For startup businesses and small companies in growth mode, it’s only natural to dream big. Obviously, entrepreneurs don’t start a business and invest so much of their time and money if they don’t believe in the value of their offering.
The challenge is generating enough leads to ensure that potential buyers are aware of such an offering.
It’s not enough to have a great product or service, or even to have talented salespeople with a knack for closing deals. Those two factors alone won’t be enough to grow your business—not without developing lead generation strategies that work by creating interest in your company, building brand awareness, and attracting new customers.
There are multiple ways startups and smaller companies in growth mode can generate new sales leads. One of the most effective is partnering with an outsourced B2B lead generation and appointment-setting firm. Whether you’re looking to cold call new prospects, nurture warmer leads, or learn more about your market, outsourcing your lead gen strategies can go a long way toward filling your sales funnel.
Here are five of the best ways such a partnership can benefit startups and any companies looking to grow:
1. A dramatic increase in relationships
When VSA asks new clients to tell us their current process for lead generation, one of the most common answers is some combination of “relationships” and “referrals.” This is understandable for companies with limited capital; after all, word of mouth is one of the most cost-effective lead generation strategies out there.
It can also be extremely productive on a case-by-case basis. According to thinkimpact.com, 78% of B2B referrals create viable customer leads for the business.
But it takes time to build relationships this way, especially for newer companies who haven’t yet developed an ample customer base. Without the resources to continuously reach out to potential buyers, you may see a trickle of new leads, but not nearly enough to bring about rapid growth. Partnering with an outsourced lead gen firm for a calling campaign allows you to reach significantly more prospects over a given time period, increasing the number of relationships and creating far more opportunities for future referrals, especially if you’re a startup.
2. Predictable costs
The price of outsourcing your lead generation needs isn’t negligible, but it is likely significantly less than hiring, training, managing, and monitoring your own inside sales team. It’s also much less labor-intensive than attempting to generate leads at conferences and trade shows.
And that’s just on the human side. There are also countless material challenges, most notably ensuring that you have the right tech-stack and current best practices to optimize the productivity of your internal team members.
Partnering with an experienced lead gen and appointment-setting firm eliminates that unpredictability. You know the exact cost to your company upfront, and within a few weeks after the launch of the program, you have a pretty good idea of the price you’re paying per scheduled appointment for your reps and the overall impact of your investment on your sales goals. This knowledge makes it easier to scale up or down, which brings us to …
3. Scaling
Scaling your business is never easy, especially when dealing with human resources. Scaling upward can be a challenge for a lot of reasons—knowing exactly when to do it and how much to invest, adapting your management structure to match your growth, etc. Scaling downward, meanwhile, can be even more difficult, because it involves laying people off.
But with an outside partner handling your lead generation needs, scaling up or down is as easy as making a quick phone call. The best lead gen firms can adapt seamlessly and scale their teams to match your needs at any time and essentially become your lead magnet.
4. The right data
Two of the biggest challenges facing startups are a lack of data to determine if they’re targeting the right prospects and limited resources for data management. Even when the data is available, it’s often not reliable. According to various studies, at least 20 percent of a business’s contact data is inaccurate in some way.
Chasing after inaccurate data is, of course, a waste of time and resources, and attempting to clean that data can be even more time-consuming and costly for your team.
By outsourcing to a lead gen firm capable of rectifying those issues through its own list-building resources, you’re able to get those errors corrected and solidify your records without exhausting additional time and effort which results in much more effective lead generation and in turn helps you to grow your business.
5. Learning your market
So you’ve invested a ton of money into your business and developed an offering you’re extremely proud of. Now it’s time to recoup that investment and sell, sell, sell. There’s just one, small problem … you’re not entirely sure of the market most likely to buy, buy, buy.
Through cold calling and market research, the right lead generation firm can gather that information for you and ensure you’re making connections with the titles and companies that have the greatest need for your product or service. Landing on your ideal target buyers and creating brand awareness can take a little time, but with an outside marketing agency partner to handle those tasks, your team is freed up to focus on more immediate responsibilities.
Conclusion
Growing a business and capturing market share isn’t easy, especially as a startup. There will always be unexpected challenges, both external and internal. Having a partner to help navigate those challenges in your marketing efforts can go a long way toward generating the leads you need to keep your pipeline full.
For more than 21 years, VSA has been that partner. Whether you need us to build a lead generation process from scratch or fill gaps in an existing campaign, we can work strategically with you to meet your needs.
Just give us a call. We’re always excited to help companies grow their business.