Lead Nurturing via telemarketing increases 127 percent among Best In Class Marketers
Posted on Apr 1, 2009 by Kathy Rizzo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Our recent Best in Class report shows that telemarketing is continuing to expand beyond cold-calling and responder qualification. In the last 12 months there has been a significant increase in the use of telemarketing for appointment setting, contact discovery (data hygiene), and lead nurturing. Most notably, lead nurturing via telemarketing has increased by 127 percent among our “best in class” marketers. This suggests that marketers are seeing a need for “human touch” elements in their nurturing strategy.
Download full Best in Class Report
When developing a lasting business relationship, I believe that it’s critical to engage in verbal communication to build trust. Legitimate relationships are critically important when selling a service or solution. Thus, for those marketers that rely on electronic-based communication to nurture prospects, I encourage you to add a “human-touch” telemarketing element to your nurturing strategy.
Here are items to consider when adding or enhancing your telemarketing (human-touch) nurturing approach:
Contact prospects at the opportune time.
- Always look for direction from your prospect (i.e. “Please call me back in two weeks”).
- When appropriate, recommend the next phone call based on the buying stage of the prospect. These intervals can be predetermined for each buying stage, making it easy to recommend the next phone call (“C” rated leads are contacted in 30 day intervals, “D” rated leads are contacted in 60 days intervals, etc.). Consider the receptiveness of prospects. If they are receptive to new information and frequent communication, shorten the intervals between phone calls. Do not try to force all prospects into the same contact strategy.
- Look for triggering events. Newsworthy events such as a major acquisition may serve as an opportune time to contact a prospect.
Train your team on the four goals of each telemarketing contact:
- Only provide prospects information that is deemed valuable and relevant.
- Expand the prospect profile by learning more about their current situation and environment. Get them talking!
- Continue to learn about changing business priorities and critical issues that will affect purchase plans.
- Determine if a prospect is “sales ready”
Be strategic and think before dialing.
- Think about the extent of the prospect’s previous interaction with your company.
- Consider details of prior nurturing practices—conversations, e-communications, content downloaded, events, etc.
- What do we already know about the prospect’s situation?
- What else does our sales representative need to know in order to successfully engage in the sales process with this prospect?
- How can we be valuable to the prospect? A nurturing telemarketing call is very different than a tele-qualification phone call. When integrating telemarketing into a nurturing strategy, pay special attention to the required skill level of your agents. Because calls are not scripted, the agents must be trained on your solution, understand buyer challenges and have adequate content to convey value to the prospects. Most importantly, agents should have excellent communication skills; prospects will view your company as a credible source and viable solution for their business situation.
Tagged: lead nurturing, lead nurturing human touch, telemarketing lead generation, lead nurturing telemarketing, telemarketing sales leads
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Comments
Anabel Foucart said:
The human touch in marketing is a major component for success in selling a product or service. I witness it consistently on campaigns. People will really only make big decisions after repeated exposure to a brand and products or solutions. I’d like to illustrate this through a recent personal experience of mine…It started with my looking for how I was going to spend my vacation dollars. I immediately turned to a national newspaper site that features a travel section I always read and trust. I knew I could find some good ideas there. Then I moved to the next stage…choosing one of the recommended travel agencies. Once the short-list of travel boutiques was decided on…I started emailing and exchanging information about what I wanted to do- to see who could provide the best match for my needs. This allowed for a quick round of elimination and narrowed my choices to those who appeared to best understand me. Then I got a call. A well-read travel agent buzzed me after sending me an itinerary; it was an itinerary that I liked, but that she then went on to customize. She started asking me questions about what was important to me during my time off- she covered a lot of territory- and ended up providing me a lot of anecdotal information for my trip that is of great value. I have spoken to her on the phone at least a dozen times (she’s even gotten to know my daughter)- and have just about nailed down what I’m going to do. But no matter what the granular details are- I’ll do business with that agent and that agency because they have earned my trust. We have gotten to know each other… I know their client base has been happy with the work they have done (success stories), they have local relationships in the area where I’m going (provided me collateral), they have been working on my budget (lots of back and forth by email), and I’ve been talking to them over time. Sure, my new travel agency has an attractive website. They also advertise selectively. But it was not until I got to know the agent that I felt comfortable enough to take next steps. The same applies in the B to B world. Relationships are built on layers of qualitative and quantitative information. Don’t just show numbers…or assume that electronic and printed information is enough. You have to extend that reach …if you cannot see them in person then give them a call.