I once spoke to an Australian businessman and he told me “I don’t spend my money on rubbish”, and well such is true. In running a company, you can’t afford to waste hard-earned profits and employ approaches or hire providers that aren’t of any real benefit to your firm. So when telemarketing is involved, you at least want to work with one of the best B2B telemarketing services providers out there, right? But even so, you need a reason to employ this type of marketing approach for your business.

To help you out, here are four reasons why B2B telemarketing is a good idea to work with:

Fast transmission.

If you’re familiar with email marketing, then I’m pretty sure that you just adore how fast you’re able to get in contact with your prospects through a quick message. It’s the same with using telemarketing. It’s fast and certainly gets you in contact with your prospects from the moment you choose to pick up the phone and dial a number. Since many telemarketing firms, if not all, now use VoIP (voice over IP) lines nowadays, transmission is very fast.

Real-time communication.

When it comes to business, you already understand the value of real-time communication. That is why as much as possible you should be able to meet with your B2B prospects in the form of an appointment. Communicating with them face to face allows you both to be able to explain your key points and discuss both of your company’s concerns as well as allow you to explain whatever it is you need to in detail right there and then. Communicating through the phone allows this and is one of the options you should be willing to make if your prospect can’t meet face to face but still wants to talk about something.

Great for making quick follow-ups.

In business, nothing is ever settled quickly. When you come to a prospect bearing with you an offer of working together to achieve mutual gain, you can’t expect them to say “yes” right from the moment you proposed a deal with them. Usually, months can go by before a lead would start considering your offer or before they finally come to a decision. As such, maybe you should follow-up with them to see if anything has changed since the time you came to them. You can choose to do this in various ways, a phone call being one of the viable methods.

Excellent when used for lead generation.

One of the reasons why many companies use B2B telemarketing is that it works quite amazingly for lead generation purposes. In fact, a whole lot of companies have benefited from running their own lead generation telemarketing campaigns. When it comes to generating good B2B leads, you can highly rely on a telemarketing services provider to get you the leads you need.

When you generate leads through telemarketing, it’s what we call cold calling. And yes, it does get tremendous results when employed correctly, more so when you have a good provider to handle your campaign. These are just four of the many reasons why B2B telemarketing is a good idea to work with and just how it serves to be of benefit to your company.

Related Content: Bring Your Business to Life With B2B Telemarketing

And in healthcare, it is likely this response sees plenty of use given that a profit motive is not a badge of honor for anyone working in the industry:

B2B Leads Must Indicate More Than Sales Opportunities

An answer to this is simple. If they are not their line of work for money, then neither should you. Despite how often repeated and cliched the response, it echoes a simple truth: money is not everything. And if you think about it, business is not all about making cash either.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of them paying you? What are you looking for when you are searching for health leads? You are not simply trying to make money are you? You are making money to improve the healthcare industry which in turn helps improve the health of the patients under its care.

Your focus should be on exactly how you go about improving. Such improvements are not always centered around money:

• Time - The most tragic thing about time is that, unlike money, you can never get it back. Most often, when you are asking doctors about their needs, they will likely say that time is plays a significant factor in delivering quality care. In fact, one of the most common problems among medical professionals is having too little time and too many patients.

Related Content: Telemarketing Doctors – Beware Of Blow Ups!

• Own improvement – Does your improvement enable more improvement on the prospect’s part? For example, will the dissemination of new medical applications assist both patients and care providers when it comes to diagnosis? Does it bring both parties closer together in terms of mutual understanding and trust? They may not be about money but your appointment setting services can give you an opportunity to suggest how saved amounts can be used to improve practices.

• Keep their practice going – Some practices, despite their non-profit intentions, will not survive the way they are. While they can be praised for opting for the lowest sum, they need to be told up front that doing so might be to the detriment of their practice. Excessively frugal attitudes can lead to compliance violations and send their medical devices into the pit of obsolescence.

Related Content: Things You Need To Do When Your Medical Leads Are In A Declining Industry

Believe it or not but you do not always have to trouble your salespeople to send this message to your target professionals. In fact, it might be better to use the abilities of your marketers instead because they have the capacity to spread a message and increase awareness. More than that, if you lack your own, even the cheap lead generation campaigns of outsourced companies should give you enough show you are not in it for the money either.

These are not just any clients mind you but those who have established quite the influence among your market. And with online tools like social media and SEO, many professionals are saying that influence marketing is making great changes to how businesses promote themselves and attract prospects.

On the other hand, many people are overlooking the great risks of using star-customer influence when it comes to future lead generation campaigns. The biggest reason is that you may have just tied your PR image to that of your client’s.

Marketing to high-profile medical professionals can be a feat in of itself. There’s no harm in giving yourself a pat in the back if you managed to have them as a customer. Still, you must be aware of the risks when you’re going to use this to your marketing advantage:

• Are they truly a customer? - This question alone implies a lot of accusations that skeptics will throw your way. Did these people do business with you purely because of the quality of your business? Can they, by themselves, justify their preference for your brand of medical support and products? Did you attract them the same way you attracted regular health leads or did you do some special pleading?

• How well do you know them? - A reputation may be big but it’s not always in a good way. Sure, you think you’ve snagged a well-known prospect but what exactly are they well-known for? Careful now, this is actually a two-way question. You don’t want to reject a prospect fore reasons based on just hearsay. On the other hand, you need to act carefully when you learn that this prospect is known for a questionable record instead of a shining one.

• Are you prepared for damage control? - Your influencers aren’t static either. One moment, you see them bring massive attention to your company, the next moment, you spit out your morning coffee upon seeing their name under a scandalous headline. Are you prepared to respond immediately? Can you quickly change any B2B lead generation campaign that has been using their image for marketing? When you strap your brand identity to people like that (several of them even), you are literally strapping it for their ride, not yours.

