One of the ways in which you can rapidly scale the lead generation for your business is to outsource a part of it. And one of the lead generation activities that you can quickly outsource is the call center.
But, it is not easy finding the right Lead Generation Call Center that is appropriate for your business.
There are several factors to consider when selecting the right lead generation partner and finding the perfect balance between price, quality, efficiency, and dependability and can be daunting.
In this article, we’ll analyze the top 5 factors while selecting a Lead Generation Call Center. These are:
- Lead Generation Experience
- Range of Services offered
- Pricing Model
- Quality and Performance Metrics
- Reliability, Trustworthiness and Compliance
Let’s dive deeper into each of these.
5 Factors while selecting a Lead Generation Call Center
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1. Lead Generation Experience
Lead generation can be a complex and time-consuming activity.
And so, it’s extremely important that you select a lead generation call center that has experience not just in lead generation but in lead generation in your industry.
Otherwise, you’re going to be paying them to ramp up and it’s just going to be a waste of your time.
You really want to be sure that they are able to understand your needs and know how to generate quality leads that will actually convert into paying customers.
So make sure that they have lead generation specialists on the team assigned to you and that they have solid cold-calling experience (especially if you’re hiring them for outbound lead generation).
If you’re unfamiliar with either of these topics, please read our articles on lead generation specialists and how to be successful at cold calling for lead generation.
A call center with lead generation experience in your industry should, at the minimum, have an understanding of the following:
- The types of leads that are most likely to convert
- The best methods for generating leads
- How to qualify leads quickly and effectively
- What type of messaging converts the best
If they have this knowledge, they will be able to generate high-quality leads for your business, saving you time and money. If they don’t, you will lose both time and money.
Experienced call centers, especially those from your industry, could also have a pool of potential customers that they can call, allowing them to generate large volumes of leads for you.
Additionally, experienced lead generation companies (including call centers) have tested and proven conversion paths that they can use to help with the conversion of the leads they find. They also understand how long it takes to start generating qualified leads so can set your expectations accordingly.
In short, selecting a call center with the proper lead generation experience will save you time and money while increasing your chances of success.
2. Range of Services offered
Inbound and Outbound
Do you know whether you will use a lead generation call center for Inbound Lead Generation or for Outbound Lead Generation or for both?
You’ll need to answer this question before selecting the right partner.
The skills needed for Outbound Lead Generation can be quite different than those needed for Inbound Lead Generation.
For instance, Outbound Lead Generation will involve cold calling. And not everyone can cold call.
On the other hand, Inbound Lead Generation will require people who are able to understand your product and services inside-out and the value that they can provide to the incoming lead.
CRM Integration
How do you plan to handle the leads that will be generated by the lead generation call center? How will this be tracked? How will these be processed?
Find out whether the lead generation company will use a CRM and how information about Leads will be transferred from their CRM to yours.
The easiest solution will be if the employees off the lead generation call center could directly enter lead information into your CRM.
Employee Training
Good lead generation companies will offer proper training to their employees. But usually, this is generic training.
What you need to find out is whether they can offer training specifically related to your industry and your processes.
For instance, will the lead generation company offer training to its employees on your products and services, on how to use your calling script, how to handle objections, how to handle questions about competitors and how to do follow follow-ups?
Only work with companies who are willing to invest in training their employees to generate the best outcome for you.
Lead Verification & Qualification
Find out if the lead generation call center will simply find new leads for you or will they also do lead verification and lead qualification.
Take it further and find out whether they can assist in the conversion of qualified leads into paying customers.
Many sales outsourcing providers offer a full range of services that you could tap into as per your needs.
3. Pricing Model
The objective behind understanding the Pricing Model is to calculate what it’s going to cost you for every lead that the Lead Generation Call Center acquires on your behalf.
Here are the most common pricing models:
Fixed cost per month
In this model, you will pay a fixed amount each month for each outsourced resource who handles all calling activities on your behalf during the month.
If the person is capable and efficient, you can have an excellent return on investment with this model.
On the other hand, if the person does not perform you could lose money.
This model is like that of having an employee, just on someone else’s payroll.
Fixed cost per Call (Inbound or Outbound)
In the fixed-cost-per-call model, you pay per call made or per call received.
This model can work well if you would just like to pay for work that is actually done. So if your outsourced employee stays idle, you don’t pay.
Unfortunately, this model is complicated to implement because you will need a calling system where calls are tracked and you will need some way to audit the calls to be sure that no bogus calls are being made by the call center company.
Fixed-cost-per-Lead
The fixed-cost-per-Lead model might actually be the best for you because in this model you only pay for Leads that have been acquired by the Lead Generation Call Center.
And you can define the quality of the lead that needs to be acquired before you accept that lead and pay for it. You could also negotiate to pay only for qualified leads.
The other advantage of this model is that it is easy for you to measure call center performance. All you have to do is to count the number of leads that have been added to your CRM and then audit them to make sure that these are quality Leads.
The disadvantage of this model is that the cost-per-lead can be quite high and not many Lead Generation Call Centers would accept a business model where they get paid only if they succeed.
So your best bet will be to find some sort of a hybrid payment model that is a win-win for you as well as for the lead generation outsource partner.
4. Quality and Performance Metrics
When looking for a Lead Generation Call Center, ask them about their Quality and Performance Metrics.
What do they measure?
How do they measure these?
What goals do they set for themselves and team members?
And how often do they review their performance against these goals?
Ask them whether they could measure quality and performance based on your metrics. If they say ‘No’, that’s a big red flag.
Here are 3 examples of metrics you could use to track the call center’s performance:
a. Number of Leads qualified – this metric shows you whether your Lead Generation Call Center is actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, which is generating quality leads for you. Ask them how often they qualify their leads before sending them over to you.
b. Lead conversion rate – this metric tells you how efficiently your Lead Generation Call Center is converting leads into customers. Define your minimum acceptable conversion rate and communicate that to the call center.
c. Cost-per-Qualified-Lead – You already know the lifetime value of each paying customer. Based on this you can calculate the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a qualified lead. Communicate this to the outsourced team as the maximum Cost-per-Qualified-Lead that you are willing to accept.
5. Reliability & Trustworthiness
This is the hardest of the five factors you will consider while selecting a Lead Generation Call Center. And that’s because this is the hardest to measure.
We recommend that you ask the lead generation company for references. And make sure that these are references in your region. These should be people that you can call and verify that the outsourcing company is reliable and trustworthy.
Find out their track record in keeping information confidential.
Find out what they do with the information about each lead that they bring in after that lead has been transferred to you. You don’t want them to hand the same lead over to another company. Nor do you want them to mishandle or inappropriately use information about a lead.
You also need to find out about Compliance. How aware are they of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act – the TCPA? Or about the GDPR?
Find out what internal processes they have for staying compliant with laws and regulations not only in the country where they are based but more so in the countries from where they will acquire leads for you.
Summary
Selecting a Lead Generation Call Center is a non-trivial task. There are many factors which you need to take into account before you can make a final decision.
In this article, we’ve looked at five of the most important ones.
Let’s summarize them:
- The company you select must have the appropriate lead generation experience.
- It should offer a range of services so that you can pick and choose the ones that are most appropriate for the stage your business currently is in.
- Choose a company that offers a pricing model that’s in line with your success.
- Make sure that the company has the same notion of quality that you do and a proper process to measure performance metrics.
- And finally, do your due diligence to convince yourself that the Lead Generation company is reliable, trustworthy and compliant with all laws and regulations of your target geography.
