How important is business to business telemarketing in terms of lead generation in the UK marketplace?

1. How important is business to business telemarketing in terms of lead generation in the UK marketplace? Integrating telemarketing into a B2B strategy is both a complimentary and integral part of any lead generation campaign, whether a company is looking for new opportunities in the UK or overseas, and is a proven method of generating new prospects and securing new sales. Regardless of the state of the economy at any given time, businesses should always be searching for new clients that have a genuine need for their products or services. Somehow, however, generating new leads is something of a challenge for some businesses. Many marketing teams have a tendency to churn out multi-channel campaigns, including social media advertising and email campaigns, in the hope that something will resonate with the audience and produce a lead. A ‘hit and miss’ approach to marketing is a drain on multiple resources including manpower and the marketing budget. Peppering the market with various adverts and social media blogs may generate one or two quality leads but how can these be converted into new business? The answer is simple; business to business telemarketing. As with most things, a well-planned, strategic and logical approach to marketing is a much better use of resources than a scattered and poorly-planned attempt at reaching a specified target audience. A properly planned and delivered telemarketing campaign will generate new leads and, in addition, will help a business develop long-term and profitable relationships with prospects that will ensure a healthy sales pipeline is maintained. Integrating telemarketing before, during or after another form of marketing, for example an email campaign or a digital project, gives a company a much better chance of giving a good impression. Developing a long-term and meaningful relationship with a prospect and identifying valuable sales opportunities. A successful telemarketing campaign will help a business raise awareness of its presence and brand thus engaging with prospects and providing opportunities to sell products and services. In addition, telemarketing is not just about gaining new clients; a successful campaign designed to engage with existing clients will allow a business the opportunity to retain clients as well as upsell products or services to existing customers. The telephone can be used as a relationship building tool; the best way to start a new relationship is by talking. How else can a relationship develop and flourish if no one talks to each other? Sending an email is not an effective way of opening up communications. Relationship building is a two-way street. Without integrating telemarketing into an existing campaign, cold leads stay cold and warm leads are left to go cold. Picking up the phone and engaging with a prospect means that cold leads can be warmed up and warm leads can be converted into sales. In addition, some business owners or decision makers will shy away from anything technical or complex looking. If a business is selling a particularly complicated product or service, it is likely a prospect will ignore the idea if they do not fully understand it. Telemarketing allows a business the chance to find out exactly what a prospect needs and tailor their pitch to ensure that the prospect fully understands just how beneficial their technology can be to a company.