• Are they even aligned to your own industry? - Speaking of brand image, a basic rule-of-thumb in marketing is to always remain consistent with it. Don’t change it too often that you’ll end up alienating every previous generation of customers. They are just as much valuable to your business as completely new ones. Therefore, if your newest customer is well-known, make sure they’re at least in the healthcare business as much as the rest of your prospects.

At this point, this is not to actually discourage you from using big client testimonials. On the contrary, it can actually apply even to your own representatives! For example, if would you want your own telemarketing services compromising your image in the same way? Do not assume they are incapable of that. The real lesson here is to manage your PR in marketing when those representing you have developed a PR of their own.

• No interest, no leads – Many prospect’s respond with rejection because they feel they know enough to have no desire for your services or products. And with no interest, you won’t have that many leads and thus, your appointment setting campaign ends empty-handed.

• Refusal to heed advice – Even after a successful sale, the business relationship ends up rocky because your prospect insists on only their specifications and refuses to heed advice on anything else they deem unrelated to that. And when this results in disaster, it’s finger-pointing all around.

• Hesitant to give advice – Afraid of the previous problem, you withhold advice instead. You let your customer take full control of their buying decision. In fact, in worst cases you don’t give advice even if they ask for it. In short, you’re afraid of contending with their views. And while this is the opposite extreme, it’s still produces the same result: confusion and frustration on the part of a prospect.

Ultimately though, your appointment setting services must go beyond just what is being wanted.

Now there’s a fine line between not caring for wants and going beyond wants. Not caring for wants means not caring for the prospect’s own perspective. For example, you don’t want to understand why they deem a style of management better the the one you recommend. You refuse to see why they’d rather risk it with old devices instead of an expensive upgrade. You don’t understand that their main goal is simply the health and well-being of patients in their care.

Going beyond does the complete opposite. You don’t disregard their desires but only start at them and then work your way towards fulfilling what they need:

• Step 1: Evaluate what they want: Asides from the simple factors of budget, time, and availability (factors that simply indicate if something can be done), check if the things they want will eventually result in a greater good. For instance, does it align with the standards of quality care or are their bad processes that they must immediately do away with?

• Step 2: Align with a need: Both marketers and salespeople should learn to collaborate closely at this step. Salespeople are supposed to be the ones equipped with more knowledge to present a solution. On the other hand, they need all the information from health leads to reach conclusions about what prospects need. Both should help each other locate gaps in the information that prospects use to inform their buying decision and refine it.

• Step 3: Focus on the long term: Don’t just focus on the sale but on the quality of service or products you’ve sold. Did they really deliver what your marketers promised to deliver? If you’d be working with a prospect every step of the way, how open are you to their constant feedback? If done right, you might end up with a loyal, repeat customer!

It’s true that needs will inevitably trump wants but respecting the desires of customers and prospect’s is also proper business practice. Instead of pitting one against the other, try to align them by starting at wants but gradually going beyond to needs.

Then again, the use of social media in marketing isn’t entirely new for B2B companies in general. It just so happens that with medical professionals exploring social media, it would initially appear that tools such as social advertising make for another ideal start of the B2B sales funnel.

In fact, a new report from Bloomberg just came out saying that the new Facebook Exchange is outperforming Google in terms of online advertising:

“Facebook Exchange, or FBX, generates as much as four times the return on ad dollars than other real-time bidding systems, said Triggit Inc., which makes software tools to help Facebook deliver the ads. Another partner, AdRoll, said advertisers used to getting $10 for every $1 they spend are making $16 for every dollar spent on FBX.”

However, don’t forget that despite the success of social advertising groups, you need to look at the bigger picture. As far as marketing is concerned at least, appointment setting services don’t just count on the strategies being demonstrated in the Bloomburg article.

Reflect on it for a second. Your targets aren’t just regular shoe shoppers. These are medical professionals and no matter how niche a social network site can be for healthcare, clicks and views aren’t sufficient responses to really qualify them.

Getting their attention is only the starting tip and the larger processes which follow can still be well within the responsibility of your own marketing. (If not your own, then you better make sure whoever you outsourced can manage the same.) Remember that the information being generated in the process must still undergo severals stages before you think it’s enough to set a date.

In short, the combination of appointment setting and social advertising is far from complete. You need to attach the prospect’s responses to the ads with the right follow-up actions to much larger lead qualification processes:

• If they click… where does it lead them? Does it take them to a contact form or is there a reason why they might still browse your website?

• Their online behavior indicates… what? So what if your ads have somehow indicated a particular user has been going back and forth between your social media profile and your website? Does it mean something? Shouldn’t you send them an email just to be safe as well as sure?

• They’ve taken action… and are clearly demanding a response. Once they’ve filled up a contact form, do you send them a larger email or do you use telemarketing directly? Have you used a form to indicate which one would they prefer? Be careful. The truth is some professionals prefer a casual read while others prefer to have a live conversation.

That can even be just for the second or third stages of the process. No doubt that you still have to concern yourself with follow-ups, getting more information in case your salespeople find it insufficient, and there’s still the schedule of both parties to consider.

Ultimately though, it just goes to show that despite the functionality and success of social advertising, you’ll need more to qualify health leads for B2B appointment setting. It’s all right to make use of something that’s working but don’t lose sight of the fact that it might only just be a single phase in a much larger process.

This quote from Noah Fleming of Fast Company serves to explain this importance:

“Conveying a brand’s character or positioning is even more important. As a thought experiment, imagine that as a longtime reader of the Wall Street Journal, you picked up today’s copy to find the front page riddled with stories of the latest celebrity scandal, the cast ofThe Jersey Shore, and the summer’s hottest weight-loss supplements. Would new customers start reaching for The Journal? They probably would.

But what about you, someone who reads The Journal for a very specific reason? You, who has learned to expect a certain character and has come to associate yourself with the brand? You would probably be running for the hills.”

Consistency of business character and association helps retain your current customers. These same customers are also the ones you turn to for constant sales when the numbers of new health leads are running low. Given the cost-restrictive nature of healthcare, dry periods like that are very likely.

