Before You Outsource B2B Telemarketing or Telesales....

The list of companies operating in the B2B telemarketing and telesales space is growing, there’s a sm?rg?sbord of choices without a lot of guidance. Some people draw on past experience, which sometimes was not a great experience so there is also a ton of caution to avoid a bad choice.

I‘ve spoken with hundreds of companies looking to outsource over the years and they all have one thing in common, they ask the same questions:

How do I pick a vendor to work with? What should I look for?

I will always ask if everyone is trying to sell them a program, and the resounding answer is YES! That’s the first red flag. A vendor relationship like this is a partnership, so you have to first establish:

• Does the experience this vendor has map to my sales objectives?
• Does their approach align with what our buyers expect?
• How business fluent is the team?
• Do they understand a complex sales cycle and what is important to discover?
• What is their on-boarding process? Does it demonstrate a solid expertise in sales and communication or are they planning to "read a script?"
• Is the complexity of our prospects’ environment understood?
• How do they describe their deliverable? Is it about hours and dials or is it about pipeline and results?
• How do they hire their team?
• What is their QA model?
• What is their average tenure with clients?
• Do they demonstrate critical thinking?
• What is the deal size they are able to work with?
• Is their reporting useful? (reporting of dials and hours doesn’t provide insight into pipeline.)

From the vendor standpoint, they have to first understand:

• Is this company in alignment with our model?
• Can they execute on our work?
• Are they willing to do the work to make the program successful with regular calls, establish a channel for a results loop?
• Will we have visibility of what happens with our work?
• How do they manage the lifecycle of information like what we provide?
• How many reps do they have?
• What is their sales and marketing tech stack and how can we add value to that? How will our work be included?
• How invested in this program is their management?
• Where are they in the adoption cycle in their market? Are they a mainstream company or is this something they are introducing to the market? Is there an appetite for this solution?
• Do they know who their buyer is?
• Are they able to explain what they do with precision?

It really isn’t about buying or selling a program, it’s about aligning objectives and making sure there is potential for a long-term partnership that actually builds revenue and is rich with deliverables. Programs can be sold all day long, but if it isn’t a good fit, no one is happy and it just adds another brick on the stack of excuses why outsourcing didn’t work when really it was just a bad match.

For a true outsourced program to work, it has to be something that is multi-faceted in results. The questions outlined above for both parties to consider will help to create a framework of success on both sides.

Budget is a consideration, but a low budget that delivers nothing less than a train wreck costs even more in brand and relationship damage. Considering value and results, the willingness of each party to ensure success, those are the elements that make the investment produce.

I’m glad to answer your questions or share any resources! Happy Q1!

Mari Anne is CEO of The Vanella Group, Inc., a sales development firm working exclusively with enterprise tech firms. She is also an award-winning author of the Best Seller "42 Rules of Cold Calling Executives." She developed a proprietary Telesales 2.0? formula which produces 5x above the DMA industry standard for tele-based lead generation.

The Vanella Group, Inc. is featured on many industry channels such as the C-Suite Network, The Sales Lead Management Association, and many others.