Killebrew

Any experience with outsourced lead gen?

Our recruiting/HR processes stink and we miss out on good BDR candidates because of it. We settled for leftovers. A few worked out, a few didn't. We had to let some go or are about to, and rather than repeat the same mistake and hire Cs and Ds, I'd rather bridge our output gap with a lead gen agency.

Anyone work with one of these and have recs? Anything I need to watch out for?

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24 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I've heard good things about BAO (by appointment only).

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Only model I'd consider, but I'm still skeptical.

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

I'll look into them. The AE from a company I just talked to ran the worst discovery ever so not too confident about how their team could help me.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

We used one in the previous company, never got anything except garbage leads. We hired a new agency in my current company - garbage leads again. But I know for some companies it has worked.

tightlines

Politicker

Account Executive

I have worked with one and it was terrible. If you have a very complex product I would not recommend it.

tightlines

Politicker

Account Executive

Even if you don't have a complex product, be prepared for meetings to be booked and the prospect having no clue why they were invited

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That was my favorite.

Or no shows, all the no shows.

tightlines

Politicker

Account Executive

Oh so many no shows. Also, make sure you vet their lists so they don’t reach out to your customers and make you look like an idiot

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

The only thing that gives me a little hope is that they said we'll have access to the Gong recordings, so if there's something fucky like that I can at least dive into it.

tightlines

Politicker

Account Executive

That's true, and if you are negotiating a contract with them, I would encourage structuring around qualified opportunities (that your AEs qualify) as opposed to meetings set. We were able to get those terms, but I left my last company before seeing how it ended up

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

This is a good idea, I think that should be reasonable.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

Lead Gen agencies are typically bad too. MemoryBlue does this though. They will assign an SDR for you

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

ive only had experience once. the quantity of meetings that were set were SUPER high. but the quality was absolute shit.

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

Yeah that's kind of what I expect. At this point a high amount of shitty meetings would still be an improvement.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Do you put these reps through a good formal training?

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

With our reps? We do. I don't think it's the best, but we didn't let anyone go for a results issue, it was attitude/effort/professionalism. No training will fix that.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

You may find just the same undesirable candidates there too.

I've never been on the receiving end of good meetings from any outsourced agency. Lots of no-shows or people who were frankly confused about our solution and why they were on the call if they did show. Not a fan.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

"

You may find just the same undesirable candidates there too. " - I feel like this is almost a given.

Killebrew

Valued Contributor

It is a given. There's no surefire way to get good candidates or everybody would do it. I'm more looking for a 3-6 month bridge to continue outbound and try to generate some decent opps so I can focus on the recruiting piece and see exactly how we got in this situation.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Ah, that provides some good context. At least you got one tangible lead that I saw on the post. Good luck to you!

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

No firsthand experience but I generally haven't heard the best things

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Fundamentally, Outsourced lead gen should NOT work for most companies, @Killebrew

• Very few "A-level" BDRs would be working there in the first place. It might be a side hustle for many of them. Point here is: low bandwidth and accountability - since this would be a job of moolah, and not of purpose.

• They're called and treated as "Appointment-setters". Which means they'd give literally 0 *ucks about your brand. The quality of appointments is absolute garbage, and the no-show percentage would be massive.

• You can take a shot at @tightlines' recommendation on structuring the contract around qualified meetings, but it's hard they'd buy it since the power to game it would totally lie with you (not saying you'd game it, but they can think this way for sure)

If I were in your shoes. I'd be hunting down a Freelancer BDR / Contractor instead of dealing with a lead-gen agency. The accountability factor would simply shoot up with a freelancer.

And ideally, you might think of hiring a couple of A-class BDRs regardless of the hiring process. Maybe put up your / the hiring manager's open calendar on LinkedIn for an entire Friday - with a callout to world-class BDR's - and see what happens?

Nonetheless, good luck with the hunt!

CyclingAddict

Personal Narrative

AE (Account Executive)

I used to work at demandDrive as an SDR. They have a ton of experience and deliver high quality work. I haven't worked there in a couple of years, so things could have changed, but they weren't exactly on the cusp for prospecting strategies.

working in the industry, outsourced lead gen works at his best for very outbound heavy verticals, and to cut through the noise, verticals when either this person needs my product or not. then they can be a really good asset, provided you find the right company.

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Killebrew

Any experience with outsourced lead gen?

24 comments

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