dma telemarketing council building your b2b telephone

DMA DMA Telemarketing CouncilTelemarketing Council

Building Your B2B Telephone Marketing Program for Success

Paul Glancy - The Martin AgencyBill Gessert - TeleSolutions Consulting


Session Objectives

• Compare common B2C Strategies & Tactics to Effective B2B Strategies & Tactics

• Understand the Basis for Building Your Effective B2B Campaign

• Present a New B2B Paradigm

• Improve Your B2B Results

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What Drives Your Approach?

3C o m p l e x I t y

• Overall Strategies• Lists• Offer• Marketing Integration

• Script/Call Guide Issues• Hiring, Training & Coaching Issues• Quality Assurance/Monitoring Issues•Vocal Presentation Issues•Performance Measurement Issues


What Drives Your Approach?

4C o m p l e x I t y

Credit CardPhone Carrier

High End Technology

Hardware

Copier

Search Engine Ads


Our Focus• The differences between simple and more

complex campaigns…– Strategic Issues– Script Issues– Hiring, Training, Coaching Issues– Performance Measurement Issues– QA/Monitoring Issues– Vocal Presentation Issues

• Case Studies


Strategic Issues

• Push/Pull Strategies– Traditional B2C is all push strategies– More complex and higher priced sales

benefit from mixing pull strategies to the marketing efforts• Trade associations• Affinity groups• Buying groups

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Strategic Issues

• Lists– Dialing for dollars versus targeted lists– Need for more information

• Key contact name• Biographical information re: company

– Appropriate parameters• Need and use for product/service• Appropriate business size (don’t try to sell

to IBM!)

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Strategic Issues

• Offer & Approach– Focus of B2C tends to be offer driven– Focus of more complex, higher priced is

value driven based on needs– B2C tends to be scripted and ‘pitch’

based– More complex, higher priced is dialog

based and generally less scripted using call guides

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Strategic Issues

• Offer & Approach– B2C tends to ‘skim the cream’– With more complex, higher priced every

record counts (need for refined lists selection criteria)

– B2C … talk with whomever answers– More complex, higher priced requires

speaking with key decision maker only

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Strategic Issues

• Offer & Approach– B2C tends to be one call and done

– Complex, higher priced could be multiple calls and contacts

– B2C calls generally do not have gate keepers

– Many more complex, higher priced calls have gatekeepers

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Strategic Issues

• Integration with other marketing channels– B2C rarely mixes additional marketing

efforts– More complex, higher priced is well

served to integrate with additional marketing efforts and is “multi-channel”• Mailers• Web integration• Other tools

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Script/Call Guide Issues

• Traditional B2C is scripted with rebuttals

• More complex, higher priced utilizes calls guide and is dependant on dialog skills of rep

• B2C presents, tells, closes• B2B asks, listens, explains, and

recommends

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Hiring, Training, Coaching Issues

• In hiring what are the appropriate skills & competencies? You are looking for…– Professional selling skills– Ability to engage in conversation versus

read a script– Questioning skills versus presentation– Active listening skills versus “call

control”

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• A word about supervisors– Deeper analytical skills

– Builders and developers of skills

– Ability to demonstrate similar competencies as the reps themselves

– Vital to the success of the program

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• What are the appropriate skills & competencies?– Confidence

– Professionalism

– Adaptability

– Ability to “think on your seat”

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• What training becomes critical?– Product training to the point of being able

to answer “application” question– Understanding Features & Benefits as they

relate to customer Needs– Industry knowledge– Objection handling via asking more

questions– Role play and more role play!

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• What coaching becomes critical?– Coaching is focused on skills

development and growth versus script adherence

– Need to coach more frequently due to variations in the calls

– Coaching focuses on what they did right

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QA/Monitoring Issues

• Simple: Focus on– rep– cosmetics– script compliance– providing

approved answers– legal compliance

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• Complex: Focus on– customer response– content of call– dialog w/ customer– information

obtained during call– questioning &

listening skills


QA/Monitoring Issues

• Simple: Tool

– multi element scoring system

– designed to measure adherence

– focus on results

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• Complex: Tool

– big picture scoring system

– designed to measure selling skills

– focus on growth & development


Performance Measurement Issues• Less complicated, low priced:

– Contacts per hour– Sales per hour– Conversion rate

• More complex, higher priced:– Raw number of contacts (right person)– Call backs set up– Over all close rate– Sales cycle (number of contacts and days from

initial contact to sale)– Total ROI Evaluation

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Vocal Presentation Issues• Simple campaigns require:

– Script reading ability– Call control skills– Volume, volume, volume &– DON’T BREATH!

• Complex campaigns require– Conversation skills– Ability to build trust with voice– Quality, quality, quality &– SOUND HUMAN!

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Case Study: Credit Card Processing

• Company & Industry Profile– Point of purchase service options

• Credit cards• Terminals & equipment• Gift cards• Check cashing• E-checks

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• Company & Industry Profile– Mostly sold through independent agents

going “door to door”

– Sold primarily on price

– Can be tons of “hidden” costs

– Commodity driven

– Not the most professional reputation

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• What we found…– 3 x 3 workstations– Heavily scripted approach– Approach focused on telling features

and selling price– One and done; buy or fly– Leads = list of names and numbers (no

background info

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• What we found…– “Sellers” not sales reps

– Little training

– No coaching

– No incentives

– Little success!

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• What we did…– Started with by writing a business plan

• Objectives, strategies, & tactics

– Built several push and pull strategies

– Pull strategies cast a wide net

– Push strategies were supported with other marketing efforts

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• What we did…– Built selection profile and found the

right people

– Provided significant training• Industry

• Products

• Customer needs

• Lots of role plays

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• What we did…– Selective lists were purchased– Call guides were built with focus on

solid questions to ask– Compensation totally overhauled– Performance metrics developed

• Number of decision makers connected• Mailers sent• Close rates

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• What we did…– Redesigned workstations and space

– Added computers and contact management systems

– Tons of coaching

– Continuous improvements to approach

– Called from lists and pulled leads

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• Results– Longer sales cycle (measured in number

of contacts and weeks – not minutes)– Shift from price driven sales to value

driven decisions– Acquired customers based on

relationship and value– Significantly greater close rates

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• Summary– Product/service was both complex and

high priced– Old approach was built for low

complexity and price requiring an immediate decision

– New approach respected customer’s need to see value and to

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Case Study: #2

• Business Publication Marketing Program

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Summary & Conclusion

• Find your program in the “quadrants”– All inclusive single call– Multiple touches & contacts

• Design your strategies & tactics to match your space in the quadrants– Hiring the right people– Building the right approach– Applying the appropriate training– Providing proper supervision– Measuring the right issues

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dma telemarketing council building your b2b telephone

Documents

approach b2c

higher priced calls

approach focus of b2c

marketing channels b2c

contacts b2c

needs b2c

common b2c strategies

higher priced sales