Use Financial Lead Generation To Save Your Strength

Think of financial lead generation like a car mechanic and your financial services company is the casual driver who just wants something to get them places without worrying too much about engine trouble. The more of your own business strength is spent on lead generation, the more you should consider re-evaluating it.

Get Health Sales Leads From Temporary Solutions

In healthcare, your health sales leads can be like those patients who are not that keen on paying for a full procedure. Rather, the are the kind who would rather pay for painkillers, changing bandages, or anything that only involves keeping an ailment at bay instead of a more permanent solution. And like them, your sales leads can only prolong it for so much without suffering in the long-term.

Speedy IT Lead Generation – Got Enough Gas?

As with IT products and services, your IT lead generation process is expected to work at a speedy pace. You have competitors and prospects alike getting ahead because they inform themselves faster and have a lot more sources at their disposal. The faster your lead generation process churns out business leads, the better right?

How Far Should Financial Lead Generation Take A Hit?

Just like in financial planning, the topic of lead generation has camps who either worry more about big mistakes or fear that big mistakes can just be small mistakes made repeatedly. The only difference is that its money matters in financial planning and its sales leads for lead generation.

Have Your Software Sales Leads Migrated?

The biggest sign of a dying B2B industry is that its software sales leads are migrating elsewhere, leaving a market environment that has become too barren and incapable of sustaining any business life. For software companies, the natural reaction is to see how badly you have been rendered obsolete. The first step to that though might lie in knowing why and where your business sales leads have migrated.

Lead Generation Tips – Divide Attention Among Products

While your lead generation process wants undivided attention from prospects, you might want to divide that attention again among your own products and services. For example, if you are medical device vendor and you have long expanded to include a variety of tools in your catalog, marketers always do it in sections! It is a preventive measure against the ancient lead generation pitfall known as information overload!

Number of Sales Leads – Make Up Your Mind!

Being picky is not only problematic with qualifying sales leads. It is also a problem when setting the number that you need. If you do not feel confident about how many (or even how few) sales leads that you want, the rest of your business will have trouble keeping up to your fickleness!

Lead Generation Tips – Avoid Selective Correction

When your services goes on a lead generation campaign, it sometimes feels like a crusade of correction. That is actually not a bad thing by the way. Many people, businesses and consumers alike, suffer from financial illiteracy. Your lead generation strategy involves finding as many people as you can so you can fix this epidemic and have more people worry less about their cash.

The only problem with this little crusade of correction is when you are being too selective with who you are correcting! This leads to many lead generation mistakes like biased lead qualification, hypocritical marketing image, and it might even get you sued!

Cleaning Services Leads – Getting Strength In Numbers

The concept of getting cleaning services leads through strength in numbers really reflects the model of many commercial cleaning firms. Instead of spending so much time looking for people who are good enough to do a large set of tasks, you can divide those tasks among different people. And when you think about it, this does not just apply to cleaning leads but also to lead generators producing them.

Appointment Setting – What To Do With Unintended Success?

Sometimes, whether it is during the course of an appointment setting campaign or on an actual cleaning job, you achieved success without meaning to. Accidental accomplishments like that seem to be the stuff of cartoons but you never know when it makes its way to reality. On the other hand, is there anything in your appointment setting strategy that prepares you for this?

2 Hints on When to Outsource Software Lead Generation

Many software companies have the ability to stand on their own feet and can still do well in terms of lead generation for their own business. However, as time passes, that competence in being able to generate software leads may just end up going down the drain. When that happens then it is time to consider getting help in order to remedy such a problem.

A lot of people are open to accepting help – maybe you've seen a few people looking around the self-help section at your local bookstore, or browsing the Internet for helpful articles and blogs. Well, as a person, it is easy to see when you should seek help (maybe when you start hearing voices), but for a business realizing when they need help may be harder to find out.

Offshore Lead Generation? Kick Mediocrity Out the Door!

When we talk about outsourcing, you sometimes get the idea of lesser quality in services. Well, you may think so because you cannot directly monitor the flow of these types of campaigns and hold only so little influence when it comes to bringing about an outcome we can be pleased with. When it comes to lead generation, however, it seems like more and more businesses are choosing to outsource their campaigns to service providers, even to offshore lead generation companies.

