Does Telemarketing Still Work in 2022?

Some claim that telemarketing is ‘dead’ in 2022. However, you have to consider the point of view that the people making these claims are coming from and whether or not they have a true understanding of telemarketing as a modern lead generation and appointment-setting mechanism.

You could argue that a more relevant question would be: ‘how has telemarketing evolved to still be an effective B2B lead generation tool?’.

The Telemarketing You Know No Longer Exists

Forgetting the past for a minute, the efficacy of telemarketing as a lead generation method depends on many factors. The first and most crucial is whether you deploy telemarketing as a B2C or B2B company. B2C telemarketing is still alive and can be effective. However, it’s important to stress that this article focuses on telemarketing as a B2B lead generation tool.

Previously, telemarketing has been seen as a numbers game. telemarketers would use automatic diallers to call as many so-called prospects as possible, reading from a script and getting off the phone as soon as possible. This method of sending low-quality leads in bulk is dead. It may seem dramatic, but B2B marketing (as a whole) has evolved.

With many more tools and methods available for generating high-quality leads in 2022, telemarketing services have had to adapt. This is also true of many other B2B lead generation mechanisms.

Depending on the route to market you take, there will always be a discussion based on its efficacy and how it’s adapted to keep up with other tools.

The Evolution of Telemarketing

Telemarketing is a vastly different service in 2022 than it was even just a few years ago. Quality over quantity is an important factor in how modern telemarketing is used, 50 leads that convert will always be better than 100 leads that don’t.

In addition to this, the way that leads are generated using telemarketing has changed. Intelligently sourced data allows professional telemarketers to speak to relevant decision-makers who are likely interested in the product or service that is being discussed. Furthermore, having natural yet structured conversations with these decision-makers will always result in higher quality lead generation, as opposed to reading a script word-for-word. This can only come from taking the time to truly understand the solution you are calling about and integrating seamlessly with the client’s sales and marketing team.

Due to presumptions based on what was previously known as ‘telemarketing’, some marketers dismiss telemarketing as an effective lead generation method. Luckily, the majority will be able to identify key issues with that claim.

For example:

‘Social media and content marketing has made telemarketing obsolete’.

Although partially true, they come with disadvantages. Firstly, ensuring that you reach your target audience can be a difficult issue to tackle, so marketing resources could be wasted.

However, modern B2B telemarketing using intelligently sourced data allows you to only speak to the decision-makers who are likely interested in your offering. Additionally, using telemarketing, you can build an extensive sales pipeline of leads that your team may have otherwise missed, simply due to timing.

Ensuring that you can target prospects when they are reviewing their incumbent solution helps provide a higher ROI on your marketing efforts.

Another misconception about telemarketing is that because some people have seen a decrease in the number of ‘cold calls’ they receive, they assume that telemarketing is ‘dead’.

However, this is actually a positive comment. Due to the increasing number of marketers utilising digital marketing techniques, phones ring less often than they once did. This means it’s easier to fit telemarketing into your marketing strategy, as a call can be perceived as more personal than a mass mailer and can stand out in a sea of marketing content.

Understanding the Messenger

When discussing whether telemarketing is ‘dead’, or not, it’s crucial to understand the standpoint of the people making these claims, and the previous attempts they may have made.

A great analogy for this is imagining you had a target at the end of a field and an airsoft gun. You could have the best airsoft rifle ever produced, but without a scope, it’s going to be impossible to hit the target. However, if you had a scope but you tried to use paintballs, you still wouldn’t hit the target. Does this make the airsoft rifle bad or is the setup wrong? The same concept is true for any B2B lead generation method.

Without the correct data, professionals and timing, you are unlikely to see worthwhile results.

Other Methods of B2B Lead Generation

It would be ignorant to pretend that B2B telemarketing services are the only lead generation tool that had to adapt. The rise of digital marketing has caused the entire industry to change and overcome hurdles, such as email marketing.

Email marketing services are still an effective way to increase brand awareness, generate inbound enquiries and gather data.

However, due to the way that servers now handle cold emails and spam, email marketing has evolved. Automated, sequential email marketing allows businesses to combat new obstacles, with the ability to send many more personalised emails at once. Furthermore, engagement can be tracked which allows businesses to focus on the prospects who are most likely to convert.

Social media prospecting, such as LinkedIn lead generation has adapted in a similar way.

In order for content to be shareable, it needs to be either ground-breaking, very original or written by a popular influencer.

However, automated tools allow you to send a higher quantity of personalised messages at one time. Additionally, it allows you to track engagement on many different levels.

Having profiled your prospect pool, you can then drip-feed your content to your relevant target audience as part of your sequential messaging.

B2B lead generation tools, such as search engine optimisation, provide businesses with a way to be found organically by prospects. However, search engines such as Google release many updates yearly which could lead to your SEO strategy becoming outdated rapidly.

Combining Methods

Modern B2B telemarketing services integrate with many other services to provide high-quality lead generation to a plethora of businesses.

For example, data gathered from email marketing efforts can be utilised by professional telemarketers to generate instant leads for your salespeople to convert. This is also true for data gathered from social media prospecting.

Modern telemarketing Services are more versatile than in previous years, making them easier to include in your marketing strategy. In addition, by outsourcing your telemarketing efforts to professionals, the amount of time and effort needed decreases substantially.

Why Can Some Mechanisms Fail to Generate Leads?

As you already know, every lead generation method has many moving parts. These can include, sourcing the correct data, using skilled agencies and more.

Without all the moving parts working effectively in tandem, your lead generation efforts could fail, including telemarketing. So, how can you ensure you get the most out of your lead generation campaigns?

Outsourced Lead Generation

There are a few steps that you could take to better ensure your telemarketing success. Firstly, it could be worthwhile to consider outsourcing your telemarketing or lead generation as a whole to professionals. They will have a deeper understanding of qualified leads, marketing tools and how to engage B2B customers. By solely focusing on this aspect of marketing, some agencies have devised methods of writing nearly unlimited emails and providing other lead generation services besides telemarketing.

Additionally, these agencies are experts in handling and collecting contact information.

According to Smallbizgenius.net, over 60% of sales reps say that cold calling or answering questions using live chat is the worst part of their job.

Outsourcing your telemarketing and lead generation provides your sales team with a steady flow of high-quality leads and keeps them motivated at the same time. However, it is vital to conduct proper research and hire the right company.

Using The Right Marketing Data

Sourcing the right data for your lead generation campaign is more important than you may realise.

A veteran telemarketer will still be able to generate leads using grade B data. However, intelligently sourced data on prospects who are likely interested in your offering will generate leads of higher quality. Moreover, data needs to abide by GDPR laws.

By outsourcing this task to professional marketing or lead generation agencies, you may find that the data accuracy will reward you with a greater ROI based on their experience alone.

Integration

One attractive feature of modern B2B telemarketing is the seamless integration with other B2B marketing and lead generation devices. An example is using data gathered from sequential email marketing to boost your telemarketing activity.

Data gathered from email engagement is more likely to produce a lead that converts, as the brand awareness is already established.

Additionally, modern telemarketing can be deployed at any stage of your sales funnel which aids in marketing automation. If a prospect is stuck in your sales funnel, an experienced telemarketer can call and help push the prospect through your funnel.

Telemarketing can also be used to qualify data before it enters your marketing automation suite. Modern telemarketing is not just more effective at generating leads but is also much more versatile and can have multiple use cases.