B2B telemarketing
strategy
Maximising the
success of telemarketing

Telemarketing strategy for the B2B marketplace

Telemarketing is possibly the most hated and loved form of finding prospective clients and customers.

Telemarketing is sometimes confused with telesales but the distinction is that telemarketing does not attempt sales closure while telesales is solely for that purpose.

In B2B, telemarketing suits extremely well for producing sales leads. It is actually the quickest and cheapest method to procure prospective clients.

If you know what you're doing, it can take only a few minutes from the start to acquire your first interested prospect for the sales staff.

That's if you truly know how to set up, equip and run your telemarketing activity.

But that can appear a tall order.

It's not that these tasks or skills are so rare or difficult... it's merely that there's a series of steps that need to be done right to achieve a good level of results and permanence.

These skills are not necessarily possessed by all centres, so it can be better to set up your own telemarketing activity than to use their services. It's also usually much cheaper AND more productive.

But there are many unknown factors regarding telemarketing and one is easily fooled into false expectations or paying good money for results that only serves to waste your time and lay your hopes to ruins.

B2B telemarketing, the all-important angle of approach

There's another article on telemarketing approach on this site, but I'm going to discuss it here too as it is so vital to the whole strategy issue.

Essentially what is sold as "outsourced telemarketing" — the services of various independent telemarketing agencies — is little else but raw dialling power. That's to say that all you pay for is that someone dials a lot of telephone numbers and says something to those who answer.

If you expect to receive intelligent targeting strategies from these agencies then you will be disappointed. Some may claim to possess insider knowledge on HOW telemarketing can be made to produce results but few actually know.

For them, the act of dialling is the thing they sell, really. Or, to but it more precisely, their main contribution comes from being the surrogate recipient of all the unpleasantness that is generally connected with telemarketing.

They get paid to receive the impolite, uncaring, insulting, ignorant, and senseless response that are considered part and parcel of telemarketing work. In essence, you pay them for receiving the abuse in your stead... or that's what they THINK you pay for in the main anyhow.

It's not really relevant whether you could ever make them admit that or even agree that it might be a part of what they consider their valuable contribution to the client in exchange for monies
paid.

The relevancy is in establishing whether it is unavoidable to receive such abuse to that degree from telemarketing.

And it isn't, not if you plan the angle of approach carefully and have a workable strategy on WHAT you say and offer (and how).

B2B telemarketing: "Hi, do you want to become entangled in my web of the unknown...?"

How you approach your target group with telemarketing will decide the percentage of instant rejection.

The way the average business person REACTS to a call from an unknown person is very specific.

Everyone knows how difficult it can be to get rid of a persistent salesman. You know, the kind who is SO friendly and polite, won't take "NO" for an answer and who will carefully avoid giving you ANY excuse to get angry at him.

It's not only embarrassing. More important than that is that it is a situation which SUBJUGATES the decision-maker. His self-determinism is overwhelmed, he is made to continue listening to this geezer against his own willingness... he is being tyrannized in a way that's extremely harmful to his self-confidence and his view of himself.

Just because it is done by utilising the "kill-with-kindness" method of controlling does not make it any better. Quite the contrary, such pretended friendliness and false rapport make it WORSE because the insincere flattery is really covert hostility.

In his heart, the decision-maker KNOWS he is being manipulated by the salesperson whose every utterance is carefully preplanned to enslave the target person into walking the intended route and committing to whatever awaits at the end of it.

It's done by forcing him into a continuous set of choices, of which none is desirable but one is by far least undesirable.

Well, there's much to be said about this subject but I won't get into that here. It is a great topic for a full-day seminar on telesales / telemarketing and sales strategy though, because many of the tricks of the trade contain the element which REPELS prospective clients.

That element has many names but its main ingredient is "enforcement of acceptance against one's own willingness."

It's a really simple thing which actually makes it so difficult to grasp and adhere to.

You must never try to force the decision-maker into accepting anything.

Now, this can seem very confusing because we know that in CLOSING a sale one needs to apply some pressure, so let's target the importance of this to the START of the relationship.

This way, we establish that one needs to avoid any attempt of forcing decisions on the prospect during the first contact.

If the first contact is successful and the prospect agrees to another contact (to define his needs closer, to hear more about your service or meet with your representative), then you have gained some leverage, albeit fragile and of minute proportions.

As said, this is a sizeable subject matter so I'm forced to leave out most of it.

Suffice to say that the traditional thinking on telemarketing, presentation and sales includes a lot of enforcement of information, which is one of the main reasons why all these tasks appear so arduous and slow, with a low yield of success.

Many problems in telemarketing come from this approach that enforces data, thinking, communication and insincere flattery upon the recipient. It actually BELITTLES the recipient, making him think less of himself... and that cannot ever be good for any sales action, don't you agree?

