How To Outsource Cold Calling?

Cold calling service outsourcing can become your life’s best decision if you choose the right company. Undoubtedly, this is because they can offer a competitive outbound prospect strategy for more sales.

But has it ever been easy to find the best cold-calling agency? The answer is no, and the reason is that there are tons of service providers, and you do not know how to outsource cold calling properly.

The initial step in outsourcing cold-calling service is to evaluate the company’s experience and popularity in the marketplace, assess the needs, and negotiate pricing. Outsourcing cold-calling means hiring a third-party provider and delegating cold-calling responsibilities to generate leads, appointments, and sales.

Like other competitors, we are not going to use any bluff topic today. Instead, we will be directly focusing on the ways you can outsource your outbound telemarketing service.

Why Outsource Cold-Calling?

For outbound prospecting and to keep the lead generation sales funnel full of those prospects, you should outsource cold-calling services. These cold-calling experts start prospecting, qualifying, following up, and turning the prospects into lead-generation appointments.

Though by outsourcing cold calling, you will no longer have control over the cold calling process; by having trust, you can expect to have more sales.

Another good part of cold calling outsourcing is- you can partner based on the type of your company.

 

Here is a checklist on how outsourcing cold-calling salespeople can benefit your company,

1. Save money by outsourcing cold callers! You won’t need any extra additional physical space nor have to pay for the cold-calling department. Hire a pay-per-appointment setting service and only pay for every closed sale.
2. Also, you can scale up your lead generation efforts, even only during the peak seasons.
3. With the best cold-calling salespeople, you can rest assured that there will be consistent outreach directly to decision-makers with every phone call, especially for B2B cold calling.
4. The outbound call center service will follow up to set appointments and generate leads and higher revenue for you.
5. Lastly, you need not invest in cold calling tools like dialers or others. The telemarketer will apply every cold calling method to produce significant ROI and profit.
6. The experienced remote sales teams provide excellent customer service by creating an ideal customer profile and pitching to the target customers. Their goal is to provide the best customer experience for the highest customer satisfaction.

How To Choose A Cold-Calling Outsourcing Partner?

When choosing your cold-calling outsourcing partner, first look into their years of experience and activeness in the telesales market. You can either hire from cold calling companies or look into marketplaces for sales and marketing skilled professionals.

There are some more points, such as niche-specific knowledge, usage of advanced cold calling technologies, and pricing models. Let’s talk.

Look For Years Of Experience & Expertise In Cold Calling Service

There are thousands of cold-calling companies out there, and to filter out the best, we suggest researching their industry experience in providing telemarketing services.

That time, you would come across a company that has been providing outbound prospecting services for more than 10 years; it would immediately gain your trust. Having been in the telesales services for decades, these companies have created their own cold calling strategies. They are stuffed with experienced teams who best know how to handle the company’s needs, their potential customers, and maintain customer relationships.

Niche or Industry Specific Knowledge To Address Your Unique Business Needs

You should consider two things: first, your business niche, and second, what cold-calling function you need. Then, look for a cold-calling service for your specific business niche. By reaching out to niche-based cold calling centers, they better know specific business needs. 

For example, real estate business leads are potential home buyers, and the goal is to close the sale deal. Here, real-estate cold calling service providers know how to deal with commercial or residential home buyers best. On the other hand, for your B2B business, your focus is mostly on B2B appointment-setting services.

Look For The Use Of Cold Calling Technology and Tools

Manual dialing with prospect segmentation in spreadsheets takes a maximum of 30 calls per day. Cold calling dialers with advanced features take 10x the number of phone calls. So, before you outsource cold calling telemarketing, check out the advanced technology and tools the company uses.

Though most cold-calling companies use dialer software, they lack some tools that can increase sales a bit more. So, for your own benefit, you can recommend the service providers use some specific software.

We know you are wondering why you would put some effort when you are paying for the service. But hey, isn’t it for your own benefit?

However, there is a sales dialer, CRM, a lead management tool, contact info-finding tools, and call recording software that are some of the must-have software to use in cold calling tasks.

Quality Assurance

1. Does the call center service provider follow relevant regulations and compliance standards, such as Do Not Call (DNC) lists and data protection laws?
2. Do they have BDRs and SDRs departments for call quality monitoring?
3. What is their success percentage on appointment setting, lead generation, closing sales deals, and getting high-quality leads?

With the answers to these three questions, you can initially check the quality of the company’s sales lead generation service. To do so, you can conduct a background check, referrals, and reviews of their past clients.

Cost & Pricing

The best thing to do is to fix your budget first, then search for the companies that meet your budget. Check the pricing structure of the cold-calling service websites.

It is not always the high budget that means the best quality of work. Sometimes, you can get quality work within budget-friendly options. But for this, you can choose the cold calling company very carefully.

What Are The Main Challenges Of Outsourcing Cold Calling?

Finding the perfect, reputable, professional cold calling service that can actually contribute to business success is tough and one of the biggest challenges when outsourcing the service. Along with cultural differences, improper relationship management with the vendor is also another problem.

