The human element still plays a central role in business development.
Direct marketing is an important source of B2B leads even in an increasingly digital world, where social media dominates marketing strategies.
In fact, a recent Capterra Marketing Survey found that telemarketing is still the most effective B2B lead generation strategy outside of executive events.
Clearly, human interaction is essential for creating B2B sale opportunities, hence the importance of telemarketing.
A telemarketing campaign gives your business the flexibility to achieve numerous business objectives.
B2B marketing calls can be used for everything from setting up appointments to carrying out market research.
It can also be a vital component of an integrated marketing plan, allowing businesses to follow up on more impersonal email and direct mail campaigns.
There is a place for B2B telemarketing in both inbound and outbound marketing.
An inbound telemarketing campaign encourages a potential customer to call you first, after seeing advertising, social media, or other promotional materials.
Outbound marketing involves managing leads, researching markets, and maintaining customer relationships.
Here are three ways telemarketing provides long-term value to your B2B company.Â
Table of Contents
Providing market intelligence
B2B buying cycles are typically long, so most interactions with prospects will result in a “not right now ” or simply a “no”.
The majority of these prospects are, however, open to discussing their current circumstances. By asking them the right questions, you can determine what their pain points are and what the conversion process would look like.
Understanding trends, competitors, and factors important to prospects is instrumental in identifying at what stage a prospect is in the buying cycle.
You can uncover the cause and effect behind patterns and trends in your data by using phone-based market research services.
In addition, B2B telemarketing adds a personal touch. Having real, human conversations with prospects and customers makes them feel more comfortable sharing their views.
With telemarketing, you can dig deeper into responses, using open questions to fully understand your prospects’ needs.Â
Your data will be validated and your target audience’s viewpoint will be clear.
High-quality lead generation
The goal of any lead generation campaign is to increase sales – by uncovering new business opportunities.
Most salespeople place a high priority on increasing the quality of leads – not just the amount.Â
HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report for 2022 found that 43% of salespeople struggle most with prospecting.
In addition to generating top-of-funnel leads, B2B telemarketing generates significantly warmer leads than other outsourced approaches.Â
The reason is that effective B2B telemarketers make sure prospects are qualified before passing them along to sales reps.Â
Direct contact with decision-makers also speeds up lead qualification.
A sales process often requires several calls to close the deal and this is where lead nurturing comes in.
In order to build trust with leads, a B2B marketer needs to be able to personalize calls, conduct detailed research, and engage them in real, meaningful, solution-oriented conversations.
Making your sales team more efficient
Sales cycles are complex, which is exacerbated when your team struggles in certain areas.
It is more efficient and cost-effective to outsource any areas of the sales cycle that are underperforming, allowing your sales reps to focus on their strengths.
Cold calling is sometimes neglected by sales professionals in favor of following up with warm prospects. Prospecting can be neglected when you’re under pressure to make sales.Â
Initially, this might work, but in the long run it will starve the sales funnel of new leads.
With outsourced lead generation telemarketing, an in-house sales team can concentrate on closing sales instead of finding new prospects.
Using telemarketing effectively will ensure that your sales reps receive a steady flow of high-quality leads, simultaneously alleviating the ups and downs of selling.
A dedicated outsourced B2B telemarketing company will generate high-quality, qualified leads, so your sales team can focus on nurturing existing leads.
In addition to making appointments, conducting market research, and following up on email marketing campaigns, More Than Words Marketing’s B2B telemarketing and data research department can generate qualified potential leads for your sales team.