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B2B Telemarketing

March 12th, 2010 Posted in Telemarketing Tips

While some B2B sales deals come together in a matter of a few days or weeks, most take months to close. Determining the length of the business to business sales process can be tricky because numerous factors can muddy the waters. The length of time taken to close an account typically varies by the volume of the client, the present status of their program, the number and types of decision-makers engaged, and the prospect’s understanding of your company’s services. Once you have a list of prospects, cold calling is the fist step in the inside sales process. B2B cold calling can be likened to baseball in that you aren’t going to hit a homerun every time you step up to the plate. You need to build credibility with the person on the other end of the line before they will ever consider paying for your solutions. From those that actually answer your call, roughly twenty percent are liable to have any interest in what you’re offering.

In order to maximize the amount of contacts you make, efficiency is vital. A few things every B2B salesperson needs to be efficient are:

  • Sales Leads - To get going, you’ll need a list of decision-makers at companies that are likely to use your your company’s solutions. The leading companies in the sales database sector are InfoUSA and Hoover’s. Not every sales person has big bucks to pay for a leads list, so InfoUSA provides 500 free leads as a basic trial of their product.
  • CRM Software - In order to keep track of your prospects through the telemarketing process, from the first time you get in touch with the target through closing the sale; You’ll be much more efficient if you have a solution that allows you to keep track of who you’ve contacted, when you reached them, and what the final result was. A few of the tools in the Telemarketing market are ACT! and Frontline Solutions.

Regardless how strong of a sales associate you are, the cold calling process can be long and toilsome, so while you’ll require the items above to get started, you’ll truly need lots of patience and determination to make it past the first day.