As more organizations put a larger percentage of their budgets into digital marketing initiatives, it is important not to lose sight of the effectiveness of simply picking up the phone.  Teleprospecting continues to be one of the best ways to gather business intelligence, build relationships and acquire truly qualified leads.

Business Intelligence

Visiting a company’s website and social media pages and mining reputable data provider platforms can give you valuable insight into the goals, pain points and hierarchy within an organization, but you will never find more accurate and valuable information as when you pick up the phone.  Networking with key influencers, evaluators and a variety of decision makers can help you gather information as well as referrals.  It helps you to identify all of the key players as well as who has true decision-making ability.

Appointment Setting

Appointments that are set during a live conversation are far more likely to hold than those created through the inbound process.  When someone commits over the phone you have the ability to request a calendar invite immediately to further cement the appointment.  A live conversation also allows you to identify the subject matter your prospect would like to cover during a meeting with your sales team.  The additional information captured provides sales the ability to streamline their pitch and be prepared with well thought out answers to the prospect’s biggest questions.

Rapport Building

Many marketers these days have taken to social media to build relationships with their prospects and clients.  While effective, this is not the preferred method of communication for everyone.  A written message can come across at times as lazy and generic.  While digital marketing has become so prominent, many prospective clients have become immune to the cookie cutter responses received through social channels.  Having a live conversation and getting to know your prospects over the phone is a much more personable approach.  The relationships you build through telephone communications can be much stronger than those created through the digital world.  This can have a significant impact when it comes time to close the deal and the relationship you have built may be what separates you from the competition.

Qualification

The relationship between teleprospecting and inbound marketing is symbiotic.  Inbound leads help build your calling lists while your teleprospecting allows further qualification of those leads.  This saves time and money as your sales team will be hyper focused on those clients that provide a true sales opportunity.  It also ensures a better relationship between marketing and sales.