Business Executives of all kinds think about the outbound telemarketing impact on their marketing mix and results when they ponder their next critical plan for growth. They instinctively understand complex business solutions are not sold without informed and effective human interaction in the nurture process.
The complication is they often consider the cost of an outbound phone call versus the cost of sending an email and wonder how to balance the costs. They dispatch their purchasing analysis team into the fray to search endlessly for the elusive lowest cost per call or lowest cost per lead organization, or they deploy HR to find them a “caller”.
This phenomenon goes on every day in business…. 24 by 7, 365 days a year.
Make sure your telemarketing programs give you a viable revenue outcome, not simply re-sold appointments.
Often the payment solution search to the problem surfaces “pay per lead”. Surely this is the means by which the buyer of this service is protected. Later it becomes obvious the leads they are buying have been sold to 100 other companies before it was sold to you and guess what, you are late to the proverbial party.
After 40 years promoting technology in a b2b space I offer up my most sincere observation.
The most expensive outbound telemarketing is the one where the buyer does not get into real deals as a result of telemarketing and they don’t understand why.
Actually not knowing why it is not working is the most damaging part of that statement. It means that not only did you invest the dollars to be in market, you invested the precious time in market which was not successful. During that time you may have lost market share to your most aggressive competitor who wakes every morning planning to eat your lunch..
The solution to this every day challenge is to be certain you are working with a firm who will begin helping you with a comprehensive look at your situation, including understanding your competition. Look for a firm that understands the goal of all this work is to grow top and bottom line revenue.
Choose a firm who will study your messaging and marketing mix and help you figure out what role outbound calling plays and how it fits in to the big picture.
A firm that will bring their “Right Offer” methodologies and experienced resources to bare and help you achieve market differentiation, which ultimately contributes enormously to your ROI from your marketing investment.
A final key concept to share here for those looking for outbound telemarketing help is that outbound telemarketing works very effectively only when it is highly monitored and constantly tweaked to perform.
Remember, you are talking about one to one human interaction… it takes time to get that dialog to work right. Caller coaching, caller education, scripting changes, data base enhancements, correctly matched content, supportive digital. It may be referred to as outbound telemarketing, but it really is integrated outbound telemarketing. Miss that point and you miss the boat to effective and productive outbound lead generation.
At Frantz Group, after 22 years helping tech and tech consulting firms crack the code, we get it. We get up every day making it better for you… so you can drive growth… which is what you get up every morning to do.
All My Best,
John Frantz