Business to Business (B2B) lead generation involves the marketing of a company's products and services to other companies. This type of marketing is used in many industries including IT and technology sales.
™
The main objective of B2B lead generation is to firstly generate interest in the company's products and secondly to convert this interest into actual sales. Some businesses will deal with their own marketing in house while others choose to outsource to a third party. Whether in house or outsourced any B2B marketing strategy will most likely involve the same three steps. These steps are identifying a target market, setting objectives and building the marketing program.
In B2B marketing selling processes are often complex and lengthy.This complexity has a number of causes including the size of the transactions and the fact that there are often a number of people involved in the decision making process. Much of the B2B sales process involves creating a business relationship between two companies and the individuals working for them. This business relationship is in many cases an ongoing one in which further purchases are made as and when needed.
Although there are similarities in them Business to Business marketing differs from Business to Consumer (B2C) marketing in a number of ways. As stated in B2B sales there tends to be a number of decision makers involved. This differs from B2C where as only one person is responsible buying decisions can be made quickly. Additionally business purchasing decisions are focused on what the company needs as opposed to consumer buying with is more based on want.
The IT and technology industry is just one example of where B2B marketing is common. Many companies in this market choose to outsource lead generation for its products and services to a third party.
Online marketing has been seen to surpass most marketing methods of today. If a person were to ask a business owner on their preferred method for marketing their products and/or services, they would almost immediately answer that they will use the Internet to achieve such results. Means like Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing have made business owners well aware that they can expand their entire market radius and bring their company's into the eyes and ears of the global population.
Because of this, many business owners have assumed that b2b telemarketing may not be the current best when it comes to generating business leads. There are even those that consider it obsolete, washed up, passé, and even dead. Many of today's businesses prefer online marketing rather than telemarketing. They say it is better since there are a greater number of people who spend time on the Internet than on the telephone.
Although this is a fact, telemarketing can still bring about a successful b2b lead generation campaign. Let us look at the positives about this marketing medium for gathering leads.
• It enables a more direct approach in enticing prospects
Internet marketing is all well and good but there are times that one still has to wait for the prospect's reply from the business' proposal. Telemarketing eliminates this need to wait as it can readily let the voices of prospects as well as the business' voices be heard.
• Telemarketing can be readily outsourced to professional telemarketers
Most people would rather let experts handle the job of marketing their products and services. Lucky for them, there are highly reliable telemarketing firms scattered across the globe that trains well-experienced telemarketers. These expert agents are able to skillfully pique the interests of prospects from the start of the call up until the time comes when the potential client becomes a loyal customer.
• Many prospects would like to hear a business proposal from the mouths of the business' staff themselves
Internet marketing is all well and good but it is a fact (although sad as it may seem) that many people hate to read. A lot of people would just like to hear a business proposal from the mouths of a business' team of representatives instead of having to read through a lot of pages about their proposal. In other words, there are a lot of other business owners out there that respond better to telemarketers than having to read a proposal that can be compared to a short novel in terms of size.
There is still a lot of good that b2b telemarketing can bring for a company that is in need of leads. Business owners can outsource this medium to highly trained professionals for a better chance of acquiring a great number of high quality leads for their companies.
Telemarketers that are well versed in the skills in piquing the curiosity and interests of a prospect can do so in a matter of seconds. As a matter of fact, many telemarketers of today can make a call and get a lead within a few minutes. Because of this, there is a great chance that a single telemarketer can finish a few hundred calls within a single day. Now imagine if the campaign were B2B Lead Generation to run for about a month, wouldn't that be a feat worth noticing?
Telemarketing is not dead. It is very much alive and is still a great way to generate good income for any business that wants to achieve such a goal.
