Cold calling, appointment setting and related lead-generation work is unpleasant and difficult. It takes a tough soul to call 100 people per day 100 people who know nothing about you with a canned sales pitch while expecting a return call, appointment or a sale.

It's no wonder so many people want to outsource lead generation. Before you even think about outsourcing this critical business process, though, there are several cautions and considerations to keep top of mind.

The voice on the phone is your brand.

Make sure you personally speak to everyone who will be making calls on your behalf. The person on the phone represents your brand and partnering with the lowest bidder can be a recipe for disaster.

Keep it clean.

Keep your data clean. The call list should be a valuable asset. As an asset, make sure the contacts in your call list are current.

To start, evaluate your existing data. How much of it is accurate? How much can be discarded? Consider that the U.S. Postal Service reports that 35 percent of all bulk mail mailed every year ends up in the garbage due to inaccurate addressing.

Gartner, Inc. estimates that over the next two years more than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1000 companies will continue to be flawed. More specifically, the information will be inaccurate, incomplete or duplicated. Another Gartner report cited major reasons why CRM projects fail. At the top of the list is "data is ignored".

Who's going to oversee the updating and maintenance of the data? Will your lead-generation partner update or delete outdated records? Will they take the time to research outdated leads? Will they clean e-mail addresses? Is the firm committed to updating the system? How will that be accomplished?

Before you or anyone else can think about picking up a phone, you need answers to these questions.

Appoint a CRM administrator.

The easiest way to keep your database clean and up to date is by appointing a CRM administrator. This person should possess excellent technical and research skills and understand your unique selling process.

The administrator must be able to set up campaigns, import leads, purge leads, develop rules for lead assignments and manage all unworkable addresses and contacts. You may even consider compensating the CRM administrator in a way that recognizes and rewards data accuracy.

Keep it together.

Avoid data silos. Some lead-generation vendors steer customers toward proprietary CRM

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