Should I Hire A Salesperson Or Outsource My B2B Lead Generation Efforts

If your business is booming, congratulations are in order! You’ve managed to rise above the noise in your industry, differentiate your offerings, and outmaneuver some of your fiercest competitors. Your sales team has a tight strategy, and everything’s clicking.

But scaling a growing business comes with a unique set of challenges. As your sales workload grows, the question becomes: How do you handle the demand without losing momentum or focus? You’re facing a classic growing-pains dilemma: Do you invest in a full-time, internal salesperson, or do you partner with an outsourced B2B lead generation powerhouse like Incept?

It’s a big decision, and both options have their appeal. Hiring in-house could mean someone who lives and breathes your company culture. But that comes with a full-time salary, benefits, training, and direct management. And let’s be honest—high turnover can mean that just when your new hire finally gets your business, they’re off to greener pastures, leaving you to restart the hiring carousel.

On the other hand, outsourcing promises expert-level efficiency and cost savings—but do you lose some control? The stakes are high, and your sales strategy could make or break your growth.

Don’t sweat it. We’re here to guide you through the ins and outs, the pros and cons, and help you decide which path will best supercharge your sales efforts. We’ll also debunk the myth that outsourcing is like hiring from a staffing agency—it’s a whole different level of strategic partnership.

Ready to dive into the details? Let’s untangle this sales conundrum and set you up for success.

Outsourcing B2B Lead Generation: Key Benefits

When it comes to growing your sales pipeline, outsourcing your B2B lead generation isn’t just about delegating busy work—it’s about gaining a strategic advantage. Here’s why partnering with an expert B2B lead generation outsourcing team can transform your sales efforts:

Cost Savings Without Sacrificing Quality

Hiring a full-time salesperson doesn’t just hit your payroll; it can feel like an endless cash drain. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, recruiting a new employee can cost as much as three to four times your new hire’s annual salary. Between recruiting fees, training, salaries, benefits, and potential turnover costs, you’re investing a hefty amount before you even see results.

In contrast, outsourcing provides you with a team of skilled experts at a fraction of the cost. For the price of one mid-level, full-time hire, you get a comprehensive suite of services, from cold calling to digital campaigns, managed by specialists who already know how to generate leads that convert​​.

Expert Efficiency Right Out of the Gate

Think of an outsourced lead generation partner as a well-oiled sales machine. With years of experience, cutting-edge tools, and proven strategies, they don’t need to warm up or get their bearings—they’re ready to go. Imagine having a team that integrates seamlessly into your sales efforts, using data-driven approaches to target and engage the right prospects. For instance, a partner specializing in trade show exhibits and experiences saw their conversion rates soar from 15% to 33% in just a few months after partnering with us.

Scalability That Matches Your Growth

One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing is the ability to scale up or down based on your business needs. Need to ramp up lead generation for a new product launch? No problem. Want to pull back during slower seasons? Easy. Incept’s fractional services are designed to adapt to your changing requirements, providing flexibility that an internal hire simply can’t match. You’re in control without the commitment​​.

Reduced Risk and Simplified Management

Sales hires can be risky. Even the most promising salesperson may not be a perfect fit, and if they leave, you’re back to square one. With outsourcing, the risk is mitigated. Incept’s model ensures you always have a reliable, trained team working on your behalf, and if something isn’t working, we adjust quickly to maximize results. Plus, we handle the day-to-day management, so you can focus on the bigger picture while we keep your lead generation running smoothly​​.

Access to Advanced Tools and Techniques

Outsourcing with a B2B lead gen company means leveraging industry-leading tools and technology—without paying for licenses or building the infrastructure yourself. We use powerful CRMs, sales automation, email tracking, and data analytics platforms to optimize every touchpoint. Our expertise ensures that no lead falls through the cracks, and your sales process is always fine-tuned for maximum impact​​.

