Telemarketing Software Featured Article

Most companies like to understand a technology’s or a service’s return on investment (ROI) before they plunk money down on it. Technology and outsourcing budgets are rather thin today, and companies are more careful with their tech budget pennies than ever before.

Many sales organizations write off outsourcing telemarketing as unnecessary…after all, their inside sales teams have fingers they can use to dial, and spreadsheets they can use to keep track of leads, right? This is often the attitude taken by executives as the top, so sales managers frequently have a hard time “selling” An investment in outbound telemarketing services to the top. According to a recent article by Jeff Kalter writing for Business2Community, if often comes down to how the idea of ROI is presented to decision makers.

“It’s one thing, however, to know that you need to add telemarketing to your marketing initiatives,” wrote Kalter. “It’s another to make it happen. Selling telemarketing to the powers that be and ensuring it pays off comes down to executing it the right way — the way that’s most likely to maximize ROI.”

Kalter notes that some marketing leaders want to “test the telemarketing waters” by attempting to do it in-house first, but this simply isn’t a fair test. Statistics show that the ROI of in-house telemarketing isn’t as high as when it’s outsourced.

There are many reasons for this: professional services firms have the infrastructure in place for a variety of clients to benefit from economies of scale. Their outbound agents are also more skilled at lead generation by telemarketing, so there’s no learning curve. Sales organizations often make the mistake of putting newbies on the phone when they have a bundle of leads (generated, for example, from a trade show.) These newbies, even if they are enthusiastic, are unskilled. They can’t handle rejection very well, and they don’t know how to effectively get around customer objections. They may also be expected to “fit in” the extra work around their regular work.

“Hiring a B2B telemarketing company can solve these problems,” writes Kalter. “They’re the specialists. They have people in place who are well-educated, trained in telemarketing best practices, good listeners and who enjoy making consultative calls — just what you need for marketing a complex product. Plus, all the systems are in place to support them, as well as measure and maximize results.”

Gaining approval may involve doing a full breakdown of ROI for top executives. This involves factoring in agent and management salaries, phone and IT costs, office space and other overhead, and recruitment and training for inside sales. All of these factors are going to be higher for a company that attempts to handle the telemarketing campaign itself. At the same time, the results are likely to be far weaker. It can help open a conversation with top management that can lead to better leads at lower costs for any sales organization.