Many enterprises lack the internal capacity or flexibility for effective lead generation. They may be focused on project-specific initiatives and timelines, embarking on territory expansion and testing new markets, or any number of other projects that cause lead generation to get put on the backburner.
Cost concerns are common too where lead gen necessitates hiring more staff, not only because of the cost of employing business development reps (BDRs), but the managers needed to oversee them, and the tech stack needed to help them all to do their jobs. On top of this, HR constraints can make it difficult to hire new people, even if the funds are in place.
So, is outsourcing lead generation the answer for your enterprise? Won’t it take an agency a prohibitive amount of time to upskill and understand your offering, meaning money going to waste while they’re getting up to speed?
Not necessarily, if you pick the right agency – one with a structured training and a development programme that can dovetail with your own onboarding process.
But before we look at the potential benefits of working with an outsourced sales and business development service, let’s take a look at what enterprises need to generate quality leads.
How Does Lead Generation Differ for Enterprises vs Other Businesses?
Lead generation for enterprises doesn’t necessarily differ dramatically from other businesses, but it needs an increased focus in certain specific disciplines that are less essential or relevant to smaller businesses. These include:
ICP Focus
Enterprise lead generation often focuses more on ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas due to:
- Higher contract values making precise targeting worth the investment
- Complex buying committees requiring the engagement of multiple stakeholders
- Longer sales cycles necessitating strategic account selection
- Account-based marketing approaches becoming standard practice
Quality over quantity is the rule in enterprise lead generation, as a single qualified enterprise opportunity can deliver significantly more value than numerous smaller leads.
Multiple Campaigns & A/B Testing
Lead gen also differs for enterprises as they’re most often managing multiple campaigns concurrently, and running sophisticated, simultaneous A/B testing across numerous channels and touchpoints.
Unlike SMBs with more limited resources, enterprises often test entire messaging frameworks, value propositions tailored to different decision-makers, and complex nurture sequences.
Data, Data, Data
Data is particularly critical for enterprise lead generation for several reasons:
- Higher stakes decisions require more reliable intelligence
- Organisational mapping is vital for effective account penetration strategies
- Longer sales cycles demand sustained, data-driven engagement
- Large deal sizes justify greater investment in quality data
- For SaaS clients, for instance, data reveals if a product isn’t being used and is a call to act and re-engage a client
Different Approaches for Inbound & Outbound Prospects
At enterprise level it’s especially important to use approaches tailored for both inbound and outbound prospects.
The key difference between these approaches lies in the initial context – inbound strategies capitalise on existing interest and focus on qualification and nurturing, while outbound strategies need to create interest through relevance and personalisation.
Multinational Operations
Lead generation also differs for enterprises because they often operate multinationally. Increasing lead gen capacity therefore becomes more complex as requirements arise for multilingual staff, and regional HR rules can cause further complications. Also, some markets may not be big enough to require a full-time dedicated language specialist – and part time options can create hiring challenges.
Signs That Your Enterprise May Need to Outsource Lead Generation
Now that the requirements are clear and we know that many enterprises face multiple blockers when doing lead gen in-house, we come back to the question: should your enterprise outsource its lead generation?
The answer depends on a number of factors, but there are signs that might indicate that your enterprise would benefit from outsourcing.
Falling Behind Target Performance
- Your organisaton is consistently missing pipeline targets
- There’s a widening gap between your growth goals and lead generation results
- Your business is struggling to scale lead generation efforts to match expansion plans
Holes in Your Pipeline
- You’re seeing significant pipeline coverage fluctuations across quarters
- Specific market segments or territories are consistently underperforming
- There are insufficient early-stage opportunities to sustain future growth
High Internal Lead Generation Team Churn
- You have a revolving door of sales staff, creating knowledge gaps
- Your business has difficulty attracting and retaining skilled lead generation talent
- An excessive amount of time is spent on hiring and training new team members
Poor Results from Internal Teams
- Internal reps are providing low conversion rates from marketing qualified leads to opportunities
- There’s an inadequate lead volume to support sales quotas
- You’re seeing a high cost per lead relative to industry benchmarks
These issues are common in enterprises and should flag the need for external support. Other signs to look out for include:
- Poor lead quality
- A lack of specialised expertise in new target markets or industries
- An inability to effectively leverage new technologies or channels
- Difficulty scaling operations during high-growth periods
How Do Enterprises Benefit from Outsourcing Lead Generation?
