Generating a high-quality sales pipeline is essential to any growing technology and data vendor. Lead Generation fuels client engagement and helps to provide a continuous source of predictable revenue. It increases the efficiency and use of valuable resources amongst senior sales and marketing executives, helping them skip the tedious first stages of the lead-gen process, client research, and cold approaching, during the early parts of an outbound sales campaign.

During the pandemic, many large tech companies focused on making adjustments to their lead generation plan. While some tech companies already have an established Sales Development / Lead Generation team in place, some have been toying with the idea of building or outsourcing this function to help engage new clients, whether virtual or in-person. Success in this area, largely depends on the strategies used and the people working together to implement them.

So, how do you build an effective lead generation team – one that can deliver results and quickly adapt to your clients or market fluctuations? What are the key things you should look for? Is it more practical and cost-effective to build an in-house lead generation team or to outsource it to an agency? We take a look at these topics in the short discussion below.

What is the End Goal? Setting up KPIs & Targets to get there

Before proceeding to build your team, it’s crucial to set up the right KPIs and targets that will help you reach your end goal. Define what success means for your organisation in terms of the amount of new clients you handle, your target revenue generated, or event attendees registered. It’s also essential to determine which countries/regions and companies you aim to target during the campaigns. 

To increase efficiency of your team, you must have a clear grasp of the people you need to onboard – what is the level of experience required and where they will be based? Do you only need a researcher to get you client names and contact details to build your database or do you need a dedicated BDR / Inside Sales Rep to initiate calls and book appointments?

Building a Lead Generation Team

From defining the KPIs and targets, you can proceed to outline the role and responsibilities of your lead generation team members. Find out how many contacts should your researcher be gathering per week. If you will be needing BR / Inside Sales Rep, how many calls or touch-points should they do? It’s also crucial to determine where will they be based and what work arrangements would work best. Take note that you don’t need to hire them in financial centres anymore because you can employ them in regional offices and manage them remotely.

There’s also the matter of deciding whether your LeadGen team will report into sales or marketing. Lastly, you must plan how you will manage the team’s KPI’s, activity reports, and analytics provided. A good system needs to be in place so it almost runs on autopilot and requires less and less management time and energy.

Hiring vs Outsourcing Lead Generation Professionals

When creating a team dedicated to generating leads, you have two options to choose from – to have an in-house team or to outsource your needs to an agency. When choosing between the two, you can use the following factors:

• Financial investment – Think about the salary of new team members, the overhead costs plus the training and management costs. Compare that with the cost of hiring an agency to handle the lead generation process for a fixed fee.

• Resources and time – Naturally, building a successful in-house team requires money and other resources. You might also need to conduct training and invest time in your new staff to get results. On one hand, agencies have their own team of experts who you can rely on to deliver results, even without your guidance. It also presents a more viable solution if you’re pressed for time to see results.

• Strategy, processes and experience – Building a team from scratch means you have to create your own systems and processes. It may present benefits in terms of control, customisation, and branding, but it could affect the success of your campaign if you need to achieve results fast. Meanwhile, if you use an agency you benefit from their experience, structure, and resources.

• Intimate knowledge of your products/services – Having an in-house team may give you an upper-hand if you need to create bespoke tactics. As a part of your team, your lead generation staff has an intimate knowledge of your solutions, making it easier to personalise their approach in writing call scripts and coordinating with the sales team. If you outsource, you need to make sure your partner has the credibility to have sophisticated client conversations with your target market and have gone through training on your solutions and client base.

Doing Lead Generation the Right Way

Lead Generation is indeed an integral part of every business. As such, having the right strategy and people on-board can make a lot of difference to the success and effectiveness of your sales pipeline. You can either choose to create an in-house team that you can directly supervise or outsource your lead generation needs to an experienced company.

If you’re looking for a cost-effective and practical approach, or even want to test the process out before committing to building in-house, outsourcing is the ideal option. With Datasearch Growth, you get to partner with industry experts and experienced sales & tech professionals in creating a high-quality sales pipeline. You can eliminate the guesswork and focus on other critical aspects of your business.

For more information on our lead generation services, please visit our Datasearch Growth page. If you prefer building your own team, feel free to check out our Executive Recruitment services. We have an extensive network of Technology & Data specialists from all over the Asia Pacific who can support your growth.