However, what can cause your company’s character to divert from what it originally was? Furthermore, how do marketing and lead generation play a role?

The challenge of maintaining consistency comes from balancing between what your current customers want and what non-customers want:

• Customers: Contrary to what some believe, they don’t always want more of the same thing. However, in all your years of doing business with them, they still have a consistent idea of what your business is about. Your identity is rooted in the minds of their professionals and as Fleming suggests, you don’t want to disappoint them by excess change.

• Non-customers: These are the practices and institutions that you have never done business with but still consider a possible source of sales leads. Unlike your regular customers, neither of you are familiar with each other but it’s up to you to bridge the gap by learning about their unique needs.

As you can see, there’s chance that going after one or the other can force you to change the way they associate your brand (and that’s not always for the better). There are two ways that healthcare lead generation can help strike this balance. You can either:

• Find common ground – Try taking the services and benefits your current customers enjoy from you and see if any of these can appeal to non-customers. You can also try a hand in referral marketing by getting your own customers to recommend you to their peers.

• Tailor your message – If you’re going to risk sending a separate message and present a different character entirely, make sure that character corresponds specifically to the non-customer market that you’re targeting. For example, if you’re targeting businesses in a very niche industry, your marketing efforts should limit the new message to them and them alone.

Distinguishing your brand is a must when marketing anything, not just healthcare. It’s represents that which keep your current customers loyal but it’s also a challenge when you want to expand your markets. Strike a balance by being consistent whether you’re sending a single marketing message or multiple ones specific to their character associations.

Recent studies cited by Businessweek are reporting disturbing statistics regarding burnout among doctors:

“The first nationwide study of burnout among doctors in the U.S. offered that grim diagnosis this week. The authors, led by Tait D. Shanafelt of the Mayo Clinic, reported their findings in theArchives of Internal Medicine. About 46 percent of the 7,200 doctors surveyed showed at least one symptom of this condition, described as an “erosion of the soul” in the book, The Truth About Burnout.”

That same 46% could include the doctors in either your contact list or your customer database. In both cases, being aware of the doctor’s state of mind could offer some surprising insight on whether or not they qualify for appointment setting or hint to the current satisfaction as your B2B customers.

For example, it could indicate their performance as implied by one of the researchers behind the cited study:

“Burnout worries Shanafelt, an oncologist and professor of medicine, because ‘burned-out physicians are more likely to make mistakes’—such as the failures of communication or the intimidation that experts say beget medical errors.”

Salespeople can benefit from being forewarned about this. It’s not even because they can tell you if the doctor (or their organization) is interested. Better yet, it can tell them what solution to provide to make things easier on their mind. For private practices, it could be better tools. For hospitals, it could warrant some advice on their management (e.g. finding ways to reduce bureaucracy).

You can think of business lead generation as your own way of doing research. Use your tools as a means to ask questions, conduct surveys, and then push forward with a more well-aimed and accommodating marketing campaign. Already the first paragraph of the article can give you ideas on what to ask:

“Is your doctor suffering? Do the symptoms include cynicism, emotional exhaustion, or viewing patients as objects rather than people? He or she may be experiencing burnout. In fact, there’s a 50 percent chance that any doctor is—a rate 10 percent higher than among the general population of working people.”

Another thing you’d do well to determine is the state of their practice. Are they on a low budget? Is their industry declining? (The article also makes a few mentions on what particular fields have lower levels of satisfaction).

Patients are the only things you need to concern yourself with B2B healthcare. In fact, don’t forget that they’re not even your target (despite how many industries like EMR software, facilities management, as well as medical devices concern themselves with their treatment). Your target market still comprises of the medical professionals who are still their main provider of quality care. Your medical leads should reflect the state of their minds because that in turn will the best way your business can help them.

Now one way to find another source of sales leads is to go deeper into niche territories. The risky thing about these types of sub-industries is that they’re potentially uncharted areas for your business. You might not be all that familiar with their needs and thus, your sales teams might find themselves unprepared in the face of new medical practices, new clients, and new workplace cultures.

The following steps are a basic guide to what you should do before you qualify medical leads in these niche industries:

• Step 1: What do they do? - First off, you obviously need to get a basic understanding of what the industry is all about. Try to get their feedback first via a telemarketing surveys or online research before conducting anything more direct. Following up on that is understanding how you can help with the things that they do. This reflects the process of qualifying leads and the different stages of information you could reach before declaring a prospect qualified.

• Step 2: Prepare to customize – Once you’ve received their feedback and done your research, get ready to relay your findings to the rest of your organization prior to any marketing and sales campaign. Another risk that comes from targeting niche industries is that their demands could be too specialized. It could take a while to really tailor any current product or service according to their needs. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t. The point is you know need to know how long it would take before you can have something that directly corresponds to that industry’s basic needs. Take note of any product specifications or any significant problems that these smaller industries are facing.

• Step 3: Tell sales to prepare – The results of lead generation should ultimately help sales prepare to make closes. The process of appointment setting and the use of a customer database are all for the sake of telling them what they need to know in order to persuade a possible client. It should help them determine what demonstrations to prepare or what samples to bring. For example, an EMR salesperson would want to show how their system can also create records for mental patients (for psychiatric practices) or animal patients (for veterinarians).

Despite all this niche focus, the general basics of B2B lead generation still apply: Determine the needs of a prospect from the things that they do. Have your company meet their demands. Finally, make sure the people qualifying your leads inform sales on what to prepare beforehand.

For example, Matthew Herper of Forbes wrote an article with very astonishing figures about how much companies spend in researching new drugs:

“During the Super Bowl, a representative of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly posted the on the company’s corporate blog that the average cost of bringing a new drug to market is $1.3 billion, a price that would buy 371 Super Bowl ads, 16 million official NFL footballs, two pro football stadiums, pay of almost all NFL football players, and every seat in every NFL stadium for six weeks in a row. This is, of course, ludicrous.

The average drug developed by a major pharmaceutical company costs at least $4 billion, and it can be as much as $11 billion.”

Now this may or may not describe your industry in particular but in case that it does, outsourcing medical lead generation practices becomes a very logical solution to help keep total costs down. Minimizing the costs of healthcare isn’t just a consumer concern. It’s also a concern among medical institutions and private practitioners too. If the costs of your research is starting to spike, you wouldn’t want these costs joining in:

• Marketing Professionals – Industry expertise isn’t even the half of it. Hiring a marketer requires knowledge of how to interact with both current and potential customers. Generating interest is also another area of expertise because it requires you to see things from a client’s perspective. That’s not as easy as it sounds.

• Tools – If you’re into b2b telemarketing, you’ll need to build your own call center. If you’re into online marketing, you’ll actually have to incorporate email, web design, and even social media. Both require a set of tools that may not reach the level of research costs but can still eat a hole out of your finances. If you’re going for a multi-channeled approach, well congratulations, you’ve just combined both their costs. This doesn’t even mention the time you’ll need to build it all up. On the other hand, going for something like outsourced telemarketing for medical lead generation obviously does away with the need for that much investment.

• Urgency – Speaking of time, if your resources are extremely focused on research, wouldn’t it be a bad idea to chip it away just for medical lead generation? Forcing your company to wear too many hats in such a situation could compromise the speed of both. You’re better off outsourcing a lead generator that can operate at that same pace. You may need to make sure your research produces results right on time but you still have just as many reasons to be quick in your lead generation efforts.

As far as popular opinion goes, even the man on the street wouldn’t be surprised to know how much money is being poured on medical research. It’s an endeavor that’s as scientific as it is business-minded. And the thing about scientific research, even entertainment media isn’t shy of portraying large numbers to describe them. That’s yet another reason why you might as well outsource everything else there is about medical lead generation.

Now while it sounds like a bit of a stretch to say that good telemarketers will end up like great leaders, you’d be surprised by how much of the ten secrets being discussed in Myatt’s article correspond directly with what makes for great communication. And again, great communication is critical to a telemarketer’s success. This is whether you’re just a single individual making a few business calls, running your own in-house call center, or even outsourcing a professional telemarketing company. Many of the secrets here have direct applications such as:

“1. Speak not with a forked tongue.”

“In most cases, people just won’t open up to those they don’t trust.”

Indeed, they don’t. One of the obstacles of cold-calling is sheer unfamiliarity. The person you’re contacting doesn’t know you so you gaining that trust is important. Professional telemarketing is not just about making as many of those cold calls each day but each call is supposed to establish trust with each prospect.

“2. Get personal.”

“If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with people you’ll never know what’s really on their mind until it’s too late to do anything about it.”

The importance of trust is that it establishes a relationship. When speaking with a prospect over the phone, keep that in mind. You’re building trust, building rapport, in order to develop a relationship with your prospects and their businesses. It’s only then that you can engage with them further and receive their feedback. Market feedback can offer many insights for any sales team.

“3. Get specific.”

“Simple and concise is always better than complicated and confusing. Time has never been a more precious commodity than it is today. It is critical leaders learn how to cut to the chase and hit the high points – it’s also important to expect the same from others.”

Bewildering your prospects with industry jargon is always a bad idea (and this applies to any industry, whether you’re in IT or in healthcare). If a telemarketer were to start confusing a prospect that way, then don’t be surprised at how many start hanging up because they can’t comprehend what’s being said.

“4. Focus on the leave-behinds not the take-aways.”

“The key is to approach each interaction with a servant’s heart. When you truly focus on contributing more than receiving you will have accomplished the goal.”

The complete countermeasure against excessive jargon is the willingness to know a prospect’s needs. It’s even important to know these needs beforehand and why it’s you have to obtain feedback while developing a relationship with the prospect.

“6. Shut-up and listen.”

“Simply broadcasting your message ad nauseum will not have the same result as engaging in meaningful conversation, but this assumes that you understand that the greatest form of discourse takes place within a conversation, and not a lecture or a monologue.”

Repetition is not the key to good telemarketing if it just means you’re repeating the same message over and over again without listening for a response. How do you expect to learn about a prospect’s needs or teach your sales team on what solution to offer them when you don’t even listen to what potential prospects say?

All in all, great and professional telemarketers may not make automatic leaders but great leaders believe in a lot of the same things that they do when it comes to great communication.

Take the following two examples for instance:

Measuring and Controlling Devices

Plenty of people use measuring devices. These could be health buffs looking for ways to keep an eye on their weight. These could also be doctors who need  typical measuring devices in order to fill out a patient profile. In either case, an event that showcases this among many other devices can attract both. On the other hand, a health buff can just hear about the event on an ad while a doctor’s attention can’t be bothered by one. Personally inviting professionals can be your way of saying that the event can also offer something for them as well. If you’ve already done a bit of B2B marketing before, check your database for contact information. If you don’t have one, you can either start building up one now or just purchase a list from a database provider.

Testing Services

It’s always a good idea to spread awareness of various health-related problems ranging from the usage of illegal drugs to the spread of dangerous diseases. What’s interesting is that medical testing services are well-experienced in determining such cases. This makes you a good candidate for hosting events that spread this awareness. Such events can also be good venues for Q&A sessions where both doctors as well as average citizens can ask questions about how these cases are tested. It’s a good way to engage with all them as well as exchange contact information if they want to take the discussion beyond the event. (Thus, you might even find a few health leads in the process.) Just be careful about marketing this event to the professionals and follow the basics when inviting them to attend.

Those are just two of the many examples that health-awareness events need not be limited to concerned individuals. Use telemarketing to invite medical professionals as well because they can be just as much in need of the products and services involved as regular people. If you’re worried about messing up, you can go online and find many sources with tips about telemarketing effectively. You can also outsource a telemarketing company if you think it’s too much trouble. Healthcare is a universal concern so any event that centered on it should involve everyone. Don’t be afraid to use B2B marketing to expand the turn-out of those events!

