Ten Key Facts That May Change Your Perceptions
All the buzz in the marketing world is about digital channels. From Facebook to Instagram and email newsletters, marketers are focusing much of their attention and resources on digital methods of reaching their target audiences. In the race to win the digital audience, though, many marketers are overlooking one simple yet crucial part of human nature, our need to connect with another person. Marketers focusing only on digital channels are failing to demonstrate to their clients how much they care about them by not providing the human touch.
Why have large technology corporations, credit card companies and banks decided to reduce, and some completely eliminate, using IVR and instead enhance your experience by connecting you with a human being instantly? Why are so many U.S. based manufacturing companies bringing back their call centers to the U.S. (shared culture)?
They are making these changes because they realize that their clients are vying to feel important. Consumers want to know that you care about solving their challenges and helping grow their business, and/or improve their lives.
Traditional marketing communications have been building relationships for decades which have led to sales growth for companies across industries. Telemarketing is one of those methods.
Telemarketing is effective because it is two people engaging in conversation to accomplish one or more of the following:
- Build relationships
- Improve customer service
- Establish a client persona definition
- Identify opportunities
- Provide actionable lead generation/qualification
- Survey completion … just to name a few
It has been over 12 years since the FTC enacted (and started to enforce) the DNC law. Since then, the numbers of calls during dinner are almost non-existent and people no longer cringe at the thought of receiving a call. In fact, when it comes to B2B sales, telemarketers may be a welcome distraction from the daily grind.
This is just one example of the many misperceptions about telemarketing, and this article will further discuss all the facts about this traditional tool that is still a reliable and affordable way to buil your business and reach your goals.
In this article, we’ll explore why telemarketing should be one of your marketing preferences. We’ll demonstrate how to improve your preparation for a telemarketing campaign and the positive results you can expect from your campaigns.
Here are the 10 key facts that may change your perceptions about telemarketing:
- Your B2B telemarketing calls arenÂ’t irritating. As mentioned above, while calls at home were considered the most annoying form of advertising by 35 percent of 200 managers, only four percent said that they were annoying at work. Managers expect to receive sales calls at work, and consider it to be part of their responsibilities.
- Telemarketing works to increase sales. When marketing managers were asked to rate the effectiveness of various methods for lead nurturing, 60 percent said telemarketing was “very effective.” When you add in the additional managers that said that it was “effective,” the total reaches 90 percent of marketing managers.
- ThereÂ’s a disconnect between the effectiveness of telemarketing and its popularity levels. Conversely, some digital marketing methods, like social media, have the reverse relationship, with a high popularity level combined with a low effectiveness when it comes to generating leads.
- Garbage in, garbage out, applies to telemarketing. A good telemarketing campaign relies on a good data set. You can negatively impact your results by up to 50 percent if 30-40 percent of your data is bad.
- Settle in for an effective telemarketing campaign. If you are involved in a B2B long sales cycle, don’t expect your telemarketing campaign to deliver results in a short time. It takes time for callbacks, redirections and other interruptions to sort out. The average B2B telemarketing campaign reaches optimum “opportunities per day” at around 14 weeks.
- Telemarketing requires perseverance. Companies involved in selling high ticket items and/or searching for clients with large life-time dollar value should expect the average telemarketing campaign will require 80 calls for every opportunity. You should also remember that if you operate in a highly competitive environment a “no” isn’t always a final answer, so don’t get discouraged. Ask a few questions to determine if the “no” might really be a “not at this time.”
- Relevance is critical to telemarketing success. When youÂ’re having a highly-relevant conversation, and your contact fully meets your criteria for your buyer persona, youÂ’ll see improved results. Your response could increase by as much as 800 percent.
- People crave the human interaction that telemarketing delivers. Social media may be popular, but it doesn’t make your clients or your potential clients feel valued. Consider a birthday wish. Would you rather hear from hundreds of friends on Facebook, sending a generic “happy birthday,” or receive a phone call and have a personal conversation with a friend, in which they wish you a happy birthday? You can’t replace the personal relationship with a digital version.
- Human interactions close the sale. You canÂ’t underestimate the value of a personal connection. In nearly 70 percent of B2B sales, there was a human interaction that occurred, either in person or on the phone.
- You may have a sales gap. Research by Sirius Decisions indicated that approximately 80 percent of sales leads are never followed up by a field sales representative. A telemarketing team will fill that gap.
Here are the three main takeaways from these facts:
- Telemarketing should be one of your preferred marketing channels.  Professionally designed and executed sales calls at work are not considered annoying, on the contrary, they are welcomed by many, and are considered as a good source for information and relationship development. There is currently a bias in favor of social media, but that doesn’t mean that it’s what your potential buyers actually prefer.
- Bad or incomplete data will negatively impact your campaign. Make sure that you are creating a data set that is relevant and accurate to improve the success of your efforts, and to improve your return on investment. You should also be prepared for a long campaign, expecting to reach your optimum stride at around 14 weeks.
- Telemarketing delivers a human-to-human experience unparalleled in the world of digital marketing. Approximately 70 percent of all purchases occurred with an element of human interaction.
When you include telemarketing as an integral part of your marketing strategy, you gain benefits that cannot be matched by digital methods. While digital methods like blog postings, social media updates and email newsletters are passive, telemarketing provides you with a proactive way to reach out to potential buyers and connect with them. In that conversation, you gain critical information about the challenges and opportunities they are facing in their daily jobs, where they are in the buying decision and whether they have any interest in your company.
There are other benefits, too. Lead generation is of a much higher quality when obtained with telemarketing. In a short conversation, you gain important details about whether you have a clear picture of the decision-making process for that company, as well as where they are in their process. You can answer questions and discuss reservations, opening the way for the company to do business with you.
At Blue Valley Marketing, we have experience working with companies like yours that want to grow their sales opportunities through the most effective marketing channels. WeÂ’d love to hear your story and about the opportunities your company has for growth. LetÂ’s talk together about how we can help you reach your goals this year.
Last Updated on September 14, 2023 by Ronen Ben-Dror