open doors and how to create opportunities for every individual campaign. They are managed to deliver results. Activity and output are policed on a constant basis to ensure that there are consistent results.
Flexibility
With external resourcing, you can turn the activity off and on and ratchet up and down based on projects and business requirements. There will inevitably be periods of high activity (key seasons, events etc) and those where less activity may be needed (e.g. Christmas or summer for perhaps manufacturing or education sectors). Using an extrenal agency gives you the flex to be able to adapt the level of work to suit as opposed to having full-time staff on the payroll.
Lower Wastage
With greater flexibility comes lower wastage. The problem with any lead generation is that it’s all about the ROI. It’s essential to deploy resources wisely and to target them effectively both within the organisation and outside. In a world of escalating costs and decreasing margins, you can’t afford to waste precious resources. Whilst it may be nice to have someone sitting next to you with whom you can brainstorm, is that what you actually need to drive growth? With an agency at your disposal, you can target and deploy very tightly and just when you need it.
Sales Pipeline Management
The problem here, once again, is the day job. It gets in the way despite best efforts. Field staff, especially, gets embroiled in other things and mid to longer term leads pipeline gets missed. Those important calls at just the right rime aren’t followed up. And, if that’s when the contract with the current supplier comes up for renewal, a major opportunity for new business can be missed. With good systems and processes, call-backs shoot up the priority list for daily calls meaning the sales pipeline is constantly worked for success.
Data Building for Better Targeting
It may be that you want to keep the sales and/or the lead generation process in-house. But, what about the data you use for calling? Without accurate data, you won’t get the results you need and your outbound telemarketing callers will fail. That’s where an agency can come in. They can research, build and validate your data and find external data to ensure that your team is as effective as possible with fresh data with the right people who might be interested in your services. Ultimately, through data building and validation, data accuracy improves and better quality leads can be passed to your sales team
Check out these videos for more info on the benefits of database validation
GDPR changes. Do you need to validate your database?
GDPR – What marketers with large databases need to do
Management skills & Time
We all have our skills and specialities. You may have very experienced sales people. Your field team may be the best in the business. And, your inbound call handling may be excellent. But, do you have the skills to develop and manage an effective telemarketing campaign to make sure it delivers the results you need? It’s a different skill. From KPI development to careful telemarketer management to knowing which strings to pull to get best outcomes, an agency does this day in day out. Aside the skills, time is also a precious resource. Using an agency allows senior management to focus on other tasks to build the business.
If you have used an agency before and haven’t had good results, perhaps you haven’t used the right one. At GSA, alongside great results, we provide transparent bespoke reporting, recorded calls and high-touch communication on a regular basis. So, if you’d like to test out an outsourced telemarketing campaign, give us a call.
