In the late 1990s, the world witnessed a major technical advancement which overhauled the way one connected with other. This advancement was the arrival of internet. It was the arrival and wide acceptance of internet that brought paradigm shift in how people connected with each other. Telegraphs were replaced by e-mails, while telephone calls were replaced by internet calls. Slowly and steadily as internet gained popularity, the global boundaries started shrinking. Internet helped connect even the remotest countries of the world with the developed nations. Shrinking boundaries not only changed the way people interacted with each other, but also changed the way how businesses operated. The wide acceptance and popularity of internet and emerging technology empowered businesses to experiment, and the result of one such experiment was outsourcing.
The field of technology was witnessing advancements like never before. These advancements allowed businesses to automate their processes, thus making the competition stiffer in the market. To stay in competition, businesses needed to cut down on their operational costs and maximize their revenue. In the quest to do so, some progressive thinking companies started subcontracting their non-core functions like to third-party vendors based out in developing countries like India that offered lead generation services and other such services. These outsourcing vendors provided companies with a range of services that mainly managed and monitored their back office and front office functions. The main reason behind subcontracting such functions were to get professional help and cut operational costs, as the cost associated with outsourcing the work to developing was comparatively less than getting the work done by in-house employees.
Even the outsourcing industry has changed drastically over the last two decades. Outsourcing companies in developing nations that started by offering call centre support like taking care of inbound and outbound calls for a business have undergone a major transformation. In addition to managing and monitoring inbound-outbound call centres, they started offering services covering the marketing and research domain. Mainly these companies started taking care of telemarketing function of businesses that outsourced their business process. They not only called up customers to perform telesales, but also offered lead generation services, which includes identifying people from a target audience and stirring interest in them regarding the offerings of a particular business, qualifying them on the basis of whether they are sales ready, and if they are, then scheduling the meeting of the prospect with the sales representative of the business, who would take up the process from their and convert the lead into business.
The process of generating leads may seem easy, but it is easy said than done.
Even the most successful and recognized businesses across the world need to widen their customer base to remain ahead of the competition. To some extent, they too rely on lead generation services to expand their business. The technical advancements that the world has witnessed over the last 25 years or so have made it all the more difficult to require and retain new customers. The cut-throat competition of the business world has ensured that every business is offering something unique and special for its customers at the best pricing. The abundance of businesses offering best in-class products and services has spoilt the customers for choices. No business can predict when even the loyal customer would turn his back on his favorite brand. Trivial things can irate a customer to the extent where he would start considering switching to your competition.
In the world where it is becoming difficult for businesses to retain customers, it has become imperative for businesses to replenish the lot of customers by acquiring new customers. The key to acquire new customers is generating quality leads. All businesses don’t have the means to generate quality lead in-house, thus they outsource their lead generation function to vendors that offer best in-class lead generation services. In addition to making the use of latest tools and technologies, these vendors employ qualified and experienced professionals, who are specially trained to identify such prospects whom they can spark an interest in and make him sales-ready.
Since the arrival of the concept of outsourcing, a plethora of business organisations has availed lead generation services that have helped them widen their customer base by acquiring new customers and helped them grow their business by manifold.
