Pipeline: Can You Outsource the Problem?

Whether you should outsource your pipeline generation, or manage it in-house, has been widely debated across the Sales and Marketing industry for some years now, and one that has perhaps intensified as businesses strive for agility and efficiency, in light of economic headwinds.??

This is a topic that sits particularly close to my heart as I’ve sat on both sides of the fence. Whilst there is no one-size-fits-all approach to?pipeline generation?in 2023, there are certainly ways to ensure the process is as efficient as possible for your business, especially when it comes to cost, resource and scalability.?

I loved my time working as an outsourced sales resource, I was able to work with a variety of businesses, learn about a range of tools and their use cases, speak to and better understand the pains/challenges of a range of personas from a variety of industries and pick the brains of a number of different mentors within my client's businesses.

Pro’s of outsourcing:

• Cost-effective - avoid the costs associated with hiring, equipping and training a full-time sales team
• Time-efficient - shorter ramp time?
• Access to a larger pool of qualified sales professionals - with a variety of skills and experience
• You can focus on the things that have to be done in-house - time is an asset that you cannot buy.
• Lead generation companies do a lot more than you think* - lead generation agencies can offer other services such as content marketing, email marketing, SEO, social media, and others

*However, brands want personal and almost intimate. They want to know your story both as a business and the individuals that work for the business - It’s difficult to tell a story that isn’t yours and prospects will likely see through it. At the end of the day, people buy from people that they know like and trust.

Cons of outsourcing:

• The lead generation agency may have less knowledge about your business field - Therefore you may spend vast amounts of time coaching them.?
• Feedback/Testing and optimisation - The conversations you will be having with prospects are not only valuable because they may lead to a commercial conversation but also because you will be hearing directly from your ICP about there pains, challenges, reservations and objections. If you're pipeline generation is in-house this can be easily fed back to the org, whether it’s product info that will influence the roadmap or field sales insight that will better inform you of your buyer's behaviours, enabling you to optimise your approach & wider efforts in order to optimise your process and truly drive efficiency.
• Lack of control - Some of the conversations I’ve had with businesses about the red tape that they put on their own employees surrounding social media activity, I’m surprised businesses are more willing to outsource the process given the lack of control they will have.?
• The impact on your in-house workforce - There is one case in which, we began working with a client and had the intro/kick-off with the other team members, who were (let’s just say) not amused/enthused by the initiative… By the end of the contract, all but one of the team (that were on the kick-off call) had left the business. Now I’m sure there were likely other forces at play, but it is worth acknowledging that if you are thinking about bringing in an outsourced agency, because the in-house team aren’t performing (which I would imagine is the only reason you would), don’t be shocked when they are sat wondering why the budget hasn’t been spent enhancing their skills and empowering them to do their job better.?

As Alan Ruchtein , so eloquently points out, it used to be that buyers expected to talk to sales, and the agent expects to speak to uneducated early-stage customers that may not yet be qualified. Today, with the internet, social networks, digital communities and forums customers can now do their own research online and get to know more about the product, get to know more about the salesperson and get social proof/reviews from their peers; not making themselves known until they have completed between “56%” ( Gartner ) & 90% ( Forrester ) complete.

Additionally, when we consider that "at any one time only 5% of your ICP is in-market” (TOPO, now owned by Gartner ), any pipeline generation initiative needs to be a strategic one, to which you will have to dedicate time and patience in order to nurture opportunities.

Crucial when we consider that businesses that nurture leads achieve 50% more sales, at 33% less cost, and have an?order value 47% higher?than those that don't.?compared to those that don’t ( Adobe ).

If you outsource the execution of such activities you will, to an extent, have to coach and enable the outsourced team on your product and value proposition. You will need to ensure alignment with other functions, particularly marketing (which is hard enough to do internally). However all too often, outsourcing pipeline generation is a short-term, tactical answer, to a much more substantial issue.

Therefore a better solution may be to use that investment to reduce the skills gap in your team; which is likely a root cause of the issue you’re facing. Don't worry you’re not alone, the skills gap is an issue that “52% of CEOs predict will impact profitability over the next 10 years" ( 普华永道 ).

But it's not all doom and gloom as "72% of CEOs are looking to invest in upskilling the workforce in priority areas" ( 普华永道 ) and considering that Gartner predicts "80% of interactions between buyers and sellers will take place in digital channels by 2025," empowering your team to effectively walk digital corridors should be an area of interest.

The benefits include:

Increase visibility -?Gain recognition in the marketplace:

• Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement than content shared by brand channels ( Social Media Today, LLC )

Trusted advisor status:

• Only 23% of B2B buyers view sellers as a top resource for solving business problems ( Miller Heiman Group, A Korn Ferry Company )

Recruitment opportunities:

• If you’re people, position you as the employer of choice and attract candidates, you can save on recruitment agency fees (which are typically between 20%-30% of salary)?

Employee engagement & shared sense of purpose - Helping to retain your top talent:

• Companies with engaged employees outperform their unengaged peers by 202% ( Forbes )

Pipeline, growth & inbound:

• 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed use social media to make purchasing decisions ( 国际数据公司 )
• Social Selling Leaders are 51% more likely to hit quota ( LinkedIn )