When faced with limited lead generation budgets, a surprising number of tech companies call our agency struggling to choose between traditional marketing/nurture marketing and telesales. (Many refer to cold calling as “telemarketing”, but “telesales” is a more accurate word).
When I started our technology and healthcare marketing agency, our team acquiesced to customers that wanted to try telesales first. Now, based on conversion data and experience we strictly steer clients away from telesales as a standalone first lead generation campaign.
While many leaders see telesales as a less expensive, faster ROI tactic, it can be extremely difficult to close deals that require education from telesales. Telesales and cold onboard marketing campaigns are better suited to simple transactional sales, where there is a clear pain point.
Technology sales often require in-depth education and relationship building. Most prospects can’t visualize what their operation would look like with the technology or service implemented. Marketing programs based on painting a clear picture for prospects using quality content are far more effective than telesales in closing deals and feeding the sales funnel.
3 main reasons why traditional marketing and nurture triumph over telesales
Tech buyers trust quality content, not pitches
Quality content is the most important characteristic to decision-makers when they’re searching for tech-related information. Some 72% of IT purchase decision makers cited “reliable/accurate content or information” as being important, with 69% pointing to “straightforward, unbiased coverage” as a top characteristic. (IDG Enterprise 2014 Survey)
Tech buyers trust thought leaders
No matter how much you prepare your telesales team, they are not going to know the ins and outs of your customers’ pain points and technology details like you do. Tech-savvy prospects quickly lose interest in pitchers that don’t understand their business and raise their intellectual curiosity.
Nurture marketing succeeds in the short and long term
When done properly, nurture marketing can convert the prospects ready to buy in the short-term as effectively as telesales. The real advantage of nurturing, however, is its ability to continually feed and build your sales pipeline.
Telesales is only effective when prospects are ready to buy NOW. The vast majority of prospects need to warm to the idea, budget for it, and then buy down the road.
Don’t get me wrong. Telesales certainly has its place. It’s quite effective at alerting prospects to upcoming events, for example, signing them up for webinars or special giveaways. However, as a standalone lead generation tactic for technology sales, it’s not very effective at conversion.
