THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO TELEMARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE. How to bring your digital marketing to life with the human touch

Transcription

1 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO TELEMARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE How to bring your digital marketing to life with the human touch

2 ABOUT US With the fast paced change in digital marketing, we strongly believe that Telemarketing has an important, albeit changing role to play in connecting buyers and sellers into the future. We have created this guide to share our views on the industry and how the human touch of telephone contact will continue to play a vital role in B2B marketing in the 21st Century. The origins of GCL Direct go back to March 1990 when its founder, Greville Crowder, saw a gap in the market for honest, unscripted, outsourced B2B Telemarketing. Since then GCL has grown into the pre-eminent pan-emea Direct Marketing Services Company. Our services are based on the three most important aspects of direct marketing; Data, Insight and Dialogue. GCL s unique consultative approach still has as much if not more resonance in today s lightning fast digital world as it did 25 years ago. Telemarketing at its heart connects people and provides a much needed human touch.

3 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 THE TELEMARKETING REVOLUTION DATA: If you build it, surely they will come? INSIGHT: The metamorphosis from Prospect to Lead DIALOGUE: When is the right time to pick up the phone? CASE STUDIES WORKING WITH US

4 1 THE TELEMARKETING REVOLUTION The History of Telemarketing The sales call has been a part of life since the dawn of time, or at least the dawn of trade. The telephone became part of this process almost as soon as it was invented although only started to come to prominence as a commercial tool after the advertising boom of the 1950s. During the 1970s, the term Telemarketing entered the mainstream on the back of its application by Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T). Its reputation was quickly tarnished as the intrusive nature of consumer calls became more widespread. Automated and off-shore call centres did nothing to improve its reputation. However, in the corporate marketing world, a different trend was emerging. Telemarketing was starting to become a powerful tool in connecting individuals long before the internet came along. Trade directories provided prospect lists and the telephone was used to research and subsequently connect sellers with potential buyers. Much of this work was carried out in-house initially but the exhaustive nature of the work, individual skills required and an increasing reliance on new technology led to the creation of the outsourced Telemarketing industry. GCL Direct was at the forefront of this industry in the United Kingdom when Greville Crowder established the firm in The Advent of the Bad Telemarketer The boom in Telemarketing was about to begin and with it so too did the competition. Unscripted, highly skilled operations such as GCL Direct were undercut by automated phone systems as well as offshore call centres. 3

5 These lower priced alternatives started to dominate the market. In the UK, in the same way that manufacturing started to move overseas, so too did this relatively new service industry. The Bad Telemarketer was born and in some respects, still lives on today. Telemarketing in the Digital Age The rise of the internet through the early part of this century initially had little adverse impact on the Telemarketing industry, in fact quite the contrary. Advertising spend grew through the boom years as companies implemented strategies of building awareness followed by lead generation and appointment setting campaigns. Some would argue that this method continues to have the same, if not more success than current digital marketing strategies. Nonetheless, the world is changing, and it is changing fast. In the same way that high quality, precision engineering is returning to the United Kingdom, so too is high quality Telemarketing. In the digital age where most research is carried out online, bad Telemarketing practices can leave their mark. For companies such as GCL Direct who stayed true to the original vision of honest, unscripted sales calls, the digital age may yet be the best thing that could have happened to the industry. In a marketing world now dominated by online content, marketing automation, CRM systems, SEO, pay-per-click ads and so on, Telemarketing is starting to develop a more subtle niche. Despite attracting only 2% of marketing spend in 2014, Telemarketing is starting to be seen as a potential differentiator. Marketing executives crave both personalisation and automation to drive engagement whilst at the same time controlling spend. The ROI is everything. In this environment, the role of the telemarketer becomes paramount. Getting the handover from digital to human requires both art and science. Science can provide you with huge amounts of information and trends but for a true insight and personal connection, nothing beats the human touch of picking up the telephone. 4

6 2 DATA : If You Build It, Surely They Will Come? Quality of in-house marketing data was regarded as the number one challenge for effective lead generation and nurturing looking ahead. 5

