Sales teams are focused on making contact with their clients and prospective clients. They schedule meetings and phone calls and put their latest product or service in front of the target audience. Their job is to close the deal, which is why according to the Customer Sales Intelligence Scorecard, published by Chief Marketing Officer Council, nearly 80 percent of marketers say they are unsatisfied with closure and conversion of customer development opportunities.
The report shows that only nine percent of those surveyed said they have sufficient processes that offer real-time insights, account-based news and social insights that are critical in customer development. However, about 37 percent of companies integrate and share customer information that can lead to better customer insights.
Customer development should begin long before the sales rep contacts the potential client. In fact, it often begins before the organization has even identified a potential lead, putting organizations at a disadvantaged, reactive position. Nearly 80 percent of the average consumerÂ’s research is done online, and itÂ’s at this point that theyÂ’ll make contact with the organization to progress in the buy cycle. However, the best customer development resources offer a way to identify a qualified lead that has purchasing authority, and itÂ’s through telemarketing. ItÂ’s a proactive approach that allows you to stop waiting for your leads to contact you, and for you to actively seek them out.
Customer development can assist in identifying the leads that are worth your time and energy (and money). You donÂ’t want to expend extra on a lead that is not going to be interested in your brand or your products/services. Customer development expertise is what telemarketing organizations can offer, perhaps better than any other channel. If youÂ’ve been relying on your sales department to open up more opportunities for customer development, youÂ’ve been looking in the wrong places. Let your sales department focus on closing sales and leave the customer development portion of the process up to professional telemarketers.
If your sales are all domestic, choose a telemarketer that only uses U.S.-based call centers that have a full variety of skills that will meet your needs. This should be a call center staffed with communicators who know how to connect with a qualified lead. One of the benefits of partnering with a professional organization like this is their ability to nurture leads. Not every lead is going to be ready to jump into the buy cycle, but when they are nurtured along, you will continue to gain insights about their wants and needs, and youÂ’ll also monitor their probability of getting into the buy cycle.
Blue Valley Telemarketing has years of experience developing relationships with customers of all types. Our call centers are U.S.-based and we have the necessary software and hardware to connect with your target audience quickly and efficiently. Let us help you with your customer development and watch your sales team close more deals with greater frequency.
Last Updated on September 14, 2023 by Ronen Ben-Dror