B2B Telesales and B2B Telemarketing Services: The SalesFish Distinction

B2B Telesales and B2B Telemarketing - The SalesFish DistinctionCongratulations. Your company is growing at a rate that demands additional sales support. When contracting out any or all of your sales needs, it’s important to clarify the differences between B2B telesales and B2B telemarketing services. The answer often relies on your current situation.

The most important first step is to assess your immediate sales requirements. Do you simply need someone to create awareness? Or do you need an experienced fully dedicated sales agent who will represent your brand and solution to develop relationships and new clients?

B2B Telesales Team and B2B Telemarketing - The SalesFish Distinction (2)B2B telesales and telemarketing services require more than a simple transaction. In this case, your customer may still have questions and a bit of heavy-lifting is required by your sales agent in order to close the sale. It’s essential to employ sales agents who connect with buyers, understand the market, have sales savvy, and are quick to find solutions for your customers.

On the other hand, if you merely need script reading to introduce your product, then B2B telemarketing is probably your best bet. B2B telemarketing is typically a more transactional style of support. However, please use caution. When hiring a B2B telemarketing resource, check and ensure that they will appropriately represent your product or service. It would be a shame to have the sale perish before it can even begin.

B2B Telesales Team and B2B Telemarketing Call Center - The SalesFish DistinctionMany telemarketing companies outsource their talent and sometimes this means that their employees are working overseas. While there is often a savings in terms of hourly rate, you don’t want language barriers or lack of training to cost you sales and revenue in the long run. Even if you only require what seems like a rudimentary transactional service, employing overseas resources should be carefully considered before making a commitment to that approach.

Here at SalesFish, our sales agents are accustomed to making money so you will receive profitable results because of our high standards. Our agents are U.S.-based, highly-skilled, trained, and proven sales executives who can continue your upward trajectory (or turn it around, as the case may be). We often have companies solicit our skills after they have been disappointed by a less expensive and less effective prior attempt.

We encourage you to “Improve Your Net” and call “The Pond” today…

Choosing The Best Telemarketing Service Provider

Finding legitimate telemarketing companies and telemarketing services is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  We at SalesFish are constantly hearing from prospects about how they’ve been burnt or taken advantage of before they even come to us.

Unfortunately, the problem starts with companies not really doing their due diligence and thinking it through before they decide to embark on an outsourced telemarketing services relationship, entertain various telemarketing companies, etc.

In selecting a B2B telemarketing services partner, you’re looking to outsource your B2B sales and B2B lead generation, right?  So why would you EVER consider a $10 an hour smile and dial operation?  Do you buy from people you don’t like? Chances are you don’t! Yet we expect to hire people or organizations that have zero acumen pertaining to connecting with prospects, understanding how to create credibility, conveying benefits, and earning the right to close.

When looking to outsource your inside sales or B2B lead generation activities, it’s imperative to do the math as if you were setting up your own inside sales force internally or extending an existing one.

Let’s assume most professionals want to be great.  Why would we ever want to “create” or “partner” with another organization on one of the most import facets of our business, SALES?  And then decide to do it on the cheap.  Every day we receive calls from companies that have tried once or twice to outsource their B2B Telemarketing and sales activities on the cheap.  And it NEVER works out!

How much would you be willing to pay for a superstar sales professional? This is the rhetorical question to ask yourself.

If you choose to outsource your lead generation and B2B sales activities, you say, “I’m only going to hire the very best and it’s going to cost me equal to what it might cost me to do it in-house.” Yet you won’t have the headache or burden of trying to execute an acumen that might not be your core competency.  We have a saying at SalesFish: It’s either great or gone!

Most services offered on the market are transactionally driven.  This means the people on the phone or even in management have very little knowledge about branding and creating a relationship with prospects and your brand, not just dialing the phone and reading a script.