Some business owners understand that cutting down on costs is all part of how they can keep their business in a profitable state. Others, however, frown upon outsourcing their lead generation campaigns because they believe that offshore services providers bring in mediocre results. True enough, some companies do bring in mediocre results, however, one should not lump all offshore companies into one basket.

Lead Generation Lessons From Santa's Little Helper

It looks like Christmas came early this year as I looked under my desk to find one of Santa's little helpers feasting on my stash of chocolate chip cookies. Seeing as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to talk to an elf, I decided to lock the doors and just chat with the little guy while he devoured my oh so delicious cookies. We talked about how life was at the North Pole and I found out that what he told me can be equated to lead generation during the holidays.

I sat the little guy up on my desk and we started to talk about things.

Lead Generation Troubleshooting – Fixing A Clogged Pipeline

No marketer wants to face having to deal with a clogged pipeline. If your sales pipeline is clogged, then you are not going to be able to effectively handle all your B2B leads and sales are not going to flow freely through your pipeline. Such a problem could stem from how you are doing lead generation and could thus affect your close rate and marketing performance.

Just like when you are at home, you do not want to be dealing with a clogged pipe. The water doesn't go down and harmful microorganisms could start growing in the rancid water that's stuck underneath your sink. As a marketer, you need to be quick on your feet and remedy your problems with lead generation. If you don't act fast, you risk putting all of your company's efforts at risk and you may even start losing those much wanted sales.

If you've come to find some tips on how to deal with such a problem then you have come to the right place. Here's what you want to know and came to find out about lead generation to help you deal with an annoying pipeline problem!

Telemarketing Tips – Beating Fear

There are many reasons as to why a marketing campaign feels especially when telemarketing is what's being talked about. A lack of budget could lead to the death of a campaign, a disgruntled employee could make risk pissing of each and every prospect they contact. As said, there are numerous reasons as to why a telemarketing campaign can crumble into pieces.

If you are a telemarketing services provider, you of course want to provide your clients with the best quality of service. But before you can achieve such a level of performance, you first need to make sure that you can overcome the challenges that comes with being a telemarketing company.

One major thing which inhibits the capabilities of any telemarketer is fear. When you are afraid, your mind functions differently and your entire thought process is affected. You start grasping at the right words, tremble all over and even feel a cold sweat all over you. Fear can hamper the progress and success of any telemarketing campaign when those that are tasked with making calls are experiencing it.

Well instead of shivering at your desk and staring at the phone warily like it's going to bite you, here are a few tips to helping you overcome your fear!

Identify the problem.

Before you can start battling that monster that lurks underneath your bed, you first have to find out what it is. After all, a problem can only be solved after we know what it is, just like how we take different kinds of medicine depending on what ails us. What is it that you fear? Identify what each of your staff members is afraid of about doing telemarketing.

Identify the cause of the problem.

Once you know just what it is you fear, you should find out what is causing it. For staff that work in a telemarketing company, one common cause of fear is rejection. Telemarketers that perform tasks such as lead generation appointment setting often expect that the prospects they call will give them a “no” before they even pick up the phone and make the call. This assumption puts them into a mindset in which they truly do believe that a negative reply is coming their way.

Another thing that adds up to this fear is the presence of their duty. They are working for a telemarketing firm thus they know that they must make calls.

Come up with a solution.

Just because an employee has a fear about a certain part of their job does not mean that you should outright fire them. Every staff member is still a valuable part of your lead generation force and once they overcome their fear they should be able to perform their tasks effectively. So after you have found out what the problem is and what is causing it, the time has come to come up with a solution.

One of the best solutions for getting rid of fear is positive reinforcement. If your employees keep thinking that they will fail, then chances are they really will. But you can make a difference through just being positive. When your employees start telling themselves that they're not going to succeed, you tell them the exact opposite! There are other ways to counter fear, however the problem and cause must still be identified before any action can be taken.

Fear really is a common problem in telemarketing. I too have had my share of being afraid to pick up the phone just because I kind of knew what was coming at the end of the conversation. However, once you master how to beat what you are afraid of, you can turn it into strength and succeed in what you do, be it telemarketing!

