Teleprospecting:  The Future in Lead Generation Programs

By David A. Weiss, President of Ellipsis Communications LLC

How many times have you heard someone say "You've got to find more prospects? We need more business." The challenge today is identifying the truly hot prospects in a sea of thousands of potential customers. Today, many companies are outsourcing their lead generation programs in order to more effectively garner prospects.

One technique quickly gaining popularity is teleprospecting-a process of gathering high-level market information and identifying qualified prospects via the phone.

Most people have never heard of teleprospecting. More often than not, they confuse it with telemarketing-those annoying phone calls at dinnertime where someone attempts to sell you everything from newspapers to storm windows to security systems. 

Business-to-business telemarketing is different though-as is teleprospecting. 

Business-to-business telemarketing is geared more towards information verification or a call-to-action. For instance, you may use telemarketing to scrub a database before you initiate a direct mail campaign. Then you may telemarket once the mailer has gone out to solicit attendance at a trade show or company event. Or, it may be used to sell a product or service.

Teleprospecting is a lead generation and qualification vehicle. It is not selling. Teleprospecting allows a company to prime its pipeline by continuously identifying hot prospects that are actively looking to solve a key business problem. 

The goal of teleprospecting is to glean out the few "pots of gold" from the hundreds in your prospect database-which then allows your sales force to focus on closing those deals.

But to get those "pots of gold," a company must clearly define and qualify a lead. This is the most critical step in teleprospecting. While the criteria for a lead will vary from organization to organization, there are typically five components to consider: budget, time frame to purchase, level of contact (i.e., decision maker), willingness to see your organization as a solution provider, and a detailed description of the actual opportunity.

For instance, if your product sells for a million dollars and the CIO of XYZ company says he only has $200,000 to spend, you are not going to waste precious resources pursuing that lead.

But how do you gain that information? Trained teleprospectors utilize a detailed call guide, which includes your lead criteria, to engage executives in a high-level conversation about their company's needs in respect to a particular trend, product or service. They also try to gauge the company's pain and plans to implement a solution. 

There are many benefits to outsourcing teleprospecting:

Teleprospecting frees up your salespeople to concentrate on the job they have been specifically trained to do-sell your product or service-as opposed to sitting on the phone dialing for dollars. Generally, if salespeople are not in the field, they are not generating revenue for the company.  And, your sales force is probably not your most effective prospecting resource.

Salespeople typically do not like prospecting. They are trained to sell. More often than not, when a rep gets on the phone, their first instinct is to talk about feature, function and benefit instead of trying to uncover what the actual opportunity or need is. Then once they find a hot lead, they usually stop prospecting anyway. It is a vicious cycle. They pursue a deal, close it-and realize they have nothing on their radar screen to track next.

Teleprospecting is a tool that continuously feeds salespeople new, significant opportunities, thus reducing the company's total reliance on them to prospect. Because new leads are always on the horizon, teleprospecting softens the usual peaks and valleys that are typical in sales and allows for a more predictable sales forecast. 

Additionally, if you monitor where leads are coming from (i.e., which region of the country), you can ensure a more level playing field and prevent lost opportunities. Teleprospecting can provide information on whether a market is saturated or whether that territory has so many opportunities that more people are needed. It can also lessen the chance of one rep pursuing 10 hot prospects while another is struggling to find even one. 

Next time you hear someone talk about needing more leads, encourage them to consider a teleprospecting campaign. It's hard to calculate the amount of revenue lost by not continuously prospecting, but it is safe to say opportunities are always missed. Teleprospecting is a unique and highly effective way to keep your business on the fast track to growth.

David A. Weiss is President and CEO of Ellipsis Communications, LLC, a strategic communications and marketing company servicing the technology industry. Mr. Weiss has over 18 years of marketing  experience and has worked with various technology companies during his career.  He has also acted as a strategic marketing consultant to several name brand organizations.  For more information call 856-273-2600.

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