We’ve talked about the importance of telemarketing as a key demand strategy in a comprehensive customer journey. This comes as no surprise to many of you in business that recognise it as a particularly important part of lead-generation for NFP and B2Bs.
Statistics around telemarketing as a lead generation strategy show that it is the third most effective practice, following only inside sales, and executive events. But we need to get real about the way that it’s done.
It’s time to discuss the process and some of the real differences between the cost of investment and ROI.
See also: How effective is telemarketing for B2B lead generation
Budget cuts and the lure of offshore
The area of telemarketing tends to fall prey to cutbacks in the marketing budget, especially when the belt tightens. There are a vast number of offshore companies – you may not even recognise them as such in the beginning given their ‘local HQ office’ – offering lead generation packages that are exceedingly affordable. But what is the overall cost of signing on?
How many unsolicited calls do you take?
You have to bring it down to your own personal experience. When you forget to walk in the shoes of your customer, or begin to view them as a separate ‘entity’ or benign ‘market’ that’s when you can lose touch, and damage relationships.
You’re a busy person right? How many unsolicited calls are you likely to take either from your office or at home?
People just don’t want to chat with overseas marketers
This isn’t to say that there aren’t some quality examples of offshore marketing – and credit must be given to some really highly skilled sales people. But the fact is that the minute your customer hears the distant click of an international call followed by what is quite obviously a non-local sales executive they can be put off. ‘Oh no, it’s a sales call! I don’t have time for this’ based on previous interactions, the perceived quality and value of this call is likely to be low.
Offshore data work
You want quality conversations and quality data work to come from any telemarketing campaign. Your database is invaluable. If the quality of your data is being compromised to drive down costs, your telemarketing activity is unlikely to yield the best results. In addition you may lose opportunities to open up new lead opportunities by having a deeper and more expert conversation that can ask industry specific and relevant questions.
Diminished brand reputation
One of the other risks of outsourcing your telemarketing is that it can diminish your brand’s reputation. If it manages to get through the gatekeeper, then everything depends on the quality of the call. The challenge here is that outsourced agents are not familiar with the values and culture of your company. When corners are cut, the level of detail that agents are briefed with can be minimal. Taking it one step further, offshore agents may not be familiar with the cultural cues and expectations of your customer. Every sentence that mentions or concerns your brand must be quality if you want clients to perceive you and your products as high value.
Instead why don’t you…
Successful B2B telemarketing is reliant on a wide range of factors – from consistent representation of your brand and its values, to an experienced telemarketer who knows how to deliver the right message to the right prospect at the right time. You may wish to do this in-house via your inside sales team, or work on a campaign basis with an expert B2B agency like Make it Happen. Of course we would love to work with you, but we are not here to blow our own trumpet. After 20+ years in the industry we have seen b2b lead generation campaigns flourish and fail. Ultimately, we just want you to consider the real cost vs. value before your organisation invests in something that may not deliver the results you were hoping for.
To learn more about which factors make all the difference you might enjoy a previous post on B2B telemarketing. And if you’d rather - for detailed insights for your next comprehensive telemarketing campaign, contact the team.