In research, having a singular source of information isn’t always a good idea. It’s the same thing if you’re using the information for marketing purposes like lead generation. And even in the cases where the source is reputable, having multiple instances of such sources is logically better.

However, perhaps it’s better to first identify common sources of information that marketers use for generating leads. After all, it’s in B2B lead generation that people show the direct, monetary value of information.

• Business Websites– Today, businesses can be found on the World Wide Web. Within their websites, they usually leave a business number and even a company email address. There are limits, however, as these contact details won’t necessarily lead you straight to a specific decision maker. 
• Directories– Aside from websites, businesses also register on directories. Such directories range from online business directories to those found on your typical phone book. These directories might contain additional information such as the location of the business. It might also have the name of the owner (which can be a better start compared to just a general company address). 
• Internet Polls– Contact information isn’t the only information needed when generating leads. You also need data to identify trends as well gain a grasp of how the whole market is behaving. Polls can help map that out but there are flaws. The anonymity that is rampant on the Internet as well as the threat of hackers and spammers tend to compromise such polls. 
• Surveys – These can be considered the offline versions of internet polls. These can be done through a variety of mediums (e.g. cold calling, print media). This though not only implies higher costs but compiling and analyzing the resulting data is tedious work compared to having them tabulated online and in real-time.

The problem with these sources is that they’re only capable of getting one type of information. There are still limits you need to transcend. Lead generation (as well as marketing as a whole) requires a heavy mix of both general information as well as individual information on each prospect. The mix is comprised by the following:

• Contact Data – Aside from email addresses and phone numbers, these should lead you to specific decision makerswho would best understand the value of your B2B product/service. 
• Interest– Use the surveys to formulate a general idea on what kind of businesses would be most interested in what you have to offer. 
• Needs – Identifying common needs is just the start. Once you’ve learned about what decision makers would generally want, use it as the basis for your questions during lead qualification. 
• Budget– Even with needs established, restrictions such as budget might indicate that a lead is not yet ready to be pursued. 
• Schedule – If you’re setting appointments to further engage the client and close the deal, you obviously need to know the best time and place to do it and on your prospect’s terms.

Aside from having different types, the quality of the information still also differs even if the sources give the same kind of information. Other limits also come in the form of costs (such as with surveys). The ultimate solution though is to combine and compare. Outsource the more expensive sources but compare the information with what you managed to gather on your own. Using multiple sources that give multiple types is the key to transcending the limits of one source!

Now remember, information will always work to the benefit of any lead generation effort. Information from surveys can map the entire behavior of even a whole B2B market. Alternatively, it’s also a subtle way to discover which specific businesses might be viable to become qualified leads.

But first, know that surveys can be divided into two forms: online and offline. Each of the two possesses its own unique set of tools as well as their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Online

Online surveys are arguably cheaper because several online tools for survey taking can be done for free (or at least at a lower rate). Most, if not all, center around the use of polls. Social media, online forums, and even your own website can be used to host these electronic polls. Users who find them participate and vote on particular options. The advantage is that it widens the sample of the population being surveyed because it’s on the internet. Simply put, anyone from around the world can join in. The downside is, however, that these polls can be easily hijacked by hackers, spammers, and even so-called ‘sock puppet‘ accounts (multiple online accounts tied to the same user). It’s also easier to vote and respond with anonymity. There are measures to remedy these but it could raise the challenge (and the costs) of online surveys beyond what was expected.

Offline

Offline surveys make use of more traditional marketing tools. Phone surveys are one popular form. You can also conduct surveys in business tradeshows by handing out flyers. However, these are clearly more expensive to use than the online tools. The advantage is that information is more authentic. You either hear an actual person’s voice or you see that person filling up the survey questionnaire. Tallying these results might seem more taxing and strenuous but it’s genuine nonetheless. The real downside though is that fewer people are less likely to participate because it’s so direct. Decision makers are generally suspicious of all incoming calls for instance. Now, the solution to the costs can be solved by outsourcing if you’re not willing to invest. The solution to the hesitation however, might require both professional agents as well as professional campaign management.

With both forms equally matched in strengths and weaknesses, some might think that relying on just one might not be sufficient. Perhaps it’s better to combine both so that one form can compensate for the other.

Here’s an example, if you’re using a phone survey, offer to send an electronic version if the decision maker is currently too busy or not interested enough to participate. This can increase the number of participants (and to an extent, the number lead candidates) by including those who can take the survey at their own pace. You can also outsource a telemarketing firm for a phone survey while running an online survey of your phone. Once the results come in, start comparing the data and have them refine each other.

Don’t always assume you have to choose one survey method over the other when it can be possible to use both!

But first, why do other businesses need to contact so many other organizations? Well it’s because B2B sales leads are generated at a naturally slower pace compared to B2C. It takes a lot more effort to get in touch with an intended decision maker and acquire enough interest from them to warrant a sales attempt. Yet somehow, lead generation experts (both within in-house departments and in outsourced companies) have found ways to direct campaigns that conducts this one-on-one process on a wider scale.

Setting that aside, you need that capacity if your own healthcare services target entire medical institutions and not just individual patients. The following quote from PorterResearch gives you just one reason why you need to get in touch with as many institutions as possible:

“The Emergency Department (ED) may have a reputation for being the hospital’s money-losing department, but it deserves considerable attention because it generates approximately half of hospital admissions and 45 percent of a hospital’s overall revenue. As the front door to the hospital, the ED is often the first impression patients have of a facility, its staff and the quality of care it provides.”

You’ll notice that it goes on to say that health IT is helping to reduce the costs as well as the importance of the ED in both generating revenue as well as the number of admissions that it receives. Asides from IT though, there are also other services that the department employs which you can help in terms of cutting costs like:

• Ambulatory Services
• Facilities Management
• Equipment Maintenance

No doubt these (and more) have a hand in the Emergency Department and their influence are even seen by patients as familiar elements (e.g. hospital equipment for transferring them, organizing urgent procedures etc). Furthermore, reductions in costs can be heaven sent in a time where rising costs in health care have become a concern that has reached the federal level.