Internal Sales Hire: When It Works Best

While outsourcing can be a game-changer, there are times when bringing a full-time salesperson onto your team is the smarter move. Ask yourself:

• Do you have consistent sales volume that requires a full-time employee?

• Is your product or service highly specialized, requiring deep technical expertise?

• Do you need someone to actively collaborate in daily operations and strategy discussions?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, an internal hire might make the most sense for your business.

Perfect Candidate Availability

Sometimes, the stars align, and the perfect candidate appears on your radar. Maybe they have years of experience in your industry, a proven sales track record, or a network of contacts that could instantly boost your business. In these cases, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity to bring this talent in-house. A candidate who’s a perfect cultural fit and understands your market inside and out can become a valuable long-term asset.

Full-Time Need

If your business has reached a point where lead generation and sales responsibilities are constant and overwhelming, hiring a dedicated full-time salesperson might be the right call. For companies with enough sales volume to keep someone busy 40 hours a week—or more—it’s a worthwhile investment. This internal role is perfect for when you need someone who can handle every stage of the sales process, from initial outreach to closing deals, without splitting focus​.

Industry Complexity

Highly specialized or technical industries can pose unique challenges. If your business operates in a niche market or deals with complex products, an internal salesperson with deep industry knowledge may be indispensable. They’ll not only understand the nuances of your product but also know how to communicate its value effectively to potential clients. In these cases, an internal expert can leverage their familiarity with industry-specific language, trends, and networks to close deals that an outsourced partner might find difficult to navigate​​.

Collaboration Benefits

Even the best outsourcing partners can’t replace the benefits of having a salesperson right in the room with you. An internal hire allows for immediate, face-to-face collaboration with your team, enabling quick adjustments and strategy shifts. They can join brainstorming sessions, participate in spontaneous discussions, and truly embed themselves in your company’s culture. This level of proximity can be crucial for businesses where rapid, ongoing communication between departments is key to success​​.

Differentiation from a Staffing Agency

When businesses consider outsourcing, it’s easy to conjure up images of overseas staffing challenges or draw comparisons to the short-term fixes offered by traditional staffing agencies. With Incept, you get a strategic partner—not just temporary support.

Fractional Model vs. Temporary Staffing

Incept’s fractional sales model is built to provide maximum value and flexibility. For the cost of one mid-level full-time hire, you gain access to a comprehensive sales solution that combines strategy, management, and execution. Instead of getting a single temporary worker, you receive the collective expertise of a full team dedicated to driving your lead generation goals. We cover everything from creating data-driven strategies to managing your sales pipeline and executing campaigns​​.

Contrast that with a staffing agency, which may fill a seat with temporary labor but typically lacks a cohesive, strategic approach. Staffing agencies often provide workers who require significant oversight, may not have the depth of experience needed for specialized sales tasks, and are rarely focused on aligning with your long-term business objectives. In short, you get bodies—not a fully integrated sales partner​.

Embedded Partnership

At Incept, we don’t just work for you; we work with you. Our team becomes an extension of your own, investing time to understand your company culture, processes, and sales goals. We’re committed to building authentic relationships and aligning our strategies with your vision. This level of integration means our success is tied directly to yours, fostering a sense of shared purpose and collaboration that you simply won’t find with a temporary staffing arrangement​​.

Outcome-Oriented and Flexible Engagements

Our approach is built around flexibility and results. Unlike staffing agencies that lock you into rigid contracts with little room for adjustment, Incept’s engagements are designed to be agile. We can scale services up or down based on your business needs, whether you’re launching a new product, entering a new market, or experiencing seasonal demand. Our short-term, results-focused projects ensure you’re only paying for what you need, when you need it​​.

Your Next Sales Win Starts Here: Let’s Talk Growth

Deciding whether to hire an internal salesperson or outsource your B2B lead generation efforts is no small feat. On one hand, an in-house hire could offer deep industry knowledge and seamless collaboration—but at a high cost, with the added risk of turnover. On the other, outsourcing gives you a flexible, expert-driven approach that scales with your needs, but you might wonder about maintaining control.

