Your choice of an outsourced lead generation firm has a significant impact on your brand. Choosing the wrong firm to handle business development for your complex B2B sales can potentially harm the brand your company has worked so hard to establish.
In my experience with prospects in search of a lead generation company, brand strategy is not usually a major consideration.
This is a critical lead generation mistake when you consider that the firm you select will be making the first impression and representing your business at the front end of the sales cycle to hundreds if not thousands of decision makers in your prospect base.
The Impact on Your Brand
Outsourcing lead generation services can either complement or hinder your brand efforts. It’s necessary to know what is important when considering who is representing your brand, and how they are doing it.
It’s critical that the firm you hire has callers with the business acumen to engage in meaningful interactions and establish a business relationship with key decision makers and evaluators.
A B2B lead generation team will be tasked with making thousands of calls on your behalf – whom do you want to be introducing your company to a potential client?
We have written previously about the importance of experienced callers that can engage a prospect in a real conversation, resulting in genuinely qualified leads.
The following three articles dig deeper into why experience and business acumen are such important qualities for a successful B2B caller, and why they should be a top priority when considering an outsourced firm to represent your brand.
1. Why Executive Experience is the Key to Successful B2B Lead Generation – Callers with executive-level experience will have the ability to speak with decision-makers and guide a conversation towards uncovering valuable information and opportunity.
A peer-level caller can establish meaningful interactions, then follow up with in-depth knowledge and specific examples of how your business, solution, or service can affect positive change.
2. B2B Lead Generation – Why Does Customer Experience Matter – Prospects and customers have vast information readily available to them at all times through internet searches. That is why, in order to stand out from the competition, callers have to do more than simply provide basic information.
They must be able to offer an excellent customer experience and create a meaningful interaction that will resonate with decision makers.
Callers who can do little more than read through a summary of your offer will not uncover business pains and have the conversations that result in qualified leads. Furthermore, a bad customer experience has the potential to hurt your brand and possibly hinder any future efforts.
Remember, literally hundreds or thousands of calls will go out representing your offering, company, and brand by your chosen leadgen partner.
3. 3 Reasons Why Your Outsourced Lead Generation Failed – Many of our customers come to us after failed lead generation campaigns and are therefore wary of their effectiveness.
It’s important to understand that not all outsourced lead generation companies offer the same level of expertise and proven practices.
If past experiences with outsourcing failed to produce a positive ROI, it’s likely that the callers did not have sufficient experience to represent and discuss your business solution at a high level.
Learn why some outsourced lead generation efforts fail, and how to choose an outsourced partner that will help you succeed and even surpass expectations.
Protect Your Brand
The first, and lasting, impression that a B2B caller makes on behalf of your company will have a powerful effect on your brand and reputation.
Don’t make the critical mistake of choosing a business development partner to represent you at the front-end of the sales cycle based on price alone and risk the long-term impact of a negative experience for your prospects.
Jim
