As president of TeleArk, I’m a big fan of constant conducting self-assessments not only on myself, but also my business habits. I’ve just recently finished reading an insightful and often humorous book by Dick Olenych call “Joe Sails: A Story in Progress”. I just so happen to have the book signed by the author and brought it with me on a recent trip. The basic premise behind the book is (convenient stolen from the back cover):

It is the age-old question that has haunted sales VPs since the dawn of time: should I focus on quality or quantity in obtaining leads? Of course, ask ten sales VPs this question and all ten will tell you that they want both. But, given the cost trade off, what is the best course of action when it comes to lead generation?

Leads come in varying degrees of quality, also known as the level of qualification. Highly qualified leads include up to date contact information, access to the decision maker, and an established level of interest or need. Poorly qualified leads may be little more than a company phone number.

Outsourcing lead generation at the highest level is appointment setting. With appointment setting, the lead provider takes on the responsibility not only for obtaining the lead, but also for qualifying the prospect and actually setting a time for your sales force to meet with the prospect to close the sale. Outsourcing your appointment setting relieves your sales staff of a great deal of unproductive prospecting, but is expensive to come by. Only the best lead generation companies can offer value as appointment setters because of the high level of training and extensive manpower required to provide this service.