You’ve launched a telemarketing lead generation pilot program! Now, you’re tasked with evaluating the effectiveness in order to understand the long-term benefits to your organization. Here are four questions to ask”
- Is the Sales organization seeing value and opportunity in the leads which have been delivered? This is the most important question to answer. While you may be able to ascertain which leads have been “accepted” by Sales and which have made pipeline through your CRM tracking, in many cases the sales cycle is too long to show ROI during a 3 or 6-month pilot program. Therefore, it’s important to talk with several of your Sales representatives to get specific feedback on the leads. Is the data accurate? Are they receiving the type of leads that can turn into opportunities (i.e. decision-makers identified, real project plans uncovered)? Are they able to engage the leads and schedule a “next step”? Do the leads match their definition of “sales-readiness”? Do they want to see the program continue? All of these questions will help you to assess the quality of the leads, as well as your Sales teams’ ability (and desire) to convert them to business.
- How does the quantity of leads compare to expectations? The next question is to look at the quantity of leads. Are you receiving more than expected? While that is good (if the quality is also high), it’s important to understand what factors have contributed to the increase. Or are you receiving less leads than expected? If so, what factors contributed to the lower quantity? Are there steps (i.e. improved list targeting) that can be taken to increase the quantity moving forward? And if not, is the quantity large enough to still yield a positive ROI if 15-25% of the leads are eventually closed as “won”?
- What’s happening on the phone? It’s impossible to truly assess the effectiveness of a telemarketing program without listening firsthand to several telemarketing calls. Listening to calls is not only the responsibility of the telemarketing management team, but also the Marketing Managers (and even the Sales Managers). There are two reasons to listen to calls. First, you must feel comfortable with the agents who are making the calls and their delivery of your value propositions and messaging. Secondly, you should also have a firsthand knowledge of how the market is responding to the messaging. Is it resonating? Is the offer understood? Are objections what you expected? If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, then there’s an opportunity for immediate improvements.
- How can the data obtained assist marketing efforts moving forward? All data (not just the leads!) should be analyzed to uncover market trends, which may impact future campaigns and marketing initiatives. If you’re using a telemarketing agency, they should provide you with a detailed analysis, including charts for each major data element captured. For instance, what has the market told you about your competition? Are certain industries or regions yielding better results? Market intelligence is obtained through each conversation, so it’s important to use the data to your advantage.