Critical Factors in Outbound Lead Generation Success, Part 3: Contact Strategy

11 April, 2019

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In the two previous posts in this series, I talked about the need to hire the right agents for the outbound role, train them well, and prepare them to deliver the right messaging to your prospects — all critical elements to generating strong conversion rates.

To run a successful outbound lead gen or sales acquisition program, however, you must focus heavily on the contact strategy: how efficient your program will be at reaching the right prospects at the right time.

That’s where a combination of “high-tech” and “high-touch” — using the latest in dialing platform technology, coupled with effective hands-on lead file management — play a critical role in your contact rate success.

How Technology Supports Outbound Success

The right technology (and oversight of that technology) ensures your agents are productive throughout the day. Unproductive agents increase labor cost and, just as importantly, cause boredom that can kill the momentum or inherent motivation agents bring to the office each morning.

Choose an outsourcing partner who will evaluate the needs of your program and the best dialing technology to support it. Your partner should ask questions about the lead source (Is speed-to-first-dial important?) and define a dialing strategy that will ensure the right redial plan is in place to avoid exhausting your dial attempts at the wrong time.

Gone are the days when a large file is loaded, and we hope for the best contact and conversion rates. The tools we use today are better, their data and analytics are more readily available, and they make it easier to adjust the calling strategy on the fly.

One word of caution, however: While dialing platforms can help apply some of the basic rules for successful lead management, they do not replace the hands-on oversight necessary to ensure you’re calling the right leads at the right time.

My advice is to use technology as far as it will take you, and then oversee with manual intervention when needed.

Your outsourcing partner must have a passion for results, know how to identify the drivers, and optimize.

Additional Dialing Strategy Tactics

There are two other tactics to dive into, to ensure you’re making the most of your dialing strategy:

Skill Routing. Most technology platforms can skill a set of leads to match the skill of the agent. Let your new agents “get the marbles out” with less expensive lead sources, and reserve those leads with a higher propensity to convert for your experienced or better-performing agents. Don’t forget the human element: If you are skilling leads to specific agents, share that strategy with them and align goals accordingly.

Dialer Settings. Outbound platforms come with a host of settings designed to reach the contact at the right time delivered to the right agents. These settings are also critical for compliance in the outbound dialing environment. Partnering with experienced professionals who not only know the rules but also how to set up technology for optimal performance can help your program achieve a strong ROI.

Final Word About Technology

Outbound lead generation and sales programs are only successful when each element functions well — agent, messaging, and contact strategy alike.

Technology’s role, as vital as it is to the overall operation, is to support the agents, making them more efficient and productive.

That’s why technology should never get in the way of the basics: hiring the right agents for the program, training and managing them well, and ensuring you have the best scripts and call guides possible to generate the most leads and sales possible.

At Transparent BPO, we want to accomplish one goal with our technology — be flexible and responsive to our clients’ needs. We believe technology should fit the business requirements, never dictate them.

If you are looking to increase your program’s performance, give us a call. We thrive on program performance optimization and are happy to run as a challenger in any champion-challenger environment.