Executive Summary:
- Outsourced Lead Generation has a more efficient price point than using in-house SDR’s
- Outsourcing expands outreach, supports pipeline, offers performance comparison, and focuses specialization
- It’s always good to A/B test Lead Generation Companies
- For our full analysis of why Outsourcing Lead Generation May Be The Smartest Decision, click HERE
Lead Generation; for most B2B companies, it’s everything.
There are very few companies possessing such successful brand name recognition that finding and pursuing leads isn’t a necessary component of sales. Most pipelines will dry up quickly if left unattended, and so constant Lead Generation comes with the infrastructure of practically every B2B company.
All companies deploy some type of lead generation, including yours, and it comes in various forms.
Sometimes paid advertisements like google ad words or the use of social media can help boost your pipeline flow. Other times inhouse SDR teams can get the job done. A referral system with benefits for your current clientele has distinct advantages and then Outsourced Lead Generation entirely rounds out the various avenues that you can take for your Lead Development.
All of these modes are successful to varying degrees, depending on your company's product and the industry you’re tailored to service, but the benefits of Outsourced Lead Generation is perhaps the most discussed of the three.
To outsource or not to outsource, that is the question.
But there is another valuable and often neglected pivot when considering if an Outsourced Lead Generation is right for you; it’s whether you should, in fact, hire MORE than one.
Is Outsourced Lead Generation A Good Idea?
Before we can discuss whether utilizing multiple Lead Generation companies at the same time is the right decision, we must address whether or not outsourcing your Lead Generation to an outside vendor is a good idea at all.
Many companies wrestle with this, questioning whether outsourcing is the best way to boost potential leads.
Can you trust an outside vendor to represent your company name? Are they properly invested in the future success of your business? And you have far less supervision over processes when development is not kept in-house. Valid concerns, but the benefits can, and for many do, outweigh the risks.
Hired Lead Development teams perform Lead Generation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year, across every facet of business and industry. Even when systems are automated, using powerful AI to enhance efficiency, outreach never stops. It's just what they do. Consequently, outsourced teams gain tremendous experience in B2B meeting setting, especially when compared to most in-house SDRs.
Sales Development Representatives
A collaborative group of Sales and Marketing executives, known as the Revenue Collective, surveyed and gathered 2019 data from hundreds of leaders overseeing 3,112 SDRs. They yielded new insights into Company Structure, Outbound Performance, and Outreach Channels, but the information they revealed on SDR’s was quite telling.
The majority of in-house SDR teams aren't hitting quota; In fact, 83% of them.
Most SDR’s never achieve sales quota, and new hires often take much longer to ramp up than needed. A company's sales ramp up time refers to the amount of time it takes a new SDR to become fully productive from the time they are first hired.
The data from the Revenue Collective shows that 83% of companies expect their SDRs to ramp to full quota achievement within 3 months, yet only 47% of top-performing SDRs meet that goal. In many cases, companies found it could take even longer for a new SDR to hit quota.
An outsourced lead generation's SDR teams ramp time is immediate, and they get in the trenches of Lead Development for your company right away. Time is the only irreplaceable commodity that exists, and outsourcing saves on time, especially at the beginning of your outreach process.
Dual Responsibilities of SDRs
Some companies have SDR’s report to members of the sales team, or smash them in as members of the teams entirely. This forces SDR’s to split time between Lead Generation AND holding meetings/making sales.
Outsourcing teams don’t have such dual responsibilities, and so their accumulated bandwidth and experience is much greater than most in-house teams. They have both the tenure and the time to be effective.
Cost of Outsource Lead Generation
While various types of contracts and deals exist, such as Pay-Per-Meeting and Pay-Per-Performance, most outsource companies operate on a monthly basis.
This allows your company to opt out of deals relatively easy if funding gets tight, or if hired performance is unsatisfactory. Easy separation just isn't the case with a salaried employee, and with how expensive in-house SDR’s often are, flexibility is paramount.
It’s significantly cheaper to outsource lead generation than to push pipeline leads in house. The average cost of employing a SINGLE SDR in-house costs upwards of $100k, over the course of a year.
An entire outsourced team focused on just lead generation costs on average $4500/mo. On a yearly basis, that's only $54k for a fully dedicated team at half the cost of ONE in-house SDR.
By most company pocketbooks, that's a compelling enough reason to outsource right there. It should be for you.
In-house AND Outsource Lead Generation
Contrary to what might be assumed by most, in-house and outsourcing practices aren’t always at odds with one another. Companies that primarily source leads in-house often supplement with outsourcing. There are four main reasons for doing so.
- Expand Outreach: In-house teams can only do so much work, especially if they double as Sales team members, and boosting their efforts with professional Lead Developers helps them reach further and faster than before.
- Support Channels: Certain lead channels can be challenging to navigate for some in house SDRs. Cold Calling is reported to cause angst in many, and having outreach emails avoid going into Spam is practically an art. Boosting inhouse weaknesses with stronger, more experienced developers can boost those channel limiters.
- Performance Comparison: Many companies want to challenge their in-house SDR teams, measuring productivity against outsourced teams, either to replace them entirely or to help train them and see where their shortfalls are.
- Teams are Specialized: Similar to Support Channels, some in-house SDR teams have specific specializations, like Cold Calling only, or working within only certain industry demographics like the C-suite. Having an all-encompassing team that operates across all Lead Generation domains can help round out the success of lead operations.
Should You Hire More Than One Outsource Lead Generation Company?
Competition. Capitalism. Choice. Whatever you want to call it, it’s the driver of the economy and business. Having options is never a bad thing, and it’s essentially a staple of your purchasing being able to determine which companies can provide you the best quality product or service.
If you have the budget to compare lead generation companies, it’s always good to A/B test them.
A/B Testing with Outsource Lead Generation
In Lead Generation jargon, A/B Testing is an optimization process of using two or more variations of copy and comparing the results to identify which one creates the more desired results. An example of A/B testing would be to have two of the exact same emails sent to a list that’s been split into two smaller lists, but with different subject lines for either one. This A/B test would help you identify which of the subject lines resonates better with your audience. The results would be compared by seeing which subject line had better open rates.
Utilizing this same principle notion of A/B testing, comparing the results of two lead generation companies and their meeting data helps determine which company is a better fit for you.
Channel Comparison of Outsourced Lead Generation
Some companies have stronger channels of outreach, performing more efficiently than competitor vendors in certain areas of Lead Generation.
One Lead Development company might be better at cold calling systems, while another could excel at email outreach, domain protection, and spam avoidance.
Different companies might get more meetings set through certain channels, and just as individual companies find success in specific channels, different industries gravitate toward preferred channels.
All of these A/B testing data metrics provide you insight: How many meetings are set, reply and open rates qualified leads found, and at what financial cost did it take to receive those results. A/B testing helps you narrow down which companies you want to work with.
SalesHive and our Outsourced Lead Generation
For many companies, outsourcing is the right choice, and if the budget allows, hiring more than one offers immense potential benefits.
Not all companies perform every mode of outreach or even have the ability to get into all channels of Lead Development. More channels, mean more pipeline flow, and why wouldn’t you want that?
Here at SalesHive, we excel at accessing an all-encompassing spectrum of Lead Generation.
Email, LinkedIn, and Cold Calling are all channels well within our purview, and the results of our set meeting numbers for clients speak volumes.
We’re willing to be A/B tested against any other lead generation company or in-house team. Against your expectations, other Lead Developers, or even your in-house teams, SalesHive can and will boost your pipeline.