Cutting these costs seems to be the goal of both patients and the entire healthcare industry. Therefore, if you’re looking to help reduce these costs, you need the capacity of a lead generator who can get you in touch with a great many hospitals and other medical institutions. The sooner they can learn of your solutions and services, the sooner they can cut these costs. You can even team up with a telemarketing firm to start contacting these places. Lead generation may be a marketing effort but it doesn’t necessarily have to be all about making sales and reigning in money. It can also be just about getting in touch with as many groups who are in need of more cost-efficient alternatives to their processes and services. So if your lead generation efforts are still falling behind, now would be a good time to speed them up or (at least outsource them to companies that can).

“Glimcher Realty Trust, which owns and manages shopping malls, is experimenting with making them Internet-proof. The company concedes that if shoppers can buy something online, they will. So it is trying to fill one of its malls, in Scottsdale, Ariz., with businesses that do more than sell stuff. ”

And by ‘do more’, the article goes on to describe Glimcher’s quest to acquire businesses that offer things that cannot be done exclusively from the chair of a mouse potato. From candle-making establishments to hairstyling salons, you can see that this a classic case of a business that needs other businesses to remain steady in the face of game-changing competition.

Similar cases have always been happening (especially with regards to the revolution brought about by IT such as email, website, and, most recently, social media). Many telemarketing services have also faced similar challenges as Glimcher has. However, there are those among them who have undergone a similar change by incorporating the new digital channels to boost their own techniques and strategies. Some of them have even gone as far as to turn their call center into a so-called contact center.

Still, the telephone remains as their primary channel. Here is how they can help your company if you’re in the same situation as the mall industry and need qualified leads that could introduce you to new businesses:

• Refined Cold Calling – They’re not being called contact centers now just for show. This is because, aside from phone numbers, these new telemarketers use the other channels to help minimize the negative effects that result from cold calling. Emails are sent to business owners notifying them if they’d like to receive a call (or the other way around, if the person would rather get the message through email). This makes the calls less intrusive and less time-consuming. 
• Multiple Agents – There is still strength in numbers and despite how you can have fewer people manage your email blasts, you’d still be better off verifying your qualified leads with an actual phone conversation. But when you need to contact multiple businesses at once just to stay competitive, then you need just as many people to qualify them. 
• Large Contact Base – Naturally, having the capacity to contact numerous businesses is meaningless unless you have a lot of contact information to start with. And as stated before, a contact center database can contain more than just phone numbers. These databases include very detailed profiles which even you can use to personally assess if a business can make for a good lead.

Naturally, building up a place for this new and advanced form of telemarketing might not come cheap for some. Fortunately, the same contact centers previously mentioned can also be outsourced (and even more are already in the midst of following suit). Changes in the market can happen any time and to anyone but there’s always room for adaptation! Telemarketing just happens to be both an example and as a means for you to do the same!

Despite the cost-efficiency of outsourcing, many critics still cite poor quality as a reason to remain skeptical. Granted, there are still companies out there who have a lot to learn about the processes that they’re offering for outsourcing. That doesn’t rule out the existence of more experienced companies.

In the case of telemarketing, it’s important to know that the qualities which define a reliable company are the same qualities you would use to define your own in-house lead generator (had you the necessary resources to actually do so).

On the bright side, you might not have to dig too deeply or spend too much time following telemarketing blogs in order to define these qualities. The basics can be good enough, such as:

• Professional telemarketers – Obviously, you can’t have telemarketing without people skilled enough in terms of communication. Training them on the proper execution of follow-up calls and directing inbound ones also require some investment.
• Adequate call center technology – Training isn’t the only investment you need to make. You also have to make sure that the telemarketers have the best equipment for receiving and making calls. This includes features that allow them to record conversations. It also includes the proper infrastructure and a streamlined network so that redirection isn’t too time-consuming and repetitive on the prospect’s part.
• Contact database – For those conducting outbound marketing campaigns, it would take a tremendous amount of time to scan directories (online and offline) before a reliable contact list can be made. But without that list, they’ll have nothing to refine and can’t give you any business leads as a result. A large and well-maintained contact database is a sure sign that a company has been in the practice long enough to have contacted numerous businesses and decision makers.
• Employs alternatives as well – This will show you that a telemarketing company is really dedicated to the goals of your business. Sticking to just one form of communication isn’t always a bright idea because prospects don’t always like being called. When telemarketing calls start to fail, a strong company is capable of adapting alternatives like email, website, and even social media networks in order to connect with as many prospects in your target market as possible.

Of the above four, perhaps the last would prove to be the most expensive because it would require additional training in the alternatives. It would also require additional technology and the expansion of the contact database to include different kinds of information (e.g. email addresses). On the bright side, there are telemarketing firms out there who have already taken those costs upon themselves in order to make their own business grow. Some of them are not even sure about calling themselves telemarketers any more because they’ve come to master the overall art of marketing prospects using any channel necessary for good communication. Watch out for the above qualities if you’re still struggling with skepticism and selecting the right company. Who knows when one of those qualities will set one company above the rest.

Let’s explore a bit deeper and see just how medical telemarketing companies do this, as well as what else they can possibly do.

B2B Lead Generation – On the side of increasing sales, medical telemarketing can play the role of performing lead generation tasks. They serve their clients by doing cold-calling and getting in touch with companies in their client’s target industries. By establishing communication with specific business contacts in the medical and healthcare field, such as hospital administrators, doctors, nurses and other such personnel, they bring the good name of their clients, introduce what they offer and try to address any possible issues that the prospect has. If the call goes well, then they have just found themselves a possible medical lead.

