Despite allocating sufficient time, resources, and manpower towards telemarketing, many B2B businesses fail to see tangible results. Owing to this negative perception, many marketers have shifted their efforts from cold-calling to digital marketing. But corporate leaders continue to stress the importance of telemarketing as an effective lead generation vehicle for your business. On the whole, the demand for outsourced B2B telemarketing services is incredibly high today. A personalized, tactical and innovative approach on part of a seasoned telecalling team can drive higher conversions and closures. So what strategies do these crème-de-la-crème ‘closure experts’ follow? Here’s a look at 7 sure-shot B2B telemarketing strategies to bolster lead generation:-
Steer Clear of Monotonous Openers
As a telemarketer, your opening statement is the most crucial to determine whether the prospects will consider listening to you. A generic opening line that hardly strikes a personal connection will fail to entice them into the conversation. Study your ICP (Ideal Client Profile) carefully, and carefully craft your opener to grab their attention. This will significantly reduce the number of people hanging up in the first 20 seconds.
Rely on the Best B2B Telemarketing Services
To save time, money, and other resources, a considerable number of B2B businesses are outsourcing their telemarketing requirements. A comparative cost analysis of in-house versus outsourced telemarketing will depict that the latter is far more cost-effective. Furthermore, your marketing ROI will receive a huge boost owing to the prolific experience and expertise of specialized telecallers. Hiring and training an in-house team is far more cumbersome, wrought with uncertain results.
Use a Well-Updated Database
Your telemarketing efforts are directly proportional to the authenticity of your database. If you provide your team with clean, well-segmented details focused on your ICP, the conversion chances will be far higher. Also, with a well-updated database, your telemarketing team can directly focus on the task at hand. Using inferior data will unnecessarily warrant their time spent on corrections, thus reducing team productivity.
Holistic Training for Telemarketers
A common mistake committed by companies is to restrict the training of telecallers to the latest telephonic scripts. Most of them just memorize the script and plunge into daily operations with half-baked knowledge of the products or services being sold. The modern-day customer is highly discerning and will easily see through half-hearted pitches and incompetent salespersons. For your telemarketing campaign to become a powerful lead generation platform, your telemarketers need to be holistically trained. Cover all aspects from product/service knowhow, to telephone etiquette, sales training, demos, role plays, and so on.
Work on an Interactive Script
Telemarketing scripts should always incorporate a human touch. The focus should be to initiate a two-way conversation rather than a monologue or a one-sided presentation. Try to incorporate relevant questions in the script for the telecaller to gain a better understanding of the client’s requirements. Also, never force your team to follow the script blindly. A certain level of intuition and situational questions/comments are important to close the loop. An interactive script should encourage the potential client to speak and steer the conversation ahead based on his/her interests. The more efforts you pour into differentiating your telemarketing script from your competitors, the higher are your chances of invoking a positive response.
Demarcate the Genuine Prospects from the Insincere Ones
There is always a quota for telecallers in terms of the number of calls per day. This number is significant and acts as a baseline for lead generation. However, following up with interested prospects should always be carried out discerningly. Train your team to demarcate genuine prospects. The first conversation should be adjudged well to decide if it is worth pursuing further or not.
Converge Digital Lead Generation with Telemarketing
For a business to successfully garner a steady stream of leads, the different marketing teams need to work in tandem. Digital marketing and telemarketing might seem poles apart. But connecting with the same set of high-potential clients on both fronts can be of immense help. Ensure uniform branding and marketing messages across diverse media- telesales, email marketing, social media marketing, and so on.
Conclusion
In the post-Covid-19 world of fluctuating markets and altered business dynamics, generating leads via B2B telemarketing can appear challenging. The aforementioned strategies can help you chart the right approach. Along with personalized touch to telesales conversations, combining telemarketing with digital lead generation is the way ahead.