Here are a few things to consider when searching for telemarketing companies and a telemarketing services organization:

  • Do you have clearly defined goals, objectives and expectations?
  • Do you have the budget to engage a competent B2B sales and marketing partner?
  • When you pick up the phone or e-mail your potential sales partner, don’t just ask them for a proposal.  Set-up a conference call so both parties can do their due diligence to see if there is a fit.
  • Is the person you’re meeting with an “A” gamer? Do they “get it” and understand high level sales and marketing acumen?
  • Is your prospective partner saying “yes” to everything you ask them? If so, this is a sure sign they will rip you off.  A worthy sales and marketing partner will give you some push back and try and find holes in your thinking, just to make sure you’re set up to win.
  • Check your future partner’s references and please do not fall for the 100 hour intro deal, just the credit card pitch.  Do you really want to work with a partner that’s not in it for the long term?
  • Remember you’re outsourcing, it’s not just telemarketing services, so you need to think, can I be married to this partner for my success?  Can I build with them?  Are they the real deal?
  • Throw your prospective sales partner some curve balls.  See if they’re thin skinned.  Create some scenarios for them to figure out so you can see how they think, or if they are just another one trick pony.
  • Have fun with your search.  Take your time so nothing bad happens.  If you make rushed emotional decisions you will have to take two steps back.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and Telemarketing Services to your specific needs.

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Lead Generation
  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telemarketing Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales

 

 

How Social Media Can Engage B2B Professionals with Clients

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing, B2B Inside Sales Agency, B2B Social Media Marketing and B2B Marketing Agency serving Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle) and all 50 United States. Fully integrated B2B Marketing Agency with vast strategic Telemarketing Services experience and track record.

B2B Social Media Marketing with B2B Lead Generation

This week’s entry on B2B social media marketing comes to us again from Lauren Carlson, a CRM analyst for the website Software Advice Ms. Carlson sheds light on how B2B marketers find their businesses on social media.

 

Check out this infographic from Nowsourcing.com. It illustrates the growth of social media usage in the B2B space. Though the data is, well, dated, it’s less about the numbers and more about the overall trend.

For a long time, social media was seen as B2C territory. However, more and more, we are seeing B2B buyers engage on social media networks. So, if social media is where B2B buyers are, then B2B sales professionals need to meet them there to start that engagement. But what does that B2B social media marketing engagement look like?

I have identified five strategies that B2B sales professionals can use social media channels to not only enhance customer engagement, but ultimately close more deals.

  1. Identify Problems You Can SolveSocial media is a great outlet for discussing issues or problems that you are encountering. Sales professionals can use this to their advantage by searching for “signal phrases,” or phrases that mention specific pain points that your company or product can address.
  2. Buyer Education This one isn’t about educating your buyer about your company. Rather, it’s about educating you on the buyer. Smart B2B Sales professionals will go beyond the social media profile, looking at the entire gamut of the buyer’s online engagement. What are they interested in? What discussions are they contributing to? This helps paint a more clear picture of the buyer, which helps the sales person have more targeted conversations and, ultimately, win their business.
  3. Gauge Your CompetitionNot only can you find out how your potential buyers are engaging online, but you can also see how your competition is engaging with those opportunities. Because social networks are fairly open forums, it’s difficult for anyone to hide their cards. Therefore, B2B sales professionals can easily see what tactics their competition are using, who they are targeting, what’s working and, more importantly, what’s not.
So far, we have discussed three of the five strategies for B2B sales professionals to effectively engage over social media. For the full list, head over to the Software Advice website and check out the original post. Click here to learn more about SalesFish’s strategic approach to B2B social media marketing.
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class B2B Telesales, B2B telemarketing and B2B Inside Sales strategies.  We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and telemarketing services to your specific needs.