B2B Appointment Setting – Picture yourself as a medical representative from a large company. You’re tasked to go to different hospitals and introduce your company’s products and services to potential clients. But them being doctors, medical staff, and even people who run the hospital, you’ll be seeing soon enough that they’ll be up and about, all around the entire place with incredibly busy schedules. If you’re looking to have a face-to-face meeting with them, then just showing up at the area isn’t enough. You need to have an appointment set at the best possible date and time if you really want to be able to meet with your prospects. B2B appointment setting is the way to go if you want those face-to-face business meetings with your prospects, something which medical telemarketers can do for you.

Medical Call Center Support – When not involved in sales duties, medical telemarketing companies and the telemarketers they employ can be relied upon for tasks such as providing call center support. They can handle incoming calls during off-hours, they can even handle tasks such as the relaying of information, organizing data and schedules as back-office workers, and even for handling follow-up calls to patients that have scheduled medical appointments and such.

That being said, medical telemarketing companies are very reliable and flexible business entities. They can serve to help both in making sales and in providing some additional support when needed. So the next time you hear “medical telemarketing” being mentioned, you can call to mind a company full of busy people, a company that can offer their services to people who want to market in the medical and healthcare industry, as well as people who offer their services to help with tasks that some hospitals need in order to run.

That being said, you need medical leads. In this industry, you’ll always want to have an advantage over your competitors. What better advantage to have than with having medical leads? As a business, you already know the importance that leads hold when it comes to increasing your sales and therefore your clientele. But still, the task of obtaining more medical leads will fall to your marketing team and specialists. However, wouldn’t maximizing the efforts of your team on closing sales, making them focus, be better for your campaign and produce even more ideal results? Besides that, your in-house team of marketers may not have their expertise set on generating leads and doing cold-calling. If this is the case, then leaving your lead generation campaign for medical leads to specialists should be something to consider.

You’ll need even more leads as time goes on, such as when the quarters of each year roll in. During key times of the year, you’ll find that business may start booming and a need for more medical leads will arise due to the opportunity to increase your sales. However, due to this, your marketing team and their efforts with generating leads for you may not come to maximum production. So, to fix this, you may want to rely on other sources for leads. One way for you to get the leads you want is by outsourcing with a third party, a medical telemarketing company for instance, and task them to do what you need. Although there many third party service providers that can do this service, a medical telemarketing company has the advantage of being able to perform other marketing tasks which you may find useful in terms of generating more leads.

Hiring a medical telemarketing company for the task of lead generation is definitely a good idea. They can perform e-mail marketing, teleprospecting, lead generation through B2B appointment setting, database/list management and even event telemarketing to help you increase the amount of leads you obtain. With various ways to bring locate more prospects and generate interest within what you offer and your company, you can see that investing into such a venture may yield results you want to see. But what really loads leads into the truck may be lead generation through B2B appointment setting. Appointment setting gives you the edge in closing sales as you will be given the chance to meet with your prospects through business appointments, either through face-to-face or phone appointments, even through webinars. If you want to tackle the medical industry, then always medical leads in your hands and in your business database. Finding ways to get these leads from outside sources is also a good option to take, so consider the services of third parties such as medical telemarketing firms when wanting to get and have more leads generated.

Better penetration rates – B2B telemarketing has been known to show higher penetration rates in regards to lead generation. Taking this into account, we can assume that it can have the same effect when done for market research. True enough, telemarketers are people who know well enough about how to get past gatekeepers and make contact with decision makers. And for market research campaigns, it is important to get to your target contact person so you can get that information you need. That being said, B2B telemarketing and it showing good penetration rates should prove as a helpful asset about it being used for market research.

Maximum coverage – Telemarketers keep making calls. As their work hours stretch on, they don’t stop making calls to prospects. That being said, you can just imagine how many companies they make contact with on a daily basis, let alone how many B2B leads they generate in a certain span of time. Aside from not stopping in their calling efforts, they make contact with prospects in far-off locales, even those out of your own country. So to speak, using B2B telemarketing can bring about much wider coverage both in number of people/companies contacted, as well as in areas you can possibly reach.

Professional and learned workers – Working with B2B telemarketing firms can net you the services of a highly skilled and professional work force. In terms of doing market research, this is something you want and welcome oh so warmly. When you have a dedicated team of staff handling your market research campaign, you can be assured of good results. B2B telemarketing firms give their staff all the proper and needed training, therefore in the end producing skilled individuals who are then assigned to their campaigns.

If properly done, your market research can make it easier for you to generate medical leads within the healthcare sector. Higher penetration rates, a wider coverage, and professional as well as skilled staff to handle your campaign, you can be assured of good results. Consult with firms such as medical telemarketing companies to know more information about these kinds of services. Sure enough, when your market research campaign is handled by a B2B telemarketing firm, the results for your soon to follow medical lead generation campaign should be in the bag.

Mention attractive offers in your marketing emails – Make your marketing emails and newsletters attractive to your prospects. Put in keywords that will capture the eye of your prospects. You cannot just send out your emails and hope to snag a bite, no, you have to make sure that what you send out is attractive in itself that it catches your prospect’s attention. Mention something like giving incentives for subscribing to your newsletter or business mailing list. Mention something about a referral program that gives your prospects certain benefits for every successfully qualified B2B lead or for every referral they made that signed-up on your website. The list goes on, but it falls to you on what you want to offer. That being said, make sure to make ads you send through email attractive. Also, you can use emails as an opt-in for receiving calls from your company, another way to prepare your prospects for another avenue of marketing which follows in the topic below.

Direct to the point: direct marketing for better results – Sometimes, you just have to get your message directly to your target decision maker. You can do this through using direct marketing mediums such as B2B telemarketing and direct mail. Although statistics show that 44% of direct mail remains unopened, it is still an avenue you can exploit to gain visibility in the eyes of your prospect. Just how much direct mail do you think is currently in the mailbox of your prospects? If you think about it, using direct mail to send out brochures and similar ads is a great way to generate B2B leads, especially in this day and age when email marketing seems to be on the rise. Although inefficient and expensive, direct mail still works wonderfully for B2B marketing means. And as for B2B telemarketing, you can make use of the method mentioned above, and that is to mention exclusive offers and incentives. Rather than you advertising and mentioning ballpark figures of your prices, why not draw your prospect’s attention through offers that sound like music to their ears? Aside from just doing lead generation, telemarketers are good advertisers. So utilize their skills as part of your marketing efforts.

