With increasing pressure to contribute real revenue to their bottom-line, B2B marketers are readily embracing new technologies and innovative marketing techniques to engage prospects and qualify leads for their sales organization. While having a mix of marketing strategies is important, some marketers are swinging the pendulum too far to the “innovation” side, and consequently overlooking proven “tried and true” methods to communicate with their customers and prospects. One such proven method is teleservices.
When done appropriately, the phone is truly one of the most effective mediums to engage both your prospects and your customers, while capturing valuable analytics and market intelligence to shape your future marketing strategy.
Here’s why it’s so effective…
Human Touch
When it comes to connecting one-on-one with your market, there’s really no better medium than the phone. At a time in which people constantly communicate digitally, a phone call is an opportunity to engage in a real conversation, a welcomed human-to-human interaction.
The RAIN Group, a sales training and consulting firm, recently published the following powerful research data regarding the phone:
- 57% of Vice President-level and 51% of Director-level decision-makers prefer to be contacted by phone*
- 54% of buyers say that for the most recent meeting they agreed to, the seller connected with them via the phone*
Thus, even with an increasing dependency on digital communication, over half of the decision-makers polled prefer to be contacted via the phone. Equally important, more than half of sales appointments are initiated through the phone. These are powerful statistics showing the importance of human-touch and the effectiveness of teleprospecting for B2B marketers measured by revenue contribution.
Intelligence
As the phone creates a two-way dialogue with your customers and prospects, each conversation provides an opportunity to learn about your target market, their business priorities, challenges, contracts, service shortcomings, etc. Not only will this insight provide valuable details for your sales organization concerning who is evaluating and why; you’ll also receive intelligence on accounts that will enter the buying cycle in 12, 24 or 36 months from now. Thus, you’ll be able to lay the groundwork for a successful long-term, nurturing strategy.
When effectively documented, insights gained through teleprospecting can also be analyzed to pinpoint trends relating to industry, geography, job function, installed competitors, and many more. This knowledge can help to shape future marketing campaigns.
Integration
Just as marketers should be cautious of swinging the pendulum too far to the “innovation” side, they should not rely solely on teleservices. The phone is most effective when integrated with other channels such as email and digital content marketing to create multiple impressions. Best results come from a balanced mix of innovative digital strategies and proven human-touch methods.
*Source: Top Performance in Sales Prospecting, 2018. RAIN Group Center for Sales Research
Want to learn more about how TeleNet can help your organization reach your marketing and sales goals? Contact us today to schedule a discovery session with one of our account executives.
Read more about the effectiveness of human-touch B2B marketing, the intelligence you can garner through tele, and ways to integrate with your existing marketing strategy below: