How B2B Telemarketing Can Increase your Software Brand’s Reach and ROI
Telemarketing can seem like a leap of faith, and nowhere is this more true than in the software industry, where there is a constant battle to get your name heard in the mass of businesses and brands. Along with sector jargon and acronyms galore, B2B software telemarketing can be a huge obstacle for some.
You’ve been on the receiving end of B2B telemarketing before, and were immediately annoyed that they had interrupted your time for something you didn’t ask for, frustrated at their lack of product knowledge and eventually just put the phone down on them when they refused to accept no as an answer. When it comes to software, there needs to be professionalism and a certain level of expertise about the marketer. Being unsure about their software, relevant industry knowledge and clearly missing their research goes a long way towards creating distrust in both the company and the product.
It’s not an uncommon experience to have with B2B telemarketing, and this perception has led people to lose faith in the strategy when it comes to generating leads for software companies. When done right, you can use telemarketing to not only boost your leads, but to also create positive and lasting relationships with your prospective software clients.
How Telemarketing Can Build your Software Brand
When it comes to a specialised sector such as software, if the telemarketer isn’t able to speak confidently and authoritatively about their product, you’re not likely to give them your business, nor are you going to recommend them to your partners or clients. This is historically where B2B telemarketing falls short in the brand awareness arena, and is one area in particular where software companies can really build on their B2B communications.
These interactions often have the following problems in common:
1. Overseas or non-native speakers, which adds to the difficulty of understanding foreign accents and cultural language differences. When it comes to discussing the technical aspects of your software, this is something you should ensure is easy to understand and thorough.
2. Unqualified telemarketers, such as part-time students who can’t answer sufficiently your questions about the software they are trying to sell you.
3. An inability to understand the word ‘No’, which not only attempts to bulldoze you into buying their software, but ignores your wishes entirely effectively stopping you from wanting to continue the conversation.
4. Impersonal and robotic call operators, who not only ignore you when you say you’re not interested, but talk as if you’re a box waiting to be ticked, with no emotion or warmth.
These are common instances in B2B telemarketing; companies that either don’t put much thought into their telemarketing campaigns or their phone operators skillsets. Small businesses and freelance developers in the main either don’t have the time, or don’t have the resources to spend the time educating their telemarketers on their software. It is crucial that the time is found though, as these initial steps are crucial to the overall success of your campaign.
With a few preparatory steps, you can ensure that your B2B telemarketing strategy is strong, informative, professional and polite and can grow your software brand’s reach quickly and effectively:
1. Use native speakers; Companies large and small often seek overseas telemarketers because the labour costs them less abroad, but it will cost you quality leads.
2. Inform your telemarketers with everything clients will want to know about the software. People want to know that they are talking to a professional who knows the ins and outs of the software they’re offering. This is an essential step towards building and cultivating trust with your potential leads.
3. Warm, informative conversation is the way to go with telemarketing. As soon as the potential lead feels ignored or bullied, they will freeze up and put the phone down.
4. Give them what they want, not what you think they want. You need to engage only potential leads that have demonstrated a need for your software. You can find out this information via surveys, competitor data analysis, look-alike models and many more.
5. Don’t pressure potential leads into buying. If your software isn’t something they’re in the market for, then don’t waste their time or yours, and move onto the next potential lead.
Case Study: Telemarketing Increases Reach and Prospects
Software providers Automated Intelligence needed a campaign that extended their reach in the UK Public Sector and improved their brand awareness to key decision makers in the industry.
They approached VSL with their goals, and began a professional relationship which started with the initial creation of a database storing government information. They organised extensive research into the change-makers at these organisations, considered their current software needs and cross-referenced this data to ensure it was up to date.
They then furnished their telemarketers, who already had extensive history in the Software sector, with the data they had collected covering the systems their targeted businesses already used, how long they had been using their current software and who within the company would be the best person to talk to about switching.
The results of the campaign speak for themselves, with VSL collecting;
– 1,000+ contacts for AI’s CRM system
– 100+ B2B meetings with UK Public Sector personnel
– 50 ‘warm leads’ identified by VSL for longer term opportunities with AI
– Opportunities in the Financial Services industry thanks to VSL supporting the launch of their new AI.ASSURE product
A highly successful campaign, VSL achieved these results through extensive sector research, understanding AI’s business needs and goals, and a utilized their long history working for and within the Software industry. Like they always say, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
How Telemarketing Can Bring You New Software Prospects
Like the AI example above, when used correctly B2B telemarketing can bring in legions of leads, which through careful communications can be cultivated into prospects.
Used on its own, telemarketing must be carefully considered, structured and given to a team with the professional know-how and expertise to inform, engage and nurture your leads properly.
Telemarketing companies like VSL are at the top of their market because they know exactly how to nurture software leads into prospects, and this is a key skill in your telemarketing team that you need to assess before you begin on your campaign.
As well as arranging meetings and data research, what the telemarketing aspect provided the campaign with was a trust-signal; businesses get dozens of sales calls every day, and offering them a product that you know they need, are interested in and likely to ask probing questions about will set you apart from the crowd. This strategy created trust between the B2B leads and the telemarketers, and went a long way towards generating their extensive list of clean contacts.
Using their extensive data research, they carefully targeted those businesses with a need for their product, introduced themselves, and used their in-depth knowledge of the software sector to build trust in their product.
Conclusion
Telemarketing, when used properly, can be a powerful tool for growing your brand’s reach, as not only does it create a certain level of trust between the customer and the company thanks to informative and well researched conversation, it can provide you with powerful user data that you can use for future marketing campaigns.
Building awareness of your brand is the focus when working with a team of experienced telemarketers. They create beneficial customer-company relations, provide crucial product information and are more likely to create loyal customers once they have been converted; all great reasons to research and invest in a telemarketing team with the software-expertise and the professional history to get you results.
Creating loyal customers and building your software brand was never easier than when in the hands of a top-tier telemarketing team. So ensure you give your B2B software telemarketing campaign the best foundation and contact VSL today to get started.
Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.