7 Building a glossy marketing campaign is no longer enough to generate inbound enquiries on its own. Messages need to be increasingly targeted and distributed at the right place and right time. No matter how efficient your marketing processes are, or how easy it is to track opens and click-through rates, generating interest requires top quality data that is properly segmented and up-to-date. What does this mean in the real world? Think of your product as the pictures in an art gallery, and your leads as those queuing at the door. Who are those people at the door and how did they hear about the exhibition? Well once upon a time, they were strangers, or suspects. Now assuming these suspects are unknown to you (i.e. they haven t been to the gallery before), how can you possibly know who to invite. A good data strategy will initially define a list of characteristics that are common to all suspects (e.g. they are human!), before condensing these into a prospect list (e.g. live within 50 miles of the gallery and have an interest in art). The people on this database can then be invited to the gallery. Simple? Well, in short, the answer is no! What does good data look like? In the world of B2B marketing, data acquisition, management and privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue. Once the domain of IT, marketers are now responsible for databases and managing customer preferences. As a result, varying levels of interest, skill and in some cases ethics are leading to data being shared, copied, created and corrupted at an alarming rate. Building a prospect list is not easy. With the latest EU regulations coming into place, companies need to be increasingly careful about how they acquire and use individual contact details. The concept of opt-in has been around for some time and we expect this to become more high profile in the coming years. Digital marketing is fast becoming the default way to build an opted-in contact list. However, there remains a demographic who can t or choose not to engage digitally. Additionally, the volume of content out there means some people are starting to switch off. Perhaps this is why 55% of Marketing Directors regard Telemarketing as a very effective tool for follow-up activity for lead nurturing, compared with only 12% for . Nonetheless, good data should be: Targeted Up-to-date Opted-in Compliant Data that meets these criteria will mean that once you have built your marketing campaign, you will be able to direct it towards an appropriate audience. The next big question is when and where? How can we help? GCL Direct provide data sourcing, appending, cleansing and enhancement solutions that transform our clients data so that it is usable, healthy and capable of delivering outstanding campaign performance that meet their high expectations. 6

8 3 INSIGHT: The Metamorphosis From Prospect To Lead The Customer Journey So what exactly is the customer journey? One thing is certain and that is the customer journey existed long before the advent of digital marketing. Current thinking and research suggests that up to 75% of a buying decision is made before first contact. Behaviours are evolving but buyers have always conducted pre-engagement research and more often than not started their journey with some form of preconception based on advertising, word of mouth referrals or independent research. Historically the art of the salesperson was credited with converting leads into customers and winning new business as if the quality of product and messaging was somehow irrelevant. Of course things have changed, driven largely by the internet, but human nature and behaviour has to a large extent remained consistent. From a seller s point of view, it is useful to categorise individuals so that the right message can be delivered at the right time. Getting the content right is one thing but choosing the right channel for each stage of the buying process is equally important. Now perhaps in the past this has been largely the domain of sales, trying to read individual s buying signals over a table for instance, but a lot of this can now be tracked. However as we have touched on before, this can have its limitations. Shock horror, people still like to speak to each other! 7

9 The Tipping Point A combination of good data and digital marketing can assist your buyer on their journey from suspect to prospect. But then what? The point at which metamorphosis occurs is unpredictable, complex and as much down to timing and mood as it is to logic. Of course, logic should remain the driving force behind any buying decision but we all know people buy for a variety of reasons, both declared and disguised. Unless you are selling to a machine, personality will drive behaviour and decisions. However, where art is subjective, we can be more definite with the science. True insight comes from a holistic view of your marketing processes and your customer s journey. Combining digital marketing with human contact in a way that satisfies your customers needs is vital. How can we help? Our Insight service delivers the market intelligence that our clients hold on their prospects, clients and competitors so that they are able to effectively segment, target and personalise their messages. In our experience it will take an average of between five and twelve touches for a lead to make a buying decision. This will differ from one industry to the next but the expert marketer will align their messaging to each of those steps in the customer journey and determine whether those touch points should be digital or human and match their budget accordingly. BUT THIS IS ONLY PART OF THE PROCESS 8

