How to choose an outsourced sales provider: twelve questions for the first call.

Choosing an outsourced sales provider comes down to twelve questions, and none of them is "how many meetings can you guarantee". The good providers have specific answers to all twelve; the poor ones talk about their process. We sell this, so read the list as one written against ourselves - every question is one we would rather be asked than not.

The twelve questions

1. Who will listen to the calls, and how often?

   A name and a rhythm: this manager, every day, live. The worrying answer is "our QA team reviews a sample monthly", which means nobody is coaching, and the rep in month three sounds like the rep in week two.

2. Can we see the board before we sign?

   The list of companies you would call, with the reason each is on it. If it cannot be shown, it does not exist yet, and what you are buying is a filter on a database rather than a market.

3. Who are the reps, and what have they worked on?

   Names, tenure, the markets they have prospected. The worrying answer is a pool of "SDRs" with no names, which usually means whoever is free.

4. Do you call?

   Yes, how often, and from what numbers. A provider that has quietly become an email-and-LinkedIn shop will describe the phone as "where appropriate". The phone is where the meeting gets agreed.

5. Whose name and whose domain?

   Yours, on a mailbox they set up and warm, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC in place. The worrying answer is their own sending infrastructure, which is a shared reputation you do not control.

6. What happens in the third week of calling?

   The first list has been worked, nobody has replied yet, the report says nought. A good provider says: the fourth and fifth touches land now, here is what we look at instead of pipeline. A poor one has not thought about it, because its clients usually cancel then.

7. What is a meeting?

   Held, with a person who fits criteria agreed in writing, and how a no-show or a wrong title is treated. The worrying answer is "booked", which is a calendar entry, not a conversation.

8. What is the reporting?

   Dials, conversations, replies, meetings booked and held, per week, and what changed. Ask to see a real one from a real client, names blanked. If it is a dashboard of vanity numbers, so is the work.

9. What do you need from us?

   A brief, a person to take the meetings, fifteen minutes a week. The worrying answer is "nothing, we handle everything", which means they intend to work without a brief.

10. How does it stop?

    Plainly, and with what you keep - the board, the data, the mailbox - set out before you start. The worrying answer is a long minimum term justified by "it takes time to work". It does take time; a quarter, not a year.

11. Who else have you done this for, and can we speak to them?

    Named clients, with their words on the record, and at least one who will take a call. Logos without stories are not references.

12. What would make you say no?

    A provider that will tell you when your market is thin, your proposition is early or your closer is not ready is a provider that will tell you the truth in month two. One that has never turned down a brief will not.

What to do with the answers

Write them down while they are being given and read them back a day later. The pattern is usually obvious: the specific answers cluster, and so do the vague ones. Then ask the one question that is not on the list, which is whether you would want to work with these people for a quarter. Outbound is a weekly conversation, and the provider you choose is someone you will be talking to every Friday.

Our own answers to all twelve are on the FAQ and how it works pages.