Telemarketing has been a mainstay of B2B tech marketing for decades, especially internationally. It is necessary and effective, but with the maturity of online sources and methods, experienced tech marketing teams are discriminating where they deploy telemarketing. The below grid provides a framework (and some opinions) for when to use outsourced telemarketing based on stage of the marketing/sales cycle, and the information need of the prospects at that stage.
When to Use Outsourced Telemarketing:
By Prospect Stage and Information Need
| Buying Stage | Prospect Information Need | Outsourced Telemarketing – Pros | Outsourced Telemarketing – Cons |
| Early / Identifying prospects | Understand market space basics. How do my pain points align to different solutions? | Cheap price for high volumes. Can target titles and companies who *should* have the pain point. | Before calling, telemarketing firms have no idea of who has the pain point. Cheap callers mean weak calls, poor data back. Results skewed by caller incentives (i.e. hit goal) |
| Middle/ Nurturing identified prospects | Want more info about solution area (pros, cons, tech architecture) | Puts human touch on company. Can take data from first engagement to make customer feel like you “know their pain” | Inexperienced callers struggle to link insight from first touch to next step. Can’t really test different messages to increase next step actions. |
| Late / Developing pipeline | Solution specifics | Detailed back and forth on pain points, solutions are best handled by discussion | Must be done by someone that understands your solution |
Moving away from telemarketing for lead acquisition and early stage activities
As a result of the above factors, we see the most effective B2B tech organizations moving completely away from outsourced telemarketing for lead acquisition/early stage activities and using it for nurturing tasks when they can have long term, detailed relationships with Telemarketing firms.
We are interested in hearing where outsoruced telemarketing fits into your B2B tech marketing and sales mix. Feel free to leave a comment or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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