Leadership Traits That Inspire Loyalty In Your B2B Telemarketing Team

Loyalty – the one quality that many business owners and managers want to develop in their employees. This is also the quality that compels marketers to stick to their bosses through difficult times, convincing them to look for viable answer to many B2B telemarketing concerns. Well, you have to admit that generating qualified sales leads through this medium could be a pain. And not many people will stay working for you, what with all the pressure and challenges that they will have to face here. It is your job, as the leader, to inspire loyalty in your people. Mind you, doing that is no walk in the park, but if you know what to do exactly, then you will be on your way to a productive appointment setting campaign.

Let as look at the following, for starters:

1. Be honest – nothing can be more inspiring than being honest with your people. I know, this may sound cliché, but you have to admit that leaders who can remove ambiguities and promote accuracy and openness in the office are the ones who are most likely to succeed in fostering respect and loyalty from their employees. So try to keep that in mind as well

2. Stick to the job description – when you hired someone, you hired them specifically for the job you have in mind. Making them do things that go beyond their job description not only results in poor results (if that employee lacks the proper skill for the new job) but also resentment from your employees. Think of what would happen if you put your researchers in a big-time telemarketing job. They would not like that.

3. Get real – basically, you remove the barriers that keep people from interacting and working together. You know you have something good if people collaborate and contribute towards a better lead generation process. I mean, you can only get that if all the inputs from other members of your company share their thoughts to the one making the marketing plans. Some might even get the courage to go straight to you and share their marketing ideas.

4. Show fairness and openness to everyone – simply put, you want to be transparent, whether it is about that needed to be done or the problems that your company is experiencing. You have to show them that you are someone who appreciates good work and is not reserved with the praise, or critical analysis and advice in case things go wrong.

5. Do not tell them, show them – action speaks louder than words, so to speak. That is how you teach employees how things are done in the office, and in the way you prefer. Sure, you can let them do things their way, but you have to make sure that everyone is heading to the direction you desire.

Having loyal employees is very important in your B2B telemarketing campaign. Try following these tips and you will be able to keep your employees working for you. This is a good investment.

Who Is Better At B2B Lead Generation? An Expert Or A Consultant?

You know that marketing is no easy job. Customer trends and tastes change all the time. And it is up to you to make sure that your B2B lead generation campaign becomes successful. Now, as a marketer, approaching potential sales leads requires that you know how to deal with them best. Basically, you have to assume one of the two common roles that appointment setters make: an expert or a consultant? But here is an interesting part, which of these two roles will fit you? Understanding whether you are an expert or a consultant can affect your marketing style. So, which is which?

  

1.    An expert will tell you what to do, while a consultant asks what you might do – Some business prospects do not like being told straight to their faces of what they should or should not do. Consultants, on the other hand, may not be able to get much, especially if the B2B leads prospects they are talking to are not exactly sure of what they should be doing in the first place.

2.    An expert starts a trend, a consultant follows it – honestly, there is nothing wrong about being a trend-setter. What makes it a problem is when it backfires on you, especially if the trend you want to create actually messed up your lead generation campaign. You might as well observe the trends and deal with what you see.

3.    Experts explain the facts, consultants learn facts – business prospects find it harder and harder to analyze the facts and get things straight, so most of them would love to have someone who could make things easier for them. Experts can do that. But consultants are pretty good as well. They just spend more time studying the market and getting the facts straight. Now that would take a lot of time, but it is worth it.

4.    Experts bring a lot of things in, consultants do not bring much – since experts are pretty much knowledgeable of how the market works, it is only natural that you would be telling them everything they should know about. In the case of consultants, they would want to know more about your business first before they can give a concrete answer. There are a lot of problems and issues that may not be seen by experts that consultants might be able to point out. But still, it may work the other way, depending on the business you have.

5.    Experts talk, consultants ask – knowledge is power, so to speak, and in a B2B telemarketing campaign, you need to know how your prospects prefer to be talked into business with. Do they want to hear what you have in mind, or do they prefer someone who listens to their concerns?

Think about it. This might affect your decision on what exactly is the kind of b2b lead generation specialist you are going to be. You can bet that your approach to sales leads prospects will be influenced by the way you deal with them.

How To Prioritize B2B Lead Generation Tasks

As a business owner or manager, it is understandable if you want to generate the most number of IT sales leads for your company. The IT industry, while profitable, is also the most competitive. A lot of IT companies rise and fall every day, and only the strength of their products and the skills of their B2B lead generation team is what keeps the ones who survive afloat. And with all the things that you have to deal with, you cannot just cover everything in a single day. You need to learn how to prioritize. Otherwise, you would be stretching yourself so thin you have to chance to recharge or recheck your bearings. Now that would be more damaging to your IT business. So, how would you prioritize your tasks?

