Inbound Telemarketing – There Is Still A Need For The Human Element

Posted on August 21, 2012 by

Contrary to popular opinion, telemarketing only continues to improve with the advancement of new technologies. In outbound marketing it sees integrated use with email, website, and social media. And just last week, CNNMoney has reported that creators of Apple’s Siri are now creating a similar voice application that offers integrated support for customer service call centers.

The application has been dubbed “Nina” and comes with features that not only assists customers troubleshoot their own problems, it will assist customer support agents in resolving the more complicated ones. These same agents still use telemarketing, as hinted below.

“The software can also check balances, transfer money, and troubleshoot problems, among other tasks. Nuance said the idea is to make Nina smart and fast enough to encourage users to go to the app first, before dialing a human customer service representative.

If a customer’s issue needs to be handled by a human being, Nina comes with a neat trick: The software can call a rep and provide the company with all the details of what the customer has been trying to accomplish. That means no more sorting through an endless series of call center menus and then having to explain the problem again when you finally get a human being on the other end of the line.

Nina also comes with an analytics engine that informs companies about how customers are using their apps.

‘People will ask their phone different things than they would a representative on the phone,’ said Robert Gary, general manager of Nuance’s mobile care unit. ‘Knowing what people ask Nina will help them determine what should be automated and what shouldn’t.’”

Reading that last paragraph, it’s also implied that this new type of technology has much potential even outside customer support. For instance, it can improve the ways that businesses receive feedback. And as you’re well aware, the power of market feedback can really shape the whole of your software company. Knowing what and what not to automate is just the beginning. It can also tell you what B2B market wants your software to handle and produce. This can direct the whole of your next campaign to generate software leads.

However, you also shouldn’t forget that all these improvements are still for the sake of the human element. It should not be solely bent on being a replacement for it. Aside from customer support, professional telemarketers can also use similar data-gathering technologies used by Nina to deliver more accurate assessments on current customers as well as prospects. For example, if you’re a cloud-based solution provider, you can study the way your software is being used and then have marketers use their insight to determine new demands. Some might think even experienced marketers and salespeople are unable to process large volumes of information but neither can a machine really reach the same level of insight as they can. If anything, the limits of applications like Nina are only an indication.

Thus, both human and technological elements should compliment each other instead of trying to compete. Telemarketing needs to continue improve and not just cursed to die. People never know when the improvements will give far better results than just replacements.

B2B Mobile – Potential Markets To Target For Software Leads

Posted on August 11, 2012 by

Forbes just announced that famous coffee-chain Starbucks has just made a hefty investment in mobile payment service company Square. Asides from the prediction that mobile will eventually bring to question the very purpose of paper and coin currency, you can also see it as another sign that mobile is becoming another market that’s growing with potential B2B software leads. Just look at the figures being mentioned:

“Mobile payments service provider, Square, got a $25 million investment from Starbucks (SBUX) — valuing the start-up at $3.25 billion— that could mark the beginning of the end of cash. Meanwhile, this deal could boost Starbucks’ profits and puts Square’s competitors on notice.”

But like every other B2B software market, generating qualified software leads can sometimes be troublesome. In the case of relatively new markets like mobile payment, targets might be hard to define. If the report is any indication on the other hand, a few possible business groups could be:

Small Businesses

As pointed out by the article, small businesses make good targets for this type of mobile business technology:

“That’s because it launched by selling to the 66% of 27 million small U.S. businesses that don’t accept credit or debit cards to avoid expensive payment processing fees, an annoying application process and required credit checks.”

Small businesses however can be very elusive for different types of marketing approaches. Typical B2B tools like telemarketing and email could backfire but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a call center ready to take in customer support calls. What small businesses lack in size and budget, they can make up for in numbers. Don’t let poor customer service generate bad referrals and a lack of desirability among them.

Retailers

You can also target mainstream retailers who generally take credit cards. The lower costs isn’t a benefit that’s limited to simply small businesses. If you can find a way to impress and assure larger companies, that gives you another potential market to target. Even better, it gives you more wiggle room for telemarketing attempts if they’re done right. Get the name of the proper decision maker and do some prior research to confirm their interest in mobile payment. If they agree to an appointment, make sure that their information is recorded accurately on your database so your sales representative won’t have trouble preparing.