 

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • B2B Social Media Marketing
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales


Social Media’s Rules of Engagement

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing, B2B Inside Sales Agency and B2B Marketing Agency serving Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle) and all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

This week’s entry comes to us again from Lauren Carlson, a CRM analyst for the website Software Advice. Recently she chatted with an author about the rules of engagement in social media marketing:

Some people have gained so much notoriety in their respective fields that their names are almost synonymous with the field itself. When it comes to new media and social business, that person is Brian Solis. Principal of Altimeter Group, Solis has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and authored several books. I recently got a chance to sit down with him for the Software Advice website and talk social media and the evolving customer-vendor landscape.

image via flickr

We all know that social and mobile technologies have changed the way customers act and interact. This idea of customer centricity is not a new concept. However, Solis takes it a step further by calling this landscape or environment the “Egosystem.” The Egosystem is differentiated from traditional customer centricity in that the customer is at the center of, or owns, the experience. Yes, customers have always been the focus for companies, but it was the company that dictated the nature of the relationship and the rules of engagement, if you will. Thanks to social media and smartphones, the customer has immensely increased access to information outlets. They can ask product and service questions via multiple online and mobile channels without ever having to contact the actual vendor. They are in control. I think it is the shift of control that differentiates what Solis calls the “Egosystem” from tradional ideas of customer centricity.

But how do companies survive in the “Egosystem?” Customers do not want traditional communication and relationships. Instead they want engagement. Solis defined engagement by using six elements:

  • Value
  • Efficiency
  • Trust
  • Consistency
  • Relevancy
  • Control

I break down each of these individually in my original post.

Lauren Carlson, CRM Analyst

Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class B2B Telesales, B2B telemarketing and B2B Inside Sales strategies.  We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and Telemarketing Services to your specific needs.

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales

 


Don’t Be a Robot

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing, B2B Inside Sales Agency and B2B Marketing Agency serving Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle) and all 50 United States. Partner with a client centric B2B Market Agency that puts skin in the game… from strategic Telemarketing Services to Experiential Event Marketing.

 

This week’s entry comes to us from Art Sobczak, author of www.telesalesblog.com.  Mr. Sobczak warns us not to succumb to the robotic delivery of telesales calls:

To Be a Better Salesperson, Don’t SOUND Like One

By Art Sobczak on Sep 8, 2011 in Preparation

Just wondering …… why in the world do some salespeople feel like they must sound like a salesperson when they get someone on the phone?

What is it about presenting … whether it be selling by phone or speaking before a group that causes some people to cinch up and sound like the synthesized voice that gives the phone number on directory assistance?

 

I spend a lot of time on airplanes, and can’t tell you the last time I actually listened to the flight attendant giving the speech about the flat end going into the buckle. Oh yes I can, I flew Southwest a couple of weeks ago and, as many of their attendants do, this one delivered the announcement like they were actually talking to a person, and with humor and enthusiasm. That got my attention.

The bottom line is that on the phone, sounding canned, like you’re reading something, or like you’ve just been awakened at 3:00 a.m. is detrimental to your success.

But, many people sound that way. And many of those don’t realize it. Here are a couple of points to keep in mind.

We tune out–and are often annoyed by–unemotional, canned messages. Think about the sales calls you have received at home … the ones that follow the couple of seconds of dead air after you pick up the phone and say “Hello … hello …?”

You first hear the din of what sounds like a noisy restaurant, and the monotone voice greets you with,

“Hello, can I speak with (bad mispronunciation of your name)?”

Then they begin reading a script.

 

Likewise, think about some really bad acting you’ve seen in a play or movie. It looks and sounds stilted … unnatural, like it’s being read. It has the same turn-off effect.

People will speak with those who sound conversational.

What more can I add?

But please don’t misunderstand me on one key point:

Preparing what you’ll say and scripting your opening is still the best way to approach a call. But never, ever, SOUND like you’re working from an aid.

As I always say, the worst time to think of what you’ll say is as it’s coming from your mouth.

Exercises
So, what to do? Easy. The better prepared you are, the more natural you will sound. “Humanize” your calls. Remember, you’re talking to another person, not at a phone instrument. Listen to your calls on tape, and ask yourself, “Would I talk to a friend like this? Does this sound natural?”

Prepare your openings and recite–not read–them into a tape player. Pretend you are talking to a good friend in a social setting.

The less you sound like a salesperson, the more you’ll sell.

By Art Sobczak on Sep 8, 2011

 

 

Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class B2B Telesales, B2B telemarketing and B2B Inside Sales strategies.  We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning,
B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our B2B Telesales, B2B Telemarketing and Telemarketing Services to your specific needs.

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales