How B2B telemarketing support can boost your bottom line
Successfully managing marketing leads requires strategy, collaboration between departments, and the bandwidth to maintain consistent practices. A deficiency in one or all three of these can render the strongest leads useless. From shrinking open rates to growing opt-outs, this is a problem that you can get ahead of with some smart outsourcing.
Without a clearly defined process, leads get stuck, particularly at the top of the funnel and in the gap between a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and a Sales Accepted Leads (SAL). So how do you know if your business could use a hand with managing and leveraging marketing qualified leads?
You could benefit from outsourcing your B2B telemarketing if:
- Management between sales and marketing is weak
- The sales team feels that all of the marketing leads are bad
- The marketing team feels the sales team doesn’t have proper follow-up on provided leads There is no defined sales handoff, scoring or lead process
- Open rates for emails and marketing automation are decreasing (even though social media response is up)
- Opt-out numbers are increasing
- Internal sales or marketing lead development teams can’t hit production numbers
- Your telemarketing or sales development representatives have high turnover
- Your internal team is frustrated with marketing or sales
Getting your B2B back in business
Let’s say you’ve recognized that it’s time to implement a B2B telemarketing program. Where do you get started?
The first step is to establish a long-term strategy. Building a successful and sustainable telemarketing program needs to start from the foundation. What are your short- and long-term goals? Who is best qualified to take the lead on this? How can you maintain clear communication between all departments for maximum leverage of viable leads? And most importantly, do you have a qualified telemarketing consultant to help you in this critical stage, to ensure that you are building this program in the best way possible?
Keep your outsourcing closer to home
The key to a successful B2B telemarketing program is finding the right team to create, manage and customize a system that works for your business. Choosing the less expensive, offshore solutions can put your sales pipeline, your brand, and your reputation in the wrong hands. It is critical to secure highly trained professionals who work within efficient and disciplined parameters. Partnering with an experienced team gives you the peace of mind that it’s being done well and done right. With the right team in place, your B2B telemarketing program will help reduce the cost of acquisition by:
- Maximizing every lead opportunity by nurturing them to SAL instead of only MQL status
- Providing better qualifying leads at sales handoff for better conversion rates
- Capturing more meaningful contextual data for accelerated sales cycles
- Enabling your direct sales team to focus on closing business instead of qualifying leads
Success starts behind the scenes
The next step is to provide the structure needed to promote success. Regular training is essential, but so are the behind-the-scenes elements, such as:
- Daily call planning
- List management and maintenance
- Team building and motivation
- Reporting and lead evaluation and review
- Resource planning to balance workloads
Your sales pipeline and your ability to hit revenue targets all begin with good lead management. When a B2B telemarketing program fails, it is typically the result of overlooking the essential underlying support structure outlined above. More often than not, when companies build an internal telemarketing or call center to reduce costs rather than grow sales, they diminish the team’s value to the process. In turn, this dilutes the lead management efforts necessary for long-term success.
To avoid an unsuccessful telemarketing program, first determine if you have the resources. If you don’t have the existing infrastructure to sustain a B2B telemarketing program, consider outsourcing to a team of experts. They can help you create, implement and sustain a program that will turn your leads into wins.
Want to talk about what your business needs for better lead management? Get in touch with us, and we can set up a no-obligation phone call to see if we’re a good fit for each other.