Restaurant Chains

If Square aimed for Starbucks, why shouldn’t you try aiming for similar chains? Just like retailers, it’s simply a matter of knowing your targets individually as much as you know them as an entire market. Keep in mind though that it’s also important to know about how these chains approach their own customers. Will offering mobile payments improve their own marketing strategy? Will it improve customer relations? Different companies have varying approaches to their customer so you need to show how a mobile payment service fits into that approach.

To summarize, a new market can still require the same old marketing techniques. Know the desires and needs of your targets, familiarize with them individually as much as a whole group, and try to relate your product to their business needs prior to appointment setting.

SCM Software Leads – Industry Expertise Must Also Be Adaptive

Posted on August 7, 2012 by

As you’re well aware, few things describe the industry of a business better than the process that makes and delivers their products (a.k.a. the supply chain). And as such, it’s important for that vendors have industry as a requirement when defining their SCM software leads.

Now, it’s not a bad idea to use industries as categories in order to organize your software leads. So as long you don’t forget that each business should still be approached individually and aren’t closed to the possibility that they have very unique problems. If you’re going to set up categories however, you have to be sure that your industry expertise not only covers knowledge of the industry but also knowledge of it as it currently stands.

Lots of industries require manufacturing and thus, need SCM software. On the other hand, it’s good to pay attention on which of these industries are currently leading. You also need to organize further by outlining how far you will judge these industries. Ask yourself questions like;

Will I compare by a regional or global scale?
Do I limit my targets to businesses of a certain size?
How soon should I quickly respond to changes?

While there are many other factors that could affect the interest of a market, knowing where certain industries stand can also help predict changes in that behavior. It can also determine the appropriate marketing strategy for your product. For example, if your SCM software is cloud-based, then you might benefit further from comparing industries on a global scale. But despite that, not all regions around the world rank high in the world’s top-most industry. If your software is flexible enough, another alternative is to learn which industry ranks highest in a particular country. Another example: just recently the New York Times published a five-part article that stated the U.S. still remains to be one of the world’s top auto manufacturers.

“But the migration of Japanese auto manufacturing to the United States over the last 30 years offers a case study in how the unlikeliest of transformations can unfold. Despite the decline of American car companies, the United States today remains one of the top auto manufacturers and employers in the world.”

This means that auto manufacturers are a good bet when targeting the U.S. Regardless, not everyone stays at the top forever. One of the risks of industry expertise is obsolescence so you need to keep your knowledge of an industry up to date. That though includes how it’s currently faring whether in regards to the industry’s place in a certain country or the world as a whole.

Sometimes, the top might not be the best place to aim for. A few more questions you should consider could be:

Should I really be targeting the ones at the top?
Will their place in the rankings actually work to my marketing advantage?
What will it mean if this particular industry suddenly makes way for another one?

Targeting is important for many marketing endeavor whether it’s B2C or B2B. It’s not static either. If your targets are moving in entirely new directions, a change in strategy is in order. Therefore, your industry expertise must be ready to adapt to these changes and kept up to date.

Using Brand Advocates To Attract ERP Leads – Good Idea? Bad Idea?

Posted on August 1, 2012 by

If you think that celebrity endorsements exist only for B2C, you may be half-right. It’s a popular tactic and there’s no doubt having a famous artist or public figure advocate your brand is the highest form of influence marketing. The logic isn’t even all that complicated. Superstars have fans and if they see a superstar endorsing a particular brand, then they’d be eager to use it too!

On the other hand, B2B industries can have their own version. No industry might demonstrate this better than the tech industry. And what’s unique about this industry is that its superstars have fans both among consumers and big business. However, is brand advocacy via an individual really an effective way to attract ERP leads?

You see, a popular way to generate leads is through another marketing strategy called referral. Brand advocacy is what happens when you enter a very influential industry figure into that strategy. Still, you’d be surprised by at how many decision makers are listening to them. This can be done through testimonials, the actual use of the product itself, and perhaps even an autographed picture mounted on your office wall. If you managed to convince a powerful figure to advocate your ERP solution, then in some way, you’ll have a lot of other curious decision makers coming in (and thus, more ERP leads to qualify).

