Five compelling arguments for telemarketing

Should telemarketing be part of your overall marketing strategy? If you’re selling high-cost technology products, the answer is “yes”. To find out why, read on.

Marketing Directors have a lot of options at their disposal when it comes to supporting their sales teams. They can drive campaigns over e-mail and social media, produce content, place ads, plough budget into industry events, and so on. There are endless ways to spend your budget! Telemarketing is simply one string in a sizeable bow. So, why use it?

The fact is that when the item to hand is a high-cost technology product, there are several compelling strategic arguments why telemarketing should be prioritised in the marketing mix. In this blog, we’ll look at them. Within a multi-channel, relationship-sales-based approach, telemarketing should be viewed as a foundational element. Why? Here are five key reasons.

1 Lead qualification

High-cost technology products invariably involve long sales cycles, not quick decisions. This means leads aren’t as important as qualified leads (it’s quality as much as quantity that matters when you’re looking a returns). Delivering qualified leads is what telemarketing does best, because the real-time interactions it involves allow time to assess the target’s interest, budget, purchasing authority, and needs. As a result, telemarketing campaigns return something specific; prioritised lists of high-potential prospects ripe for immediate follow-up; not simply lists of e-mail addresses about which little, if anything is known.

2 Relationship building

A mailshot or a social media post is, by definition, anonymous; a shot fired into the ether hoping for a response. In contrast, telemarketing campaigns involve – even if remotely – human-to-human interaction, which opens the door to opportunity. Telemarketers can build rapport and understanding on a personal level which simply isn’t possible using other marketing channels. This means relationships can be initiated and progressed even before technical demos and face-to-face meetings take place.

3 Knowledge transfer

Generally, the sale of high-cost technology products is complicated. It involves education to make the prospect aware of value, return on investment, and use cases, often tailored to the target’s own needs. Where other marketing channels can only deliver what amounts to a scatter-gun message, a telemarketing campaign can use bespoke messaging to position a product according to the prospect’s own role, needs, and company size/location. This is particularly valuable when the target is an early-stage buyer who’s perhaps not yet ripe for a full sales pitch but wants to gather relevant information.

4 Speed

Place an ad or send a marketing e-mail and what happens? You sit back and wait (or hope) for a response. In contrast, telemarketing gives you instant feedback on the market’s objections, needs, view of your competitors, and more. Why? Because it’s simply a faster and more engaging way of communicating, particularly for enterprise buyers. The advantage for you is that you can adjust your messaging in real-time, based on actual conversations, if it makes sense to do so.

5 Testing to get it right

In the spirit of the preceding point, telemarketing conversations allow marketers to test different value propositions, pain points, and messages. This means product marketing and sales teams can fine-tune their go-to-market strategies on the fly, ultimately leading to better campaign returns.

As with any other element in the marketing mix, telemarketing alone won’t close high-dollar deals. But as a catalyst for building qualified sales pipeline and accelerating the sales process, it’s unrivalled. If you want to learn more about how it might fit into your own marketing strategy, why not give eCS a call by clicking the link below?

 

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