1.    List down your tasks – the main reason why you end up so overwhelmed with your work is because you do not know how many tasks you have to fulfill. Take stock of your work load. Only then will you know which one would be the most important in B2B leads generation.

2.    Identify the most draining tasks – to be honest, the one activity that would really drain you would be appointment setting. I mean, this is a process that requires constant monitoring and follow-up. You have to do that one right, before you deal with the rest.

3.    Forget about the perfect time – honestly, there will never be a perfect time to decide on things. You just have to deal with the challenges that get thrown your way. If you need to deal with your IT telemarketing campaign fast, then you really have to deal with it. Delays by waiting for the perfect time will not get you anything.

4.    Try not getting stuck on the big picture – sometimes, looking at the big picture makes you lose focus on the small details. And to tell you the truth, it is the small details that matter in your everyday operations. As a marketer, you should ensure that the small details are properly attended to. The big picture would take care of itself.

5.   Move on – there are so many tasks that you need to do in a single day that you just cannot afford to linger on one that you have just taken care of. If you think of each of these tasks as a sort of stages, one that will get you to your intended goals once the day ends.

6.    Rinse and repeat – basically, you do the cycle all over again the next day. The thing about marketing, and its accompanying tasks, is that the process never ends. You know that there will be more tasks coming up on your plate, and it is up to managers and entrepreneurs like you to put some system or process in place to help you go about your work, every day.

That is how you prioritize your tasks in B2B lead generation campaigns. Your IT business would be in a better spot with this.

No Tech Skills? That Is No Problem With Lead Generation

The thing about B2B lead generation , especially if you are targeting the IT industry, is that most marketers and entrepreneurs find it hard to actually interact with B2B leads prospects that are found there. It basically boils down to the lack of technical knowledge or skills that the other party knows about. Despite this kind of handicap, this should not be taken as a weakness for your B2B appointment setting campaigns. You see, there are ways for you to prepare, to get some working knowledge about the businesses you want to communicate with.

There are plenty of things that you can do, but the most important ones can be found below:

First of all, understand what really bothers the potential that you are in contact with.Sometimes, the problem that needed to be solved may not actually something technical at all. For example, if you are distribution and retail company wanting to sell the latest customized mobile applications being offered by another firm, then all they need from you is your sales and marketing knowledge. There is actually no need for you to know anything technical about your business prospect. You just have to offer them something they need (not to mention different) on the meeting table. That is your strongest draw.

Second, try talking to everyone, especially if you have a really good business idea in mind. If you just keep it to yourself, then you might miss out on a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of people who can give you feedback and advice about your ideas. Be it in how to properly perform a campaign on IT prospects, or in the things that the IT market needs at the moment, you will only know that if you ask. Besides, this could be very useful in opening up business networks that you can tap on at a later time.

Lastly, try thinkingoutside the box.Even if you are not that much of a technical person, it does not mean that you cannot contribute on a different aspect of your business. You might be the type of person that is pretty good at conceptualizing business or marketing ideas, or you might be someone who is good at getting skilled people on-board and helping you create some of the most popular business solutions that you can offer. Yes, you may not be able to write programs or code websites, but the other skills you have are equally important for the success of your B2B lead generation campaign as well.

By the way, while you might find these tips very useful, you might be inclined to follow the practice of some companies, and that is to outsource their sales operations to professional More likely than not, these people are more knowledgeable about the industries you wish to enter. As a business investment, you might want to consider this option. You have nothing to lose if you give this a try, just work with the right firms.

Problem-Solving Strategies In Effective Lead Generation

Customer complaints will always be part of your business campaign, and it is up to marketers like you to deal with them and keep them from getting out of hand. Otherwise, you might have some difficulties in your future B2B lead generation campaigns. This is one thing that you have to do right, since social media can be a real downer to your B2B leadscampaign if your prospects check and see that your customers are saying negative things about you. Now that would be a realwrecker for your marketers. This is an issue that you need to take care of. At least there are only three things you need to consider before you go out solving a customer’s problem.

First of all, you need to know just how big the return on your investments will be. 

You see, it is all right to solve a customer’s problem. Indeed, you have to solve it, how else will you be able stay in business, then? The problem here is that some customers are just so hard to please. Dealing with such people not only steals a lot of your time, it also keeps you from your appointment setting tasks at hand. In cases like these, it is best to just solve it to the best of your abilities – and leave it at that. It will not help you to fret over it too much. If it is broken, fix it right. If it is still broken, and fixing it will not get you anything good in return, then you might as well leave it.

Second, are your people properly informed of the customer’s problem? 

With multi-tasking being the norm in a lot of businesses, where a single employee might act both as telemarketing representative and secretary, then you need to make sure that they are aware of what your customers expect from them and how you will address that need. People need to know why they are being made to do things. Setting expectations about their work will help them work better and provide meaning in what they are doing. But you do have to inform them about it. This calls for all your skills in communication to get your message across them.

