Telemarketing Lead Generation Blog

Telemarketing's Role in a Struggling Economy

Posted on Jun 26, 2008 by Kathy Rizzo, Vice President Marketing

Tuning into a webinar hosted by Firstwave last week, I heard a new statistic quoted by BearingPoint’s Global Director of Integrated Marketing, Paul Dunay: “B2B marketers are reporting a 60% increase in the length of the buy cycle because of the down economy” (Dunay noted MarketingSherpa as his source). Obviously this is not a positive statement for those trying to sell products and services. However, it does give us, as marketers, a renewed sense of purpose. Our role in the sales cycle is even more critical than ever.

As an expert in teleservices, I’d like to offer some ways that telemarketing can help to shorten the sales cycle and provide meaningful data to marketers on how to position their products and services within the ever changing market.

Real-time Market Feedback: The advantage companies have when they engage their prospects in conversations is the ability to ask pinpointed questions in order to better understand the market’s pain points, critical business issues and situations. While a web form can certainly capture data points, a two-way conversation allows appropriate follow-up questions and also captures information that is not easily conveyed in a checkbox. If you are conducting a telemarketing campaign, ensure that you are asking your market questions way beyond “do you have a purchase planned?”. Focus questions on their critical business issues and pain points in order to learn what keeps them up at night. You may find that what you think your market is worried about and what they really are worried about are two entirely different things. This intelligence allows you to hone your marketing efforts and become more effective.

Message Testing: Another benefit of telemarketing is that you can test various messaging and value propositions and receive instant market feedback. Calls can be digitally recorded allowing you to instantly tap directly into the thoughts of your market. Messaging approaches can be compared, tested and changed in a moment’s notice. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your telemarketing value propositions. They are easy to change and you can obtain instant feedback on what works and what does not resonate with your market.

Nurturing Focused on Pain Points: When sales cycles are long, nurturing becomes even more critical. A great way to shorten your sales cycle is to develop a touch strategy, which includes telemarketing (human touch), and is focused on providing relevant information that is tied to your prospect’s pain points. The idea is to push the pain – keeping it top of mind – while offering useful and relevant information to solve the problem. Consider developing your nurturing marketing matrix centered on top market pain points.

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

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