In-House Lead Generation As Opposed to Outsourced Campaigns

Lead generation has become the buzzword in today's business both for online and offline markets. Companies find it cheaper, easier and faster to get potential customers. They do not have to make a door-to-door interaction just to make an initial contact with the prospects. All they need is the correct business contact information, like email ad and phone number, to introduce their solutions and talk with the decision-makers. Prospecting through the phone is one of the many forms to generate qualified sales leads. It maximizes the efficiency and speed of the telephone in creating interest, lead qualification, and setting up business appointments.

Business organizations wanting to operate cold-calling campaigns can choose between an in-house call center or hiring a telemarketing firm. These two solutions have their own roster of features, advantages, benefits and even risks. No one can automatically decide which is better than the other. On-site operations could not win in weigh-in just because the management has the absolute control of the entire program. In the same way that outsourced services cannot salvage the victory solely on the basis of cost-savings. Professional judgment and informed decision can be realized if we compare and contrast the two.

• Price tag. If you can do the math, seeking outside support knocks down in-house undertaking in spending lower expenses. Disbursements for insourcing activities include employee's salaries and employee benefits, facility, IT and telephone infrastructures, telecom charges, general selling and administrative, and other fixed and variable overhead expenses. Nothing of that sort is paid if one chooses to ask for professional assistance. The costs of service are equal to the packaged price plus sales commissions and deductions for discounts. Hiring offshore companies, specifically in the Philippines and India, can even cut more costs due to cheap labor and tax exemptions.

• Expertise. In-house can score a point against outsourcing if the company is already a veteran in telesales. However, those that are just starting out or have experienced difficulty in making cold calls will expect a steep hill to climb. Convincing prospects to make a dialogue through unsolicited phone calls is such a daunting task. Only experienced, expert callers can accomplish the job properly. And this is what most on-site campaigns lack, truly an Achilles heel. In stark contrast, telemarketing call centers have been training a team of industry-specialized calling agents, data miners and researchers, account managers, team leaders and appointment setters.

• Technology. With cost savings always in the minds of company owners, it would be natural if they hesitate to invest largely on technology. Knowing how applications greatly affect performance and productivity, outbound call centers continually acquire specialized application and telecommunications equipment to meet growing demands. Not to mention their ceaseless effort to upgrade their existing materials. They even have a CRM tool to monitor, regulate and supervise their client's campaigns.

• Personnel. Having a pool of expert callers does not happen overnight. It takes a lot of time recruiting, interviewing, training and developing professional telemarketers. The worst a company can encounter is hiring incompetent callers after months of screening processes. Another thing is that, in-house calling team is also tasked to do other jobs, which leads to slower follow-ups of prospects and few cold calls. In an outsourced setting, this is not the case though. Every personnel is appointed for a particular job description and industry, making each team member a specialist of his/her field.

The winner in b2c or b2b lead generation depends on the competencies of an on-site and outsourced contact centers. But, if you want to attain cost-efficient, reliable services and focus more on what you do best, it is recommended to contract a BPO partner.