Information Technology telemarketing differs to commodity marketing and outbound telemarketing for IT is targeted around selling the idea or solution to a problem that consumer may be facing or might not know they have. Business to business telemarketing provides the most cost-effective medium for generating new customers / prospects for the IT segment.
Organisations are at different stages of their IT buying life cycle where only a handful are ready to speak to sales at the one time. It is for this reason that is of the greatest importance for IT marketing and sales to work coherently in co-ordinating efforts to maximise the lead nurturing process in forming and maintaining new relationships.
IT vendors, distributors and resellers use telemarketing services for:
- IT lead generation (outbound telemarketing): IT lead generation and IT appointment setting
- Event telemarketing and management: IT events and conferences (managing events, resources, data entry and teleboosting for attendee’s invitations)
- Prospect and customer databases: IT database builds, email opt-ins, account mapping and current customer database cleaning and prospect list cleaning
- Channel Partner Programs: Developing out of the box lead generation campaigns for channel VARS and Partners. For detailed IT Channel Partner Sales and Lead Generation Programs.
What does a successful IT telemarketing program require?
Success relies on 4 vital aspects:
- Your messaging and the relevance to the target audience – educational not product based
- Your delivery of the message - Having a team of outbound sales representatives that understand your value proposition, the challenges and the ability to build rapport with prospects.
- The database of contacts - accurate and relevant prospect list
- Follow up - ensuring that every call to action is followed up, including emails and call backs.
- Set criteria – for qualification of leads through internal sales input and BANT guidelines.
Find out about the iTEL lead generation program and IT telemarketing services, including channel partner programs and iTEL’s lead nurturing process.
BANT Process
There is often a misperception in the market about telemarketing leads due to one major factor that weighs heavily upon the performance of a campaign unqualified leads.
Whether you have selected an agency based on per appointment rates or by number of contacts, it is very important to set out clear and precise guidelines for lead qualification. It is important to include the BANT qualification model wherever possible to ensure that leads being passed to the sales team are qualified and relevant.
- Need: why are they interested?
- Budget: do they have budget allocated for this project or this issue?
- Authority: do they have the authority to make the final decision? If not who is this person.
- Timeframe: what is the time frame for evaluation or implementation?
For more information on how we can help you with developing the right telemarketing campaign for your sales objectives, contact us.