The main benefit of outsourcing lead generation for enterprises is remedying the problems mentioned above.
Enterprises, especially in today’s ultra-competitive business landscape, can’t afford to fall behind on performance – can’t afford holes in the pipeline, high staff churn or subpar results. And a lead generation agency that knows what it’s doing can help enterprises avoid these pitfalls or dovetail into the internal team to support when or where needed.
Consider the five benefits of outsourcing lead generation below:
1. Best Practices & Invaluable Insights
An outsourced team works with a range of different client types and products in an array of different industries around the world. This gives them a significant advantage over an in-house team working with one product/suite of products or services and perhaps just one ICP.
An outsourced team can use insights, best practices and other learnings from their broader lead gen exposure to optimise your campaigns and, most importantly, improve results.
2. Reduced Cost of Tools & Tech
As well as approaches and methodologies, insights can include the latest tech. Dedicated lead generation companies have to stay up-to-date in this area, while internal teams can sometimes lose focus on the latest innovations.
The overall cost of tech (hardware and software) can be reduced by outsourcing enterprise lead gen too. If you choose to work with an agency you get access to their tech stack, which often includes a CRM system, prospecting tools and critically, data, which is one of the more expensive elements to really keep up to date. This all adds up when you need to invest in it for your own team. When you outsource with an agency like Excelerate360, the price is the price and you don’t need to worry about additional investment in new technology or other spiralling costs.
3. Dedicated Resources There for You When You Need Them
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to use a call centre for lead generation? Why is an agency a better option?
The clue is in the subheading, because while other services do provide outsourced BDRs, the rep working on your account won’t be the same person day after day, and you probably won’t have access to speak to them.
E360 only provides full-time or part-time dedicated reps, meaning the same people are consistently working on your campaign. Dedicated BDRs are always best for lead generation results because they can develop a thorough understanding of your brand and offering, unlike reps who dip in and out of numerous clients and campaigns. Plus, as our client you have direct access to your dedicated rep(s) via Slack, Teams, phone calls – whatever works best for you.
Specialist agencies deliver better quality leads too. The leads generated by call centres and pay-per-lead models usually drive low-intent leads where either the lead isn’t a good fit, or the average order value is too low. An agency that regularly partners with enterprises, however, will tailor lead gen campaigns to your brand, ICP and product, using insights and industry knowledge to deliver the best revenue-driving leads.
4. The Proof is in the Data
We’ve discussed the value of data for enterprise lead generation, and it can also be used to show whether an outsourced team is worth the investment. A/B test your internal resource against a dedicated outsourced team – the numbers will provide a clear answer as to whether you should outsource or not.
An agency can also help you test the feasibility of your current lead gen goals and help you refine them if necessary.
5. Scalability
Scalability is a huge benefit of outsourcing your enterprise lead generation. It means you can operate by commercial rules, not HR rules, and it allows you to scale up or down dynamically.
Outsourcing also makes it easier to test new markets, tailoring the time to the market size, without having to commit to hiring full-time staff. You can monitor results and check that things are moving in the right direction consistently before deciding whether to bring more people in.
Additionally, enterprises don’t need to have an entity in territory for hiring and payroll. This is the responsibility of the outsourcer if, for instance, a local team is needed for native language support and local insight.
How Can E360 Help?
So, should you outsource your lead generation efforts to an external agency?
If you recognise the challenges we’ve discussed, as well as some of the signs that your organisation might not be delivering the leads you need, it’s certainly worth considering.
At E360 we specialise in delivering sales qualified leads, high-value, complex propositions and international, multilingual campaigns driven by metrics that matter.
We provide you with dedicated BDRs who are always there when you need them and who can be deployed and brought up to speed rapidly, as well as an account manager for ongoing support.
To learn more about how we can improve your enterprise lead generation, get in touch.