Here’s the thing: the right choice is the one that best supports your growth goals—and Incept is here to make that decision easier. Our fractional model integrates seamlessly with your team, offering strategy, management, and execution to drive real results. No long-term contracts. No hassle. Just a dedicated partner focused on propelling your business forward.

5 Tips to Make Your B2B Sales Team Successful

Whether you’re new or an experienced sales manager, I think we can all agree that managing a team of sales reps isn’t easy. We aren’t all created equal and each one of us brings a different personality and skill-set to the table. It’s your job to make sure you’re getting the most out of your team. Here are a few tips that can help make your B2B sales team successful.

 1. Create a Strong Training/On-boarding Process

This is where it all begins. How well you’re able to prepare your sales reps for what’s to come will determine how successful they are, which will result in a decrease in turnover. Give your team the tools that will help them do their jobs to the best of their ability, such as B2B sales techniques that have proven to work. Allow them to shadow your best performers so they have an idea of what an effective routine looks like.

2. One on One Coaching

If a teammate is struggling or having a hard time picking up on something, take the time to understand where the disconnect is. Listen to their recordings, ask what’s wrong or if there are any additional sales materials they need that would help.

Take time out of your day to give your team one on one support to help them with B2B sales strategies and tactics. This will not only be an opportunity for sales team building to establish a bond but will get any issues out in the open, so they can be addressed moving forward.

3. Establish Sales Goals

There is nothing worse than not knowing what is expected of you. Clearly establish specific, measurable, achievable, and time-based goals for your team to benchmark themselves against.  You can use data from past performance to help put together different plans that make sense for everyone, both old and new.

4. Communication

Hold regular meetings to update your team on progress to goal, provide feedback on current campaigns, and communicate any changes that could impact their sales process. Email is a nice tool to use but shouldn’t be a crutch as information can easily be misinterpreted through text.

5. Celebrate the Good

78% of employees said being recognized motivates them in their job. A lot of work and preparation goes into hitting goals, so let your team know they’re appreciated! This is one of the simplest things to do, yet often neglected.

Sales will always present unique challenges that you’ll have to overcome but understanding what you CAN control will really go a long way when it comes to keeping your team on track for success.

Download our guide to improve your lead generation and appointment setting strategy!

Creating a pipeline of leads can be challenging and time consuming especially when you’re selling a product or service that requires an appointment for a one on one conversation or meeting.

While there’s no secret formula for generating leads that works across every business and industry, there are several tools that we have found make the odds of success higher and faster and we’d like to share them with you!

3 Ways to Follow Up on B2B Inbound Leads

Wherever you look online, it seems as if everyone is telling you that you need to generate more leads to grow your business. However, do you have a plan for converting those leads into customers or members? Oftentimes, pitching a sale to new, cold leads will likely not lead to a sale at all and even turn off your potential client from wanting to hear from you ever again.

We discussed how quickly you should follow up with inbound leads, but if you still aren’t sure the best ways to follow up, this blog post will help you start planning.

Immediate Email Follow-Up with Value

The simplest way to follow up with B2B inbound leads is to send an automated email immediately after they fill out a form. This form can be as simple as asking your potential customer to fill out the form if they want more information on your services or signing up to receive a content upgrade download in your blog post.

According to GetResponse, a triggered email averages an open rate of 46.53% and a click-through rate of 10.98%. This high engagement rate is due to sending relevant information to your subscribers in response to their actions in your emails or on your website.

Sending an email instantly after someone raises their hand is key because it reaches them while they are still interested in your business. It also allows your customer to be engaged with while giving your sales team time to personally follow up.

Don’t know what to send in a new member follow-up email? We have a blog post to help you create the best email for your members!

Email Automation

Awesome! You sent your lead an immediate email! But you don’t want to stop contact there. Creating an automated email sequence takes leads down your funnel without needing a team member spending time sending individual emails. They can then use their new-found time more efficiently on answering email replies or calling leads who have indicated greater interest.

