Outsourcing Lead generation, Sales or Marketing Functions

Sales and Marketing Need An Alignment

Sales and Marketing functions need an alignment. While Marketing struggles to find quality leads, Sales struggles to close those leads. 

Had Marketing been super effective, Sales would have become redundant. Similarly, if Sales had generated the kind of leads it demands from Marketing, Marketing would have been redundant. 

In reality both the functions exist. And they exist because both the functions are equally important. Marketing needs to generate better leads. And Sales should contribute its part to close those leads.

And on top of these, the top management must understand that if their offerings are not "compelling", both Sales and Marketing would continue to struggle. The role of the top management is to keep introducing new products and service lines in accordance with the changing dynamics. 

Although big players survive because they have a big fat banked revenue stream that will take care of the expenses, they struggle with agility in terms of introducing new service or product lines. 

Startups, on the other hand, can be agile but they have to close deals at a much faster pace to take care of expenses (I am not considering the funded ones here).

Another challenge with startups is that they outsource their core functions such as Sales and Marketing to an agency. More often than not, these agencies make the matter worse because some founders end up selecting agencies that are cost-effective.

Tech founders of bootstrapped startups must understand that there is no quick fix to their problems. No agency has the magic wand to close deals faster than they can. And not all the leads generated by their agency can close. In fact, if they can't spend two to three quarters to see the results, they should not be in the business in the first place. 

Here is what tech founders can do.

1. Hire an agency that has niche expertise

2. Founders or the CEOs of the agency must understand the challenges of a B2B Sales cycle very deeply

3. The founders must have the patience to perform sufficient AB tests. The same approach may not work for them if it worked for their peers

4. Even if they outsource lead gen or marketing function, they need to work with the agency on a day to day basis

5. The startup founder must not delegate this function to their team members. They must understand that if an agency becomes successful, it might replace the highly paid employees. The founder must give an assurance to their team that outsourcing a function to an agency would help them be more effective. Unfortunately, people work to save their jobs and find an agency a threat. 

6. The founder must work with more than one agency to manage their risk. Based on the performance of the agencies, they may want disengage with one or two of the agencies while adding new ones to the list. 

7. If none of the agencies are able to meet the expectations, then the founders must take a close look at their offerings every three to four quarters. Sometimes the product or service may be great but the salesperson responsible for closure may not be performing well. Or the geography or the industry being targeted may not be the most accurate to be targeted.

To summarise, the founders must be able to establish a balance between Sales, Marketing, and top management functions. While outsourcing, it's important to keep in mind the pros and cons. Core functions should be outsourced only after proper due diligence. Last but not the least, the founder must have patience to see the results and not become over optimistic.