IT telemarketing, of which IT lead generation campaigns are an important component, is a specialised sector, requiring specific telemarketing and sales planning skills to build effective campaigns.
B2B CM has undertaken many telemarketing campaigns for major IT sector clients, which gives us great insight into best practice for IT lead generation. Using our extensive knowledge we have created this ‘How to…’ guide for IT lead generation, to help IT companies achieve the best results from their telemarketing marketing campaigns.
IT lead generation preparation
All great telemarketing campaigns start with preparation. Time spent in preparation will pay dividends when the telemarketing starts, and make sure that results more closely match the objective of building a usable prospect database for sales pipelining.
Audience targeting
A successful prospect database will be full of the right prospect customers. Is your IT product or service only suitable for certain business sectors? Do customers need to have a certain level of turnover to make a purchase viable?
There’s nothing to be gained by contacting companies that cannot use your services or products. Audience targeting reduces telemarketing costs by removing unsuitable contacts before a call is made.
Sourcing a prospect database
Once the target audience has been defined it’s time to source the initial records that will form the base of your prospect database. Examining how to source databases is a topic big enough for a How to… guide of its own, for the purposes of this article we’ll simply list the sources you should consider.
- List broker — A great source of fresh potential leads.
- Existing customers — It’s more cost-effective to obtain repeat business from an existing customer, than attract a brand new one.
- Newsletter sign-ups, enquiry forms, etc. — Look at all the touch-points available in your company, and make sure that at each one you give potential customers the option to receive sales information from you.
Clean, confirm, enhance
Once the prospect database has been sourced, the process of building a telemarketing list begins. In this stage you need to take your database and go through each record with a fine-tooth comb.
Clean — Are the contact names on the prospect database correct? Do you have the right telephone number, address and email address? Is your contact part of the IT purchasing chain.
Confirm — Does the prospect match your target audience? Does the prospect have internal IT considerations, or structures, that prevent your IT product or service being used?
Enhance — Starting from the initial contact person, build the prospect’s internal decision making chain. Uncover all the touch-points within your prospect and establish contact preferences with them and their importance in the decision making process, then allocate your time accordingly.
IT lead generation
Now the prospect database has been defined, and the data enhanced to reveal each prospect’s internal decision making structure, it’s time to start the lead generation process.
IT sales involves a long sales pipeline, due to the complexity and importance of making the right decisions. It is important to fill the internal sales pipeline based on the timescales for decision making identified during the data enhancement stage.
For example if a prospect is about to enter the information gathering phase they should be placed at the start of the sales pipeline, on the other hand a potential customer who won’t be looking at IT infrastructure changes for at least six months needs telemarketing activity placed at the appropriate point on the calendar.
Classifying sales leads based on their internal decision making processes builds a strategic sales plan; an essential requirement for IT sales if you wish to avoid having the sales team approaching prospects at incorrect times.
Lead nurturing
Thanks to the length and complexity of internal decision making for prospective clients, lead nurturing is an essential component of IT lead generation. It is important to find the right balance between contacting a prospective customer often enough to keep your company in their thoughts, but not too often to annoy them and sour the working relationship before it even starts.
Effective planning of when, and how, to contact prospects, and building that into your sales pipeline comes from the conversations you have with prospective clients, along with tacit knowledge gained over successive IT lead generation campaigns.
It sales outsourcing
Given the complex nature of IT lead generation, many suppliers choose to outsource part, or all, of the process. B2B CM has handled telemarketing lead generation campaigns for many clients in the IT sector and if you want to find out more about how outsourcing IT sales can benefit your company then call 0845 345 0545, or visit the B2B CM contact page.