An email automation sequence also helps familiarize your leads with your company. When 81% of sales happen after 7 or more contacts, automating emails allows you to keep getting in front of leads and can also assist your calling methodology.

Categorize and Distribute leads

When working with inbound marketing to generate quality leads for your sales team, categorizing leads in your CRM is of the utmost importance. Why? Because your team may choose to handle a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and a sales qualified lead (SQL) differently.

Internally, when there is a new MQL, we take additional steps to further qualify that lead and ensure that there is a good fit for both parties. We want to ensure that they are at the right stage in their business and our sales funnel prior to pitching a sale because as we all know, a warmer lead is easier to convert than a cold one. The key is to not make assumptions on whether or not a lead is a good fit for your business because writing them off without further investigation could have you leaving money on the table!

For SQLs, we have indicated in our CRM that they are a more qualified lead based on a variety of indicators, such as types of pages they visited on our website (think pricing) or lower funnel form fills. Rather than continue sending them more marketing information, we make sure our sales team understands how quickly to follow up with leads and the cadence they should follow.

Download Our Step-By-Step Guide for Ideal Inbound Lead Follow-Up Strategy Now

We’ve tested several strategies in our own business and on behalf of our clients and found that the ideal inbound lead follow-up strategy requires 2 things:

1. Urgency in response

2. Commitment to sales cadence if the prospect does not immediately answer

Fill out the form to the right to download our step-by-step guide to effectively follow-up with inbound leads.

Hubspot's take on why cold calling is dead

I recently published a post called Cold calling sucks.

As I was surfing LinkedIn and other sites today, I stumbled upon Hubspot's take on the same topic, titled, "6 Data-Driven Reasons Why Cold Calling Flat Out Sucks." 

Their research is sound, and their data doesn't lie. In fact, it takes my emotional rant about how much the actual action of cold calling sucks, and adds a lot of data behind why the practice of cold calling doesn't actually accomplish what you want it to accomplish.

I, however, disagree with the fact that cold calling is dead. I'm more prone to line up under another post written by Mike Schultz at Rain Sales Training, where he explores, as I did in my previous post, the various reasons why.

Without regurgitating his entire blog post, I'll wrap up here by saying, just because it hasn't worked for you yet, doesn't mean cold calling doesn't work.

If it's not your forte, accept that, and find a partner who's an expert in inside sales.

If it's too expensive, find a way to hire someone cheaper, or look into developing a well-structured co-sourced sales strategy.

If you're focusing on networking events, writing a book, speaking engagements or other high-octane methods of driving funnel activity, awesome! Fill up the spaces between these events with time-tested, well-executed prospecting.

Where do you fall on the scale of "cold calling's dead" to "cold calling works"?

Cold calling sucks.

There it is – I said it.

Cold calling flat out sucks. It always has. It always will.

It’s probably the best way to generate consistent, quality leads.

But it sucks.

It’s a time-tested way to clean up your old database and find new business from old customers.

But it sucks.

It’s the quickest way to test the waters in new markets.

But it sucks.

It’s an absolutely necessity to keep the top of the sales funnel filled so your closers can focus on closing.

But it sucks.

It’s a way to supplement the slower drip marketing campaigns that generate inbound leads.

But it sucks.

It’s a safe way to gain initial traction when launching a new product.

But it sucks.

It’s an efficient way to qualify prospects and deliver higher-quality leads.

But it sucks.

It doesn’t matter how many positives there might be, cold calling will always be a necessary yet terrible aspect of your marketing and sales process. It sucks because it’s hard to find someone who will make dozens of calls a day while representing your company well. And it’s hard to staff for seasonal demands, not to mention if I do get someone good, they’re valuable enough that they want to move up in the company or find a better opportunity elsewhere. Or the other problem – they’re just not good, but you can’t afford to pay someone more to attract higher talent.

And it just sucks.