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Writing a Telemarketing Lead Generation Script

Posted on Apr 8, 2008 by Sharon Dahlhaus, Account Executive

Having a quality telemarketing lead generation script is one of the most important items to ensure a successful campaign. In order to write a quality script, you must understand the goals and desired outcomes of the program, keep in mind how and for what the data will be used once the campaign is completed and take into account the flow of the call.

Obviously, leads are the desired outcomes of a lead generation campaign, but what defines a lead and what are the many other outcomes that will occur? Determine what your sales team considers a quality lead. Having their buy in is crucial. There are several questions that should be asked: Are foot in the door leads acceptable where a prospect has to be convinced that a product or solution is right for them? Or does sales only want opportunities that are ready to buy? What are the acceptable timeframes for a purchase? Is budget a necessary criteria? There may also be other requirements the prospect must meet such as industry or company size. Once you have determined what qualifies as a lead, you must consider other possible outcomes, which will be the majority of the calls. These outcomes include not only the various types of completed conversations, but also the instances where a conversation will not take place. Use meaningful buckets that give you a quick high-level overview of the campaign when these outcomes or dispositions are reviewed.

In addition to the leads funneling from telemarketing lead generation to sales, how and for what the data will be used once the campaign is completed is the next thing to consider. There are many uses for the data that will be collected during calling. First, your list will be cleansed. Phone numbers, addresses and contacts will be updated or deemed as unusable for future campaigns. Furthermore, the answers to the questions you ask can be used for market and trend analysis. If you are interested in specific environmental or business aspects of your audience, be sure to include questions to capture that data. Determine what those data points are and then include single or multiple select options of the answers that will most likely be given. Providing these options allows for quick queries of the data and easy analysis. The knowledge gained from the analysis can then improve your value propositions as well as illustrate what future campaigns will be most beneficial.

Other than outcomes of the calls and how the data will be used, the flow of the call must be considered when writing a telemarketing lead generation script. It must be kept conversational so the contact does not feel they are participating in a survey. Thus, there must be a combination of open ended questions where candid responses are captured along with the selection questions and answers discussed previously. Yes/No response questions should be limited but are usually necessary. Organize the questions in a way that the conversation is likely to flow. Start with probing questions to understand the customer’s situation. Then move to your value proposition and lead qualifying questions. Make sure to also be conscious of the number of questions included in the telemarketing script. Use the most meaningful questions that direct the conversation to the focus of the campaign and that provide you with the statistical data you desire, but remember you cannot script for everything. Well-trained and knowledgeable telemarketing agents are able to ask additional probing questions as appropriate based on the conversation. Any additional information uncovered should be included in the summary of the call.

Taking the time to develop your telemarketing lead generation script will pay-off in many ways. It will generate leads that your sales team is eager to contact and allow you to gain valuable insight into your audience and cleanse your list. Furthermore, end of campaign analysis can be used to update your value propositions and develop future tactics and campaigns.

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

Comments

michele alonso said:

Isn't the first goal to get the b2b clients to read an ad or email? Does any deployer track opens?

Kathy Rizzo said:

Michele – I hope this helps to answer your questions. Feel free to email me directly if you’d like to talk further. There are two primary types of outbound telemarketing lead generation scripts: Tele-Qualification & Tele-Prospecting. In a tele-qualification script you are following up with prospects that have downloaded content from your landing page, filled out a BRC or webform or attended an event. The goal of your telemarketing call is to qualify the “responders” (do they fit your target market? Are they decision-makers, etc), and to determine if there’s a defined need, which matches your definition of a qualified lead. During a tele-qualification call, you will reference their previous action (i.e. downloading a whitepaper), thus making it a warmer call. Conversely, tele-prospecting scripts are cold-calls. These prospects have not raised their hand, however, they appear to match the definition/criteria of your target market. As part of any tele-prospecting call, you should offer prospects content that they would deem valuable, such as a whitepaper. However, the primary goal of the call is not to get the prospect to agree to receive an email. Instead, the primary goal of the call is to get the prospect talking about their current situation, business challenges and to determine if there’s a defined need to which you can offer a viable solution. You should use your content as a way to open up the conversation and to illustrate relevancy and knowledge. Also, for those prospects that are qualified, however, are not yet leads, you should definitely follow-up your telemarketing call with an email and enter them into a well defined nurturing strategy. In terms of tracking email open rates, there are several software programs that track receipt, open rates, etc. We use Read Notify.

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