FAQs
First time using telemarketing?
How is telemarketing used in B2B marketing?
Working with Prospect Research
What are you like to work with?
How do you ensure best practice?
Who will oversee my telemarketing campaign at Prospect Research?
How does telemarketing fit with my sales objectives?
How would you integrate with our existing sales team?
What does a lead/appointment look like?
Does the team at Prospect Research have experience of my industry?
How will you know enough about our company to promote what we do?
Cost
Contract
Can I run a Pilot before signing an ongoing contract?
What does signing an ongoing contract mean?
Data
What data will you use for my telemarketing campaign?
Where do you buy your data from?
How much does data cost?
Do you check your data against the CTPS database?
Telemarketing
I'm worried how my prospects will perceive a 3rd party contacting them on my behalf.
Do you use scripts?
How do you train your staff on my campaign?
Reporting and Results
How can I quantify the work you do?
What reports and statistics can you send me?
Can you record the calls you make?
First time using telemarketing?
How is telemarketing used in B2B marketing?
Telemarketing is perfect for B2B marketing as it gives a direct way to contact companies about your services, products or events.
We have found that by demonstrating relevant experience and a track record of solving
issues with similar companies, prospects are very responsive to telemarketing calls.
For the majority of companies, the chance to have a two way conversation about their requirements is best achieved through telemarketing. It gives the opportunity to shape the marketing message to the individual requirements of the prospect, as well as allowing the prospect to ask questions and give feedback. The best telemarketing call is one that represents a relaxed but professional business conversation, which is what we aim for with all of our calls.
Before deciding on which telemarketing company to work with, read our '10-Steps to Outsourcing Your Telemarketing' guide for tips in choosing your supplier.
Working with Prospect Research
What are you like to work with?
All of our team have years of experience in telemarketing, and pride themselves in being professional and effective telemarketers. They also have enough sales experience to know how frustrating it is to go to an appointment that hasn’t been qualified, so work hard to ensure you don’t get any appointments like that!
Your dedicated Account Manager will be your main point of contact, and they are available from 9am-5.30pm, Monday to Friday, if you need to reach them.
How do you ensure best practice?
We have worked very hard to ensure that every process we have at Prospect Research ensures that we give the best service to our clients. We have internal quality assurance systems that are monitored and developed by our Account Director who oversees all telemarketing activity. In addition, we have regular on-going team training and development activities and training and mentoring systems in place for all staff according to their individual needs.
Prospect Research is also a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA and its members are committed to promoting the self-regulation within the direct marketing industry. It is a condition of membership that member companies of the DMA are required to adhere to the DM Code of Practice (4th Edition), and this is monitored by regular compliance visits and questionnaires.
Who will oversee my telemarketing campaign at Prospect Research?
Your dedicated Account Manager at Prospect Research will be in close communication with you to make sure the telemarketing campaign is going the way it should. They will also arrange an initial briefing and regular review meetings with you.
After every day of telemarketing, they will provide you with a breakdown of all the sales leads/appointments generated that day, along with informative call notes. By doing this, your sales team knows all the essential information from the telemarketing call when they attend the appointment.
How does telemarketing fit with my sales objectives?
Central to our work are the results that you need, and the requirements you have. Using us should be fulfilling your requirement for sales leads and appointments and we work with you to ensure that this is done. Our approach is also very flexible, and we can change the emphasis of your telemarketing campaign depending on the service you want to promote, or the sectors you want to contact.
How would you integrate with our existing sales team?
Let your sales team do what they do best and sell. At Prospect Research, we can provide you with a fully-managed outsourced telemarketing service. We have experience in working with companies that have split sales teams between different regions and products/services, and our team ensures that calling is divided to service each sales person as required.
If required, we are able to book appointments straight into their diaries, or, if more appropriate, book a follow-up call for them to arrange their own appointment.
If it’s not possible to access your sales team’s diaries, or have a list of possible appointment dates, we can arrange for them to give the prospect a follow-up call, to arrange the appointment themselves.
What does a lead/appointment look like?
We will send you a lead sheet for every lead we generate and every appointment we make for you. This way, your sales team knows all the essential information from the telemarketing call when they attend the appointment.
Does the team at Prospect Research have experience of my industry?
We have experience working with clients from a huge range of industries, including:
- Employment and skills
- IT and telecoms
- Finance and legal
- Facilities and construction
- Logistics and manufacturing
- Business services
To read more about our experience working with clients in these sectors, and our experience contacting different sectors and areas of business, click here.
How will you know enough about our company to promote what we do?