Now, perhaps a few examples are in order. Take a look at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates; these two CEOs are the biggest examples of brand advocacy because their public image became synonymous with the brands that they represented. In B2B, if you could have involved your business with anything they had a direct hand in, then you could use it to raise your own company’s image. Referrals also aren’t as direct as other popular B2B marketing methods such as telemarketing and email.

All right, here comes the trade off. Brand advocacy has its risks. Some of you might already be thinking that the idea of getting a famous CEO to endorse you is lofty enough, you might also want to know if it’s even worth the effort at all! As a matter of fact, the University of Colorado Boulder published a study saying that the negative perceptions about a celebrity are more likely to transfer to the endorsed brand than positive:

“‘In three different studies, negative celebrity associations always transferred to an endorsed brand, even under conditions when positive associations did not,’ said Campbell, an associate professor of marketing. ‘The overall message to marketers is be careful, because all of us, celebrities or not, have positives and negatives to our personalities and those negatives can easily transfer to a brand.’”

Such words of caution should be heeded by anyone who is considering the role of a major influential figure to influence referrals. The strength of the endorsement lies no longer in just the brand but in the individual endorsing it. Relying on this kind of advocacy is a double-edged sword that can either make or break your ERP software brand. In fact, this isn’t just about tying your brand to celebrities and CEOs but simply tying to a single individual. Everyone’s perception of that individual will be their perception of your brand (hence, the great risk). You should also remember that there are other ways to conduct software lead generation. Traditional methods are still viable. Don’t just bank your marketing efforts on a single approach.

Turn Current ERP Clients Into Cloud Computing Leads (But Only If They’re Ready!)

Posted on July 27, 2012 by

As you may have heard, many big-names in the tech world are slowly making their way into the cloud and foreshadowing heavy competition. Like some of them however, you may have already felt the change in the winds and have started to lift up a version of your previous, on-premise system into the cloud. Now all you need is to start generating cloud computing leads.

But wait, since this is a new market and the competition is just starting to come in, new challenges are bound to surface. Finding new leads might be hard because companies are still trying to familiarize with not only the benefits but also the risks that come with using cloud-based software for their business processes. As a new cloud-based provider yourself, you need to be careful about approaching those who are still using on-premise systems. While it does sound like the cloud can give you an edge over competitors who still market those systems, they might be hesitant if you just appear out of the blue.

On the other hand, you might just have a better chance if you start turning your own clients first into cloud computing leads. You’ve already developed a cloud-based version of your software. Now it’s time you took your current client’s software into the cloud too.

Make no mistake, this doesn’t mean they’re not ready either. You still have to be careful. Still, the advantage is they’re already clients. They won’t be as surprised when you approach them. All you need to do is to ask yourself the following questions before approaching them.

How satisfied are they with your software?- Obviously, if even your traditional, on-premise system isn’t serving them as well as both of you had hoped, then how will the cloud be any better? Careful now, that question can become a double-edged sword. Maybe your cloud is better or maybe they’d first have their on-premise system improved in the same way you improved things in the cloud before considering it. Either way, you need to make sure your enterprise software solution is at least satisfactory.
How have you handled complaints and inquiries so far? - In other words, how good is your customer service? This is an age-old question but so is the relationship between marketing and customer relations. If you’re not there to help your customers during times of need, then how will shifting to the cloud give you more reason to do better?
Do they like your software but also wish it cost less? – A popular selling point among cloud-computing marketers is low costs. It may not always be the main concern but in this case, this would be a good time to say that your cloud-based software has the cost advantage over your previous products.
Are they looking to shift more responsibility to the cloud? – Another advantage of the cloud is having to devote fewer resources to technical maintenance. That responsibility will be shifted to you, the provider. However, not all businesses are willing to turn over that responsibility (even your current clients). Major (and tricky) issues like compliance are just some of the reasons. Properly using ERP software can be a hassle for both the vendor and the client but there are times when the latter likes to learn instead of giving up responsibility.

All these questions can be answered if you know how to gather information that indicates that your clients are ready. For a start, you can outsource telemarketing to do a quick survey or improve your customer service to acquire more information.

