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1 Online or internet marketing (ads, PPC, web and email) is cheaper than offline and delivers leads who want what you sell, right? Yes, in theory, but how do you sort out the competitors, students and professional content-consumers from real leads? Your sales guys won’t pick up the phone unless leads are sales-qualified. This is one of many times you need some smart, skilled telemarketers. 1. QUALIFY MARKETING LEADS A quick call from your trained telemarketer can sort out the leads from the tyre-kickers. Consider this: if you don't call and the lead is marketing-ready, one of your competitors just might, and your effort could be wasted. 2. QUALIFY SALES LEADS If contacts aren’t sales ready, but you know they have problems you can solve and a project planned for the future, don’t leave it to chance or an automated email. A well-timed call can recharge the relationship at just the right time, and open the door for your sales guys, too. 3. BACKFILL YOUR DATA When contacts leave, replace them quickly or you’ll lose leverage and weaken your links with the enterprise. Citing known contacts and relationships, your telemarketer can rebuild your database, quickly and cost-effectively—and uncover some new leads too. 4. INCREASE VALUE Your clients know and like you, so why would you insult them by using email to cross-sell and upsell them? If telemarketing is part of your mix and your agent is known to clients, a friendly chat at just the right time can do wonders—and be appreciated too. 5. REBUILD RELATIONSHIPS Just because former customers and prospects drift away, doesn’t mean they’re dead people or prospects—but your sales guys won’t call them; they’re after riper fruit. A well-timed call from a telemarketer, with a special offer or event invitation may be just the ice-breaker. 6. GET FEEDBACK If you’re thinking about a new product, getting input from existing customers, industry sources and analysts in confidence is vital. You don’t need to make hundreds of calls, so this might be just the call for a C-level, but be sure he’s trained. 7. QUALIFY PARTNERS If you’re entering a new market, you might not know who the ideal partners are yet. You can cut down the long list of possibles quickly by asking questions based on your ideal partner profile—like size, in-house skills, specialisation, other vendor relationships etc —and a telemarketer can do this initial screening really easily. 8. MAXIMISE EVENTS Increase attendance, decrease no-shows and maximise impact, with a few well-timed follow-up calls. Contacts love it. And be sure to call the day before; it’s a key time. ### 8 best uses for Telemarketing Forget cold calling to build your opt-in database or generate leads. It doesn’t work anymore. You can use telemarketing in much smarter ways, and deliver better results for less money.