How Telemarketing Can Avoid Driving People Crazy

The idea of telemarketing driving people crazy is nothing new. What is also not new however is the idea that telemarketers can do a lot to actually run counter to that image. It is not just about how DNC lists have put a hamper to consumer marketing calls. It is about how the remaining markets that telemarketers can target are likely filled with many people who do not need much to go nuts.

The B2B Lead Generation Market

If you are a B2B company, there is a chance that you have thought of telemarketing (or may even be using it already). How is this possible when decision makers are likely to be more secure and more critical against marketers? More importantly, how can you have a contact center that does not drive them up the wall?

• #1: They are not as tightly guarded as you believe – If you are under the assumption that cold calling will land you an automatic rejection, you are only half-right. The negative thing about cold-calling is that it is unexpected. But it is not so much given that businesses are not actually granted immunity from marketing calls. So long as you communicate right, you can actually avoid the cold shoulder that comes from cold calling.

Related Content: Cold Calling Tips – Avoiding The Cold Shoulder

• #2: Know the proper time to call – It is a common rule for telemarketers but first-timers often struggle with it because they simply do not know the best time to call. So as a start, go for more physical indicators like figuring out a prospect's location. Are they in a different time zone? Should you call in the middle of the day or just when they are about to punch out? After that, try a more indirect form of communication like an email exchange prior to a telephone one.

• #3: Value their time as well – B2B telemarketing does not always have to involve direct, outbound calls. Your call center could also be employing inbound services both for marketing as well as customer support. But in all cases, you should learn to value your caller's time. It is highly likely that they have other things pressing on their minds so a quick response is mandatory!

Related Content: Inbound Telemarketing – There Shouldn't BE A Voicemail Hell!

• #4: Your follow-ups are well-spaced – The tricky thing about follow-ups is that it is like walking on a tightrope. You cannot make too many calls in a short span of time nor can you just take too long in between. It is like the extension of knowing the proper time to call and can be difficult without enough decent engagement with a prospect. But that is the keyword: engagement. At this point, you have already achieved making contact so use it as an opportunity to converse with a prospect and figure out the best time to contact again.

Never forget that when you are targeting others who are just as much as steeped into the business world as you, you run the risk of adding to their trust. But surprisingly, it is this same business culture than can bring you success if you exhibit a matching level of professionalism and strategic marketing. It is arguably a lot easier compared to consumers who are only too quick to press the DNC violation button. The best part is these basic sales lead generation tips are all that you need!

Find Sales Leads That Define Your Business Identity

In business, many people still underestimate the power of an image when it comes to attracting sales leads. While it is true that your business should be more than just looks, the concept of a business identity may not just be about looks either. Your marketing strategies can go beyond simply drawing out a picture of yourself.

Creating A Lead Generator That Projects Your Core

The basic concept is to take the core of your business and broadcast it via lead generation. While complexity is a guarantee in B2B, the very heart of what your business is about can fit even in the shortest marketing message. All you need is to take the following attributes and use them as parts of your image: 

• Your methods – The truth is any method can be used to suit your business. It is only a matter of figuring out how you get them all to fit, how well you can stick with them, and how well they can adapt. For example, telemarketing alone can serve a variety of methods but why stick to using a singular approach when it is so much more effective to integrate it with others? 

Related Content: Lead Generation Can Be Cloudy When Using Singular Methods 

• Your industry – If you are in the construction business, use visuals that immediately relay that image. The same goes for your brand name. If not, why would you mislead your prospects and customers about what you do? The good thing about a simplified industry image is that it automatically relays the small stuff while giving you more time to elaborate on the complications. 

• Your target industries – Ideally, you do not generate sales leads from just one industry. That is why your industry identity must meld with the ones you are targeting. Think of it like this: Your business has already presented the tool and now its time to show how well it can serve different purposes. People like variety and that includes your B2B customers. Better yet, they like a variety from which they can generate maximum benefit. 

• Your budget – But of course, you should not be too unrealistic when it comes to presenting yourself. An effective marketing plan only works well if it is being honest or otherwise it will backfire very badly. Instead of viewing your budget as a restrictive limit, view it as the outlining sketch on which you can start drawing out your image. Otherwise, you risk disappointing prospects when the time comes to admit the costs they did not expect from doing business with you. 

