Holger Schulze recently set a challenge on LinkedIn. He asked Marketing Managers to describe in one word the biggest challenge facing B2B Marketing.
Over 260 senior managers and directors took part and we have analysed all the responses and formed a word cloud of the top 50.
Data and Content came top as the biggest challenge for B2B Marketing, with Relevance running a close second. The top 10 are as follows:
- Data
- Content
- Relevance
- Differentiation
- ROI
- Creativity
- Insight
- Trust
- Value
- Budget
B2B Marketing magazine recently published an insight into the effectiveness of various business-to-business marketing channels. It looked at current trends and attitudes in the UK market.
One question revealed some interesting results. UK B2B Marketing Managers and Directors were asked “Which type of marketing channel has proven to be the most/least effective for your business?”
The results were displayed as a percentage of respondents, but we have analysed the figures and expressed them as an Index Score. This shows the difference between those that feel the channel is effective and those that don’t. The higher the score, the more effective the channel.
We have listed the top 5 most effective channels and the bottom 5 least effective.
No surprises that email marketing tops the chart, although the reliance of Marketing Managers on digital marketing does raise the question “Whatever happened to multi-channel marketing?” – a subject we will discuss in future issues.
Some people may be surprised that in the age of digital marketing and social media that Telemarketing makes it into the top 5. We are not surprised at all. The question was about the effectiveness of marketing channels and telemarketing can still deliver results that other channels can only dream about.
If you want to view the ROI figures for some of our recent telemarketing campaigns and judge for yourself whether Telemarketing is effective please click here.
Now for the least effective channels.
Press advertising is at the bottom of the list and, surprisingly, online banner/button adverts. Sponsorship, Exhibitions and Direct Mail to potential customers also make an appearance (but Direct Mail to existing customers is considered to be effective, ranking 3rd).
How do these charts marry with your experience? Which are the most and least effective channels for you?
How do you select the right B2B Telemarketing agency? We asked ourselves this question and here’s the top 5 items we would consider.
1. Choose an outbound B2B specialist
Seems obvious, but there are many telemarketing companies that try to do both B2B and B2C. There’s a world of difference between the two disciplines and you need to choose a specialist. In addition, the skills required for outbound calls are very different to those required for inbound order taking or customer care.
2. Don’t use a script
Our experience is that scripts don’t work, especially in the B2B environment. The call needs to have a natural flow and deal with objections logically. A script cannot anticipate all possible outcomes.
SCi Sales Group always conducts a workshop with its clients prior to a campaign going live and key messages are established which act as anchor points for the conversation. And it is a conversation. A dialogue between two business people about a subject that can benefit the target audience.
3. Don’t use casual, part-time or student callers
Some telemarketing companies use casual labour, part-time workers or students to make your important business calls – some even use people working at home or off-shore call centres.
Buyer beware. Beside the obvious issues of the commercial awareness and maturity of students, you also have to consider the drive and enthusiasm of casual and part-time workers – and how that will be transferred over the phone.
Managing a telemarketing campaign needs to be hands-on, you need to be able to make improvements to the proposition and message as new information becomes available. That’s not easy to do with home-workers or offshore companies.
4. Interview them on the phone
You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, so test drive your B2B telemarketing agency. Interview them over the phone rather than inviting them to pitch with a fancy PowerPoint presentation and smart field sales executive.
You need to know if they are as good as they claim. If they cannot persuade you to choose them over the phone then maybe they will struggle trying to convince your target audience.
5. You can’t beat age and experience
Ask about the average age and business experience of the telemarketers that will be working on your campaign. People buy from people and a mature, experienced team will be able to deliver your message with confidence and clarity.
Ask to listen to some of the conversations they are having when you visit the company’s premises and decide if they have the right tone and ‘voice’ for your product or service.
Conclusion
Selecting the right telemarketing company for your campaign is vital – they will be representing you in one of the most personal forms of marketing communication. Get it wrong and the damage to your reputation and brand could be immense.
Our top 5 tips are just a few from a long list of items you need to consider before pushing the button. To discuss all the others please give Brendan O’Flaherty a call, without obligation, on 020 8846 3950.