Proper advertising is still one of the key factors to a business gaining more B2B leads and attracting their prospects. By doing this, you can even speed up the sales cycle by attracting interested prospects that would have an intention of making a purchase from your company, in other words, buying your products and services. So make use of these methods and build up on them to achieve effective advertising schemes that complement your marketing efforts.

• Calling campaigns – Word of mouth is perhaps one of the best ways to get people interested in something. Doing a calling campaign to inform your prospects about your company and what you do is one way you can spread the word about your existence. You can also use this as a way of gathering some much needed data; think of it as doing market research. You can make use of phone surveys and teleprospecting to find more clients, promote your company, and gather data all in one go. Consider working with a professional telemarketing company to do this for you. B2B telemarketing service providers should work wonderfully with fulfilling tasks such as these. You may even generate leads on the side.

• Client referrals – One of the most powerful and influential mediums through which your company can become known is through your currently existing clients. If they are satisfied with your services and think you are the company that their partners should be working with, then don’t be surprised if you have a prospect telling you that they found you through word of mouth from a friend or a business partner.

• Social media – Going the extra mile and having a presence on social networks is worth the effort! There are plenty of other companies who are going with social media in order to increase their presence online. The social network LinkedIn is an example, the site being a haven for businessmen and people looking for services and those who are looking to sell their products/services.

These are just a few ways in which you can advertise your company. Keep them in mind as they may come in handy in the future.

Still, you need to plan how your entire campaign will flow out in order to get good results. Meaning, you can’t just aimlessly send out e-mails to prospects you want to close sales with. Through the aid of a B2B telemarketing company, you can get some knowledge on the market you want to penetrate and adjust your approach, in this case your e-mails, to suit the preferences of your prospects and increase your chances of having them not disregard your business e-mails. Usually, when you don’t make your point clear and do not structure your e-mail to be interesting to them, then you risk having them just simply delete your sent e-mails from their inboxes. So, planning ahead and getting all the relevant information you need can prove to be part of your arsenal in increasing your sales volume.

That being said, well-structured e-mails would be all for nothing if you just leave them as is. That is why, once again with the help of a B2B telemarketing services provider, you can have lead follow-up calls be done in order to increase your chances of closing a sale with interested prospects even more. Advertising and promoting your company through e-mail marketing can find you those interested prospects you are looking for. And with a bunch of good telemarketers to back you up with closing those sales, then you’re sure to get the success you want.

• Sensitivity. Although B2B telemarketing is usually targeted at analytical business decision makers, your contacts will still likely have an emotional component in arriving at their choices. That is why, when talking to existing customers, it helps to consider feelings above facts. In addition, you should always take your customers’ point of view when communicating with them.

• Credibility. Similar to B2B appointment setting, your company’s credibility significantly influences the outcome of customer retention. The reputation that you maintain should be represented in your telemarketing campaign to existing customers instead of being reduced. In fact, brand strategists believe that credibility is an inseparable part of branding for current and potential clients.

• Interactivity. Customer retention through telemarketing requires that you provide your contacts with every opportunity to voice out their concerns, feedback, or suggestions about your organization as well as your products or services. In relation to interactivity, you should always provide several options (e.g. to contact you, to order, or even to opt out of call lists) to your contacts with every telemarketing campaign you launch.

• Reciprocity. This is probably one of the most interesting aspects of human interaction. Your existing customers should be rewarded or offered the possibility of reward as a form of appreciation for the business they brought to your company. Unless the rules of human behaviour change, incentives will always be a fundamental part of B2B telemarketing and customer retention.

As you have seen, B2B telemarketing can be used in the all-important business activity of customer retention. Because it costs more to replace an existing customer once lost, attention should be given toward this end and not only to chasing after prospects.

Usually, what people go for is a mix of teleprospecting and lead generation through appointment setting. This is mostly done through cold-calling, something which telemarketers are known for and are very good at doing. Also, this is known to produce the best results when finding prospects through the phone. Moving on, telemarketers make cold-calls and look for more prospects for you. Once they find prospects, they can then proceed to generating leads for you. Through B2B appointment setting, they qualify each prospect based on parameters you provide. If they agree to a scheduled business appointment with a representative from your company, then they can be considered as a lead for you. Them agreeing to meet is already an expression of interest in what you offer in itself, a fact you can take advantage of.

So, returning to the first lines of this write-up, make sure to determine who you’re looking for, what you’re selling, what service you offer. For example, you want to target energy companies. Based on what you’re offering/selling, the telemarketing firm you’re working with can then get to work and start teleprospecting for energy companies that are looking for services and products such as yours.

So even if you have B2B lead generation through appointment setting and teleprospecting on your side, it would not mean much if you didn’t know who you wanted to market to and if what you’re trying to market is even sellable in the first place. So play it smart and know what you need before engaging the services of B2B telemarketing company.

You can have a tremendous marketing advantage over your competitors when you employ the services of a good B2B telemarketing company. One such advantage is the wide reach of a telemarketing arm in connecting with prospects, you can get to those who are in far-off locales, and even tackle geographically complicated areas. What makes B2B telemarketing a success lies perhaps in its direct and personal approach to prospects which makes them feel a bit more at ease. Also, since most appointment setting approaches do not involve making sale immediately, the prospect would feel more comfortable knowing that the offer stands but no immediate costs are presented. After all, no one would readily respond especially when a price is given, more so when the prices seem quite high.

You have the advantage when you hire a reliable telemarketing company with professional telemarketers to work for you as a marketing arm. Aside from the wide reach it has, outsourced B2B telemarketing services also come at reasonably good prices. All in all, telemarketing can work for any firm that wants to have an increase in sales.