Related Content: Telemarketing Tips – Breaking The Costs To Your Prospect

So as you can see, the result is not just an image but an image the projects what you do and what your business is. Maybe there are many other situations where you do not wear an identity on your sleeves but when it comes to business, transparency and honesty are important. Do not be afraid to use tools like B2B telemarketing or targeting industries outside those you would be generally familiar with so long as they honestly express the core identity of your business.

Lead Generation Tips – If You're Gonna Go Political, Don't Take Sides

Do you really feel that your marketing and lead generation strategy is just irrelevant and out of date without playing the tune of the election season? Do you honestly feel that, despite all risks of a major PR suicide, you want your own business to have a voice in politics?

Well, if you insist then go ahead. Go political. There is just one thing you need to avoid: actually taking a side.

Political Sales Leads Without The Partisanship

Admittedly, people who advocate politics in marketing do have one fair point: It is a powerful way to connect with your market. That begs one question though: Is it powerful enough to justify the risks?

The answer is no. Here is the good news however: You can still connect that way. The trick is to simply not take sides. There is no question that a connection formed via political appeal can generate more qualified leads from prospects who sympathize (if not, embrace) a certain ideological bent. You can generate this appeal though without necessary doing any embracing yourself.

If you want an example, look to 7-Eleven (as reported by Entrepreneur). It maybe a B2C marketing strategy but take a hard look at the core concept if you really doubt that B2B marketing cannot apply it:

“The convenience store 7-Eleven proclaimed that 'politics are brewing' last month as it announced its quadrennial Presidential Coffee Cup Poll. 7-Election 2012 allows customers to indicate their presidential preference when they purchase a cup of coffee -- a blue cup imprinted with a donkey for President Barack Obama or an elephant-emblazoned red cup for Mitt Romney.”

But of course, you cannot be wrong for wanting the finer details of how this works for B2B. A key element in this strategy is understanding the link between politics and work place culture as well as viewing this election season just like you would any other season. In short, it is a form of seasonal marketing.

Related Content: Tips For B2B Telemarketing – Seasonal Myth Busted

Like regular seasons, elections are a theme in of themselves regardless of whether you subscribe to any worldview (or make it a part of your business identity). Your marketing just has to align itself with this theme just like 7-Eleven. That is not the same as aligning with any faction but just mildly tailoring your sales lead generation process accordingly to your prospects' political tastes.

• Use prospect's opinion to line up with an objective need. - Your business is meant to fulfill objective needs. How do you align them with political opinion? You simply listen. Make a connection with their views with whatever solution or service that you could provide. 

• Avoid raising the subject yourself – Do not forget that you are not alone if you want to avoid politics. Other business owners are not necessarily eager either. Stick to a neutral image first and wait to see if your prospect is starting lean away. If not, good news. You can now market as normal. 

Related Content: Professional Telemarketing – What Great Leaders Can Teach About Great Communication

• Make a note so sales can carry on the conversation – Your markers cannot keep up the conversation forever. That is why they are supposed to just qualify and let salespeople make the close. You cannot just pass the baton though without letting them know what you are passing. 

So it would seem that you can appeal to the political side of your prospects without necessarily taking it. The best part is you now have both supplying you with B2B sales leads!

Training Telemarketers – How Much Investment Should You Put?

If you believe that experience is the best teacher, then you should know why you should invest in training whether it comes to telemarketers or any other professional engaged in a business process. No professional is made completely within the vacuum of academic institutions.

Telemarketing Groups Need More Than The Telephone

There is a reason why today's call center is now being called a contact center. More businesses are expanding beyond singular forms of communication with their markets. It then naturally follows that they will use the same multi-channel approach when it comes to communicating with each other.

Contrary to some people's fears, having different channels will not drive you crazy so long as you know how to manage and moderate. That however takes training. Thus, if you do not invest in training, no person, no matter how skilled, will stay long in their job.

