Early in this Blog series we looked at a few key topics that every company interested in a telemarketing strategy should bear in mind:
Telemarketing – More than Just Appointment Setting considered some of the underlying benefits of telemarketing including clean data, target market intelligence, brand awareness, customer engagement etc.
Why a Customised Telemarketing Program is Important looked at the drawbacks of a one-size-fits-all approached to telemarketing and advocated a customised approach which considers your objectives, target market, sales process, product/service offering etc.
In 3 Essential Questions for Planning a Telemarketing Campaign we gave a starting point for your planning process for a new B2B telemarketing campaign.
Some tips on how to develop an effective B2B telemarketing campaign, which will generate sales results
Whether or not the campaign is carried out internally or you are outsourcing to a telemarketing agency, a good place to start is to define the following points:
Specific Objectives:
Before launching any telemarketing campaign, take the time to define clear and specific objectives that you will then be able to use not only verify the results of the campaign, but also to ensure that your goals are realistic and achievable in the first place. Objectives should include key metrics like number of prospects contacted, number of calls placed, number of leads generated but you should also look at other business objectives like gathering business intelligence which can feed into product development, marketing strategy and other key areas of the business.
Budgeting & Resources:
This is particularly important if you are deciding between executing a campaign internally or outsourcing to a specialised agency; and you need to compare the two options. Outsourcing may seem more costly at first, but an in-house campaign will incur costs such as agent salaries, training, time and resources spent managing the campaign and an inside sales team, software licences for CRM and other tools. In many cases, the ROI is easier to achieve by outsourcing this function.
Communication Channels:
A good flow of information between campaign stakeholders is important to the success of any telemarketing campaign. A robust CRM set up and process will allow telemarketing agents to gather information that can be used across the business but in particular for future marketing initiatives. Define the information requirements of both sales and marketing and set up the relevant fields in the CRM which can capture this information. Decide how “leads” are to be reported to sales and define and communicate the process to both the telemarketing team sending the leads and the sales team receiving them. A weekly meeting of stakeholders can be useful in allowing both specific feedback and general discussion of key trends and lessons learned. Weekly reporting will help to keep the campaign on track and give visibility to other people in the organisation who might not be directly involved in the campaign.
Target List:
It’s vital to the success of your telemarketing campaign that you get your target list right. Reconsider the campaign objectives when you are putting together the target list. If your main objective is to fill the sales pipeline with high-quality leads, then your target list should contain warm prospects or low-hanging fruit ie the type of prospects that you know will have a requirement for your product or service. However, if your objective is a Go-To-Market campaign, then your list should be very targeted; built on clearly identifiable criteria such as industry, company size, geography etc.
Choose the Right Telemarketing Agents:
Even seasoned sales professionals will admit that cold calling is difficult. It’s a specialised skill that many salespeople have neither acquired nor nurtured. Any why should they? Salespeople should concentrate on what they do best - closing the sale. You need telemarketing agents that are professional and enthusiastic about what they do; people who can hold a high level conversation, ask the tough questions, and qualify the leads appropriately.
If you would like to know more about developing a B2B telemarketing campaign or you are interested in finding out about Maven TM’s service, please do not hesitate to contact us.