Since every decision-maker has already BEEN subjected to such "telephone torture" they have developed an extremely acute sense of recognising this enforcement. They will sass you out from your first sentence. They will recognise your anticipation of resistence from your tone of voice.

To them, your carefully planned welcoming sentence will take another meaning. YOU say "Would you be interested in acquiring new..." and they hear "Do you want to become entangled in a time-consuming web of friendly make-wrong leading you to an unknown trap... or are you not interested?"

And that's the question they answer: "Thanks, but we're not interested..."

Would you be?

From that moment on there's no return. Nothing the telemarketer could say would ever cause the decision-maker to reconsider his. For he has not only sassed out WHAT you're trying to push on him but he has also formed a strongly unfavourable opinion of you and your company.

Thus, the impression made will have LESSENED your chances of ever interesting him of your services in the future. Now he "knows" what you're all about, see?

Did I mention that "fair" has nothing to do with B2B marketing?

Well it hasn't.

Now we see that careless telemarketing doesn't just produce "little or no results."

Oh no. It definitely produces RESULTS... but only the visible positive ones are so few and far between. The NEGATIVE results are much more plentiful but, alas, invisible at that point.

But you'll definitely come across those latent results later if and when you try contacting these companies. If you were lucky, the telemarketer was SO make-wrong that he or she never got far enough to give the name of your company...

All right, so that's where the low yield of "results" comes from in telemarketing.

I'm aware that a lot of people agree that those problems are unavoidable. They're not unavoidable but it's certainly true they're FACTUAL... and will remain so until the approach is changed so it employs the willingness of the recipient instead of thwarting it at every turn.

So let's look at how it SHOULD be done then...

B2B telemarketing: Employing the willingness of the decision-maker

There are many forms of telephone work that all go under the general heading of "telemarketing."

However, here I'm speaking only of telemarketing conducted with the purpose of finding new prospective clients for a B2B service or line of products.

So, what's most important about prospecting by telemarketing?

Well, first of all there's the most fundamental foundation of the whole telemarketing strategy.

The strategy of your telemarketing prospecting activity must be founded on this primary principle:

Telemarketing must be planned so that it allows your prospective client to DECIDE FREELY whatever he wants to decide. There must be NO effort to influence his thinking, no element of enforcing ANY data upon him... whatsoever.

I'll be blunt as always: If you cannot plan your telemarketing so that it is CLEAN of every element of enforcement of data AND has the ability to employ the receiver's own willingness... then it's better NOT to do telemarketing, since you'll save money by scrapping it while removing a self-made barrier to your sales.

We'll get to HOW you employ people's willingness in a while... but let's first take a look at WHY it is so vital to employ it in telemarketing.

Let me ask you something: Who are the best prospective clients that you ever obtained? I mean those guys with whom it was so easy and pleasant to set up the deal, so much so that your belief in your future success was actually increased because of them.

If you recall, they were of a specific kind, one of two possibilities in fact.

The best prospect contacted you out of the blue. Or he was REFERRED to you by an existing (and very satisfied) client.

The "out of the blue" prospect is so easy to close because HE has worked to find you. It's HIS idea that you are a likely provider of the services / products he wants. HIS IDEA.

Thus, nobody has forced anything upon him. Quite to the contrary, HE has had to work to find you, to read about you, to contact you, to ask you questions that he needs answered... and so on.

So it's HIS WILLINGNESS that is employed from the onset.

Similarly, a referral has communicated about his problems to your client and then, upon finding that the client has solved those problems, probed further to find YOU.

Again, HIS WILLINGNESS was employed. HE did the work. Thus it's HIS solution, his creation... and therefore it "must be the right thing."

See how the mind works here?

Compare that to someone who is contacted by you, upon whom a problem is forced... you get the idea.

Willingness.

The way you employ and harness their willingness is rather easy as such.

You simply ask him questions which interest him and to which he knows he can answer any way he chooses. You centre him with interested attention in a way allowing him to feel GOOD about himself, feel RIGHT and clever.

What kind of questions? How do we ask those questions?

Well, the questions need to be carefully planned by accurate information whose correctness is proved beyond any chance of mistake.

That's the prerequisite without which you cannot create a telemarketing approach that will create only positive effects AND employ the willingness of your target persons.

This can be achieved only through conducting a special market research survey, on which there's a separate article on our site — please see the article directory at the end of this page.

You have to KNOW IN ADVANCE and know with absolute certainty.

Know what?

Well, what do they find interesting, what's their problem, how do they see it, what do they think about it, what's important to them, how do they feel about your industry, what do they think you should do to provide a better service... a multitude of things, whose precise importance depends on your specific circumstances, of course.

