In contrast to common opinion, telemarketing calls are not only ideal for B2C or organizations that cater to individual consumers or for goods and services that are not too expensive. Tele marketing is as beneficial in B2B markets or for businesses that serve other businesses. They can have a positive impact on the sales cycle no matter how complex it is. Keep in mind that telemarketers are most beneficial in the initial stages of the sales cycle. Thereafter, the sales job should be taken over your in-house sales representatives.

Telemarketing companies compress the sales cycle

In the initial stages of the sales cycle, a high volume of calls need to be made to a long list of potential buyers. A few of these will turn into leads while others will not be worth pursuing. Telemarketing services are just right for generating high volumes of cold calls. Towards the final stages of the sales cycle, potential customers will want to have specific information and particulars of the product or service being promoted. This is best handled by bring in your in-house sales executives who have the talent and knowledge to take the sales process to completion. It would be unwise to expect a telemarketer to finalize a sale and a specialized sales executive to make hundreds of preliminary calls.

Numerous roles of telemarketing services

Telesales services develop quality leads by making a large volume of preliminary calls. This significantly shortens the sales cycle for the busy sales representative. An organization can assemble an in-house telemarketing service for this job – and use it as a training ground for up-and-coming sales agents – or contract out to a third party telemarketing service for quick ROI.

Assembling a telemarketing group and have it make cold calls is not going to get you new business unless the team is trained to add value to the sales cycle. Automated calls or unprofessional telemarketer can drive away clients. Businesses should teach telemarketers the proper way to converse with customers and appropriate business practices to steer clear of any hurdles.

Telemarketing services can help businesses by:

• Fixing erroneous data: Customer databases are normally fraught with a lot of inaccurate entries or have insufficient information. As telesales services call prospects, they can fix the records
• Appending proprietary data: Telesales services can also append proprietary data to a prospect’s record in the database. Important tidbits like the contact details of the company’s top executives, replacement due date of equipment, etc. work well in timing sales calls
• Building brand awareness: The purpose of telemarketing calls is not only to qualify sales leads but also to develop brand recognition. Recurring calls (but without harassment) to prospects establishes a feeling of continuity and generates confidence in the business’ commitment to the market.
• Effectively timing a sales call: By getting all the important details from prospects, telemarketing services prepare the stage for the sales person’s call. For example, if the customer informs the telemarketer that an equipment or part may need to be replaced in two months, the sales representative can call at the right time and move the sales discussion to fruition.

A business should not spend too much time and in-house resources in the initial phases of the sales cycle. The better its focus on the later phases, higher will be the productivity of its sales executives. Make the best use of telemarketing services to generate sales leads and build brand awareness.