Page 160 - SKU-000506274_TEXT.indd

Market Smart: How to Gain Customers and Increase Profits with B2B Marketing

• Phone Number
• Email Address (optional but helpful—but be wary of

regulations regarding email communications, they are
changing and tightening)

Some telemarketing companies possess a target list already
and can work from this. If you hire an outside business
development service, they will usually build the list for you based
on the parameters you provide. If you hire an independent
business development contractor or in-house staff, you’ll have
to build the list yourself. There are many list services that will
sell you company contact information. Consider InfoUSA /
Canada, Dun & Bradstreet, and Scott’s Directory. There are
also many “shillers” of lists. The legislation for list selling have
changed recently, so many companies went on an eleventh
hour binge to generate revenues. These latter companies
have, in my experience, a very poor understanding of list
criteria and poor data. They’re not worth bothering with.

Alternately, consider building your list by doing research and
using services like Jigsaw.com and LinkedIn. Building your list
takes longer than a simple list purchase, but it can generate
much better success on the phone than a purchased list.

Establish your message. What are the key points you want
to convey on your calls? What are the elements of your value
proposition that you need to communicate.

Establish your screening criteria. Setting up meetings with
prospects is the ideal outcome of telemarketing. However,
be careful what you wish for—I have seen companies set
up many meetings only to find that the meetings are with
companies that are not a good fit for their product or service.
While you seek to open the door through telemarketing, it’s
also important to ask a few questions to make sure that the
meetings you book will be worthwhile.

181

© 2012 Lisa Shepherd