EFFECTIVE TELEMARKETING TECHNIQUES TO GENERATE MORE LEADS IN B2B SALES

When it comes to Lead Generation, there are a number of factors to consider in order to get actual results. However, generating leads isn’t easy and trying to acquire leads in the B2B space makes it all that much more difficult. Before you can start to acquire business leads and turn them into customers, you’ll need to come up with an effective, brand-consistent strategy. This is important because your efforts should actually generate sales, not just leads. In this blog we will tell you how to build a good strategy to boost your ROI.

Elements of a good Lead Generation or Telemarketing Plan

List of data – In order for any campaign to be successful the most important starting point is a good, reliable list of data which is key to your campaign. You can segment your calling group by geographic location, industry, company size, credit status etc. The more you know about your prospects, the more specific you can be with your targeting. There are many companies from which you can buy data. Some are more expensive than others. The reason being that more expensive data is likely to be more up-to-date and therefore of a higher quality.

When you buy data, don’t hesitate to ask your supplier how often they check contacts, email addresses and phone numbers on the data they sell.

Once you start calling your data, it is important to be persistent and make any gatekeepers your friend, so that you can build a rapport and eventually get through to the person you need. Don’t let yourself get fobbed off too easily, but at the same time, always stay courteous and respectful. Don’t forget to collect new contact names when prospects have left the company.

Telemarketing goals – The most common objective of a telemarketing campaign is to find more leads and drive more sales. For different campaigns, this will mean different things. You may want to invite your prospects to a free informative or networking event that you are organising. If you are selling a newly developed product or service, you may want to entice prospects by giving some of it away for free. Alternatively, you can simply check if companies are content with their current supplier and if they are not, arrange a telephone appointment or a physical appointment to tell them about your service or products.

Setting achievable telemarketing objectives that can demonstrate a true return on your investment is important to retain focus on everyone involved in the process. You also need to know what targets you have set and how you are going to measure and evaluate the results.

Do not use scripts – Your salespeople should never be reading from the script directly – they should use it as a guide, that’s all. It is important to put in writing what the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of your company are. How are you different from your competitors? You can also include in this write-up or telemarketing script what you will be offering your prospects. If you can offer something of value for free, your prospects are more likely to show an interest.

With regards to scripts, most of the time they do not provide enough focus in the flow for agents to easily channel from the “introduction” to “post-close” call phases. It is important that the person, who will carry out the calls, understands how your company adds value to your customers. At the same time, they need to feel confident to speak on the phone and sound professional with a good speaking voice, pace and tone.

If you work with a team, it is worthwhile to hold training sessions, including role-playing, and to practice outbound calls to allow your employees to get to know the script inside out. There should always be room to deviate and improvise from the basic outline of the conversation, your operatives need the flexibility to react to what’s happening in the moment and not get hung up on following a strict script.

Time keeping – It is important to know how much time you spend on your telemarketing campaign. In some cases, it is worth measuring hours or days per appointment. Figure out how many calls you need to make and over what period in order to get the results you are looking to achieve.  Estimate how many calls you can complete in an hour — then you’ll have a basic estimate on the number of calls and hours you’ll need.  Remember that it’s tough to get decision makers on the phone.  Depending on the campaign and what you are trying to achieve, a good rep may only have a handful of quality conversations per day.  All other calls, will either be companies who are not interested, those who need a call back because the right person is not available, or those who ask to receive an email before continuing any conversation over the phone.

Evaluation –  Monitoring your campaign response is extremely important to determine the effectiveness of your telemarketing campaigns. Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measure your performance against them. Don’t just wait until the end of your campaign to do an evaluation. A weekly evaluation or progress meeting is a great idea. It gives you an opportunity to speak with staff, check on targets and identify where there may be a need for change. Use reports to consistently evaluate progress and improve your telemarketing campaigns.

Follow up – Keep a schedule for follow-up calls. Being persistent and consistent is important. When you agree to call back at a later date, then make sure you make a note of this and stay on top of it. The easiest way to manage this, is having a CRM system in place. In addition, don’t give up after the first No. You don’t want to be annoying and keep on calling too often, but it is fine to call contact data that didn’t show any interest again after 6 or 12 months. By that time there may have been a change in personnel or a change in the company’s needs.

You need to work the process and give it time to deliver. If you do, you will see the results in terms of momentum in your business and sales growth.

Get someone to do the legwork for you. Why not engage a company to manage your Lead Generation Campaigns for you? Getting a specialized telemarketing company involved in doing the volume of the calls for your business, can improve moral and conversion of leads within your business. At eDivert, we specialise in for B2B. Please click here to find out more. Our team of talented telemarketers are fully trainedtelemarketing to make the best out of every call. Need to boost your sales? Contact us today for further details on: 01628 637 900 or e-mail us on info@eDivert.co.uk.