By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions, Televerde  

Craig Burbidge, a VP Marketing with Hitachi Consulting, recently conducted a side-by-side comparison of Televerde’s sales opportunity generation capabilities with that of a rival for a 90-day stretch. Neither Televerde nor our competitor was aware of the “bake-off” scenario, which was deliberately intended by Craig. The objective was the same for both firms: Position Hitachi’s customer-relations software solution and supporting services to medium-size businesses and generate qualified sales leads. 

By the end of the program Televerde delivered five times as many leads as our rival, and the leads were better quality according to Craig, who attributes this to Televerde’s persistence, a differentiator called out by journalist Victoria Barret in an article she wrote on Televerde that appeared in a recent issue of Forbes. 

We wanted to share a bit more with you, our Create & Accelerate readers, about what really happened during this apples-to-apples comparison.  We also want to make the point that a bake-off, assuming it’s an apples-to-apples comparison that is measured on equal values, is never a bad idea, especially for companies utilizing more than one outsourced lead-generating firm or at least thinking about doing so.

Having worked with many teleprospecting firms in the past, Craig was curious about what would happen if he put two rivals against each other without either of them knowing they were being tested.  He wanted to make sure he was receiving the best possible yield in terms of qualified leads.  Here’s how it worked:  The product being pitched to prospects was Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution and Craig gave each competitor half of his budget.  All variables were exactly the same.  One experienced lead generation specialist from Televerde and one from the competing firm were given the same level of training.  Both had been engaged with Hitachi programs previously.   At the end of the three-month test period, the results were clear: Televerde not only delivered five times more leads but the quality of those leads was measurably better.  Craig attributes Televerde’s victory to our unique business model, the utter tenacity of the lead generation specialists, and their thorough understanding of the product they were selling.  A win for Hitachi and definitely a win for Televerde. 

The bake-off is not an unusual approach, at least not for Televerde and probably not for our competitors either. It’s a reasonable, meaningful and measurable way to gauge the capabilities of the competitors. While the total cost each firm charges may not be the same, when that cost is deducted from the return value of the sales opportunities generated to calculate the true program ROI as well as the cost and ROI per each opportunity, the bottom line metrics reveal the actual value. 

Clearly there is a bake-off pay-off for the winning firm, and there’s a pay-off for the organization conducting the effort which now has peace of mind in knowing where precious demand creation dollars should be spent. 

So if you’re wondering how to effectively compare results between two or more firms, consider the bake-off approach. It’s not a new idea. Some would say it’s “old school.” But it’s fundamentally sound and can produce reliable results. While simple in concept, the implementer must make the effort to level-set expectations and variables so that the playing ground is fair for all involved and so the results are not subject to suspicion. 

Any firm with confidence in their resources, methodologies, systems and capabilities should welcome a bake-off opportunity vs. shrug it off as a low-value test or perceive it as demeaning to their value.