How your outsourced telemarketing campaign can end up in failure

Tuesday, September 2, 2014


If you are planning to outsource telemarketing services to a call center, you must first know what mistakes to avoid so that your outsourcing campaign will become successful. Open Access BPO explains the major causes of outsourcing failures when it comes to telemarketing and what you should do to prevent them. 

Outsourcing sales and marketing services, such as telemarketing, is done by most businesses for several reasons. Not only does an outsourced telemarketing campaign significantly reduce costs that you would have spent on operation and labor; it can also guarantee you a much improved and faster delivery of services. 

True, outsourcing business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) telemarketing to an offshore call center can be profitable. But, it must also be emphasized that outsourcing, just like any business initiative, is never that easy. In order for you not to learn it the hard way and meet potential failure, you must know what to avoid when entering an outsourcing partnership.

What can cause your sales campaign to fail

The workforce manning the operation is one of the main reasons why outsourced telemarketing campaigns fail. Specifically, your sales agents’ product knowledge can be a major predisposing factor to failure. Your sales team must have expert knowledge of the different features and specifications of your products and services. The natural response of consumers when being endorsed with merchandise is either hesitation or curiosity. Without solid product knowledge, your agents won’t appear credible to customers in presenting sales proposals. This can lead to failed attempts in increasing revenues.

Another potential reason why your telemarketing project can fail miserably is the ineffective communication between you and your outsourcing partner. Your call center must always be in touch with you so that you can stay updated about customer feedback gathered by your agents. Since they are the first ones to learn about customer inquiries, you can use this collective feedback as a guide in improving your sales strategies. If your call center does not provide constant communication with you, your brand may become insensitive to customer demands.

Poor call handling skills of agents can also contribute to your campaign’s failure. If your call center does not take into consideration the expertise and experience of applicants during agent recruitment, your sales campaign will end up being operated by incompetent agents. Telemarketing skills must also be constantly developed through training in order to make agents become more effective in convincing leads to make successful purchases or to upsell and cross-sell.

How to prevent outsourcing failure

The first mistake that you need to avoid when outsourcing is choosing an outsourcing services provider by basing purely on costs or partnering with the first call center that you meet. You must take your time in selecting your partner. Create a shortlist of options and compare the different service packages that they offer. Evaluate their track record and ask for references that you can talk to. Previous and current clients can give you a more solid evaluation of how effective the call center is in handling an outsourcing campaign.

Once the project has started, you must maintain open communication lines with your provider. Quality assurance strategies, such as agent performance evaluation, reinforcement training, and sales process calibration, must also be in place. You must be aware of the needs of your sales team and how you can contribute to improving their skills. Sometimes, all it takes is building a competitive incentive program that can motivate agents to convert more leads into paying customers.

An outsourced telemarketing project can bring your brand closer to your prospective customers. But, if not done effectively, it can lead to waste of resources. Therefore, you must be strategic and wise, both in choosing your provider and in maintaining a positive relationship with your outsourced sales team.