ERP Software – Cloud Computing Currently Ahead

Posted on July 21, 2012 by

B2B Lead Generation It seems that despite the past disasters that have compromised the cloud, this new industry is still leaving its mark on the competition. In this article from Network World, statistics show that an increased spending in favor of the cloud is outrunning spending on IT overall:

“Cloud computing is expected to grow 19% in 2012, becoming a $109 billion industry compared to a $91 billion market last year. By 2016, it’s expected to be a $207 billion industry, according to Anderson’s latest findings. That compares to the 3% growth expected in the overall global IT market. While it’s true that the $109 billion cloud market represents just a 3% chunk of the overall $3.6 trillion spent on IT globally, Anderson says it’s still responsible, in part, for a slowdown in growth for traditional on-premise hardware and software sales. ”

Now whether you’re offering a cloud-based version of your enterprise software solution or are still banking your sales on continued on-premise delivery model, this recent update should give everyone a reason to speed up their lead generation services.

Cloud-based Software

This increase in spending is an indication that the market is growing more promising for cloud-based software services. Regardless, you shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the challenges that are currently being faced by cloud-based software companies. Aside from the vulnerability of the infrastructure (due to storms and power outages), an even bigger threat is cyber crime. Given that there are major breaches even for web giants like Yahoo!, hackers and online criminals remain a popular cause of hesitation among software prospects. Be prepared to inform your clients (as well as potential clients) about the current status of your cloud-based system. Set appointments or use outsourced telemarketing to send out advisories that will recommend courses of action they can take in case of downtime or serious breaches in security. The market might have more potential in yielding cloud computing leads but don’t underestimate the opposition.

On-premise Software

All is not lost. While cloud-based software is gaining, the report also indicates that it’s merely 3% of total spending on IT. However, you shouldn’t waste any more time. You can either start developing cloud-based alternatives to your own software or you could also use the challenges as a basis to develop entirely new solutions (e.g. like a means to back up data lost on the cloud or additional security features). You still have a chance to catch up. Stay in tune for any updates on the cloud computing industry and use the information gained for your lead generation and marketing campaigns.

Either way, it’s clear that cloud computing is driving a change in the IT industry. As far as marketing is concerned at least, this is something everyone should have a stake in. As a matter of fact, despite how promising the market is for cloud-based companies, they still have to compete with each other. Furthermore, on-premise software companies are either shifting to the cloud themselves or are looking to cover for the current vulnerabilities in the cloud. The race is still on and change like this can only mean more reason for everyone to keep up!

How To Integrate Telemarketing With Other B2B Lead Generation Methods – #5: Direct Mail

Posted on July 5, 2012 by

Software Leads

With today’s technology, from mobile SMS to email, most people are assuming that direct mail is dying (if not dead already). Electronic and digital forms of communication are making the old-fashioned mailing system look not only obsolete but also more expensive.

However, new findings from the DMA’s 2012 Response Rate Report are showing that people actually give more response to direct mail than they do to digital forms of marketing. In the graph below, you will see that despite the relatively low percentage of responses for direct mail, email is quite dismal by comparison:

Another thing you will notice from the graph however is that the response rate to the phone is actually higher than the rest of them! This could be good news for telemarketers but what’s truly interesting is that both telemarketing and direct mail have been popularly depicted as behind the times.

And make no mistake, they both possess flaws which justify this depiction. For telemarketing, you may have already heard enough about the typical objections of being pushy and disruptive. It’s why B2B telemarketers have to contend with gatekeepers who in turn indirectly delay your efforts to generate sales leads.

Direct mail, on the other hand, suffers similar though not as disruptive deficiencies.

It can be slower in comparison to digital and electronic channels.
The costs of printing an appealing and well-designed marketing letter significantly add to the costs.
Responses are even harder to measure. There’s no magical way to know that your letter was opened.
Like email, it can be just tossed in the trash but it’s slightly worse given the physical space it actually occupies (as well as additional environmental concerns).
B2B software can be a complicated thing to market. You need to be careful not to overwhelm or underwhelm the prospect with excess or insufficient information respectively. It’s far more difficult considering the physical restrictions of a letter.