Related Content: Telemarketing Tips – Employee Retention Rate Matters

• Manage – Some might argue that management skills are already learned in school. That is under the misguided notion that a telemarketer can manage what needs to be done before the week begins. On the contrary, they must learn how to manage on the go. B2B telemarketers are called to exercise quick-responses regardless of what medium is being used by prospects and customers to communicate. Without properly managing the different tools being used in real-time, you will only end up with a flustered and harassed agent. In fact, some companies who train their agents still recommend that their clients not demand too many conflicting tasks. With proper management comes a good sense of realism. 

Related Content: How Telemarketing Is More Realistic Than Popular Opinion

• Moderate – Using each method in moderation ties with good management. You cannot manage different marketing methods if you do not know which one to use and how often. The strength of using multiple channels comes from the capacity to be flexible. That flexibility is lost though unless you or a more experienced marketer will personally make sure that agents adjust to switching quickly when a prospect calls for it. For example, if they cannot get in touch via telephone, they must have a well-written email at the ready. And as an organization, they should be quick to adapt to what actually works versus having the extra but inefficient methods result in a large overhead. 

Both skills require actual training on the job because there is no established theory or textbook guide that will drive them in for you. Furthermore, you can read it in many marketing and business resources that actual field experience is necessary due to the fact that said field is always changing. Take for instance the sudden shift where traditional marketing is now challenged by customers who are more well-informed and more influenced by their peers. Some go as far as to say that the field is changing even more rapidly than before! If this is true, there might not be enough time for schooling and you will be limited exclusively to training your marketers on the job. Why wait until that time? Start putting more investment in training or at least outsource to lead generation companies and invest in theirs!

Use Legit Telemarketing To Combat Its Scamming Counterpart

Every now and then you would hear about the latest scams involving telemarketing frauds. Naturally, this is bad press for the industry but worst of all, it has been rapidly misleading people (at least consumers) into the belief that no telemarketer is legit.

Legit Telemarketers VS Anonymous Scammers

First off, perhaps it would be better if the public at large should also tone down on their desire to crack down on these swindlers. Yes, they should be caught. It is only expected that consumers cry out their rights and demand action.

That is not the same as the witch hunts which follow where businesses and telemarketers alike are lambasted for so much as pressing the number on a dial.

To protect your own right as a business, review your reasons for why you dial numbers in the first place: lead generation and customer support.

• Business leads – It is generally not enough to simply exchange emails. You still have to formally sign the deal and even before that, B2B solutions generally entail lengthy discussions on price, project duration, as well as the bottom-line purpose and results of it all. It also helps to keep close in touch with your provider and have them keep an eye on those who make false calls on their behalf. You can even give them the mental incentive by saying somebody shady is sabotaging their work. 

• Customer service – Customer service is not always about just receiving inbound calls day after day. Sometimes a company would like to conduct a small survey and have them contact their customers directly. As with business leads, make sure your business has a way of giving your callers an identity. It might also be best to use additional channels of communication to announce said survey. 

Related Content: How Customer Service Can Be Its Own Lead Generator

Speaking of which, you will notice that the biggest advantage you can give against false association is to make sure your contact center agents have a verifiable means of identifying themselves. Furthermore, that identity also verifies their affiliation with your company, thus showing it to be legit. Make sure your telemarketers take the following measures regardless if they are outsourced or in-house:

• Database is under lock and key – Access to prospect and client information is regulated and breaches are swiftly dealt with. Any outsourced telemarketing company must have the same level of security as a well-guarded, corporate infrastructure. 

• Have trustworthy personnel – Applicants as well as present agents should always be held with a certain level of responsibility over data security. Do necessary background checks and make sure recruiters ask them to file basic clearance requirements. 

• High awareness of possible breaches and responses to scams – There is a difference between being highly aware and completely paranoid. Do not always respond to every telemarketing scam unless it directly involves your business. But in the case that it does, send word to your telemarketers and act immediately! 

Related Content: Why People Are Cautious About Telemarketing Services And What You Can Do About It

As for what actual actions to take, make sure both of you collaborate closely together in your response. Set up a page on your website that can differentiate your telemarketers from that of posers. If you are outsourcing, constantly check in with your provider and make sure they are in the loop on what is happening in case bad news starts floating around. Only use professional telemarketers to combat their shady counterparts!