ATTRACTING NEW BUSINESS IS THE MOST CRITICAL CHALLENGE ANY COMPANY WILL FACE.

Crucial Tips: Hiring the right B2B Lead Generation Service

Perhaps you have come to conclusion that you are lacking qualified leads to keep your sales team happy and /or to grow your business? This is a common frustration whether you are an established Fortune 500 company or a one -person owner of a small business.

What is a B2B Lead Generation Service anyway? There are many types of services that specialize in generating B2B Leads for your business. They range from Search Engine Optimization companies, Pay Per Click Services, Social Media Banner Advertising, Email Campaigns, Professional Telemarketing Companies, and the list goes on. For the purpose of this E-book, we will be focusing on Professional B2B Telemarketing Services. Why? Statistically, for marketing B2B “Business To Business”, Telemarketing is the most proven method of getting in front of qualified decision makers. Professional B2B Telemarketers are able to track down the right people within your desired target market and have meaningful conversations. These conversations accomplish crucial objectives:

1. They can reveal pain points the prospect has about their business 2. They can qualify your prospect to make sure they are a good fit for your

services or products3. They can effectively communicate your “Unique” Value proposition. 4. They can Engage the prospect and ask questions to obtain valuable

information5. They can use their personalities to build trust and credibility

INTRODUCTION

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6. If done right, prospects like the person they are speaking with. The prospect is much more likely to agree to an Appointment or have somebody follow up with them with more information.

For the reasons stated above, we highly recommend you outsource your B2B Lead Generation needs to a professional Telemarketing Service. However, it is crucial that you know what to look for before choosing a service provider.

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Hiring a professional B2B Telemarketing service to generate qualified leads, set sales appointments, and make follow up calls for you or your sales team can be a VERY effective solution. However, you can also waste valuable time, money, and have the reputation of your company tarnished very quickly if you choose the wrong company. There are a few good, professional, and legitimate B2B Lead Generation Services in this space with solid business

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

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models and there are those that do not. Be VERY careful. Whether you choose to partner with Grindstone or not, we want to educate you and help you develop an understanding of what to expect in this industry in order to make a wise decision.

Beware of 100% pay for performance arrangements.

Don't give in to the NO RISK temptation. When providers are compensated for quantity instead of quality, you can imagine what happens - the quality of each lead drops, as quantities rise - and your in-house sales team has to work twice as hard to weed out the "garbage leads". People who work for free will turn over fast if money is not made quickly.

These types of arrangements fail the majority of the time due to constant turnover, recruiting, poor management, re-training, and re-ramping. No real momentum or business continuity is ever established. Finally, your company’s reputation will be adversely affected due to the lack of professionalism.

Realistic Expectations. 

Many subpar providers of this service will tell you just about anything you need to hear to make the sale. They make a living turning over clients with cheap rates and small tests. Why? Because they gain more sales. Your provider should want to know your business in detail and listen to your objectives. An honest provider will tell you what is realistic within a certain time frame.

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There are many variables, so it’s not feasible for any provider to tell you exactly what to expect. If they do, RUN fast. Nobody has a crystal ball! However, they should give you a realistic depiction of ramp times and potential production based on their experience. They should come up with a customized strategy recommendation for success.

A good provider should be focused on how to maintain a

long-term partnership with you, their client.

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Training prior to starting the program.

Good service providers will want you to be directly involved with the training. After all it is your business and you know it best. Preparation is key to success. A good service provider should be able to take your marketing

YOUR TEAM

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collateral and create an initial calling script for training and ramping. Talented callers will not read a script word for word. The script should be nothing more than a training tool and reference until they have it down.

Caller Talent.

How do you want your company represented? Avoid hiring service providers that use high school, college, inexperienced or off offshore callers. While young people may be good for business to consumer programs, A good B2B Lead Generation company will have mature, experienced professionals representing your company. An experienced company will have tenured Agents that have been with the company for many years. These are the people you want representing your company telling prospects about your message. First impressions are crucial!

Be aware of your service provider's quality control system. 