Once a survey has been conducted so reliable and absolutely accurate prior knowledge exists about your target group, we can then create the approach by planning exact questions and communication in form of a ready-to-use telemarketing script.

The results from such a professionally prepared telemarketing script are quite amazing... but we'll go over that a bit later.

For now, let's define what goal such a willingness-evoking telemarketing approach would have to have in order to align its parts with the obtaining of desired results in expected quantities.

B2B telemarketing goals and objectives

If you want your telemarketing to be successful and produce only positive effects on the field then you need to think like a farmer.

A farmer?

Well, perhaps not the most glorious of analogues but a workable one nevertheless.

You need to KNOW more about your "crops" than anyone else (the survey).

You need to PLANT the seeds and GROW your orchard, conduction various actions of "maintenance" so that the field yields crops continuously and the fruits are of high quality.

That's the basic idea of telemarketing: It is a continuous action whose MAIN goal is to create and maintain that which produces results, NOT to look only at acquiring the results.

In other words, your telemarketing activity AND its target group are that which produces... and if you nurture these two correctly then you will have continuous results of high quality and sufficient quantity for as long as you keep the telemarketing activity going this way.

All right. So with this in view, let's look at what goals a truly productive and successful telemarketing activity would have.

They are two in number, if we overlook the goals involving the planning of the approach, the creation of the tools and the acquisition, training, and supervising of the telemarketers.
.
Two elements are by far more important than anything else... and their order of importance may surprise you... or then not.

The primary goal is to WORK THE FIELD (not to acquire prospects).

The most important goal for your telemarketing activity must be to create a positive image of your company while going through the target group repeatedly (every few months)...and install some new data that gets the target person THINKING.

Let me elaborate on this further.

Your first concern should be to make very sure that the telemarketing ENHANCES the image of your company as a leading provider of B2B solutions of your speciality. As discussed earlier, it is easier said than done as a lot of telemarketing these days does just the opposite, creating a NEGATIVE image.

There's no point in paying for something that LOWERS the image of your company or creates a negative reflection of your products. You need to ensure that nothing negative gets associated with you and your products, whether intentionally or inadvertently through lack of understanding or skill of telemarketing.

This is why it's so vital to have an approach that absolutely CANNOT create a negative impression.

Now, the second part of this primary goal involves placing a seed to grow out there. Your telemarketing must introduce some new idea to the mind of the target person, something that will make him look at things from a new angle.

Let me explain this too.

Just like a good novel will always change the viewpoint of its reader, a good telemarketing approach will introduce new and interesting data to its recipients... information which may not create any response (or idea) NOW... but it will certainly change his VIEWPOINT LATER in the subject matter...

...once he comes across the subject again, at which point he will be MORE AWARE about it and see his current service provider (your competitor) in a different light than previously.

Using the correct approach in telemarketing, we gain some ground and get to ask a few questions... whose contents will introduce some new data in the mind of the receiver. He isn't sufficiently aware of this problem to rise up to interest in it for NOW... but the new viewpoint that he adopted during those few questions will WORK ON THAT.

So we work the same target group over every 4-6 months, and the NEXT time this same person is reached he will be slightly MORE interested. He will have changed some of his viewpoint thanks to what he learned earlier... but it might still not be enough to pull him up to sufficiently high interest.

But you get the idea of how you "nurture the field" with telemarketing... well, provided your telemarketing script has been created to achieve this, of course.

The same strategy of "getting a datum or two accepted to change the viewpoint of the target person" can be also included in direct mail marketing (creating a SERIES of direct mailing letters), which is also an excellent way to enhance the effects of your telemarketing.

So that's the primary goal of telemarketing.

The secondary (but NOT any less important) goal of telemarketing is the acquisition of prospective clients.

But you need to see it as the action of "harvesting what you've planted." You "harvest" by picking up those who are READY... those target persons whose awareness is now sufficiently high that they have risen to interest.

You also secure those who've come upon a dire necessity to acquire a new service provider, but that can be a mixed blessing of course... at least where this necessity is born out of nonpayment of bills to their current provider and their subsequent refusal to deliver more.

But "necessity for change" is most usually born out of a sufficient increase of awareness regarding what can be obtained through changing over to your services. That's just another angle of looking at this thing we call "interest."

All right, so first you plant the seeds and nurture your plantation, making that your primary goal of telemarketing... and THEN you harvest the crops.

You don't burn down a vineyard if one crop is small or even lost. You nurture it and keep it going because you know that it will produce bountiful crops in the future. You make the cultivation of that field your top priority, ensuring above all that nothing against that goal is ever done... and then you go through the field, harvesting what it yields.

