Lead generation is the process of connecting with potential customers, attracting them to your brand, and converting them into active customers. As the number of new companies entering the industry increases, existing businesses will find it more challenging to generate fresh leads.

In lead generation, customers are drawn and moved through the sales funnel through inbound and outbound marketing methods. Inbound and outbound marketing both utilize several channels to reach out to potential customers.

There are three main types of leads:

• Information qualified lead (IQL), also called a cold lead, is at the beginning of their customer journey. This type of lead provides their contact info, such as an email or phone number, to gain access to data or information. The latter can either be in the form of a case study, training material, or article.  They often stumble upon your content without necessarily knowing about your service or product.

• Marketing qualified lead (MQL) or a warm lead is a potential customer that has shown interest in your product or service through your marketing efforts. MQLs are more likely to turn into actual customers.

• Sales qualified lead (SQL) has gone through the entire marketing pipeline. They’ve transitioned from being an MQL and have been qualified by the sales team as a warm lead ready to hear the sales pitch. Your sales team can then make contact and hopefully close the deal with an SQL to finally convert them into a customer.

It would be best never to let your lead generation strategy become stale. What works today might not work the next day. Plus, many competitors are eager to scoop up new leads. As complicated as it already is, lead generation can be complex. This might eat up most of your time and make you lose focus on other critical aspects of your business.

You might think of building an internal lead generation team for business development. However, this will certainly take time, especially if you don’t have the resources to find the right talent to fill the roles and lack the time for training. And even if you might be able to do it quickly, the quality might not turn out great, which can greatly affect your business.

So, what can you do to deal with this?

Utilizing independent contractors or professional agencies to handle your lead generation efforts may be a great option. Outsourcing to third-party agencies allows your internal teams to focus on your core functions, and it might actually lower your operating expenses. Outsourcing lead generation provides 43% greater results than hiring an in-house lead generation team. Business process outsourcing companies like SOPHI provide quality outsourcing solutions to increase efficiency and maximize productivity by handpicking experienced and skilled staff.

Whether you’re launching a new product/service or scaling up your business, outsourcing lead generation can be pretty helpful because it produces results that might take internal teams much longer to achieve.

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