If your business requires generating leads in order to create sales and revenue, then outsourcing to a professional call center may be an effective solution. Although your sales team may be top notch quality and are perfectly capable of cold calling and generating leads, it may not be the most efficient use of human resources. Outsourcing cold calls and lead generation can increase efficiency and save money. It can also save you time on hiring individual telemarketers.
Increased Efficiency
Like most business owners, you are probably always looking for ways to increase efficiency. This may include administrative tasks, marketing, and a variety of other aspects. However, your sales process is one of the most important elements. If your sales process includes a large volume of cold calling to generate sales leads, then outsourcing to a call center service provider may be beneficial. Professional call centers use the most advanced sales technology. They may also already have a cold calling list in your target market.
Reducing Expenses
Another way to increase your bottom line is by reducing expenses related to running your business. This will also include expenses related to your sales process. Although it may make sense for some businesses to purchase equipment in order to have their own on-site call center, most businesses have so many other aspects to manage that this is not a viable option. Outsourcing to a call center provider can save you on overhead for the space required to operate your own call center. It will also save you money from buying your own call center equipment, which may include bulk phone line installation, desks, cubicles, computers, and head sets.
Save Time and Resources
Outsourcing lead generation may also save you time on hiring individual telemarketers. It may take awhile to find the right people to fill your telemarketing and cold calling needs. If you put out an advertisement for telemarketers you will probably receive a large amount of responses. This may be especially true in times of high unemployment when there are many people currently searching for jobs. This means many hours of sifting through resumes and then many more hours of conducting interviews. This can be quite time-consuming for businesses requiring a large call volume.
Additionally, the individuals you choose may end up not working out due to incompetence, personality conflicts, or other complications. This means you would have wasted time training the individual only to have to find a replacement. The telemarketing and lead generation fields traditionally have high turnover rates. Outsourcing to a professional call center can allow you to avoid all the headache associated with hiring your own telemarketers. This way your top-level executives and managers can concentrate on more important aspects of your business.
Results-Based Costs
Many business owners prefer to outsource to a call center service provider because they have the option of paying only for produced results. This may be better than paying an hourly wage for a telemarketer, who may or may not be able to generate any actual leads. By opting to pay for only produced results, the contact center provider will be the one who incurs the cost of a telemarketer’s hourly wage. Therefore, it becomes the call center's responsibility to properly train their employees in order to be effective lead generators for your product or service. In this type of payment scheme, you are relieved of the risk associated with hiring your own lead generating team.
Maintaining Control
Despite the potential to greatly increase revenue and eliminate expenses, many business owners shy away from outsourcing because they fear they will not have enough control over how the products or services are being represented. Before making a final decision on which contact center service to hire, you should thoroughly research all options. Most good call center businesses will make it easy for their clients to monitor reports and make suggestions on how telemarketers are generating leads. This should include input on the content of the telemarketing script, as well as, the target demographic of the cold calling lists.
Showing posts with label lead generation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lead generation. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Difference Between Lead Generation and Sales
Lead generation and sales go hand-in-hand in most sales-based businesses. Many times these two functions are performed by the same sales person or sales team. Other times, lead generation and sales are delegated as two separate tasks. How you structure your company's sales process may be different, depending upon the specifics of your product or service.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is identifying qualified sales leads, which are potential customers for your company's product or services. Some of the most effective methods include face-to-face interactions with the potential target market. These types of interactions build the best rapport with potential customers. However, it may be time consuming and expensive to hire somebody to man a trade show table for several hours hoping that people will complete a form or a survey. Some alternative methods include, web-based and telephone-based methods.
Define Your Target Audience
Your company generates leads by first identifying your target audience. This can be based upon various factors, such as age, gender, career, special interests, or income-level. These defining characteristics of your target demographic depends upon what type of service or product your company offers. Conducting proper market research before generating leads will allow you to choose the best target demographic and the most effective sales process.
Web-Based Lead Generation
There are many ways to generate leads using the Internet. One common method utilizes a website offering information related to your company's product or service. The website guides the customer to fill out an online form or quote request with his or her contact information. The form is then sent via email to your sales team or call center service provider. There are many marketing agencies that specialize in this type of lead generation.
Inbound
When potential customers call into your office or a call center service provider to obtain more information about your company's product or service you should be well prepared to capitalize on this potential lead. Many times an automatic dialer had already called the potential customer and delivered a pre-recorded message, which offered some quick information regarding the service or product. The message will generally give the potential lead the option of obtaining more information by pressing a specified digit on his or her telephone. This automatically forwards the potential lead to a live operator at a contact service provider.
