subject: When It Can Make Sense To Outsource Cold Calling [print this page] It seems as though you can just about outsource anything these days. Supporting that trend is the fact that there are many companies that provide services that enable companies to outsource cold calling. This involves a company hiring an external organization to cold calls to generate interest and schedule meetings for its internal sales resources. There are many distinct pros and cons associated with this so when does it make sense to look in this direction?
Could Benefit From More Sales Expertise
If a company does not currently have a tremendous amount of sales expertise, specifically in the area of cold calling and acquiring new clients, there can be significant benefits to outsourcing the cold calling function. By working with a service provider and using their resources, a company can quickly and economically fill that gap and take advantage of the service provider's years of training, processes, and expertise.
An example where this scenario commonly occurs is for small to medium businesses that are being run and managed by the original founders. In many cases, the founders have deep knowledge on starting and running the company, and likely deep knowledge in the product or service that they provide, but they might not ever have had the experience working as a sales professional or as a sales manager. If this is the case, management's knowledge in the area of sales techniques, philosophies, and process could be light and they can see great results if they outsource cold calling.
Trying to Drive Growth
Another scenario when it can make sense to outsource cold calling is when a company is focused on driving growth but does not have the sales resources required to support the needed activity. To solve this gap, the company could hire more sales resources but this could be costly not only from a hard dollar standpoint, but also from a time standpoint when you factor in recruiting, on boarding, and training.
When this is the case, a company can augment their existing sales force by outsourcing the cold calling business process. By adding this type of service, the company will be able to quickly and cost effectively grow their sales force and this can help to support the desired growth plan.
Improve Cost Structure
In order to maintain and drive profitability, many companies have a top priority or initiative to improve their cost structure. When this is the case, it always makes sense to look at all processes and explore if there is a more cost effective way. If you apply this to the area of cold calling and run an estimate for the cost per cold call for an experienced and full benefit-loaded sales professional, you will find that cold call has a fairly high cost associated with it.
With a move to outsource cold calling, a company can drive down the cost per cold call and move an area of responsibility away from costly sales resources enabling the company to re-purpose staff or be able to operate with out back-filling positions through natural attrition.