Lastly, you have to make sure that you are ready for the consequence.

This is especially true if you fail to solve the problem of your customers. If that failure is what prospective sales leads ask you about, then you should have a reply at the ready. Sometimes, explaining things can be a real pain, especially if that failure is a sour point in your business operations, but brushing it aside will not get you anywhere near your goals. Be ready to defend your business, andyour products, in case that happens. It is a necessary part of your overall marketing process.

Trouble with customers and B2B leads is normal. It is how you deal with that that makes all the difference in your lead generation campaign.

Improving Life, Even When Bogged With Lead Generation

Are you aware that B2B lead generation is one of the most stressful jobs that a marketer could ever experience? This is a reality that many will have to deal with. Otherwise, they will not be able to do their jobs at all. While it may be true that this can be a pain, the fact remains that this is also a very profitable activity. If you can generate good sales leads, then you can earn a profit here. How you handle the stress and baggage that this job brings to your life varies from person to person, but there are a few factors that are the same. Therefore, these are fixed points that can be improved on. 

And what are these pointers that you should know about?

  

1.   Plan well – this is an advice that we have all heard too often, but rarely do we really follow. As marketers, we must be able to decide on what business strategy to employ before we start. It would be a virtual waste of effort if we just do things without a proper goal in mind.

2.   Focus – when you work, really dive into your work. Get ‘into the zone’, so to speak. Not only will you be able to accomplish more of your work, but you would also be able to ensure that your attention is focused on the details.

3.  Have a break – of course, after intensely working for about an hour or so, you should learn to stop and take a break. In this way, you can avoid getting burned-out too early in the day. It will also let you refocus on your work later.

4.   Be neat – as some say ‘a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind’. While this may be true in some cases, the point here is for you to put everything in your desk in order. This will help you keep tab on things, as well as avoid cases of ‘misplacing’ anything, like notes from a telemarketing call.

5.   Do not seek perfection – instead, seek excellence in your work. You see, going for perfection is an activity that will never bring you any rewards. Often, this is an unattainable, frustrating, and a neurotic activity. Better aim for something that you can actually achieve, and that is excellence.

6.  Learn to say ‘No’ – you see, there is a limit to what a normal flesh and blood can do. If you just keep on accepting workloads from your bosses, or from your B2B leads prospects, soon enough, you would be overloaded with things you have yet to do. You need to learn when to say ‘No’.

7.  Do not procrastinate – this is common even for those in the B2B appointment setting business. You need to do things now, not later, lest you miss the chance to generate good sales leads in the end.

This is for the good of your B2B lead generation campaign. If you are in top form, you will be able to perform better at the job.

Is Inside Sales An Art Or Science?

For a lot of marketers, defining whether inside sales is an art or science can be a very contentious topic. A good number of them would say that generating sales leads is an art, where only those who are in tune with the market energies and flow would be able to make a sale. On the other hand, there are also those who say that such appointment setting work is a science, with rules and tools that can be used to generate the B2B leads that your business will need. In other words, this is the type of work that anyone can do. But really, which is which?

Frankly speaking, inside sales is an amalgamation of the two. Let us use telemarketing as the medium, for example. It takes some communication skills to get in touch with your business prospects, grab their attention, and turn them into qualified sales leads. This is something that requires sensitivity to what the prospects say. At the same time, the data you collect during the call are then collected, analyzed, and a conclusion derived from the results. This time, the task requires a calculated approach.

As you can see from the example, it is clear that inside selling is both an art and science. Take one away and you will not get anywhere. It is the harmonizing the two exclusive parts that can spell the success or failure of your marketing campaign.

All that remains is you and your ability to put them together.

When Will Sales Leads Turn Into A Sale?

That is a natural question in the minds of all entrepreneurs during their lead generation campaign. It is a variable that has always affected the generation of sales leads. You want to be sure that your investment will give you rewards. After all, in today’s business environment, quality B2B leads is not just a strategy, it is also the meaning between staying open or closing down. But really, how can we be sure that your business leads really are going to become a sale or deal? All you need to do is to ask yourself these two questions:

1. Check if they need your offer – if they do, then that is the opportunity for your telemarketing team to attempt an offer. If they do not, it is all right. You can say you just wanted to announce your presence, in case they might need your offer in the future. 
2. Check if they have the budget for your offer – this is an important step in your campaign. You cannot force them to accept your offer if they really cannot pay for it. But if it is possible, you can offer a payment scheme that will work for them, in case they need it but have difficulty coming up witch the exact payment.

Still, your main goal is to make lead generation an easy tool to reach your business prospects. As a marketing investment, you just have to find out if such an agency can work well with your own business.