Outbound
Outbound lead generation is a more aggressive form of generating leads. Instead of waiting for the potential lead or customer to fill out a form or respond to an automated message, outbound lead generators initiate the first call to the potential lead. Generally, outbound lead generators work off a list of prospects, which fit your company's target audience. This list may be purchased from a marketing agency. You may also decide to build the list yourself through your own means.
When Does Lead Generation Become Sales Calls?
Although lead generation and sales are generally interconnected business activities, at a certain point a lead generating call can be considered more of a sales call. The difference lies in the purpose of the call. A lead generating call's main purpose is to collect contact information and verify interest in your company's product or service. A sales call is when the caller attempts to convince the potential customer to contract your company's services or buy your product. Many times lead generation and sales occur within the same telephone call. However, it may be more efficient for some companies to separate the two functions into separate actions.
Whether you are looking to generate leads or close sales, you may wish to consider outsourcing to a contact service provider. This option could save you money if you have a large volume of telephone calls to make as a part of your sales process.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is identifying qualified sales leads, which are potential customers for your company's product or services. Some of the most effective methods include face-to-face interactions with the potential target market. These types of interactions build the best rapport with potential customers. However, it may be time consuming and expensive to hire somebody to man a trade show table for several hours hoping that people will complete a form or a survey. Some alternative methods include, web-based and telephone-based methods.
Define Your Target Audience
Your company generates leads by first identifying your target audience. This can be based upon various factors, such as age, gender, career, special interests, or income-level. These defining characteristics of your target demographic depends upon what type of service or product your company offers. Conducting proper market research before generating leads will allow you to choose the best target demographic and the most effective sales process.
Web-Based Lead Generation
There are many ways to generate leads using the Internet. One common method utilizes a website offering information related to your company's product or service. The website guides the customer to fill out an online form or quote request with his or her contact information. The form is then sent via email to your sales team or call center service provider. There are many marketing agencies that specialize in this type of lead generation.
Inbound
When potential customers call into your office or a call center service provider to obtain more information about your company's product or service you should be well prepared to capitalize on this potential lead. Many times an automatic dialer had already called the potential customer and delivered a pre-recorded message, which offered some quick information regarding the service or product. The message will generally give the potential lead the option of obtaining more information by pressing a specified digit on his or her telephone. This automatically forwards the potential lead to a live operator at a contact service provider.
Outbound
Outbound lead generation is a more aggressive form of generating leads. Instead of waiting for the potential lead or customer to fill out a form or respond to an automated message, outbound lead generators initiate the first call to the potential lead. Generally, outbound lead generators work off a list of prospects, which fit your company's target audience. This list may be purchased from a marketing agency. You may also decide to build the list yourself through your own means.
When Does Lead Generation Become Sales Calls?
Although lead generation and sales are generally interconnected business activities, at a certain point a lead generating call can be considered more of a sales call. The difference lies in the purpose of the call. A lead generating call's main purpose is to collect contact information and verify interest in your company's product or service. A sales call is when the caller attempts to convince the potential customer to contract your company's services or buy your product. Many times lead generation and sales occur within the same telephone call. However, it may be more efficient for some companies to separate the two functions into separate actions.
Whether you are looking to generate leads or close sales, you may wish to consider outsourcing to a contact service provider. This option could save you money if you have a large volume of telephone calls to make as a part of your sales process.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
What Types of Businesses Use Lead Generation Services?
Almost any type of business can utilize some form of lead generation. Whether hiring a contact center service provider for lead generation services is a viable option depends upon the type of business. If your business requires a large volume of sales calling, then hiring a lead generation service may be your best option.
Insurance Agencies
Insurance agencies generally have a wide target audience, which may include people from a variety of ages to various locales across the nation. With this much ground to cover, insurance agencies require a large volume of lead generation and sales calls. This makes insurance agencies a prime candidate for hiring a call center services provider to make the initial lead generation calls to potential clients. This allows insurance agents to concentrate mostly on closing sales, rather than sifting through huge lists of cold calls.
Educational Institutions
With the rise of private colleges, online universities, and specialized trade schools, comes the need to recruit new student enrollments. These types of schools do not receive government funding like traditional educational institutions. Therefore, they have to use more aggressive marketing and sales techniques to find enrollments. Brick-and-mortar private colleges and trade schools may want to focus on a localized target market. However, online universities have a much wider target market, which may include potential students from all over the nation. Both brick-and-mortar and online private universities may be able to use contact center solutions to generate leads.
