Tips on Using Telemarketing Lead Generation for Your Business

Telephone marketing (telemarketing) is still very much relevant in today’s marketing world. If you want to generate leads for your business, consider using this approach. In this article, we help you with some ideas on how to implement a successful telemarketing lead generation.

What is Telemarketing Lead Generation?

It is the process of generating leads via the telephone. These leads could be a list of interested persons in a product or service.

In a world where paid adverts on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords is common; it is interesting to have a different way around it.

When done the right way, lead generation through telemarketing can be one of the major sources of promoting your business.

Telemarketing Lead Generation is the process of generating leads (example, list of interested persons in a product or service) via the telephone.

How to Do Telemarketing Lead Generation

If your business has considered cold-calling, then these tips will come in handy.

1. It Starts with Picking the Telephone – and Making Lots of Calls

Telemarketing is basically “marketing over the phone,” which is why constant calls are required. Of course, there are a couple of best practices to follow to get the desired results – or something close to that:

• Gauge the Calls: you need to be intentional with the number of calls to make. Of course, you wouldn’t make repeat calls to the same person or company within a short period. Other best practices are choosing a desired timeframe to make the calls and deciding how long the calls will take.
• Assertiveness: you or your rep must be assertive with what you want, which is to generate leads.
• Scriptwriting before Calling: prepare a script that serves as a guide during the call. This also keeps you in check not to make mistakes when cold-calling.
• Be Clear: this goes both ways – you must be straightforward about the reason for the calls and clear with your answers to the questions the other parties ask.

2. Your Opening Line Shouldn’t be a “Bore”

Some opening statements are predictable and boring. The moment the “called parties” realizes this, the interest fades and they will only be waiting for you to finish to give an affirmative “NO.”

To avoid this from happening, here is how to keep your opening statements friendly, yet conversational:

• Always ask the permission of the decision-makers to go ahead with your pitch.
• Offer valuable resources and pieces of information to the decision-makers. This makes you less of a “leech” and more of a valuable person looking out for them.
• Even if you had a prepared script, don’t sound like you are reading it verbatim. Sound natural and occasionally take a few words out of the script.
• Always make the opening statements “tailored” – targeted specifically to the person you called. You don’t want to sound random, as that shows you didn’t do your research – which is a huge turnoff.

3. Telemarketing Requires a Lot of Questions

As to be expected, the person you called will ask a lot of questions, ranging from how you got the contact to how valuable your offer is. Likewise, you need to ask a lot of questions to help make an informed decision.

These questions range from:

• Open-Ended vs. Close-Ended Question Formats: which of these two should you use? It is common to use the open-ended question format due to the fact that it allows the responders to give a detailed response. This is better than the traditional “Yes” and “No” response obtained using the close-ended question format.
• Use Tailored Questions at All Times: make in-depth research on the target audience or responders before cold-calling. This saves the embarrassment of asking questions that they would find irrelevant.
• Prepare the Questions: always prepare the questions beforehand. This saves you the pain of having to come up with questions “on the spur of the moment.”

4. Make Your Research Properly

The fact that the fusion of telemarketing and lead generation can be profitable doesn’t rule out the importance of market research.

Cold-calling takes a lot of effort and you want to pull it off the best way possible. Market research and a background check on your target audience help.

You want to consider these factors when doing the research:

• Separate Need from Want: the target audience may “want” your business’ services, products, or solutions – but they don’t “need” the same. A separation of what they desire the most from what they wish for matters a lot. For the best results, go for the target audience that has a need for your service. When on a call with them, also pay attention to the response they give and the descriptions that come with that. It should help you determine if they really need what your business offers.
• Go for the Decision-Makers: speaking to the decision-makers during the B2B telemarketing lead generation call provides better results than speaking to a random member of staff. Conversing with the decision-makers with the right pitch increases the chances of converting the lead because they have the powers to accent to your request or not.

5. Telemarketing “Calls” for Appropriate Preparation

No soldier goes to the battlefield unprepared. Likewise, no telemarketer should start cold-calling without having a telephone – and adequate preparations.

Here is how to prepare beforehand:

• Create the “Best” Scripts: while some scripts wouldn’t live up to expectations, there are still creative ways to get the “best” scripts for telemarketing. These strategies include: keeping the lines simple, conversational and detailed.
• Fine-Tune the Scripts: always make important changes to the script. You want to jot down some ideas picked up from previous calls and don’t hesitate to ask professionals to review the scripts for you.
• Reps’ Evaluation: the reps in charge of the telecalls should also be coached and given routine guidelines to keep them at their best performance.

Conclusion

Telemarketing, when done rightly, can help your business generate more leads and quality ones at that. Keep the calls conversational, speak with confidence, go straight to the point, and don’t forget to make important suggestions.

Last but not least – reporting is important. After every call session, use the obtained data/feedback to evaluate your performance or that of your reps and take note of where improvements are needed.