At a time when there is more and more pressure for marketing managers to generate qualified “sales-ready” opportunities resulting in real revenue, many companies are utilizing teleprospecting as a prominent piece of their lead generation strategy. However, even a proven marketing medium such as tele isn’t always a guarantee for success. Your results depend largely on what you put into your campaign.
Here are just a few of the most important steps you need to take.
Due Diligence – The first step in creating a successful tele-campaign is to conduct adequate planning and research.
- Know what you are promoting and why – What problems can you solve? How can your solution alleviate your prospect’s pains? How can you provide greater value to your existing customers?
- Understand your market – Who is buying your solution? Who are the decision-makers, influencers and recommenders? How do they typically evaluate? If focused on customers, which roles benefit from your after-market products, when should you discuss upgrades and add-ons?
- Integrate pertinent marketing activities – What relevant marketing activities can be integrated with your teleprospecting? Which assets and online content can be utilized for call-email-call strategies?
Answers to the above questions, plus many more, will become the basis for developing the call guide and lay the groundwork for your contact strategy.
Lead Criteria Definition – Be careful not to assume a one-size-fits-all definition based on BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe). Factors such as market awareness and product type (i.e. new concept vs. established product), as well as market type (i.e. customer or prospect) should be taken into consideration when creating your lead definition. It’s also important to gain input and buy-in from sales management to ensure expectations between marketing and sales are aligned. Once the lead criteria and definitions are established and agreed to, make sure they’re clearly communicated to your sales representatives.
Data Targeting – Nearly two-thirds of a tele-campaign’s success (or failure) is based on the data targeted (aka your list). If you target outdated lists, you’ll be disappointed with the results. Similarly, if you target accounts that your sales team doesn’t want to pursue, you’ll be disappointed with your ROI. Here are a few pointers …
- Know the attributes of your company’s ideal customer profile and align it to your target data accordingly. Look at verticals, revenue/employee size, titles, installed base environment, etc.
- If you’re targeting customers, include any relevant intelligence on their purchase history
- If your source is significantly outdated, invest in updating your data through data append services, third-party data sources and/or contact discovery services
- Apply all appropriate suppression to avoid targeting accounts that won’t yield your desired results – for instance, you may want to suppress accounts already in pipeline.
Campaign Management – Monitor and Adjust! – Once launched, it’s critical to carefully monitor the campaign results, making adjustments along the way. We frequently analyze which markets, accounts, titles, etc. are generating the best leads and which sources are producing the highest lead conversion rates. Additionally, we look at which qualified leads are most quickly converting to pipeline opportunities once handed over to the sales team. Based on results of ongoing analysis, teleprospecting is adjusted accordingly. This hands-on management helps to ensure there are no disappointments. Read more about our management team here.
These are just a handful of the key steps that TeleNet uses to guide our clients towards tele success. If you’ve had even one disappointing B2B tele campaign, let’s talk about how TeleNet can help guide you to success. Contact us today.
Interested in learning more about how to achieve teleprospecting success? Review the blogs below: