Should you outsource telemarketing?

It’s easy to think of telemarketing as just sales calls or booking meetings, but there’s so much more to telemarketing than that. It is about marketing over the phone, with everything that implies. Telemarketing means working closely with the client on many fronts, taking care of invitations to and follow up on events, generating and nurturing leads, as well building a pipeline for the future. If the leads are “hot” enough, then you book a meeting, otherwise you wait until the right moment within the sales cycle. Telemarketing is first-rate business development. In order to follow prospects and understand the client’s sales cycle, you need to create a relationship with them by doing something that can’t be replaced, even via digital channels – you really listen. Clients and prospects can ask questions directly and they also have the chance to speak freely. Human contact. Voice. Tone. All extremely important parts of our communication.

Nowadays some companies that only work inbound leads. Others have inside sales and field sales teams that work together in house. Then you have those who choose to outsource their telemarketing, which is a good idea if you go about it the right way.

Focus

When you outsource to a dedicated team, you know that they will focus on calling. Your salespeople have a thousand other things to do and perhaps only a small amount of time goes finding new customers.

Experts

You are an expert at your products and services. We are experts at communication and know which questions lead to the answers you are looking for. Our telemarketing agents have been specially trained and have significant experience within communication.

Sales Engine

Behind every sale there is a lead. Leads can be inbound, via email or phone, or outbound. Regardless of how you get your leads, you need to follow up on them. An outsourced telemarketing agency can be your sales engine – the link between inbound and outbound as well as the link between your prospects/clients and your sales team.

Shorter Lead Time

When you consistently follow up with your leads at the correct time within the sales cycle and then allocate your leads as meetings or direct sales calls with your sales team, you shorten your lead time and ensure that you never miss out on opportunities.

Save Resources

Time and money are the company’s main resources and they often go hand in hand. Recruiting a good inside salesperson takes time and costs money. Recruiting new resources and training them takes even longer. It can take up to 6 months before good leads come in. Do you have that kind of time?

When you let your external agency generate your leads, you are actively saving resources. Consider what it costs to employ and train an agent to look after your business development. On top of that, you have other costs like phone lines and equipment. Your HR department handles recruiting, onboarding, and offboarding, and that takes a significant amount of time for jobs with typically high turnover.

The phone and technical equipment costs are not just an initial investment but a cost that needs to be paid and maintained over time. These are elements you don’t have to think about when you outsource.

Motivation and Team Building

Salespeople have to be at their top. Motivation needs to be high on many levels. You can tell on the phone if a salesperson is not feeling great. That’s why it’s important to invest in team building activities and individual meetings, and to incentivise your salespeople so that they can perform at their best. These are all factors you don’t have to worry about when you outsource. To sum up, it’s worth at least trying to outsource your telemarketing and business development. Together with the agency you will go through the message you want to deliver with your campaigns and the material you want to send out when clients and prospects show interest. You have a briefing before the campaign starts so that the agents know your products and/or services and continue to have follow up meetings every week or every other week to see how the campaign is going and to answer any questions the agents may have. You may want to find a telemarketing agency that works in multiple languages, so you can also start thinking about how to expand to other countries.