How to Hire Services for Sales Lead

Hiring a service provider to prospect for you or sell your product or service can be a very effective solution. However, you can also waste valuable time, money, and have the reputation of your company tarnished very quickly. There are a few good, professional, and legitimate service providers with solid business models and there are those that do not. Be very careful. The purpose of this article is to educate you and help you develop an understanding of what to expect in the outsourced Sales and Telemarketing industry in order to make a wise decision.

Realistic Expectations. Many sub par providers of this service will tell you just about anything you need to hear to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain more sales. Your provider should want to know your business in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider will tell you what is realistic within a certain amount of hours. There are many variables, so its not feasible for any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. However, they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times and potential production. They should come up with a customized strategy recommendation for success. A good provider should be focused on how to maintain a long term partnership.

Training prior to starting the program. - Good providers will want you to be directly involved with the training. After all it is your business and you know it best. Preparation is key to success. A good provider should be able to take your marketing collateral and create an initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented callers will not read a script word for word. The script should be nothing more than a training tool and reference until they have it down.

Caller Talent. - How do you want your company represented? Avoid hiring providers that use high school, college, inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B company will have mature, experienced professionals representing your company.

A good provider has a distinct ability to control quality. The last thing you want is for your existing customers - your revenue generating customers - to have a bad impression of your company because of relaxed quality standards. Good providers have a professional management staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and communication between management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and database access does the provider offer? Is it online and fully accessible to you?

Look for professional communication and management. A business development company should be giving you regular updates, and have data available to you on demand - not having this could be a warning sign that the data isn't there at all. Consistent feedback and communication between management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual success. Does the provider offer you the ability to be involved in the program and speak directly with the callers?

Beware of companies offering short tests (less than 50 hours). The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a provider based on the results of such a short test, you may end up getting "short changed" in the long run. This is equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over one weeks worth of work. Pipelines take time develop. Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just wasting your money.

Find out the exact location of the agents working for your service provider. Offshore agents aren't usually held to the highest quality standards, and the communication barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your campaign - actually costing you money in the long run. While costs may be appealing, quality will most likely lack severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your company.