Launch A Telemarketing Lead Generation Pilot Like A Pro

Telemarketing is foundational to marketing strategies that exist today. Companies use telemarketing for several reasons, including customer retention, selling additional products, cultivating relationships, service-related issues, testing new markets, finding new opportunities, and more.

Telemarketing lead generation is often used by those who want to keep pipelines full for internal teams. At the same time, they go through the sales process and seek to find those new customer opportunities externally, with an outsourced partner.

Rather than fully commit to a long-term contract, prospective telemarketing lead generation clients are interested in conducting a pilot program where they can dip their toes in the water and see the results for themselves.

Setting up a successful telemarketing lead generation program takes planning. Here’s an outline to help make the entire process easier.

Identify your telemarketing lead generation goals

The first step in setting up a successful telemarketing lead generation pilot program is to know goals.

What are you looking to accomplish by outsourcing your telemarketing lead generation?

• Are you looking to drive new sales?
• Test a new market or customer segment?
• Launch a new product?
• Augment your internal teams’ pipeline?
• Looking to reduce costs?

How do you define success of telemarketing lead generation?

To make sure your expectations are articulate and can be clearly communicated, have a solid understanding of what you’d consider to be successful telemarketing lead generation pilot.

• Forecast different models and predict various outcomes given the factors that make up your goals.
• Be open to feedback on the models.
• Know the ideal duration of the test.
• Understand the capabilities of the outsourcing partner.

Outline your telemarketing lead generation pilot program strategy

Once you have decided to launch a telemarketing campaign, you need to transition into the planning phase. A good telemarketing lead generation campaign plan should outline the details and scope of the campaign. This will allow everyone involved to clearly understand what the campaign will affect and how it will work.

Developing a solid telemarketing strategy is imperative if you want to expand your market reach, bring on new customers, and increase annual revenue.

Outsourcing will allow you to focus on your core business while maintaining your productivity and competitiveness, among other advantages. Hiring an outsourced call center service provider for telemarketing lead generation also requires a leap of faith. For the risk-averse, the questions and doubts can be overwhelming.

• Will the outbound call center be effective?
• Will I like the way the call center’s representatives talk with potential customers?
• Is outsourcing worth the risk?
• What if I don’t want to make a long-term commitment to an untested call center?

(H3) Pilot programs for Telemarketing Lead Generation

The best way to address these concerns is to start with a scaled-down telemarketing lead generation pilot project. Another way to look at a pilot is a ‘test drive’ of the capabilities. Not only will you get to test your outsourced call center’s capabilities, but you also will be minimizing your financial risk. It is also a great way to hold your call center accountable for producing solid results.

Considerations for successful pilot programs

Launching a successful telemarketing lead generation pilot project is a balancing act. Many factors influence the success of any telemarketing lead generation pilot.

• It should be small enough to minimize your financial risk yet large enough to test the call center’s skills and abilities accurately.
• It should give the call center’s representatives enough experience with your sales pitch and message that they become confident, proficient, and conversational when delivering them.

Execute the Telemarketing Lead Generation Strategy

A well-executed telemarketing lead generation pilot project has two critical and interrelated elements: reporting and mid-course corrections.

Reporting

Once results start to come in, you and your call center services program manager must analyze the data and make real-time program adjustments that refine and enhance your messaging, target audience, and other program elements.

Doing this requires detailed and quick reporting. Having data at your fingertips about every call will allow you to assess the call center’s productivity as well as the number of calls that resulted in new leads, appointments, completed surveys, rejections, or no contact made.

Mid-course corrections

Meet with your team of representatives and ask for their impressions of the calls, what seems to be working and what does not. Participate in call calibration sessions, listen to call recordings, and identify effective calling tactics in coordination with your call center’s management team. Accentuate what is working and eliminate what does not.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, a good telemarketing lead generation pilot should give you a firm idea of a scaled-up program’s likelihood of success.

Request plenty of data and agent access, and you will improve your ability to make an educated decision on whether you should increase your investment for a scaled up long-term partnership.

Erin Langenberg is an Implementation and Quality Assurance Manager for Quality Contact Solutions. Erin has 20+ years in sales, technology, project management, and call center management roles. Erin is passionate about delivering high quality results and seeks out opportunities to improve current processes. Erin can be reached at erin.langenberg@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516–656–5102.