Lead Nurturing the C and D leads in your CRM with Telemarketing

Three events coincided this week that provided the inspiration needed for this post.

1. I met with Susan Linman, President of Dunthorpe Marketing, and we discussed the role of Telemarketing in lead nurturing, especially for C and D leads.
2. I read Craig Rosenberg’s thought provoking post suggesting that marketing “sells the connect” not the product. 
3. I read the release notes for Market2Lead’s upcoming call center module for our marketing automation system.

Telemarketing is not the same as appointment setting

Do you use telemarketing as part of your lead nurturing? What is the most effective way to use it and when?  I must confess I am not a big fan of appointment setting services. Yes, I am sure they have their place, and there are businesses for whom getting an appointment for $750-$1000 is a ‘good’ deal. I simply have not been in a position yet where I thought this was a good deal for generating new leads.  In a past life I examined the opportunity connect rate for these leads and it was no better than website leads or PPC leads, so why would I pay 10x more for them?  But using telemarketing to connect with prospects and nurture them, now that is different than attempting to sell to them.

Telemarketing is not telesales

We are talking about telemarketing, not telesales. I don’t want savvy sales people in this role, who know the product inside out, and are slicker than clean socks on a linoleum floor. I want people who know how to listen more than talk. Their role is to not waste the prospect’s time; they need to figure out where prospects are in the purchase cycle, what they need, and offer them relevant help.

Use telemarketing to nurture C and D leads

Telemarketing can be a very powerful part of your lead nurturing strategy. Let’s say you have a marketing automation system, and it scores your leads. All the A and B leads are shipped off to the various Sales Channels, but the Cs and Ds are retained in the Marketing hopper. Does your system assign them to a lead nurturing track that pumps out unsolicited whitepapers, webcasts, and webinar invitations every two weeks for months on end until such time as the prospects surrender, unsubscribe, or sideline you with their junk filter?  Inoculation of your prospects is not a good idea unless you are practicing medicine.  An alternative is to engage them in Pull Nurturing, and you can also use telemarketing in the middle of this lead nurturing track to coax more Cs and Ds out of their shells, and into an actual relationship with your firm.The Market2Lead system enables you to include programs with telemarketing scripts in the middle of a lead nurturing campaign.

The telemarketer's role in effective lead nurturing

The effective telemarketer will, on the first call, introduce themselves as part of the Marketing team, they are NOT in a sales role.  Their role is to:

• Initiate the relationship with the prospect
• Help the prospect in their research, find relevant information
• Make them aware of upcoming events that might be of interest
• Collect feedback on the events or offers the prospect already accepted
• Update the prospects record, and influence future automated nurturing behavior
• And when the prospect wants to talk to a sales representative, make an appointment

Run a test; take a random selection of your C and D leads that your are actively nurturing and have some telemarketers call on them for a month or two in addition to the regular nurturing activities. See what percentage you can convert into Bs and As, and compare this to your control group. You may be surprised at the results. The purchase cycle behavior of prospects is evolving so that the Sales person may not be welcome until later in the cycle. This does not mean that the prospect doesn’t want some human engagement. Connect with your prospects!

-Kevin

Comments

[Vibram Five Fingers]

Hi,What a great post! Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.Have a nice day!

[Vibram Five Fingers]

Hi,What a great post! Thanks for article. Everytime like to read you.Have a nice day!