10 1 OUR 2 BUYERS JOURNEY BEGINS 3 WELCOME NEW PROSPECTS START HERE: 2 If they are the right type of buyer, they enter the sales funnel and the engagement begins 1 Our buyer goes on an epic journey of discovery through awareness, information gathering, consideration and evaluation. Eventually arriving in your corner of the digital world. 3 After successful engagement with your personalised content our suspect buyer becomes a prospect. 9

11 7 4 5 QUALIFIED LEADS QUALIFIED OUT 6 HUMAN TOUCH 4 5 It s decision time! The prospect is now ready to talk - time for the human touch. Good telemarketing, like that at GCL Direct starts and nurtures a relationship - explaining your solution, how it supports the prospect s needs and then qualifies the prospect based on Budget, Authority, Need and Timescale. 6 7 Only If the prospect is a good fit for your business but isn't ready to buy straight away they enter the Sales Pipeline and are nurtured until they are. qualified leads that are ready to buy are passed onto you, ready to be converted into satisfied customers. 10

12 4 DIALOGUE: When Is The Right Time To Pick Up The Phone? Is your sales team afraid of the phone? The fear of a hostile reception when cold calling puts even the most confident individual off hitting the dial button. Some of this fear may be well founded. Online research and self-service are becoming more prevalent as information is available at our fingertips. For lower value purchases, zero personal contact is commonplace. However, in the B2B environment and outside of commodity sales, solutions become increasingly complex as the value increases. We see three key, but very different stages when the human touch of a telephone call or meeting trumps online exchanges. 11

13 The Top of the Funnel Prospects can only research what you do if you have linked their need with your supply through communication. The underlying requirement for awareness provides a major challenge for businesses of all shapes and sizes and that major challenge is Return on Investment. The calculation will look different based on numerous factors such as the seniority of your target decision makers, their propensity to engage online as well as their accessibility. Most marketers favour a blended model so as not to miss out any potentially lucrative part of the market. But even digital campaigns need a demographic to target. We highly recommend using the telephone for both research and initial prospecting activities at the start of any campaign. With the right caller, you will start to build awareness, as well as filter out those individuals who really aren t interested. The Middle of the Funnel The traditional domain of Telemarketing companies has been lead generation and appointment setting. The importance here is to work with someone you are confident can sound like the voice of the company. They need to understand the vision and purpose of the campaign as well as being able to listen to your prospects. The telephone call could well be the tipping point where a prospect becomes a lead and getting this right requires expertise and experience in equal measure. The Bottom of the Funnel Well much as we would like to close deals for you, in complex B2B sales, it is almost essential that a company representative or subject matter expert is on hand for the next stage of the customer journey. In some cases, smaller value, commoditised sales can be closed over the telephone although we consider this more Telesales than Telemarketing. Honesty and integrity play a huge role here and the initial campaign briefing is vital. As an example of how to get things wrong, there is not much worse than the introductory line: I m not trying to sell you anything but! Determining when to pick up the phone will be driven largely by your customers persona and typical buying behaviour. Structured in the right way though, it can differentiate you from the competition by introducing the human touch through an effective multi-channelled strategy. HOW CAN WE HELP? We connect our clients to the right, effectively qualified decision makers, allowing them to engage with their prospects on a one to one basis. 12

14 5 CASE STUDIES With 25 years experience, GCL Direct remains at the forefront of an industry that has had to adapt to the challenges from telephone automation, offshoring and digital marketing. The company that has emerged is strong, resilient and the number one specialist in unscripted, multi-lingual, consultative Telemarketing. But why not let the numbers speak for themselves 13

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16 6 WORKING WITH US GCL in 30 seconds Our Data, Insight and Dialogue services have been designed to match the needs of our customers. This approach has helped drive sustainable business growth across numerous industries and we would be delighted to discuss your requirements in more detail. 15

