Have you considered outsourcing lead generation for your B2B enterprise?

searcher profile

January 10, 2022

by a searcher from INSEAD in London, UK

Dear SaaS B2B company CEOs, and investors:

Would you see value in outsourcing lead generation for your B2B enterprise / portfolio company (I don't mean companies that simply find email addresses, but more sophisticated players who help you develop a lead strategy, pose as members of your team, locate qualified leads and decision-makers within your target segments, and lay up meetings for your commercial team to convert)?

Or is this too essential / sensitive a function for you to outsource?

How often have you been approached by such service providers in your industry?
Is this something you have considered (or tried) in the past and passed on? If so, why?

If you have engaged such a company, how did you evaluate them? What contract terms did you find attractive? What percentage of your marketing budget did you spend / what ROI were you targeting?

Any light you might be able to shed is most appreciated!

Thank you :)

Vitten
Landale Partners Ltd.
UK

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commentor profile
Reply by a professional
from Harvard University in Indianapolis, IN, USA
Hi Vitten,

As far as, cost vs. benefit goes, outsourcing is more cost effective for most companies. Building a full time sales development team is going to be very expensive (e.g. recruiting, training, management, etc.). A fractional sales development team through an outsourced provider will also allow you to scale faster and stay agile as your business needs evolve.

However, the thing you need to be careful with is who owns the assets (process, brand, copy, ip, systems, etc). If you are prohibited from using your provider's proprietary outreach assets in the future, you might find yourself in a bad position when you look to insource. I suggest partnering with a provider who is capable and willing to transfer ownership of all assets back to you. This starts with your personal branding. Simply put, B2B sales dev is a PERSONAL branding exercise. Although there are certainly risks with allowing your sales dev team to borrow your personal brand to generate appointments, the alternative of giving away all of your branding capital to a sales dev (who works for someone else) is far worse

Myself and ^redacted‌ have helped dozens of companies stand up outsourced sales development teams, please let us know if we can help you.
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in London, UK
Extremely helpful comments all. For context, we came across an opportunity in this space, specialised to cater to a high growth technology niche. Fantastic growth profile, riding industry tailwinds, evidently delivering for their customers, but we are passing on this company (and the industry), simply because the more successful they make their clients, the less they appear to be needed. The insights some of you provided helped us get to the bottom of some of these customer dynamics very quickly, so thank you. Not for us as an investment, but can see ourselves being customers down the road!
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