Although there has been a shift to digital marketing, many marketers have found that new marketing solutions often haven’t lived up to the hype.
Telemarketing is one of the traditional channels that many marketers are starting to revisit, as it is a tried, tested and proven method for generating sales leads and appointments.
Haven’t Buyers changed?
Most people in Sales and Marketing roles are aware that there have been changes to the way that B2B buyers find, evaluate and engage with potential new suppliers.
What hasn’t changed of course is that people still buy from people. The value of human interaction throughout the sales process for B2B businesses is not in question.
Have these changes had an effect on Telemarketing?
Undoubtedly, yes. However, there are two sides to this coin.
The first is that good telemarketing relies less on `persuasion` than it used to. Whilst the role of telemarketing is still to create a positive impression of your business, the days of persuading prospects to see a Salesperson, when they are not that interested, have had their day.
The net effect of the increase in resistance by Buyers to being pushed into a half-baked sales appointment is that the number of leads that are generated from your telemarketing activity may be less than it would have been 10 years ago.
So what’s the flip side?
Lead generation is about quality over quantity. It always has been and always will be.
There is no value in Sales following up with prospects that aren’t interested. They’ll duck calls, cancel meetings – or worse still, take the meeting out of courtesy and explain to the Salesperson that they’re not really interested. Leads like this have little value and consume precious time.
The very fact that buyers are more selective about who they see should be seen as a positive for Sales; it means that when a prospect commits to a sales appointment they will have more than just a passing interest and are probably closer to making a decision.
How can you maximise the volume of leads?
Clearly, the strength of the proposition is the key factor in how easy it is to generate sales appointments. Naturally though, it is far easier to generate leads if there is marketing collateral and a good website to support the lead generation activity.
Awareness and reputation all contribute to effective lead generation. It can be hard to measure ROI from spend on creating awareness; be this through email marketing, remarketing or other lead nurturing.
However businesses that invest in marketing, brand and awareness campaigns see a significantly greater ROI from their lead generation activity.
Telemarketing is no different. It is more effective as part of an integrated, wide-ranging marketing campaign that drives decision maker engagement and ensures that the telemarketers have warmer conversations.