17 Although we work with a number of clients on a project-by-project basis, we always take the long term view. We will act in your best interest at all times and that is why we will never pressurise anyone on a call, we train our staff to be personal and professional on every call they make and always comply with the regulations. Why do you do what you do? We re passionate about sales and marketing success, so a gap in the sales funnel, an under-filled event or an underactive sales team are the challenges that get us excited. Yes, really! We do what we do because we love building success, performance and integrated campaigns that deliver for our clients. Where does your team come from? We re very particular about our team, after all they re our product, they re the voice of your business and the first contact point for a new relationship. We look for experience, tenacity and personality in our agents and a commitment to success, after all it can be a tough job but through our phone and face-to-face interviews, assessment centres and the all important role play test we select the best of the best. Where do you source your data? Data is fundamental to the success of our client campaigns, so it s imperative that we source from the most relevant, comprehensive and detailed data sources. As well as our own in-house database and bespoke lists we work with EMEA s top data originators for our foundation databases. From there we build bespoke contact, detail and communication channels specifically for each of our clients. Why do people come to you? We are specialists in the B2B field and whilst we practice our own lead generation techniques to find our own new business, our clients will often come to us through word of mouth and recommendations from current and previous clients. There really are very few truly unscripted agencies with the pedigree and demonstrable success that GCL has, so when clients really need a campaign to succeed they ll find their way to us. How do you communicate and report to me? How do you like to communicate? We work with our clients to fit in with how they like to work, although we insist on making sure our clients are fully informed as to the progress, success, pipeline value and conversion rates, how we do that depends on you. From direct input into CRM s like SFDC, Dynamics and Workbooks to our in-house daily and weekly reporting we wrap all of our statistical reporting with real feedback through call recordings and actual conversations with your team. We re your team after all so daily calls and weekly round ups are essential and our open door policy ensures you re fully informed. GCL Direct are proud members of the Direct Marketing Association. To find out more about the DMA and it s code of conduct visit 16

18 How do you measure success? Ultimately most campaign activity is measured by outcomes and what it really contributes to your bottom line yet it can take time to see financial conversion so we track success across all critical control points. Critical Control Points? Yes all the elements that come together to build a successful campaign, this might be pure conversion, volume of data, increase in awareness or qualified appointments booked. Defining these is a crucial part of the campaign set up process so whilst there will be common themes we work together to set success goals and measure ourselves against your objectives not arbitrary metrics. DATA Building Cleansing Enhancement INSIGHT Primary Research Profiling Key Account Mapping DIALOGUE Lead Generation Appointment Setting Inbound Call Handling How do you learn about our business? Every business we work with is unique and despite 25 years experience in supporting B2B sales and marketing teams we recognise the inherent need to build specific knowledge around your business. To truly hold unscripted conversations and uncover real quality of opportunities our team need to be able to articulate your value proposition effortlessly and use their key skills in identifying and carefully qualifying the buyer s stage. It s not an overnight process but we ll ask you to share with us what you d share with a new sales person for our research before a round table training session to share ideas and explore the value proposition. From there we ll embed this knowledge with the team before testing the knowledge through test calls and role plays prior to making any live calls. Unlike most agencies we recognise that knowledge needs continuous building and we use our voice recordings and live listening technology to make incremental improvements to the knowledge base. Sourcing Opt-In Validation Management Channel Mapping Channel Development Nurture Event Support 17

19 Do you work on a pay per lead basis? The short answer is no. The reason we don t work on a pay per lead basis is very simple we believe that working to a man day rate gives you as the client the best quality results by allowing the Telemarketing team the ability to concentrate on quality. Pay per lead campaigns are all too often focused quite understandably on quantity over quality and often lead to disruptive disagreements over the technicalities of what is and isn t a lead regardless of whether that lead is of any value to the client. GCL concentrate on generating quality leads and appointments using methods such as BANT+A (Budget, Authority, Need, Timescale and Attitude). GCL will also give you the option to run a pilot campaign in order to prove the expected results are achievable and to perfect our approach. Please visit our website at: or call +44 (0) and we would be delighted to answer any further questions. 18

20 The Voice of B2B Marketing Cover Image 'Birmingham Night' by R.J.Baddeley Icons made by Freepik