Outsourcing Done Right: How to Choose a Cold-Calling Agency
Nobody likes to pick up the phone. That’s even truer when the chance of rejection is high and other priorities take precedence.
And yet, cold-calling remains a crucial marketing technique, especially where more and more companies are transitioning into work-from-home (WFH) environments. According to one study, 57% of C-level executives prefer when salespeople call them as a first contact. On average, 18% of cold calls result in quality leads.
So how do you effectively make this transition and keep business moving? Outsourcing is one option – if you find the right partner.
In this article, we’ll dive into the benefits of outsourcing your cold-calling efforts and then provide some tips that can help you find the right cold-calling agency able to help you reach your business and sales goals.
5 Reasons to Outsource Your Cold-Calling Efforts
First, let’s examine why outsourcing is a viable option. Five reasons stand out that can help you make the case for an external cold-calling partner:
- Limited resources. Especially small and medium-sized businesses might just not have the personnel or budget required for a comprehensive cold-calling strategy.
- Resource prioritization. Even if the resources are technically available, they might be better used in other parts of sales. For instance, you might want your sales team to focus on closing deals instead of prospecting cold calls.
- Lack of expertise. If your business is just starting out, it’s difficult to jump right into cold-calling. That’s because it requires a significant amount of skill, training, and experience, which your sales team might not yet have.
- High turnover. Turnover rates for sales agents charged with cold-calling tend to be high – between 30 and 45 percent, in fact. That turnover does not have to concern you if the agents in question are not on your payroll.
- Lower operating costs. Partnering with an agency means you pay a comparatively low rate, typically by the hour or month. You don’t have to worry about high overheads in administrative, space, or personnel budgets.
How to Start Your Outsourced Partner Search: Define Your Goals
Before you even begin to perform research on potential agencies offering services in this area, you need to know exactly what you’re looking for. That means defining your business and sales goals.
Are you most focused on increasing the top of your sales funnel through more leads? Are you hoping to improve your pipeline, or are customer conversions at the top of your needs list? Limit yourself to one overarching goal to narrow your search.
As in any other part of sales, your goals need to be SMART. That means getting specific, knowing exactly what to measure, making sure they are attainable and relevant, and attaching a specific timeline. That ensures any agency you find can actually help to achieve your goals.
5 Reasons to Outsource Your Cold-Calling Efforts
When it comes to outsourcing of any kind, finding the right partner is important. In cold-calling, which requires both expertise and patience as well as industry knowledge, that connection is indispensable.
8 Things to Look for in a Cold-Calling Agency
With your goals set, you can limit your selection set of potential agencies significantly. Now, it’s time to find the one perfect fit, the agency that will be a partner rather than just a vendor. Evaluate every agency using these 8 criteria to maximize your chances of selection success.
- Look for proven results. It’s easy to talk about expertise. It’s much more difficult to show that expertise or experience in your industry. Look for specific indicators that this agency has worked and had success with clients like yours before through evidence like references and case studies.
- Go for the learners. The right cold-calling agency has to be willing to learn your product and company. It’s much easier for them to sell your product or services if they truly understand it. Find a partner that has a good initial understanding of your business but is also willing to learn more and dive deeper.
- Stay away from agencies who buy lists. List buying is among the lowest-converting strategies in sales across industries. It results in poor-quality leads, often with incorrect contact information. Even if you do get a meeting, that tends to be low-quality as well. Agencies who tout their list buying should not be on your radar.
- Adjustments are crucial. As you talk to potential agencies, ask questions aimed at learning what they will do when a campaign fails. Not every cold-calling effort can be successful, and the right partner has to be nimble by being able to make changes and adjustments when necessary.
- Look for tool-specific expertise. Some agencies just use technology. Others make that technology work for them and their goals. Find an agency that can explain exactly what tools it uses in cold-calling, and how those tools can benefit both its own efforts and your sales goals.
- Independence in research. Even if the agency is not buying lists, is the agency just taking your list and running with it, or are they willing to find their own leads to call? In almost every case, the second is the better option. It ensures a more consistent pipeline, especially when that research results in quality leads.
- Flexibility can be key to success. In sales, as in any other piece of the business, you have to be nimble. That means not just making changes when something isn’t working, but being able to address new goals or sell new products on the fly. Ask about specific examples in which the agency you’re considering has shown that type of flexibility.
- A successful sales stack. In an ideal world, you don’t have to teach your calling agency your sales stack or strategies. They come in prepared with a sales stack that works for them. That allows them to consistently turn over well-researched, qualified leads that are ready for the final customer conversion.
Consider DemandZEN as Your Outsourced Cold-Calling Partner.
When it comes to outsourcing of any kind, finding the right partner is important. In cold-calling, which requires both expertise and patience as well as industry knowledge, that connection is indispensable.
That’s where we come in. DemandZEN has made a name for itself as an expert on sales enablement and MarTech tools. We never buy lists, but do our own research to find the right prospects. Years of technology expertise have kept us flexible in solving clients’ needs across a variety of goals. Could we be the right partner for you? Let’s connect and find out.
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