Marketing and Advertising Industry
Companies involved in the marketing and advertising industry may also wish to consider contact center solutions to generate leads for new clients or sell more advertising. Generally these companies will concentrate on a list of small and mid-sized businesses. It may be difficult to contact the decision maker of a business, due to receptionists and secretaries screening phone calls. Many times it will be necessary to call a business on multiple occasions before actually being able to identify the business's decision maker. Marketing and advertising companies may save their sales team valuable time by hiring a professional to generate leads.
Real Estate Agents
Real estate professionals and agents have to generate two different kinds of leads: sellers and buyers of real estate. However, much of their time is allocated to preparing paperwork for existing clients and a variety of other administrative tasks. They also spend a significant amount of time showing houses to potential buyers at open house events. As a result, their time is limited for cold calling and producing new leads. Many real estate agents outsource cold calling and lead generation to professional s in order to save time. Real estate agents generally pay a fee for each lead generated or they may pay a flat rate for the number of calls made by the .
Mortgage Industry
The mortgage and loan industry operates similarly to real estate agents. Their sales process also involves calling upon the consumer sector in order to generate leads for people interested in obtaining a loan. Loan officers are also looking for homeowners who may want to refinance their existing mortgage. Although it is common for loan officers to make their own cold calls, some prefer to outsource to a service provider to generate leads. One common method which loan officers use is having the representatives live transfer warm leads directly to the loan officer. In this way, the loan officer is able to speak to the potential customer while he or she is still thinking about obtaining a mortgage or refinancing a home loan. Other times the will simply record the generated lead's contact information in order for the loan officer to follow up at a later time.
The most common reason a business may use a service provider for generating leads is to save time on cold calling. On the other hand, using a may not properly suit every type of business. Some businesses have more intricate sales processes and more complicated products or services. However, most businesses which involve searching for leads and closing sales may be able to find a use for outsourcing to services.
Insurance Agencies
Insurance agencies generally have a wide target audience, which may include people from a variety of ages to various locales across the nation. With this much ground to cover, insurance agencies require a large volume of lead generation and sales calls. This makes insurance agencies a prime candidate for hiring a call center services provider to make the initial lead generation calls to potential clients. This allows insurance agents to concentrate mostly on closing sales, rather than sifting through huge lists of cold calls.
Educational Institutions
With the rise of private colleges, online universities, and specialized trade schools, comes the need to recruit new student enrollments. These types of schools do not receive government funding like traditional educational institutions. Therefore, they have to use more aggressive marketing and sales techniques to find enrollments. Brick-and-mortar private colleges and trade schools may want to focus on a localized target market. However, online universities have a much wider target market, which may include potential students from all over the nation. Both brick-and-mortar and online private universities may be able to use contact center solutions to generate leads.
Marketing and Advertising Industry
Companies involved in the marketing and advertising industry may also wish to consider contact center solutions to generate leads for new clients or sell more advertising. Generally these companies will concentrate on a list of small and mid-sized businesses. It may be difficult to contact the decision maker of a business, due to receptionists and secretaries screening phone calls. Many times it will be necessary to call a business on multiple occasions before actually being able to identify the business's decision maker. Marketing and advertising companies may save their sales team valuable time by hiring a professional to generate leads.
Real Estate Agents
Real estate professionals and agents have to generate two different kinds of leads: sellers and buyers of real estate. However, much of their time is allocated to preparing paperwork for existing clients and a variety of other administrative tasks. They also spend a significant amount of time showing houses to potential buyers at open house events. As a result, their time is limited for cold calling and producing new leads. Many real estate agents outsource cold calling and lead generation to professional s in order to save time. Real estate agents generally pay a fee for each lead generated or they may pay a flat rate for the number of calls made by the .
Mortgage Industry
The mortgage and loan industry operates similarly to real estate agents. Their sales process also involves calling upon the consumer sector in order to generate leads for people interested in obtaining a loan. Loan officers are also looking for homeowners who may want to refinance their existing mortgage. Although it is common for loan officers to make their own cold calls, some prefer to outsource to a service provider to generate leads. One common method which loan officers use is having the representatives live transfer warm leads directly to the loan officer. In this way, the loan officer is able to speak to the potential customer while he or she is still thinking about obtaining a mortgage or refinancing a home loan. Other times the will simply record the generated lead's contact information in order for the loan officer to follow up at a later time.
The most common reason a business may use a service provider for generating leads is to save time on cold calling. On the other hand, using a may not properly suit every type of business. Some businesses have more intricate sales processes and more complicated products or services. However, most businesses which involve searching for leads and closing sales may be able to find a use for outsourcing to services.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)