Still, despite that, the higher response rate of direct mail can actually make it a more powerful tool to integrate with telemarketing. Email marketing and telemarketing can also be used together to improve the rate of connecting with a B2B prospect. The mail is meant to either signal the arrival of a call or encourage a call from the prospects themselves. This minimizes the disruptive effect that people hate about telemarketing. Either way, you can actually think of direct mail as an upgraded version of using email. It may be slower and more expensive, but the response rate is higher.

And at this point, you might be wondering, “How is this possible?” This might surprise you but some of the guesses are based simply on common sense. Because of the mass use of SMS and email, messages have lost their personal touch. It can be argued, for example, that even a decision maker is more likely to look at a message when they can tell the effort it took to design and print it. This is something worth considering if you feel that email is not doing enough for your telemarketing services and would like to turn it up a notch.

How To Integrate Telemarketing With Other B2B Lead Generation Methods – #4: Banner Advertising

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

B2B Lead Generation Out of all the lead generation tools people discuss, banner ads are either overrated or underrated when it’s time to compare. When they’re compared to telemarketing, for instance, some tend to make the mistake of saying that banner ads give more exposure to a business compared to older marketing tools.

What they don’t realize is that banner advertising is heavily reliant on website marketing. These ads don’t work by themselves. There are so many limitations in terms of physical dimensions. Furthermore, advertising itself is no longer as effective now as it was back then. The internet has allowed more information to disseminate so that those on the receiving end of advertising are more knowledgeable about what is being marketed to them. The limitations of advertising certainly undermines its value for marketing ERP software.

The people who will represent your ERP leads are the type who will not just need information. They will demand it. An enterprise software solution isn’t just some application you can install on your desktop PC. It’s a large, complex system that could take months to implement for an entire company.

Ironically, despite their need for more product information, these are the same busy business professionals who don’t have a lot of time to obtain that information. And speaking of time, banner ads are indeed not the best to use when you’re trying to get their attention. Mashable once published a top ten list of “Most Clickable Banner Ads”. Despite how impressive (and even touching) they are, these same ads are filled with mini-games and other quirks that you can’t exactly imagine a busy CEO spending his or her time on.

Setting that aside, the purpose of a banner ad is to take you somewhere else on the internet and in most cases it’s a website. If you can’t rely on time-wasting bells and whistles, your ads must at least get themselves clicked while your website keeps the prospects hooked.

However, why then only a website? Why can’t a banner ad simply display your number or your email address? Well, that is where people tend to underrate it. But first, the primary reason why people prefer a website is because scammers often operate in a similar fashion when it comes to banners displaying contact numbers or email addresses. Again, the problem with banners is their incapacity to display more information. So instead, you should have them redirect your prospects to a space where you have more room to explain who you are and what you do.

Guess what though? Websites have limitations when it comes to information as well. You can’t expect a decision maker to spend so much time reading your content. This is where you can integrate additional lead generation tools like telemarketing. This even works with outsourced telemarketing! You provide the website and the ads while your outsourced call center will simply take the calls and qualify the prospects for you.

Banner advertising is, in fact, well-suited for addressing the flaws of outbound marketing efforts by replacing more aggressive tactics (e.g. cold calling). Instead of using random calls, you simply use ads in the right places to attract interested prospects and then throw in more traditional tools. Don’t overestimate these online banners but don’t underestimate them either!

How To Integrate Telemarketing With Other B2B Lead Generation Methods – #3: Social Media

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

Of all the latest forms of online communication, social media is the youngest but also fastest growing medium of choice for business. Even in B2B, the value of using social media to engage with a target market has challenged the value of website and email marketing. And with B2B sites like LinkedIn dominated by high-tech corporations such as IBM and Oracle, this medium is definitely worth exploring if you’re also in the business of enterprise software.

