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Give sales people the thing they want most—more selling time with sales-ready prospects. It requires an investment of time and money, but you can double and even triple your success rate if you use a campaign-based program that includes a combination of direct mail that creates interest and awareness followed by telemarketing to find valid prospects.
Here are six important tips in making a campaign-based lead gen program investment payoff.
1) Never trust a list. Lists start to get “dirty” almost as soon as they’re created, since contact information is always changing, especially in today’s economy. It’s important to constantly clean lists by visiting websites and calling companies to confirm that your contact is still there. A list’s age also affects its accuracy. Lists that are a year or two old will contain a high number of duds. So if you work with list brokers, demand to know how and when the list was compiled.
2) Know your buyers. Titles alone may not tell you if someone is the right decision maker. Again, a little research is in order here. Call some companies. Ask them who makes the decisions when it comes to buying your product or service. You might be surprised by the titles you get back. Also, don’t assume that the head of a company is the correct contact unless the company is small.
3) Don’t stint on creative direct mail. Once you’ve got a good list, spend what it takes to ensure your direct mail grabs their interest. Sorry for the cliché, but it’s important to think outside the box, since prospects see so much forgettable direct mail. Send something they can interact with and remember, and be sure it ties into the theme of your campaign based on compelling messaging. This costs money, but prospects are far more likely to be receptive to your follow up phone calls and to keep what you send. The added brand awareness is invaluable, too.
4) Don’t read a script. Customers can always tell when someone is simply reading a script. That’s why you need to make sure callers can change the words to fit their personalities and veer from the script if necessary.
5) Understand the “what and why.” Outbound callers don’t have to be product experts, but they need to be able to explain the features and benefits of your product or service enough to land an appointment for the sales team. So make sure they have the experience to get up to speed quickly on your products and services. Preferably they should have worked within your industry before. But remember: telemarketing is not telesales. Telemarketers sell appointments, telesales sells the actual product or service on-the-spot.
6) Use a multi-call campaign. When you don’t reach a live contact, leave a voicemail that builds upon your sales (marketing?) message and lets them know you’ll be calling back again. In other words, don’t give up after a few tries. Also be smart about when to call. Don’t be power-dialing at 10:20 A.M., for example, since that’s the best time of day for prospects in be in meetings. And keep track of what days and times work best for specific lists; then continue with that call schedule until you’ve exhausted the list.
Follow these six tips for your next lead generation campaign and you’ll see how the results ultimately impact your bottom line!