Your Account Manager will arrange a briefing meeting with you. Here you can discuss:
- Your objectives for using telemarketing
- Company background
- Lead/appointment criteria
- Quantifying the success of telemarketing
- Developing the call pitch
- Prioritising the data to call
- Communication and reporting
We also value the opportunity to spend some time with your sales team to gain an insight into your approach.
We have experience in calling for detailed and niche products. Our role is to find out requirements and arrange an appointment for your sales team, so we don’t pretend to know as much about your product/service as you. However, we do know enough to speak to your target market in a knowledgeable way, and get enough interest in what you offer to take the prospect up to the appointment stage.
Cost
What does telemarketing cost?
We have different costs for each of our different services, so to get a tailored quote call us on 01223 354 151 or email our sales team.
Contracts
Can I run a Pilot before signing an ongoing contract?
Yes. The Pilot allows you and us to make sure that the telemarketing campaign will yield the results you need. It also gives you the opportunity to talk to us about anything extra that you need from us (extra reports, changes in focus of the campaign, etc). At the end of the Pilot, we will arrange a review meeting with you so we can talk about ongoing work.
What does signing an ongoing contract mean?
We make no secret of the fact that we would really like you as an ongoing client, and so we’ll do everything possible to ensure that your telemarketing campaign goes well. Most of our clients use us on an ongoing basis rather than one-off projects, so we can become an integral part of their sales force, providing a consistent stream of leads. As your sales team grows, so can your telemarketing resource. Also, it gives us the opportunity to nurture your sales pipeline, schedule call backs and cleanse your database as we go.
Data
What data will you use for my telemarketing campaign?
We can either use data that you already hold (possibly lapsed customers or a database you have previously used for marketing) or buy data for you. Buying data will involve an extra cost to you.
The quality and quantity of the data you supply us with is integral to the success of our telemarketing. We find that when data is refreshed regularly, the number of leads we generate is kept at a consistently high level.
We check all data that we buy for clients against the CTPS register every 28 days.
Where do you buy your data from?
We normally buy data from either Thomson Business Search Pro or Market Location, depending on the sectors you want to target and the information you want to buy. Both of these data providers are also members of the Direct Marketing Association. Fields that you can choose to buy include sector, company name, contact name, job title, postal address, telephone number, turnover (where available) and number of employees.
When telemarketing, we cleanse your database to ensure that it is as up-to-date as possible for the companies we have called.
How much does data cost?
This depends on the amount of information that you need for your campaign, so we’d be able to give you a price when we discuss your requirements further. The majority of the data normally costs 30p plus VAT per record. If we buy data for you, we will add the cost of it onto your invoice.
Do you check your data against the CTPS database?
Yes. All of the active data that we use for telemarketing is scanned against the CTPS register every 28 days. In this way, you can be sure that we are not calling any company on your behalf that has asked to be taken off the CTPS register.
For more information on the CTPS database, click here.
Telemarketing
I'm worried how my prospects will perceive a 3rd party contacting them on my behalf.
For the majority of our clients, we say we are calling on behalf of their company. With our professional approach to telemarketing, and our knowledge about your product/service, we hope to sound as if we are calling from your marketing department. However, it’s very common for companies to use outsourced telemarketing companies and, in our experience, this makes no difference as to whether they want to discuss their requirements or not.
Do you use scripts?
No. Our callers have effective business conversations with decision makers, and this is impossible if they have a script in front of them. However, we do create a call structure for each account, which acts as a guide for the important issues to cover or questions to ask to ensure that they are a qualified prospect before we arrange an appointment.
How do you train your staff on my campaign?
From the initial briefing we will create a call handbook. Every caller on the account has a copy of the handbook and this is updated regularly with any changes to your campaign. All personnel working on your account will have dedicated training time and through our buddy system, and call recording software, we are able to listen in to calls and therefore give constructive feedback. We encourage clients to visit our office to listen to calls.
All of our members of staff take part in a continuous programme of learning and development, ensuring that they have every opportunity to hone their soft and hard skills within Prospect Research. We are also currently working towards the Investor in People’s award.
Reporting and Results
How can I quantify the work you do?
The results we get will help you towards your sales objectives and will give you excellent return on investment. We encourage clients to use the results that we get, and follow them through to the point of sale, to ascertain what percentage of the total cost of sale was from telemarketing.
What reports and statistics can you send me?
We will send you a monthly summary of your telemarketing as standard. However, as well as this, we can provide tailored reports depending on what you want to know, and when. This can include call statistics and sales pipeline reports.
Can you record the calls you make?
We can record all outbound calls made, for training and quality purposes. Some clients want a recording of all conversations that lead to an appointment being booked, whilst others prefer a sample of the results achieved. Recordings can be sent to clients as either WMA or WAV files.
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