Sales and marketing leaders count on having a sales pipeline stocked with qualified leads. But how do they get one? Is an inside sales team or an outside agency the best way to get the desired results? Here are some thoughts to help you make the decision. Read on.
In the telco vendor universe, inside sales teams are not omnipresent, at least not in the same way that traditional sales and marketing teams are. Every company has the latter, but only a percentage have an inside sales team explicitly tasked with generating qualified sales leads. As often, some combination of sales and marketing assumes that responsibility, though given its importance, it may seem counter-intuitive not to have a focused discipline handling it.
Companies focused on improving the quantity and quality of leads entering the funnel therefore face a choice if they want to upgrade results. Invest in and build an inside BDR team or outsource. What should they be thinking about as they consider their options? That’s what we’ll investigate, objectively, in this blog.
The Internal Option
To be clear up front, an internal team can be the right option for some businesses. However, recruiting and developing an effective inside team requires considerable time, management and ongoing investment. For vendors targeting a specialist global market like telco, building an inside-team can therefore be a slow process and time-consuming route to generating qualified sales opportunities.
It’s also expensive. The cost of employing an inside salesperson extends well beyond their salary. A vendor must also consider:
- Recruitment and onboarding costs
- Employer National Insurance and pension contributions
- Bonuses and employee benefits
- Holiday, sickness and other paid leave
- Training and ongoing development
- Management and supervision
- CRM, calling and data platforms
- Contact data acquisition and maintenance
- Replacement costs when employees leave
These are ongoing fixed costs, whether the person (or team) is delivering results or not.
And then, there’s the reality that a successful inside sales team requires consistent leadership, training, performance monitoring and motivation. The effectiveness of the team can also become dependent on individual employees or managers. What happens when an experienced salesperson leaves, moves to another department or is absent for an extended period? What happens if the manager responsible for the team leaves the business?
Lastly, there’s the reality that telco is a complex and highly specialised market. Job titles, responsibilities and buying structures vary significantly between operators, regions and operating companies. A newly recruited inside salesperson is unlikely to begin with an established understanding of:
- The CSP and wider telco ecosystem
- Telco terminology and technologies
- Operator organisational structures
- Regional differences in job titles
- Relevant decision-makers and influencers
- The challenges facing different types of CSP
- How technology purchasing decisions are made
Developing this knowledge can take months, and it may also leave the business when an employee moves on. The latter is a serious issue, especially if – as is often the case – the inside sales team is small to begin with. It can take a year or more to fully train a person and bring them up to speed with the telco industry. Unless members of your inside sales team are generally remaining in their positions for at least 4-5 years, the value of keeping the function in-house is questionable.
The outsourced option
As we’ve seen, recruiting, onboarding and training an internal team can take several months. Even after completing the process, new employees need time to understand the market, test messaging and build confidence speaking with senior prospects. The outsourced approach bypasses all these barriers IF you can find the right partner agency.
For example, eCS already has the people, data, experience and proven campaign processes required to begin activity immediately. Once the proposition, target accounts and qualification criteria have been agreed, a campaign can normally be launched within a much shorter timeframe than would be the case building an inside team – generally a matter of weeks.
This is particularly valuable when a vendor needs to:
- Build pipeline quickly
- Enter a new market or geographical region
- Support a new product launch
- Generate meetings ahead of an industry event
- Test market interest in a proposition
- Increase activity without adding permanent headcount
- Reach additional operating companies within an existing customer group
- Cross-sell other solutions into established accounts
Also, an inside sales team can only be as effective as the data it is given. Building and maintaining a high-quality telco contact database requires significant investment beyond just recruiting a team. People regularly change employers, roles and responsibilities, while operator structures and reporting lines continue to evolve. Purchased lists can quickly become outdated and may provide job titles without confirming who is actually responsible for the relevant subject.
eCS has an in-house database of more than 200,000 contacts across the global telco ecosystem. It includes contacts within mobile and fixed operators, MVNOs, ISPs, fibre providers, cable companies and broadcasters.
Because we run telemarketing campaigns, on a daily basis, for multiple technology vendors across a wide range of telco solutions, our database is continually used, reviewed, updated and expanded. We identify the people responsible for a subject rather than relying solely on job titles, which can often be misleading.
The quality of a lead depends heavily on the quality and relevance of the person being contacted. Having accurate data and knowing how to reach and engage those contacts is therefore fundamental to campaign success.
Lastly, an internal team may need time to develop scripts, test approaches, handle objections and determine which messages generate a response.
eCS brings established methods and processes developed through more than 25 years of running specialist telco campaigns. Our voice-led, account-based approach does not depend on mass email activity or generic calling scripts.
We take the time to understand the vendor’s proposition, target audience and campaign objectives. Through direct conversations, we can uncover valuable account intelligence, including:
- Current solutions and incumbent suppliers
- Operational challenges and pain points
- Technology priorities and future plans
- Relevant stakeholders and reporting structures
- Interest in learning more about the vendor’s solution
Talk to eCS Before Expanding Your Inside Sales Team
There are, of course, other factors to consider in making the inside vs. outside agency choice but our immediate conclusion would be that before committing to the cost and responsibility of recruiting new inside salespeople, speak to eCS (or the voice-led agency of your choice).
At eCS, we can create a targeted campaign around your priority accounts, regions and solutions, helping your sales team spend more time speaking with qualified telco prospects and progressing potential opportunities.
