New Business Development Capabilities & Telemarketing Techniques – GSA

We all need to generate new business for our organisations. There are few businesses that can survive without new business development with a steady stream of fresh opportunities coming from their lead generation activity. But all too often, businesses fall at the first hurdle since they are fundamentally unable to define why a prospect should meet with them.

Before we kick off any telemarketing campaign for our clients, I run a strategy session to discuss two core elements to a successful lead generation campaign. Those are

1. 1. 1. Target Audience definition
      2. Proposition development

Simply put, too many businesses operate in crowded marketplaces with commoditized propositions. There are lots of competitors offering the same thing. When clients come to see us, often, whilst it isn’t overtly suggested, we are seen as the messiah. They hope that we can magic some new business opportunities for them at little relative cost. Sadly, the reality is different.

The problem is that they struggle to answer 2 basic questions:

1. 1. 1. What’s in it for the prospect – And I don’t mean a simple list of services that you provide. I mean the benefits you really offer to overcome their inertia based on them using a competitor.
      2. Why should they meet with you now? – What’s the imperative?

How to make your Campaign more Successful

In senior-level outbound calling, the most successful telemarketing campaigns are typically where:

• • • there is a sector-specific audience and the job roles of buyers are well-defined
    • the buyer has challenges (pains) with which he or she needs to deal
    • the seller has a compelling message that includes a way of resolving the buyer’s challenge
    • there are market conditions that drive demand e.g. New legislation
    • the telemarketer has genuinely something of interest to the buyer
    • the quality of the caller matches the seniority of the decision-maker /buyer

There are only so many factors that we can control when we run telemarketing campaigns for our clients. For example, we can ensure we make enough calls at a decent rate. We can ensure that a professional caller makes the calls. We also, as mentioned above, spend time with clients to define the proposition and scope the target audience.

However, the reality is that if an organization is unable to provide answers for these crucial factors, it’s unlikely that we, or whoever makes the calls, will be able to deliver effective outcomes.

If you want successful outcomes from telemarketing, think about the customer. What do they need? How can you remove their pains? If despite best efforts, you can’t come up with something to differentiate your proposition, you need to think about how to differentiate your call.

Find Valid Reasons for your Call

Cold calling doesn’t always have to be simple calls to a new list. Below are some other options that involve, in some cases, a multi-pronged approach. They potentially give you reasons to call that are less bland and more interesting.

• • • attend an exhibition and invite targets to meet you there
    • gather leads from the show and ensure they are promptly and consistently followed up post-event
    • devise a clever and impactful mailshot that has to stand out effect and that outlines the true benefits (not features) of your offering
    • do some research and/or write a white paper around industry issues that prospects might want to discuss with you
    • run a seminar or webinar around industry pain points and invite a well-known speaker

The above are purely illustrative and are not exhaustive. The point is that too many companies just make bland, ill-targeted, ill-thought-out calls in the hope that enough mud will stick. This kind of new business development approach is unlikely to work the more senior-level the prospects and the larger the targets. Successful lead generation is not about pure cold calling. You need to think creatively. You also need to deploy more than one marketing method if you want to really increase your chances of either your prospect contacting you or them responding to you when you contact them.

If you’d like to find out how GSA Business Development can help Generate Growth for your Business or book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or send us an.