Like any other element of B2B marketing, planning an effective telemarketing campaign starts with a simple question – what do you want to achieve?

The most successful telemarketing campaigns don’t start with a good idea or a clever strapline – they start with a complete understanding of your goals, what success looks like, and how this will be achieved.

Before you start, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who am I trying to speak to?

• Do I know enough about them? If not, what do I need to find out?

• What do I want to achieve?

• Clean data?

• Strong leads?

• Good appointments?

• What numbers am I looking to achieve? i.e. How many leads/appointments will make this campaign successful?

If you choose to use an outsourced telemarketing company for your appointment setting or lead generation campaign, you need to make sure that they know the answers to all of these things too. They can then ensure that the right questions are asked of sales prospects, and that all opportunities are found with companies that fulfil the right criteria.

An effective telemarketing campaign will create a feedback loop for your offering, develop a clearer understanding of your target market, and maximise your ability to meet their needs and increase customer satisfaction.

Using an outsourced telemarketing company to fully manage your telemarketing campaigns gives you the peace of mind that your internal strategies and goals are being supported by a team committed to managing the implementation of your goals and objectives – always look for a company that asks a lot of questions and truly seeks to understand you and your business. Whether they are undertaking lead generation, appointment setting or market research for you, the more they know about and understand you, the stronger the results.

You should also make sure that you’re working with strong, complete and accurate data, to improve your campaign’s chances of success, by cleansing your database. Without this you risk wasting resources on piles of returned mail, not to mention falling foul of increasingly stringent regulations. And inaccurately addressed mailings can affect your professional reputation – spelling a key decision-maker’s name incorrectly does not make a great first impression. You might also want to buy new data to append to your existing database.

Read out guide to outsourcing your telemarketing, with top tips for making sure that your relationship with your telemarketing company is effective and works for you - http://www.prospectresearch.co.uk/outsourced-telemarketing

To find out more about our outsourced telemarketing services, visit http://www.prospectresearch.co.uk/telemarketing-services