As the economy expands and the post-COVID recovery begins, more B2B and medtech companies are considering outsourcing their sales prospecting activities. It’s a great way to use your internal resources wisely and quickly meet your lead generation goals.
Is outsourcing right for your organization? Our CEO Chris Temperante tackled that question in this recent article, providing helpful tips for sales and marketing executives to assess your readiness for outsourcing calling, lead generation, sales appointment-setting and other duties.
Sales outsourcing produces numerous benefits:
- Frees the internal team for high-value conversations and closing sales
- Ensures a consistent stream of qualified leads and appointments
- Makes it fast and easy to scale up or down in volume and velocity
- Eliminates the overhead associated with staffing an inside sales function, including equipment, training, salaries and benefits
How to choose the best sales outsourcing company
Once you’ve decided to partner with an external contact center, the next step is choosing the best sales outsourcing company. It’s a critical decision, since the sales outsourcing company you choose will represent your brand in the marketplace and speak directly with your valued customers and prospects.
Volkart May brings more than 30 years of sales outsourcing experience with leading medtech and B2B brands. Over that span, we’ve learned what it takes to create lasting and successful client relationships.
Six must-haves in your B2B or medtech lead generation provider
Here are a few items to look for as you choose a sales outsourcing company:
Industry experience. A business-to-business call is far different than consumer outreach. B2B calls tend to be more complicated and require a higher degree of skill. Certain sectors, like healthcare, technology, manufacturing and financial services, have their own nuances and vocabulary. Decision-makers can be senior executives; reaching them means navigating corporate phone trees and gatekeepers. Engaging them and moving them forward in the sales process takes even more training and experience.
A great first step when choosing a sales outsourcing company is understanding their industry experience. If they haven’t called in your particular market, ask about similar types of situations in related sectors.
Professional callers. Automated dialing platforms, robocalls and pre-recorded messages give telemarketing a bad name. That’s why friendly, well-trained, professional callers are a must with your sales outsourcing partner. After all, these individuals will represent your brand in the market. Find out all you can about the lead generation specialists and business development representatives who will staff your account. Ask about their training and experience. Listen to digital recordings of their calls. When possible, try and meet the actual B2B and medtech callers who will work on your project.
Proven results. Tangible metrics are one of the biggest advantages of sales outsourcing. The best sales outsourcing companies should provide ready benchmarks at all stages of your campaign—including before calling even begins! These numbers can help you assess your opportunity, evaluate progress and as needed, make adjustments.
At Volkart May, we routinely return 10:1 or greater ROI for our clients—even on their very first campaign. We track a wide variety of measures, from overall reach rate and list usability to contacts updated, leads generated and more.
High-quality equipment. The COVID-19 pandemic changed lead generation and business development forever, with nearly every medtech and B2B organization incorporating virtual sales tools into their process. But, not all equipment functions the same way, especially when used in at-home environments. As a sales outsourcing company, Volkart May operates a hybrid contact center, with callers working from our Minnesota facility as well as their homes. From our state-of-the-art calling platform to our secure data storage and even our caller headsets, we invest in the latest technology for optimal results.
Be sure your sales outsourcing company uses equipment that supports high-quality conversations, keeps callers productive and makes it easy to transfer information to your internal CRM system or marketing and sales database.
Transparent process. Trust is crucial when choosing the best sales outsourcing company. A transparent process establishes the right foundation for success. How will your new contact center resource learn your business and train callers on your account? Once your program is up-and-running, how will leads, appointments and information pass between your organizations? Where will your team need to provide input? The more your sales outsourcing company can demonstrate a roadmap and make it easy for you to follow, the stronger your project will be. Ask your potential partners to walk you through the milestones of a typical campaign.
Collaborative approach. Partnership is the last item to evaluate with a medtech or B2B sales outsourcing company. Look for a contact center that is open, honest, ethical and interested in truly teaming up with you. The more you can involve your internal marketing and sales teams, as well as executive sponsors, the better your results. Meetings should be cooperative and constructive, with both you and your sales outsourcing partner sharing information. There should be numerous points in the campaign for feedback, with a dedicated account manager available to keep communication flowing smoothly.
Maximize your leads with outsourced sales
Ready to learn more about outsourced lead generation, appointment-setting and inside sales activities? We’d love to show you the Volkart May process and help you reach your goals. Contact us to schedule a discussion.
