When lead generation is outsourced...
Challenges
Even though outsourcing can bring benefits, there are risks and challenges that need to be considered. These include, among others:
- Lack of transparency in results: It might not be clear what contribution lead generation ultimately makes to overall success. Are more contracts really being closed or products and services sold?
- Low lead generation rate: Only a few leads are generated. Although many potential customers are approached, the lead generation partner's activities generate little interest.
- Quality of the leads: A huge number of irrelevant leads are transmitted. Either the contact person is not really interested, has no budget or is interested but has false expectations and wants something completely different from what you can offer.
- Lack of control over execution: When outsourcing, you have no direct control over execution, which entails certain risks. The partner may use aggressive methods, for example by promising too much or trying to take the potential customer by surprise. It is also possible that statements are made that are not in line with the values and the brand, which can damage the company's image.
- Lack of expertise: With outsourcing, expertise is usually unevenly distributed, is not built up on one side or is sometimes even lost. This can lead to critical knowledge gaps. Affected areas can be:
- Expertise in marketing and lead generation is lost or not built up.
- The partner knows less about the products and services and only has limited access to this knowledge.
- There is a lack of obtaining immediate feedback on products, services or the company from lead generation.
- Dependence on the partner: You become dependent on a partner for lead generation. If the partner has resource problems or, in the worst case, goes bankrupt, this can lead to a significant drop in lead generation.
- Data security: The partner may handle the data provided to them negligently. This damages the reputation and can even lead to legal problems.
- Legal and regulatory risks: The partner may unknowingly violate legal or regulatory requirements because it lacks awareness of the risks or is unfamiliar with them.
"Learnings" - What do you need to bear in mind?
In order to better deal with the risks and challenges, I would like to share a few "learnings" based on my experience in lead generation and working with partners. I will focus on a few points that I consider to be important, although these may vary depending on the context and may need to be supplemented.
Creating the right frame conditions
Business plan and budget
A clear business plan should be drawn up for the amount to be invested. This should include assumptions about the leads generated, but also about the resulting contracts and the resulting turnover. A plan covering the entire buying journey has proven to be particularly effective, as it also supports optimization across the entire pipeline.
Choosing a partner
Lead generation is critical to business. Accordingly, the outsourcing provider should be selected carefully. It is important that not only technical aspects, but also cultural fit and risk factors are considered during the selection process.
Partnership-based cooperation
As lead generation is usually an ongoing activity, I recommend viewing the outsourcing provider as a partner and an extended part of the organization, rather than simply a supplier. This ensures that the collaboration can improve and evolve. In the medium term, this improves the results and the success of the collaboration. The partnership approach is also recommended when it comes to a time-limited campaign, as it can be repeated more easily if necessary or further campaigns can be set-up quicker.
The following points, among others, have proven to be helpful when working in partnership:
- Get to know the people who will be working on the lead generation. This facilitates the exchange with them and helps to develop the collaboration.
- Understand the tasks that the partner's employees will be taking on. What exactly will they do? How will they do it? What tools do they need?
- Support the partner's employees, e.g. by training them on the products, by answering questions posed by potential customers or by coaching them on the sales story.
Clear target group
The target group should be defined as precisely as possible. The same applies to the target persons in the buying center (personas) that are to be addressed.
It is also important that a good quality data source is available. This can also be provided by the partner, but often needs to be enhanced or enriched for efficient targeting. Data quality is the responsibility of the buyer, as the outsourcing partner often lacks knowledge of the intricacies of the market.
Convincing and simple sales stories
The sales stories to be told can be developed on the basis of the identified target groups. The following applies: less is usually more, otherwise the partner will be unable to cope.
The sales stories should be short and appealing, as there is not much time or space available. I therefore recommend investing enough time in developing and communicating the stories, as these are critical to success. This is especially true if you are working with an outbound calling partner. The stories influence both the quality of the leads and the quantity.
Reporting and monitoring
All reports that are required should be defined in advance. This includes the intervals at which they should be updated. The results must be regularly monitored and discussed.
Documentation of feedback
The requirements for documenting feedback from potential customers should also be defined in advance. This is critical in order to continue to feel the pulse of the market.
Design of "end-to-end" processes
To make lead generation successful, lead generation should be clearly defined like a normal campaign. The campaign should not end with the handover to sales, but should also take into account cases where sales cannot transfer a lead into a sales opportunity. Clear processes must be defined for this, which take into account the following questions, among others: When is a lead transferred to sales? What criteria must be met (lead scoring, deadline, etc.)? What happens if an opportunity is cancelled?
Cooperation and execution
Start with a pilot
In my experience, it is recommended to start with a pilot. The learning curve is very steep at the beginning and you should not approach too many potential customers yet, as the chances of success increase with continuous learning.
Training
Good training for the partner's employees is critical to the success of lead generation. Training should include the following points, among others:
- Product / Service: The partner's employees need to understand what they are generating leads for.
- Sales stories: The sales stories must be able to be told. Among other things, employees must clearly understand what the benefits are for a potential customer.
- Regulatory and legal requirements: Employees must clearly know what the requirements are, where the boundaries are and how to deal with regulatory and legal requirements.
- Processes and collaboration: It must be clear to everyone how collaboration is organized and what the processes look like.
- Documentation: Employees must clearly know what they need to document and how this should be done.
Regular exchange
Regular dialogue is important in order to have the pulse on the market, to be aware of changes promptly and also to be able to inform the partner about internal changes.
The progress of lead generation is discussed during the operational dialogue: What are the results? What worked and what didn't? Are there any changes in the market? What are the next steps? My recommendation is to choose rather short intervals, especially at the beginning.
During a longer collaboration, it can also make sense to have a "strategic" exchange from time to time. Such exchanges can be held with the following stakeholders:
- Product management: Exchange detailed feedback on requests, criticism or ideas for products or feedback on competitor products.
- Marketing: Exchange on reactions to sales stories that may be relevant for marketing communication.
- Sales / Account Management: Exchange of feedback on products as well as reactions to sales stories.
Continuous improvement
Regular dialogue serves to maintain relationships and build trust. Above all, however, it should serve to continuously improve lead generation. The conclusions and learnings from the dialogue should be incorporated into lead generation: Are the sales stories working or do they need to be adapted? Do the target groups match the sales stories? Are there new target groups or personas that need to be considered?
In a longer-term collaboration, it can also make sense to keep challenging and developing the current sales stories. The A/B testing method can be used for this purpose, for example.
Conclusion
Even if the outsourcing of lead generation can be implemented quickly and an experienced partner takes over the tasks, experience has shown that the success of outsourcing is not automatically granted. It takes personal commitment to support the partner and the corresponding activities. This ensures that the lead generation will be successful and that the partnership continues to develop successfully. The above-mentioned "lessons learnt" can help to set up and implement outsourcing properly.
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