And that's the way telemarketing works best in the B2B sector. This way your target group yields the best prospects — those who are ready to make the move because their awareness has increased and they KNOW you're the best — and KEEPS producing them continually, as every "failed" call actually produces a result that will increase the likelihood that the prospect joins your clientele some time in future.

The only way you can do that is by creating an approach for telemarketing that employs the willingness of the target group members as it's not possible to sustain the group if your approach is make-wrong (as seen by THEM).

Comparing this continuous form of telemarketing to what currently passes as telemarketing and we see that sporadic bursts of "dialling" followed by a message that attempts to "ensnare and entrap" the recipient (as experienced by HIM) is not a very thought-out endeavour.

All right. So, assuming that this makes sense to you and you want to set up your telemarketing activity so it has the long-term goal explained above, then let's look at what kind of success ratios you could justifiably expect.

Success ratios with long-term educational B2B telemarketing that employs the recipient's willingness

Now, if you've read all so far then you can see WHY it is so difficult to obtain a definite estimate from a telemarketing agency in terms of response ratios.

They don't know what it is that makes telemarketing succeed. They think it is industrious dialling, pleasant manners, a positive personality... but it isn't.

It's all in how the APPROACH occurs and how the SCRIPT has been planned. Only then do the aspect of manners and personality traits have any bearing.

So next time you ask a call centre about their success ratio, you will find it rather funny to hear the complexity of their explanations. They can't say, it depends on so many factors, all of which are unknown now, it really hangs on how desirable YOUR service is in the field... and so on.

What you won't be told (because even they don't know it) is what it really depends upon. And that's what this article explained — telemarketing must employ the recipient's willingness and it must work the field by giving new data which enacts on their awareness... and thus telemarketing will yield continually more prospects from the same target group.

So, if that's what you're aiming at then here's a short answer regarding results of telemarketing:

You should expect about 5-10 percent success, depending how many times you've gone through the field.

If you do it right, you should secure about 1-2 prospective clients from 20 calls reaching the decision maker. That's a cross section of ALL businesses, but with B2B it can be higher, sometimes significantly.

It certainly will increase if you choose your target group cleverly and keep working it correctly, adding a series of direct mailing letters to the equation.

It's all about getting them to THINK with new information. The better you achieve that then the more results your telemarketing will yield.

Yet it matters not that much if it is five or then percent or 35% at some pass-through, as long as it is well above the 0.5 to 1 percent that's customary... because that figure tells you instantly that some NEGATIVE (unseen) results are being also produced.

Can you see where I'm coming from? You cannot settle for really bad results simply because that tells you that you're spreading a negative image of your company.

Sometimes it appears to be exactly the thing to have fewer results, usually because there's only one or two salespersons to handle prospects OR what's sold is limited by its production capacity — like a service that can only be performed by an expert of which you have too few, or a production of parts or machines whose speed of manufacturing puts a limit on the speed of sales.

But you don't want to control DOWN the results of your telemarketing by agreeing to its low yield as that tells you something bad is being produced as a side-effect.

So the way to control telemarketing to produce FEWER prospects is to do it through...

-focussing its reach further so it will produce only decision-
makers and no other "interested busybodies"
-setting minimum criteria for continuance (for instance turnover
must be more than X million)
-installing an additional step of presentation that can be done
by someone else than your salesperson so that he receives more
prepared prospects and thus has less to do to close them
-starting and stopping the telemarketing (having one or more
employees who share their week between two jobs)

...and so on. Those ways you can lower the yield to meet with whatever bottleneck in sales and/or production.

Now, on top of the METHOD or planning of approach of telemarketing, the other factor influencing the results involves the personnel — your telemarketers — and their training and supervision.

This subject of telemarketers and telemarketing training has not been touched in this article but it is one of almost equal importance. However, it is definitely SECONDARY to creating the correct system for acquiring prospects through telephone work.

If you have a telemarketing unit and wish to find out exactly how it produces and what could be done to improve its results, please read the presentation of our introductory service called B2B Telemarketing Result-Optimization Analysis. It will start you on the way towards creating a long-term telemarketing activity whose results are positive and continuos.

If you are thinking of starting telemarketing then I would recommend the Professional B2B-sector Telemarketing Guide as it will give you invaluable tools and tips to get going and start your telemarketing the right way.

If you're interested in finding out more about your marketing in general, please read the presentation of our Marketing Analysis introductory service which will give insight into what a tailor-made marketing approach could offer to your company.

Finally, if web site presentation is on the top of your list at this moment then please, click here to read about our Internet Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Analysis.

Keep find out about telemarketing. B2B telemarketing can be tremendously effective if aligned to employ the willingness of the target group correctly.

It is by far the quickest method of obtaining prospective clients and usually the most cost-effective too!

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex, United Kingdom
Tel. 01342-328 116
From U.S: 011-44-1342-328-116
CONTACT FORM