When it comes to building brand awareness and a reliable customer base, b2b lead generation is an essential component. One of the most effective ways of generating successful leads is through b2b telemarketing. With this in mind, there are several factors to consider when performing your lead generation campaign using telemarketing. As a telemarketer, if you follow these simple steps, you’ll be on your way to lead generation success.
Concentrate on Your Audience
Before you even pick up the phone, you have to be aware of who your audience is, what their requirements are, and how your product can help them meet those requirements. When you have these three things in mind, it helps you to guide the conversation when you’re speaking to them on the phone.
Knowing how to guide the conversation is also important because this is very different from forcefully trying to sell your product or service to someone who simply does not need it. You have to be able to fully understand their requirements to provide solutions for them. If you keep your audience in mind, it makes it easier to establish good leads more efficiently.
Ensure that the audience you communicate with are relevant, targeted and up to date (and those that you actually want as clients).
Start with an Engaging Opening Line
Often telemarketers open with an insincere “hello x how are you today?”. This automatically disengages the person on the other end of the phone. Following on from the previous tip, try to create an opening line that engages your audience and shows that you’ve done your market research. First impressions are everything, and you have to convince your audience that you can genuinely help them by providing your company’s service or product.
Sincerity is another component of commanding engagement in your opening line. You have to be genuine in your expressions and your tone of voice. Treating a telemarketing phone call like something you have to tick off a to-do list will filter through in your voice and make the prospective customer doubt what their business means to you. If the prospect is engaged off the bat, the chances are higher that they will become a good lead.
Ask the Right Questions
It’s important to ask the right questions when you are trying to build a solid lead base through telemarketing. Establishing another business’ position early on in the conversation will allow you to determine whether or not you can help them quickly, meaning you will identify genuine prospects more efficiently.
Asking the right questions will not only gain you useful information and insights into your target market but will also show the person on the other end of the phone that you’ve done your homework. A genuine prospect will take their time to answer the questions you have.
For these reasons, telemarketers will often work off a prewritten script. A script should not be used as a tool for “parroting” the conversation, but rather as a reminder about how you want the conversation to go. Remember, you still want to come across as genuine throughout the b2b telemarketing phone call.
Estimate Your Call Volume
Before you start calling for a b2b telemarketing campaign, set a goal for yourself of the number of phone calls you can make in a day and do everything in your power to hit those numbers. A skilled telemarketer will know how long a solid lead’s phone call will take, and therefore factor this into their estimate. Those at the top of their game will also keep the goal in mind without allowing them to have an impact on the quality of their pitch.
By harnessing the above-mentioned skills while making a high number of results-driven calls, you’ll end up generating good leads at a rapid pace. Telemarketing is by no means all about the number of calls you can make in a day, but having a number in mind will drive you to do the best job possible. It will also give you an indication of your performance over a given period, which you can use to adapt your telemarketing methodologies to improve good lead generation yield.
Remember Its a Conversation, Not a Presentation
When working with a script, some b2b telemarketers fall into the trap of sounding like their phone call is rehearsed and therefore can sound bored or disingenuous to the other party. A good telemarketer will understand that your goal is firstly to build trust and establish a solid business relationship, and secondly to close to an appointment or a deal.
If you treat a phone call like a presentation, you run the risk of missing important information a prospect provides you with. When you miss information because you’re not listening, you quickly make the prospect disinterested in your offerings.
Treating a phone call like a normal conversation will demonstrate that you possess empathy and show that you really care about the prospect’s needs as well as the product or service you’re trying to market. It will also make the prospect feel like their business matters to you, opening up more opportunities for progressive business relations and collaborative projects.
Work Out your End Goal
In telemarketing, you have to conclude the phone call at some stage, and you want that conclusion to be in your favour. Before you start on your b2b telemarketing campaign, clearly establish what you want the outcome of the phone conversation to be.
Is the point of the phone call to spread brand awareness? Is the point of the phone call to impart knowledge and book an appointment? Am I making this phone call to try and build a solid customer base? Asking yourself these or similar questions will help you align your thoughts when entering the call.
When you have the end goal in mind, it ensures that you steer the conversation in the right direction, but also that you cover all your bases and don’t let a prospect go prematurely. The product or service you are marketing may not be a one-size-fits-all kind of solution, therefore navigating the individual prospect’s requirements may take more time than others. However, if you have the end goal in mind, it allows you to stay relevant and on track.