An Old Favourite: Telemarketing

As marketing professionals, we have seen many changes across the industry in the past couple of years and as we continue on the new age-social media speed train, it’s important not to forget some of the timeless marketing techniques that have helped us to get to where we are now.

Yes, social media is free (hooray!) and accessed by all, but can it be relied on solely?Definitely not. The key is in the name: SOCIAL Media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are all tools used to interact with others, to inform and to entertain. To overly sell yourself on Social Media would negatively impact your audience. Basically they know what you’re doing, but you have to be a little bit sneakier about it.

Despite the Social Media boom there are still other, more mature methods of marketing that businesses cannot afford to miss out on.

A recent survey from SlideShare.net asked 200 managers what the most annoying forms of advertising were. Telesales to work (B2B) came in at only 4%, lower than nearly all of the other methods. The difference with Telemarketing is simple: your cards are on the table, the conversation is fact based and private between you and the customer. Whilst telemarketing is a more matured method, it can give your business an advantage no social media connection can. By directly speaking to the customer you can find out what their business needs are and how you can meet these needs with realistic resolutions. You can also gauge an insight into how interested the customer is, which gives you a greater advantage in pushing the conversation in the direction you think is suitable. Whether this be objection handling, increasing information or resolution providing.

Telemarketing doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t be) a ready-made process, just like any other method of marketing. Each business is different, therefore each campaign should be tailored to suit the company and what they are looking to achieve. The more personal the campaign is, the more the company will get out of it.

Here are some of Telemarketing’s most valuable advantages

Cost Effective

Although it doesn’t feel like it compared to the cheap and easy use of social media, outsourcing your B2B telemarketing for a one off or continued campaign can be significantly cheaper (not to mention less effort and time consumption) in comparison to an in-house team.

Using an outsourced Telemarketing company leaves you feeling safe knowing that your campaign is in the best hands, with skilled and experienced telemarketing agents.

Customer Base – Old and New

Telemarketing campaigns usually come with an added bonus of data cleansing. While you have probably been contacting the same people, wishing they had changed their mind, telemarketing agencies have the tools to help you create a whole new database of customers. They will then use this database to filter out the potential opportunities that need prioritising. Leaving you with the final task: closing the sale.

Not only will it help you connect with new customers, but it will also help you maintain relationships with previous customers. Some telemarketing agencies provide inbound services where the trained telemarketers take inbound query calls.

Quality Leads

It is true that quality leads cost more up front, but they can save you a significant amount of time and money in the long run. Having the opportunity to speak to a client on the phone (in comparison to Facebook, Twitter, Email) can help you understand more about what they need as a business, giving you the opportunity to cater your product to suit the customers wants.

At MarketMakers, we offer all of our clients the opportunity to listen to the call recording when the appointment was set. No sales person should enter a meeting blind to the communication already had. The more they know the better they can cater the service/product to the customer. Your telemarketing team would have already created a positive relationship with the customer, your sales team will just need to build on it and convert it into a sale.

Measurable Results

One of our favourite advantages. With telemarketing, the campaign results can easily be measured letting you know exactly what your business has gained and to what extent the businesses cliental has expanded. For smaller businesses that are trying to grow, telemarketing can help define the target audience and customer profile, making it easier in the future to angle campaigns.

Not only can telemarketing give you significant ROI, but it can also help increase the awareness of your brand along the way. Using well trained telemarketers can help your brand not only be more recognized, but also build a positive and lasting reputation.

Click here to arrange a free meeting with us, we can show you what we can do to help drive your business forward

Tags: Lead Generation, social media, Telemarketing