Magnus Marketing Blog

I met with a prospective new client the other day who was in need of an inside salesperson. They wanted to build an inside sales team and process. After speaking with them, they were rather interested in the very focused manner in which I do lead generation. They were seeking an alternative because the telemarketing vendor they used only gave them appointments, not information.

This prompts me again to discuss how and when to use telemarketers, prospecting agents, or inside sales and what is needed to make the effort successful.

Definitions:
1. Telemarketer. A person who is armed with a list, script, database mechanism who rotely goes down the list reciting a canned script with directives to ask "qualifying" questions and determine whether a person is a buyer or not.

2. Prospecting Agent/Lead Manager. A person who is able to nuture inquiries, intelligently determine appropriate qualifying criteria through strategic fit, and is capable of building and maintaining a relationship.

3. Inside Sales. Should be like a Prospecting Agent, except is able to actually provide a quote and close a sale. Inside sales is only good for low value items in highly transactional environments.

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The Three Levels of B2B Outbound:

1. Telemarketing. Telemarketing is good for when you have a strong brand equity, multichannels of marketing, a highly transactional product/service, a strong value proposition, and good delivery. The higher the brand equity and/or stronger the value proposition, the greater the acceptance of the telemarketing call and higher the "Yes" or "No" acceptance of the pitch. The goal of telemarketing is VOLUME. Telemarketing is great to find low-hanging fruit. Remember though, if someone is easily won over on the phone by you, they can be won over later by someone else. In other words, there is low loyalty generated.

2. Prospecting Agent/Lead Manager. This is a more evolved and intelligent person who also is the relationship builder. This is a good way to go if you have little to no brand equity, a more complex to complex product/service, longer sales cycles, have higher value deals. This person can be used if you have higher brand equity, but want to be more selective in what business you target. If more work is needed upfront to really get the right accounts, use this method. This type of prospecting is for higher value, more strategic sales and allows for more selectiveness in choosing whom will be serviced or sold.

3. Inside Sales. A telemarketer can do inside sales if the value is very low and the desire for volume is high. A prospecting agent should be used if the product/service is more complex and a relationship is desired. Inside sales should only be used for lower value services or products.

It is important also to find the right person for the job. Telemarketing requires little critical thinking and is very rote and repetitive, the job requires little decision making and is simply mechanical information acquisition. The pay rate is very low. A prospecting agent requires more education, capability to discern important facts from others, decide whether someone is qualified from a conversation. The pay rate is much higher (and worth it).

Take time to consider exactly what type of business you want to bring in and who is the right person. A mismatch can literally be fatal, putting a telemarketer in where a company has no brand equity will yield very low results. Conversely, putting a prospecting agent in a telemarketing job, will yield a bored and unmotivated agent who will lose interest and, ergo, sales.

And remember, there is no magic bullet - no person will walk into your company or environment and heroically generate enough business to propel you to major revenue. If they were that good - they would be in business for themselves.