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What is B2B telemarketing, and how to do it?

Business to business (B2B) telemarketing is a cost-effective method whereby one business cold calls another business. Their reasons for calling can be anything from generating leads, qualifying prospects, following up on direct mail or conducting market research, to name a few. 

Telemarketing can be an effective B2B lead generation tool because it builds trust through personal connections. It also enables direct contact with powerful decision-makers for faster lead qualification and conversion. 

How does B2B telemarketing differ from B2C? 

While B2B and B2C telemarketing both have similar end goals, they have several key differences, too, starting with tone:

B2B telemarketers need to offer solutions to their customers' pain points as their product is ultimately an investment for their companies.

The B2C telemarketer, on the other hand, can be a bit more creative with their strategies as B2C customers usually buy based on their emotional instincts and desires.

On the other hand, B2B telemarketing targets an individual based on their needs, interests and challenges. It entices the individual to buy based on facts or an expected ROI rather than desire or a whim.

With this in mind, B2C telemarketing won’t have as long a sales cycle as B2B sales telemarketing, which is more relationship-driven than product-driven. This is because the B2B data pool is much smaller and more focused than B2C, and prospects need to be nurtured. Many other company decision-makers will get involved once a sale is in the pipeline before the deal is signed off.

What are the benefits of B2B telemarketing?

If you want to discover new opportunities for growth while building your brand awareness and credibility with relevant dialogue, then B2B telemarketing lead generation is something your company cannot live without! 

Here’s an overview of the four benefits of B2B telemarketing:

1. Quality leads

Since B2B telemarketing is more of a personalised approach to outbound prospecting, you can quickly warm up your leads and build relationships with them. What’s more, you can find out from the get-go whether a telemarketing lead is right for your company or not.  

2. An extended pipeline

As you can assign certain leads to specific call agents, they can build rapport with the client, warming them up for the BDM to close the sale. This allows your other B2B sales team members to focus on finding and researching more targeted leads and creates a greater opportunity for lead conversion.

3. It’s affordable

Especially when considering the option of outsourced telemarketing.

There’s a big difference in cost between deploying a sales team and a telemarketing team. Your telemarketing team will all be in one spot, reducing transportation costs. With the extra time afforded to the rest of your team, you can focus on bringing in more prospects for added revenue generation.

4. Measurable performance 

Recording cold calls and listening to them to see what worked and what didn’t will do wonders for your telemarketing sales lead generation. Plus, you’ll pick up on vital statistics like how long an average call takes and the number of prospects who are open to the first call.

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How to do B2B telemarketing correctly?

B2B telemarketing is highly focused. The key to your success in leads telemarketing all comes down to having the right qualified leads for what it is you’re selling. 

The steps to follow are:

1. Establish goals

Before you start, it’s important to determine who you want to target by establishing your TAM. After that, you can focus on what it is you want to achieve in your telemarketing campaign. Consider what your short and long-term objectives will be, as well as your budget.

2. Build your brand

Prospects who have heard of your brand will be more willing to engage with you. Creating blogs and relevant content across social platforms can help you reach out to interested prospects, and the engagement will tell you more about what your target market finds valuable. B2B marketing campaigns can also uncover the concerns or pain points that your prospects may have - pain points that only your product or service can solve.

3. Create buyer personas

Creating buyer personas can help you align your activities and strategies to the actual needs of your target buyers. It’s also another way to help you build rapport with your customers, build a trustworthy relationship and discover their concerns. What’s more, you can always be sure that your compliant B2B data list only consists of prospects who are likely to buy. 

4. Personalisation

Personalising your communications with a prospect shows you’ve done your research and are interested in maintaining a beneficial relationship with them. Prospects don’t want to work with companies unwilling to go the extra mile for their business.

5. Prepare a script

Personalisation goes hand in hand with preparation. Your team won’t need a telemarketing script if they’re experienced and have been working with you for some time, but new hires can benefit from one when starting out. Be sure to include all your essential information and responses to objections without being so constricted that it comes across as robotic.

6. Train, test and analyse

Your team can never have enough training! There’s always something new to learn and new tactics and approaches to test out for higher conversion rates. Once your team has some new skills under their belts, you can test out the success rate of newly implemented telemarketing methods to see if they are worth continuing.

7. Track your metrics

With that said, track your metrics from the number of leads in, your team’s conversion rates, sales per rep and sales by region, to name a few. After you’ve collected this sales data, create a report and update it weekly. Evaluate your progress consistently to improve your telemarketing lead generation.

8. Engage with your reps

Lastly, make the job fun! Leads telemarketing can be emotionally draining for your sales team, as they must face rejection and short attitudes daily. Create contests and events for rewarding incentives. Make their working culture comfortable and interesting.

What are the different types of B2B telemarketing campaigns?

The best way to generate telemarketing sales leads is to develop a winning B2B sales strategy

Here’s a breakdown of the most effective B2B telemarketing campaigns:

1. Lead generation

Generating leads via telemarketing requires quality data. First of all, create a targeted list of prospects to call. Inbound will be focused on anyone who has visited your site and requested a callback, while outbound lead generation will target decision-makers in specific industries.

With this targeted approach, your calls will be focused on building brand awareness and convincing your prospect to agree to a meeting or demo.

2. Sales follow-up

If a prospect shows an interest in your product or services, or you previously spoke to them but didn’t get a definitive answer, then this campaign follows up with them to see if they’d be interested in booking a meeting or a sales demo.

3. Inbound sales support

Here, callers requiring help will be assisted - and the more personalised, the better! Your dedicated sales team will be required to address any challenges, goals, interests and needs your prospect might have regarding your service. 

Moreover, your inbound support team can help qualify leads during these calls and then email them follow-up material. This keeps your product or service at the forefront of the prospect’s mind.

4. Event telemarketing

Looking to increase attendees to your webinar or virtual event? This telemarketing campaign will come in handy by inviting a prospect to your event, outlining its agenda and benefits, and confirming or encouraging them to register.

5. Lead nurturing

Develop your relationship with buyers by giving them something of value and not coming across as selling them something straight away. This can be anything from a free trial, a complimentary invite to a webinar recording or a piece of ungated content. Often, this tactic is used when a lead goes cold to remind them of your product or service’s value to their business.

How important is data in B2B telemarketing? 

Data is the lifeblood of a successful B2B telemarketing campaign, especially if you want to create a more personable experience, so you need to be sure:

  1. Your targeted lead lists match your total addressable market 
  2. You have an accurate dataset

Having bad data can be detrimental to your telemarketing strategy. Not only will you be unable to connect with the right people, but you’ll lose revenue and waste your resources.

Consider a B2B data provider like Cognism - it's global GDPR compliant data helps sales teams connect with the businesses they want to do business with 👇

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What technology can help with B2B telemarketing?

Over the years, several B2B telemarketing solutions have been created to help make the task faster and easier to accomplish. 

From B2B prospecting solutions that can be integrated with your CRM, like Cognism or an appointment scheduler like Chili Piper - we’ve curated a list to help you every step of the way

👉 See the ultimate B2B sales tech stack.

Get telemarketing leads with Cognism 

Trusted by thousands of B2B organisations worldwide, it’s no wonder we’re the world’s best B2B lead generation solution for telemarketing sales!

Not only is our data sizzling, leading to more hot leads, but it‘s also accurate, GDPR and CCPA compliant. 

So, if you’re looking for a way to increase your conversions and boost your revenue, then give us a go. 

Click 👇 to book your free demo.

Get better leads with Cognism. Book a demo today.