Once you get to know about the upcoming challenges of outsourcing cold calling, you can prepare your cold calling marketing strategies accordingly.

Cultural Differences: Different cultures’ ways of communication vary, which can affect the cold-calling sales efficiency. When you are outsourcing the service, the call center agents need to catch the emotion of the potential prospects to personalize their communication strategy. Cultural differences can create miscommunication.

Language Barriers: For a US-based business, excellent English proficiency and accent are a must to build trust and seal the deal. You can not trust a Spanish cold caller to communicate smoothly with an American client. So, sometimes, offshoring cold calling may raise language barriers. 

Quality Control: With your in-house or internal sales team, you can quality check the calls and refine the strategy to present your company well. However, when outsourcing, you do not have that control over the quality. All you can trust is the cold calling agency, and rest assured, the sales representatives will represent you well.

Data Privacy and Security: The best cold calling agencies protect their client’s data and ensure the highest security. In contrast, unethical companies may alter the data or misuse it, for which choosing a reputable agency is a must.

Time Zone Differences: Outsourcing telesales services across the globe may cause issues with time zone differences. This point makes company owners go for an in-house team often.

Cost and Pricing: For small business owners with limited budgets, cost and pricing are issues. You may want to customize some services, but the pricing may become a barricade.

Performance Measurement: If your cold-calling vendor fails to be transparent while reporting about KPIs, it will surely be problematic for you. You won’t be able to assess the success rate properly, leading to inefficiencies.

Relationship Management: Poor communication and mismatched goals can create friction. You may not give regular feedback, or the company may be unable to meet expectations. This poor relationship management will impact your business.

What Steps Are Involved In Outsourcing Cold Calling?

There are four main steps on how to outsource cold calling,

• Schedule a meeting for consultation and need assessment
• Make favorable contracts and sign agreements
• Provide the company with detailed information and train the agents
• Track performance and give feedback

Here is the in-depth discussion on each cold-calling outsourcing company step.

Step 1: Initial Consultation And Needs Assessment

Several high-quality outbound call centers offer free consultation before onboarding. It is best you schedule a meeting with them and clearly define all your sales goal expectations from the cold callers.

Business requirements from the cold calling campaigns can vary. Some sales targets are focusing on lead generation only and nurture them. While others want to see significant growth in their sales pipeline and boost revenue.

If you want inbound telemarketing cold calling, your goal may be creating brand awareness and making the sales development representatives mirror your brand. This will scale up the outreach effort to every potential client.

For the B2B companies, appointment setting with B2B prospects is the core focus. Also, do not forget to clarify when you need reports, and what level of control you want over them.

You are done sharing your business requirements; now, the company will give you consultation and pricing based on your needs. They may have a package or may offer customization options.

Step 2: Contract Negotiation And Agreement

This part needs your deep consideration and carefulness. Before contract negotiation, do some research about financial, legal, and other criteria related to cold calling. The contract should be favorable.

Here are 5 key points you must consider before cold calling contract negotiation,

1. Set measurable KPIs, such as call volume, lead conversion rates, and response times.
2. Specify quality standards for calls, including scripts, training, and potential customer handling.
3. Negotiate a clear pricing model, whether it’s per sales call, per warm lead, or a fixed fee.
4. Include clauses on how customer data will be handled, stored, and protected to comply with regulations like GDPR or CCPA.
5. Set clear terms for contract termination, with notice periods, transition processes, and penalties for non-performance or early exit.

Step 3: Training And Onboarding

After you have signed the agreement with your cold-calling outsourcing partner, it’s your turn to provide them with the cold-calling process. You may think that the cold callers are experts on this, so why do you need to train them?

Since this is your business and brand, you know the best about your products, target audiences, potential challenges, and USPs. You may refine their cold-calling scripts to meet your business goals. How precisely you deliver the information will affect how the sales professionals present your brand. This is the same as informing your in-house team members after a new recruitment.

Step 4: Performance Tracking And Reporting

You have just started working with your cold-calling service partner, so monitor the cold calling campaign performance and request regular reporting. Don’t hesitate to provide feedback, as the cold-calling teams are industry professionals and will use it to refine their sales strategies.

Remember, you evaluated your requirements initially? Now, assess the performance by analyzing if the cold callers are meeting those expectations. This includes tracking metrics such as daily call volume, lead conversion rates, and lead quality.

Conclusion

Companies are rapidly turning to outsourcing cold-calling centers to turn more prospects into customers. Because the cold calling companies reach more prospects, present the brand professionally, and apply the best prospecting strategy. But if you are not be able to choose the right company let apart availing these benefits, you will bearing a huge financial lost.

That’s why we discussed the steps for outsourcing a cold-calling agency. Here is the recap,

• Experience and expertise of the company.
• Usage of technology and tools for better placing calls.
• Cost and pricing.
• Initial consultation and needs assessment.
• Negotiate contracts.
• Training and onboarding.
• Performance tracking and reporting.