Telemarketing Lead Generation Blog

An Essential for Telemarketing Campaign Success – Sales Buy-in

Posted on Oct 26, 2010 by Ashley Rist, Lead Quality Manager

There are a number of things that contribute to the success of a telemarketing driven lead generation campaign and countless metrics used to measure that success. Solid lead rates, conversion statistics, dial metrics, and sheer quantity of leads are some of the hard numbers we can take a look at in order to determine how our efforts are paying off. Monitoring these points to ensure that campaign goals are met is important. However, it is more important (in my opinion) to make sure that the overall objective of a campaign is not lost in focusing on metrics that are only meaningful to marketing. The overall objective I’m speaking of is increased revenue. When measuring your marketing success, it is important to know the answers to questions like the following:

How are the leads I’m generating being worked by Sales? Are they being worked? Are they resulting in profit for my organization?

A key to achieving that very high level and obvious objective is ‘Sales Buy In’. Too often, I have seen qualified leads (sometimes expensive ones) go by the wayside because Sales was not privy to background information regarding the leads they were receiving. Because they were not aware of the investment of time and money represented in a lead, the opportunity was perhaps not paid its due diligence. Thus, the ultimate goal of the investment (return), was not realized. Below are some suggestions for obtaining the ‘Sales Buy In’ that I believe is essential to the big picture success of any marketing driven lead generation campaign.

• Communicate your Marketing Objectives – Let your Sales counterparts know the plan for the upcoming quarter or fiscal year. What products will be the focus? Why these products? What will your audience be? This will give your Sales team a general expectation for what they can expect to see in the leads they’ll receive in the months to come. Given this expectation, they are afforded the opportunity to prepare for effective follow up on your leads through training and/or general research. Their ability to prepare will contribute significantly to the total revenue they are able to generate from the leads coming out of your efforts.
• Gain Sales Input for Lead Qualification Parameters – Find out what constitutes the ideal lead for your Sales team. What do they want? What pieces of information would be useful to them in their follow up? What do they consider qualified? The recipients of your leads (which may vary based on campaign specifics) may have different ideas about what constitutes a qualified opportunity. For example, some teams may want to follow up with individuals who simply want to speak to a representative to learn more about a specific solution. Others may want to be certain that details around budget, authority, need, and timeframe for purchase are defined and present before reaching out to a prospect. Giving your Sales team what they want has the potential to improve the return on your investment considerably.
• Create Channels for Reciprocal Communication – Real time feedback is KEY! How are the leads meeting Sales’ expectations? What actions have been taken on the leads Marketing has provided? Worthwhile, immediate adjustments are possible when communication is flowing between lead sources and lead recipients. Marketing and Sales each have experience and background information that is of value to the other department. The flow of this information from one to the other at all phases of a lead generation campaign maximizes awareness and the ability to monitor success in real time.

Tagged: lead generation, targeted lead generation, telemarketing lead generation, lead nurturing telemarketing, lead generation telemarketing, telemarketing sales leads, telemarketing lead generation measurement

Your comment will be posted shortly. Thank you for commenting!

STAY IN TOUCH WITH TELENET

Get the latest News & Blog updates sent straight to your inbox. Sign up now!

• Abby Lynes, Program Director
• Anabel Foucart, Senior Program Director
• Ashlea Harris, Vice President of Program Management & Operations
• Ashley Rist, Lead Quality Manager
• Brian Rubin, Senior Software Developer
• Britney Bailey, Program Director
• Chris Engel, Vice President of Information Technology
• Dana Gill, Program Director
• Jason St Onge, Senior Account Executive
• Jeff Johnson, Guest Blogger- TeleNet Client & Industry Veteran
• Jon Plant, Senior Program Director
• Kathy Rizzo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing
• Laura Johnson, Senior Program Director
• Maryann Ramsey, Program Director
• Melissa Joffrion, Account Executive
• Micah Green, Operations Training & Development Manager
• Sharon Dahlhaus, Account Executive
• Sonya Lane, Vice President of Human Resources
• Tamika Drake, Call Center Coordinator
• Tyler Anderson, Account Executive