5 Scenarios Where B2B Telemarketing is Still Winning

How to run an effective telemarketing campaign is a question we are asked almost daily, by marketers and salespeople. Why is the effectiveness of telemarketing and outbound in general such a hot topic? It’s because people know that telemarketing can be a really powerful lead generation campaign technique, but only when targeted correctly. So how do you use telemarketing for maximum results?

• Generating sales pipeline very quickly With experienced callers and a well prepared campaign (see our checklist below), telemarketing excels at generating pipeline quickly. Just make sure you have an engaging opening statement, a well defined proposition, and good questions planned. Build trust by asking those questions, listening and discussing the answers. And remember, nurture is everything. To grow leads effectively, your people need good collateral before they hit the phones.

• Targeting new geographies Targeting new geographies with existing products can be stressful. You may have no established brand and be entering a country where your salespeople don’t understand the competitive landscape. Here, telemarketing can give you a very quick start. By not relying solely on your opening statement, but also asking good questions, listening and discussing the answers, you engage the market quickly, build trust and gain critical intelligence that will help guide your approach to the market and even make key decisions on its viability.

• Launching a new product or OEM partnership initiative The principle here is a combination of the previous two. You want to get in front of prospects quickly, uncover opportunities (we’re back to building trust here), gain intelligence that can inform your specific and overall approach, and move partnership opportunities forwards.

• Gaining rapid market intelligence As we’ve said, telemarketing excels in providing you with a direct route to your prospects and customers. If you have experienced salespeople making the calls, then you can engage key contacts in conversation, develop rapport and apply influence to gain critical insights into your market, such as:

  • how your company and product is perceived
  • how your competitors are perceived
  • what typical buying cycles are
  • new business initiatives that may affect your product’s development in the future
  • economic factors that otherwise may be hidden from public view
• When integrated with inbound marketing for a full sales-cycle lead generation strategy A great deal of the promotion around inbound marketing would have you believe that it completely replaces traditional outbound tactics, such as telemarketing. This fails to recognise both the strengths of good telemarketing and how well inbound and outbound work together as a holistic lead generation strategy. All solution salespeople are more effective at closing leads when they understand the prospects’ pains and interests. This is something that inbound can really help with. When you run an inbound campaign, leads are individuals who have engaged with specific content and sales messages. This means that by the time a salesperson is in a position to call them, they know what topics are important and how to push those hot-buttons.

Find out more about running effective telemarketing campaigns by downloading our free checklist.