This sounds like bad news for the much older methods such as direct mail and telemarketing. However, is the value of social media really so exclusive to the social networking sites that embody it? To determine this, you should first try and identify the things that appear to put social media above the rest:

It’s not disruptive – Unlike telemarketing, notifications share the same advantage as website and email marketing. It doesn’t disrupt anybody’s day, whether it’s a busy IT manager or the regular techie playing Call of Duty at home.
It drives engagement – When you post something interesting on Facebook or Twitter, you will attract a lot of responses. Websites and emails don’t necessarily do this right compared to social media. Websites are publicly exposed on the net but might not have as many people browsing them. Emails can start conversations but they’re often ignored due to spam filters. Oddly enough, this capacity to engage and grab attention is actually shared by telemarketing (if it’s done right).
It’s not as messy – In social media, you don’t need to worry about having to clean a flooded inbox or a trash bin full of old marketing letters.
It gives new insight – Plenty of people see potential in analyzing the data that comes from social media. Things like the number of ‘Likes’ and having certain affiliations have allowed even the social sites themselves to reach their targets more accurately. It also allows businesses another way to hear what customers are saying and see if there’s anything that can be done to improve products and services.

From the looks of it, perhaps the reason why social media seems to top all three of the other methods is because it has managed to integrate what worked best for all of them. It allows engagement and the acquisition of information straight from the market just like telemarketing and email. Meanwhile, it attracts the same amount of attention as a website (if not more) without being too disruptive.

In the process though, it has managed to integrate some of the biggest weaknesses. Like email, discussions on social networks can take forever. Like websites, you shouldn’t try and talk too much about yourself on your social media profile. Like telemarketing, there are still obstacles to watch out for when making attempts to connect.

This might surprise you though but even a telemarketing company can make up for those weaknesses. The reason is because there are companies like them who see the strengths and weaknesses of information gained from social networking sites. It tells them, for instance, the name of the company. It also tells them who the decision makers are and what industry they’re in. However, they also know that they need to go beyond that and try to shift the online discussions into more real forms of conversation (like those over the phone), and perhaps even ending it with appointment setting to finally meet the prospect in person!

How To Integrate Telemarketing With Other B2B Lead Generation Methods – #2 Website

Posted on June 14, 2012 by

Software Lead Generation

In the world of telemarketing, there will always be the occasional clash with online marketing advocates. No doubt the developments in IT and communications have really broadened the capacity of businesses to engage their market. However, trying to pit the old against the new is to set yourself up for false dilemmas and narrow your perspective. Aside from the usual debates of email marketing versus telemarketing, you also have those who say website marketing is a better, newer, and less disruptive approach.

Below is list of common reasons (with one particularly exclusive to B2B software):

It’s inbound-oriented – The reason why it’s not disruptive is that you’re using the internet to broadcast your company’s image, gain massive exposure, and attract potential clients to your business instead of your people going into their inboxes or telephones.
Being searched already marks interest – A site that is well-optimized with the right use of keywords will show up when people search. And when people search, it means that they’re really in the market for your product. That alone already indicates a good chance that they’ll take interest in your ERP software.
Websites work well with online-based services – This applies really well to those who have decided to offer B2B software systems in the cloud. The very nature of your service automatically demands that your site has a strong online presence.
It’s offers a clearer way to educate your audience – Online content is supposed to be informative. And thus, a business site obviously must inform your client on the basics of what you’re offering.

There’s no doubt that those are some impressive advantages over telemarketing. The latter has long been decried as disruptive, persistent, and conversations can be too short to be as informative. On the other hand, website marketing is not without weaknesses either (with these same weaknesses stemming directly from their strengths). Like all inbound-type approaches, there’s always a danger of inactivity when there’s not a lot of people giving your site attention. The task of SEO is also not without its own challenges because your site is just one of the hundreds of others out there competing for search engine rankings. Some people would also prefer just talking to you directly than interacting with a website (even if you are an online service). Furthermore, interacting with a website itself can waste your prospect’s precious time. A decision maker has more important things that they’d rather do than read pages upon pages of content.

Just like email though, telemarketing can be used together with websites to overcome those obstacles. Phone calls may be too short but it can help in calling the attention of your prospects to your website when SEO is not working too well. Opening yourself to phone inquires allows you to be flexible towards the many possible preferences your incoming prospects might have. Finally, websites need not bombard the prospect with too much information but giving them the option to call allows that call to give them that information at their own pace. In the end, it might even set you up for successful appointment setting. Again, software lead generation need not be limited to just one approach. Improve both methods by integrating them together!

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