The last thing you want is for your existing customers - your revenue generating customers - to have a bad impression of your company because of relaxed quality standards. Good service providers have a professional management staff with a solid infrastructure. Consistent feedback and communication between management, callers, and client is crucial for mutual success. What types of reporting and database access does the provider offer? Is it online and fully accessible to you? Full transparency and accountability on behalf of the service provider is crucial here. The company should not be afraid to make you completely aware of every activity there are doing for you.

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Look for professional communication and Management. 

A B2B Lead Generation service should be giving you regular updates and have data available to you on demand - not having this could be a warning sign that the data isn't there at all. Consistent feedback and communication

COMMUNICATION & FEEDBACK

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between Management, Calling Agents, and Client is crucial for mutual success. Does the service provider offer you the ability to be involved in the program and speak directly with the callers? Reputable service providers will have nothing to hide and give you direct access to the very people that are representing your company.

Beware of companies offering short tests. 

The profitability & success of a campaign cannot be judged in such a short period of time. If you choose a service provider based on the results of such a short test, you may end up getting "short changed" in the long run. This is equivalent to you hiring an internal person for just over one week’s worth of work. Realistically, a sales pipeline takes time develop. Anything less than 50 hours and you are probably just wasting your money without letting the pipeline develop solid results.

The exact location of the agents working for your service provider. 

Offshore agents aren't usually held to the highest quality standards, and the communication barriers they create can reduce the effectiveness of your campaign - actually costing you money in the long run. While costs may be appealing, quality will most usually lack severely and cost you more money and the reputation of your company. Ideally, you should want the calling agents to be familiar with the geographies they are marketing to. The people they speak to should be comfortable with their dialect and be accustomed to how they sound over the phone. The people marketing your product or service should be calling into a familiar geographical area and know the culture.

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Avoid companies who charge less than the average rate for a professional B2B Telemarketing Service. 

All companies have to profit somewhere, and if they don't charge enough for their services, you can be sure they will cut back in other areas - such as

WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR?

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employee quality and training, equipment, and consultation time. Something has to give. In many cases, you the client will be the one that pays in poor quality and reputation of your business. Brick and Mortar Call Centers used to be the norm. However, they are now becoming fewer due to modern technology. Brick and Mortar service providers have to pay high overhead costs. This means that extra money for retaining good calling agents can suffer along with other issues especially when they are not charging enough for their services.

These days, its better to find a VERY reputable Modern company that operates a remote-virtual model and does not have the burden of tremendous over head costs. These companies are not limited to a geographic labor pool and can find TOP talent to represent your company. They also have the ability to scale campaigns quickly and efficiently. You can see how important it is to not only know what you're outsourcing, but exactly who you're outsourcing it to.

Lists and dials per hour. 

Good service providers will be educated on the best list resources for your particular industry. They can typically provide you with or assist you in procuring the best list for your campaign. Don't make the mistake of thinking the more dials per hour, the better. That is a big misnomer!

EXAMPLE: Let’s suppose you are selling a sophisticated software application and need a company to properly qualify the prospects for you. If a provider tells you they can make 30 dials an hour on average, that's 2 minutes per call! How is it possible to effectively have a quality conversation with a prospect in 2 minutes? It’s not.

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These are usually "telemarketing agencies" that use predictive dialers. Essentially, they are just burning through your valuable lists of contacts and letting Quality slip by the wayside. A professional organization is focused on the quality of the lead or appointment. They should be focused on “Meaningful Conversations” that get quality results. Therefore, they should be able to give you a realistic idea of the average dials per hour for your specific program. Results and Return on your Investment should be the focus, not dials per hour!

Summary 

Historically, professional B2B Telemarketing has generated the highest response of any marketing medium. Professionally done, these efforts will outperform other Marketing for near term sales conversion. This is especially true when combined with a systematic EMAIL Marketing Campaign working harmoniously with the professional outbound calling.

Fact: Salespeople and teams are more motivated and convert sales quicker without having to do their own prospecting and lead generation.

Your choice of a competent provider is absolutely critical to the success of your Telemarketing campaign. It is crucial that you select a company that you can TRUST and has the infrastructure in place to do the job right and professionally represent your company for optimum results.

We hope you have found this information to be helpful in your search to find a trusted professional B2B Lead Generation Service. We welcome the opportunity to give you a no obligation Quote for our services and look forward to earning your On-going business.

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Grindstone Incorporated888-724-7463

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