Lead Generation Outsourcing — The Good, the Bad, and the Best Alternative

Outsourcing is a common practice for most industries and businesses, from IT to insurance. It allows enterprises to save time and money without sacrificing the quality of customer interactions. Seasoned partners help brands deliver excellent support, but lead generation is a controversial subject. Should you handle it in-house or delegate it to an offshore center?

Is Outsourcing Outdated?

Outsourcing is not the only alternative to in-house lead generation. Modern AI-driven technologies can garner offshore leads without human input. Voice bots have learned to imitate idiosyncrasies of genuine human conversation, including fillers and chuckles. They reply instantaneously and record the entire interaction for further analysis.

Conventional outsourcing has its strengths and weaknesses, but it is still relevant. Some companies are still lagging behind — they are not ready to maximize their digital agility. These businesses can still save time and effort by partnering up with experienced providers.

Advantages of Outsourcing

Conventional lead generation cannot provide the same speed, convenience, or depth of customer insights as AI. However, the following benefits are undeniable:

• Less time and effort: Instead of finding and processing leads, your employees will be able to focus on closing sales. They can devote more time to their core productive activities and create better strategies for business development.
• No hiring: By outsourcing, you eliminate the need for finding, interviewing, and recruiting new employees. There is no training, either. This leads to substantial savings compared to the in-house model.
• Get rid of attrition issues: Your outsourced partner will be responsible for integrating the latest trends in business operations, including support, technology updates, and training.
• Reduce dependency: Outsourcing partners are paid for the services provided instead of a fixed monthly fee.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing

The staff hired by your outsourced partner will not have in-depth knowledge of your business. In addition, dealing with offshore agents can be tricky. Be aware of these possible issues:

Lack of domain expertise

By default, an outsourcing company will have less knowledge about your field. Do not delegate lead generation to a provider without sufficient prior experience in the same niche.

Lack of control

It is impossible to keep track of each update and monitor each employee. Your partner must have solid communication patterns and technologies in place. If they work in a different time zone, you must have enough overlapping hours for real-time communication.

Channels must be chosen in advance, too. Do you want them to provide information by email, phone, instant messengers, video chats, etc.?

Lack of dedication

Companies working in outsourcing may work for multiple clients simultaneously. In this case, your business operations will get less attention, and the probability of error goes up.

Risk of miscommunication

Offshore call centers do not always have highly qualified staff fluent in your language. For example, Americans are suspicious of Indian accents. Employees with poor language skills may even speak to the wrong person without realizing it and pass them on as qualified leads.

In-House Lead Generation

The primary argument against handling this task in-house is the time, money, and effort required. If your company does not have the necessary expertise available, you will have to hire and train experts. Failure to outsource or integrate automation can mean a threat to your business service.

Advantages of In-house Operations

Here are the key arguments in favor of in-house generation in 2022.

• As your staff takes care of all tasks, you can monitor their performance closely without intermediaries.
• Easier monitoring translates into faster detection and resolution of issues.
• You need not worry about data security as all information stays within your company.
• All staff work in the same time zone, so they are always available when you need them and you can check their presence at all times.

Disadvantages of in-house operations

Neither outsourcing nor in-house generation is perfect. The biggest dangers of tasking employees with generating leads include:

• Resource-intensive: your company deals with all employee issues, including hiring, training, and attrition.
• Hardware and software: your business needs to provide all the necessary infrastructure, including computers and software licenses.
• Too much for startups: Small companies cannot afford to hire an entire department of lead generation experts.

To Sum up

Both outsourcing and in-house generation have their pros and cons. If your business cannot afford to handle hiring, training, and monitoring, delegate the task to external partners or AI.

In recent years, intelligent automation has penetrated many industries, and smart speakers are a fixture of everyday life. In lead generation, voice-based systems eliminate typical problems like delays, incorrect responses, heavy accents, and time zone differences. They provide excellent support at a low cost 24/7.