Why Social Media Won’t Replace Telemarketing

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Why Social Media Won’t Replace Telemarketing

In this age of social media, it might seem like the art of live conversation is no longer necessary. And while technology seems to be taking over every facet of marketing, studies show that telemarketing continues to offer an outstanding return on investment.

Telemarketing is an excellent way to find leads and convert those leads into sales. Telemarketing is similar to other forms of marketing in that campaigns must be designed to meet the needs of its target audience. The best telemarketers also realize that their job goes way beyond making sales – although this is the end game. Lead generation, relationship building, and lead nurturing are the hallmarks of any successful telemarketing campaign. Experts will tell you that nurtured leads spend more money – over a longer period of time – than customers who were won over with a quick sales pitch.

Telemarketers need to work hard not just to make sales but to capture vital information and find new opportunities. In this way, telemarketing is anything but behind the times. Telemarketing allows companies to compile a great deal of data that will allow for pinpointed marketing campaigns.

While telemarketing continues to outpace most other forms of marketing – including social media – there are certain components that are necessary for a telemarketing campaign to be successful. These include:

Repetition: The most successful telemarketing campaigns are anything but one and done. In order to forge the type of relationships that lead to long-term customer relationships you should expect to make several calls to prospects. Remember, it’s all about relationship building.

Well-Defined Goals: Getting a prospect on the phone is just the beginning of the process, not the end. Make sure your script is clear, concise, and delivered with confidence. There is a very short window of time to engage your prospect. Make sure you make the most of it.

Relevancy: Make sure the product or service you are calling about is relevant to the prospect. In today’s data-driven marketing world, there is no excuse for poorly targeted prospects.

Telemarketing continues to outpace other forms of marketing because of its high success rate. No matter what you are trying to achieve – sales, lead generation, customer retention, market research, etc. – telemarketing will continue to be important for one simple reason: it works.

Improving Your B2B Marketing Efforts

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Improving Your B2B Marketing Efforts

Marketing experts will tell you that B2B telemarketing is an extremely effective tool for promoting your company’s goods and services. Unfortunately, if a business is seeing good results from their B2B telemarketing efforts there is a tendency to rest on their laurels.

In order to keep ahead of the competition and continue to reach new sales heights, it is important that you constantly seek to improve your telemarketing efforts. What follows are a list of ways you can do just that:

  1. Make sure that your data lists are meticulous. Up-to-date, targeted data needs to be tailored for each specific calling campaign.
  2. Clearly outline your goals. Are you looking to make a sale? Make an appointment? Whatever you are looking to do, make sure that your telemarketers know what is expected of them. Remember, too, that some goals will take more than a single call to accomplish and this needs to be communicated to your telemarketing team.
  3. Use an integrative approach. Telemarketing campaigns work best when they are part of an overall strategy that uses a multi-channel approach.
  4. Consider outsourcing. Studies show that in-house sales teams follow up only about 20 percent of leads. When you outsource your telemarketing efforts, you help to ensure that leads aren’t being lost because your sales team is too busy to follow up on those leads.
  5. Allow telemarketers to go off script. While scripts are important, it also is important that your telemarketers feel free to develop a rapport with prospects, which may mean going off script a bit. That’s not to say that they neglect valuable talking points in their pitch, but the conversation should never seem scripted. Remember, authentic personal touches are what relationship building is all about.
  6. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Telemarketers should have information about each prospect they are calling in front of them before they make a call. They also should be well-versed on the particular campaign they are promoting or the product or service they are selling. There is never an excuse for not being prepared so always make sure that your B2B marketing information is complete and up-to-date.
  7. Be a little unpredictable. Most people don’t work just 9 to 5. When you call early in the morning or in the evening, you’ll have a better chance of avoiding the gatekeeper and talking to the decision maker.

No matter how successful your B2B telemarketing efforts are, they can always improve. By continually assessing your telemarketing efforts you can be sure that you are always on top of your game!

You’re in Front of the Decision Maker, Now What?

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You’re in Front of the Decision Maker, Now What?

Much attention is paid to the very important task of making sure that salespeople are able to get in front of – or on the phone with – decision makers. Equally important, however, is knowing what to say to a decision maker once a salesperson gets the chance.

Speaking with decision makers can be intimidating. After all, lead generation efforts are in most cases only seen as a success when they culminate in a meeting with a decision maker. No matter how experienced a salesperson or telemarketing professional is, presenting to a decision maker is not always easy.

Thankfully, there are ways to interact with decision makers so that the conversation goes as smoothly, and as successfully, as possible. The first way to do this is to recognize that time is money. Important people don’t have a moment to waste. While it is natural to want to launch into your sales pitch as soon as possible, make sure you always let the decision maker know that you understand that he or she is very busy and that you don’t plan on spending too much of their time.

An opening such as, “I understand you are busy so I will only take a few minutes of your time,” will go a long way. Such an opening allows the decision maker to concentrate on what you have to say instead of how quickly he or she can get you to wrap it up.

It also is important that a salesperson acknowledges the elephant in the room – or on the line. For example, if it is likely that a decision maker will turn you down because there is no money in the budget for what you are proposing, lead with that fact. “I know you might not think you can afford this service, but I’d like to tell you why you will actually make money by using it.” Stating this fact keeps the focus on your service, or product, instead of why there is no money to pay for it.

Finally, once you have made it clear that you understand how busy the decision maker is, and that you have a product or service that they really need, it’s time to do what you said you would do. This means explaining in a clear, concise, and well-researched manner how you can help improve business. And when it comes down to it, there is nothing more important to a decision maker than knowing you value his or her time and that you want to help grow their business.