Sales loves outbound telemarketing. An extensive study on B2B sales leads called the Black Report reveals that telemarketing was the top pick among nearly half of all top performing companies, followed by email, digital, marketing, social media, and conferences and trade shows. Plenty of marketers are out there saying telemarketing is dead, but they’re dead wrong. Comparing sales to marketers, sales ranked telemarketing 57% higher than marketing, while marketing selected digital marketing. B2B telesales continues to be one of the most effective lead channels. Nothing is dead as long as it delivers an amazing ROI, but too many companies are mishandling telemarketing. Here are some tips on how to generate B2B sales leads with telemarketing the right way.
IMAGE: PEXELS
Know Your Leads
Cold calling gets a bad rap, but usually the problem isn’t the fact that the target doesn’t know who you are, it’s that you don’t know them. Cold calling still has a place in B2B telemarketing, but there’s no excuse for going in blind. The more you know about a target company, the better you can match them to data you have on customers who do convert. Are they big enough to need and afford your solution? Who are their key decision makers and who are the influencers you’re likely to talk to? Research results in better response rates; you may want to visit 360 Leads to learn more about researching new markets and scoring leads.
Make Complex Sales
Every B2B sale is a complex sale, so stop driving hard selling tactics. It’s not a car, it’s an ongoing relationship between two complex organizations. It takes RFPs, proposals, and long decision-making processes after you put down the phone. Telemarketing is about building a conversation. Lead with the company’s value proposition and get them interested in hearing more. If you’ve done your research, they should be willing to listen.
Sell To People, Not Companies
Your personality is important when you pick up the phone. You’re not just selling a solution to a company, you’re selling your solution to the person on the other end of the line. Better training, coaching, and compensation builds a better telemarketing team that doesn’t forget to be human. It’s one reason to be careful with the B2B sales lead companies you outsource to. B2B sales lead companies like 360 Leads don’t just invest in their own teams, they also offer sales team optimization services for your personnel. Bringing on new customers is a skill that not every sales team was built for, but that can change.
Bring In Outside Help
Your sales team gets back-end support from financial and legal, so why don’t they get support on the front-end, too? Front-end sales support is ongoing lead generation and nurturing. Your sales team closes deals, something they can focus on doing when they’re not scrambling to meet sales lead quotas, too. Maximize your team’s efforts by bringing in support from a company like 360 Leads.
B2B telesales is far from a thing of the past. It might not be as sexy as new avenues in digital marketing, but it works. Stop waiting for leads to come to you and get talking.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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