If you lead a B2B or medtech sales or marketing department, you know it’s a constant challenge to keep your lead pipeline full. Your sales team would rather close a sale than make a cold call (who wouldn’t?).
Your marketing team needs current, accurate contact information and market insights to generate leads effectively.
How do you know when to call in a specialist to deliver consistent, reliable leads? Here are five clear symptoms that it’s time to use an outsourcing firm for your inside sales functions.
At Volkart May, we staff, manage and train inside sales representatives. We work with leading medtech and B2B brands to quickly and efficiently generate high-quality leads with hard-to-reach decision-makers. Contact us today to see how we can help you with outsourced inside sales.
Symptom #1: Cold calls are getting the cold shoulder
Let’s face it. Most sales reps would rather close sales than hunt for leads to fill the sales funnel. When it becomes a chore to motivate your sales team to make cold calls or nurture cooler leads, it may be time to enlist help.
Sales professionals thrive when provided warm leads and qualified revenue opportunities. They can use their skills to build consensus and secure a close.
When you outsource your cold calling to an expert outbound call center, your sales team can relax, knowing their lead pipeline is full. They can excel at closing well and building relationships and loyalty with new and existing customers.
Symptom #2: Infrastructure and staffing costs are breaking your budget
Companies who employ internal outbound calling staff face two hurdles:
- Hiring, training, and retaining effective Business Development Representatives: It’s tough to engage and motivate call center staff. Call centerturnover rates can be some of the highest in the industry at up to 49%.
- Expensive infrastructure: Purchasing call center equipment, maintaining office space, and hiring and paying management salaries drain company budgets with these costly, fixed expenses.
Outsourcing inside sales efforts with a reputable firm means that you can invest your budget where it will make the most impact.
Your insides sales specialist team will recommend a strategy that best fits your business model. You can use them to generate new leads, qualify and nurture existing leads, set appointments and gather data from your target audience with greater efficiency and reliability.
These services enable your sales team to focus on sales strategies and selling, and your marketing team to create stronger supporting campaigns.
Symptom #3: Failure to nimbly scale outbound calls
Seasonal business fluctuations may mean that your internal call center whip-saws from periods of extreme pressure to periods of “dead” time.
When you have a time-sensitive opportunity and need to reach your target audience quickly, your internal call center may struggle to scale up efficiently. During “down-time” intervals, you may have too many staff for the calls you need to make, resulting in wasted time and expenses.
Outsourcing your inside sales process means that you make precisely the calls you need, no matter the patterns of your industry sales cycles. You gain flexibility and peace-of-mind.
Symptom #4: Training and retaining call center staff is too challenging
Outbound calling for lead qualification, appointment setting, surveys, and other services is a skill. Conversational sales and engagement skills require practice, oversight, support and incentives to deliver results.
Studies show that call center staff need task variety, a pleasant workspace, encouragement, and regular incentives (besides salary raises) to remain engaged in the work of outbound calling.
If your company is experiencing high call center turnover, it may be time to hire a specialist for your inside sales.
Symptom #5: Lack of high quality leads
If your lead generation activities don’t keep the sales pipeline full, it spells trouble. With in-house teams, it can be difficult to predict lead volumes, and even harder to manage and incent these callers.
Sales and marketing may squabble over what constitutes a “qualified” lead. There are many potential causes, but sometimes it’s difficult to diagnose the problem when you’re too deep in the weeds.
Outsourcing your inside sales can provide clarity for your company’s outbound calling blind spots and deliver reliable and consistent warm leads your internal team can close.
How to choose an outbound call specialist
As you consider an outsourced sales team, look for a contact center with these components:
- Industry and B2B experience.There is a big difference between B2B and B2C outbound calling. For example, engaging hospitals and healthcare decision-makers about a clinical device requires a higher level of expertise and experience than calling households to switch their internet provider. Look for a call center with deep experience in your industry.
- Lead generation know-how. Making cold calls—and converting them to qualified leads—takes skill and precision. It’s a far different type of call than customer service, collections, research or telemarketing. You’ll maximize your investment when you use an outsourcing partner to a contact center that specializes in inside sales activities, such as generating leads, qualifying leads, inquiries and setting appointments.
- Trained conversationalists.The most effective outbound calls occur with conversation, not script-reading. Look for callers who are positive, enthusiastic and comfortable connecting with multiple types of personalities. One of the best ways to ensure you’ve hired the right talent to represent you brand is to listen to recorded examples of callers. You’ll want to be sure their tone and confidence mirrors yours.
- Quality assurance. It should be just as easy to monitor the caliber and results of calls with an outsourced team as it is with an internal sales team. Make sure you have a day-to-day account manager or point of contact to call with any questions. Find out whose job it is to train and improve call quality; it should be a defined step in your call center’s services. The best way to monitor and improve your campaign is with digital call recordings. Listening to actual conversations gives marketing and sales confidence in your outsourced call center’s performance.
- Metrics. Expect to receive the same (or greater) level of oversight that you have with an in-house team. Ask your call center: What do you measure? Can you share benchmarks? You should expect upfront projections before your campaign starts, followed by weekly progress reports on everything from list usability to decision-makers reached to leads generated. If you have custom metrics, make sure can the calling firm can manage to them.
- Collaborative approach.The best outsourced callers act and feel like an extension of your company—not a separate entity. Your call center should work with you to gain knowledge of your brand, your products and services and your target market and audiences, to engage successfully with every call. Working collaboratively gets these details right at every touchpoint.
- Technology integration.In today’s fast-paced, tech-driven world, there’s no excuse for data you need to enter manually. Look for a contact center or inside sales firm that can deliver leads, appointments and insights electronically. Calling systems should interface seamlessly with your existing customer relationship management (CRM) and sales tracking systems, so you never miss a lead. Great technology integration also ensures there’s never a delay between contact with a potential customer and getting that hot lead out to your sales force.
Inside sales outsourcing with Volkart May
At Volkart May, we have a proven track record on all the above criteria with each medtech and B2B company we serve. Our outbound calling services ensure you will:
- Increase your leads and your sales
- Fill your sales pipeline quickly with reliable leads
- Make efficient and successful use of your field teams’ time and resources
- Support your inbound and other marketing strategies
- Scale nimbly to meet industry opportunities
- Eliminate the hassle and expense of hiring, training, and maintaining an in-house call center
Contact us today as outsourced sales partners to create effective inside sales solutions for your business.
