Should you outsource your lead generation strategies?
Outsourcing is a well-known practice across industries. Businesses have been applying the outsourcing strategy to their various business functions. It’s a great way to delegate tasks to allow you to focus on the core departments of your business.
As a quick refresher, lead generation is the process of acquiring data of your consumers via landing pages, surveys, newsletters, and email subscriptions. It can also mean doing outbound calls for validation of your initial leads.
The role of your lead generation team
One of the primary roles of your lead generation team is to gather leads and qualify them. Validation of leads can come in the form of phone calls and emails.
Another responsibility of lead generation specialists is to keep these leads warm and engaged enough to close a sale. They usually don’t handle the sales phase of the campaign, so they don’t need to worry about that.
Things to consider when outsourcing your lead generation tasks
Before diving into outsourcing your lead generation tasks, there are some points to keep in mind. Understanding these will help you maximize your resources and keep track of your goal. The last thing we want is to waste effort and time on a crucial business decision.
Company growth
With outsourcing, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your business into another territory, geographically speaking. Since now you have access to the local industry, you can get away in. Should you keep doing business with an outsourcing company, you can expand the company via the labor force.
Direct communication
Some people argue that direct communication rarely happens when partnering up with an outsourcing firm. That only leaves the conclusion that they may not be good at communicating in the first place but we digress.
Direct communication is very important when it comes to the workplace. Not just in doing business but in general too. If you’re having communication problems with your partner agency, it’s best to settle the problem as soon as possible.
Reasons why you should outsource
If you’re still not sold on the prospect of outsourcing, let us relay some reasons why you should have a run with it.
Keep in mind that these reasons are more on the generic side. We know that outsourcing can have different effects on different companies and businesses, as well as different advantages and disadvantages.
Cost-effectivity
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, businesses turn to outsourcing because they need to cut costs down. With this practice, they can cut down on expenses but still deliver quality services and products to their customers.
Flexibility
Flexibility is another option when it comes to outsourcing. Be it being more flexible with your scalability plans or being more flexible in terms of workload, those are both great things. Being more flexible with your workload means that you can focus more on core tasks.
Access to a vibrant talent pool
Most, if not all, outsourcing firms have a very diverse talent pool. If your business needs a specialist in a particular area, best believe that they have a person for you. Not to mention that most firms train their employees and new hires, you don’t need to worry about the general onboarding anymore.
The difference between outsourcing and in-house hiring
One of the most obvious differences between outsourcing and in-house hiring is the setup. With outsourced agents, the most interactions you would have are through emails and video calls.
On the other hand, in-house hiring is a more direct approach. It’s a traditional way to expand your team, albeit it’s a bit more expensive option.
Nevertheless, another difference they have is that with in-house hiring, you’d have 100% control over your team. With this, there will be no middlemen involved – it’s just your employees reporting directly to you or your management team.
When partnering with outsourcing firms, you have to give up about 20% of your leadership prowess to team managers, supervisors, and an external HR department—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
That being said, when choosing an outsourcing partner, make sure that they operate on the same spectrum as your business. If you value a job well done and wellness, find a company that values wellness among its employees too. Your BPO partner will play a significant role in your outsourcing journey moving forward, so it’s best to choose an outsourcing firm like iContact BPO, a BPO company that prides itself in having a workforce that thrives in work-life balance.
iContact is a company that spans two different continents: North America and Africa. The company offers top-quality services such as lead generation, inbound and outbound customer service, data capturing, and more. Headquartered in South Africa, they are currently seeing growth in the Business Process Service (BPS) industry three times more than India and The Philippines.
Take the leap with iContact BPO today.