By Nathan Teahon, V.P. of Operations
Telemarketing services programs can be categorized into several different types. Let’s start with Lead Generation and Lead Qualification. Many organizations find that Lead Generation / Lead Qualification are a successful and efficient practice that aids in qualifying prospects or potential buyers for specific products or services. Often times, this process is done independently from an established sales team. A typical B2B Telemarketing Lead Generation or Lead Qualification program consists of a series of questions that helps determine if that prospect is qualified and to what degree. From those results, leads can be funneled to the respective sales team and a pipeline of future opportunities can be created.
Appointment Setting
Appointment Setting helps organizations increase sales by setting qualified appointments for sales teams. This appointment will tee up the contact and arranges the date and time for the prospect and the sales professional to meet. The qualification process for the Appointment Setting team should be done in tandem between your organization and the Appointment Setting company that you choose. Working collaboratively will improve results. Appointment Setting can be particularly helpful when you have a talented business development team that needs to be spending their time having productive conversations and not prospecting.
Business to Business (B2B) Telemarketing Sales
Business to Business (B2B) Telemarketing Sales is the practice of calling businesses to sell products or services. The components of a successful B2B telemarketing sales program include: navigating past the gatekeeper to the decision maker, thorough and complete training on the products or services being offered, sales skills training, including recognizing buying signs, asking probing questions and closing the sale.
Business to Consumer (B2C) telemarketing Sales
The difference in a Business to Consumer (B2C) Telemarketing Sales program is the product or solution is being offered to a Consumer. Business to Consumer telemarketing can play an important part in your customer communication and marketing strategy. An effective and common approach for B2C programs is a focused upsell/cross sell campaign to existing customers. Essentially, a telemarketing sales agent will promote and sell benefits of additional products/services to your existing customer base, taking the call to a sale or a completed transaction.
Political Calling
Political calling is another frequently used telemarketing services campaign type. Reaching potential voters, regardless of the type of campaign, is extremely difficult. One of the best ways to achieve positive results, while streamlining time and saving money; is by utilizing the services of a professional telemarketing company that specializes in Political work. By working with a professional political telemarketing company that has experience in managing campaigns similar to yours, you will have better success in reaching those valuable voters and you’ll also be able to reduce the stress that comes with managing your campaigns – regardless of size.
Market Research
Market Research and survey work are often conducting using telemarketing services. Market research is facilitated to gain a complete understanding of the consumer, to have an understanding their minds, emotions, habits, trends and the likes. Essentially, market research via the telephone channel is conducted to understand consumer behavior. Thorough market research and surveys, you’re able to collect valuable insights that help you make deeper customer connections.
Information Blitz campaigns
Information Blitz campaigns can be an effective method to increase your market, territory and name recognition. By providing an informational message to potential or existing customers, large brand names can enhance their brand image in the market.
Inbound Customer Service
Inbound Customer Service is another branch of telemarketing services. The telephone is an ideal channel to handle customer support needs. Examples of what inbound customer service agents handle include: order taking, customer service, dealer locator or appointment setting. The inbound customer service agents will receive calls, classify the caller needs and urgency, and if needed, re-direct calls to the proper department for resolution. Over the years, inbound customer service has grown from telephone calls only to also supporting customer contacts via chat, email and text.
Inbound Technical Support
Inbound Technical Support is another option for telemarketing services. Providing telephone support with a highly trained team equipped to resolve technical issues quickly will increase customer satisfaction while reducing costs. Technical Support teams are trained to handle full resolutions, or escalation procedures can be set to transfer certain support needs to an internal team through a ticketing system or by warm call transfer.
Inbound Sales
Finally, you have Inbound Sales. Historically, inbound sales were pretty cut and dry. Someone calls in to place an order, order placed, call was complete. Through the years, companies have found that inbound is an ideal environment for implementing up-selling and cross-selling tactics. Why? The customer is on the line and ready to buy. This is a perfect time to upsell additional products that the customer may need.
There are several different types of telemarketing services types and not every type is the right fit for every company. At the end of the day, the world is driven by sales and every one of these types of campaigns ties directly back to increasing sales within an organization Regardless of which telemarketing service tactic you need to employ, if done right the call center can increase your organizations sales and decrease expenses.
Nathan Teahon is the Vice President of Operations for Quality Contact Solutions, a leading outsourced telemarketing services organization. As a highly competitive person, Nathan brings his “A” game to work every day, ensuring that each of his clients wins on a daily basis. Nathan carefully balances the operations resources and client goals to ensure his clients receive the highest possible results at the lowest cost. Nathan is a true, born and bred telemarketer. He grew up in the business and intimately knows (and has played) every position on the field, including supervisor, quality assurance, call center manager, program management, account management, and call center psychologist. Nathan can be reached at Nathan.teahon@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516-656-5133.
