B2B & B2C Telemarketing Services in the UK

telesales headphones

This article will give you an overview of B2C and B2B telemarketing services, what to look for when making a decision, and how to get the best deal for your business.

Telemarketing Overview

Telemarketing, sometimes known as telesales, is a form of direct marketing that is used as a means of selling and promoting a wide range of different products.

A salesperson contacts the potential customer either by telephone, face to face or over the internet in a pre-arranged web appointment.

Telemarketing can also include a recorded message sent by telephone, which is sometimes called 'robocalling'.

It is a form of marketing that has come in for criticism in recent years for being over-aggressive and for pushing people into buying things they don't want.

It is still nevertheless a very popular form of marketing and is used by pyramid selling companies, mobile phone companies, charities and various other commercial organisations.

Find the best B2C or B2B telemarketing services with Expert Market.

Different Forms of Telemarketing

There are basically two kinds of telemarketing:

1. Business to Business (B2B) Telemarketing
2. Business to Consumer (B2C) Telemarketing

A telemarketing salesperson will usually have a list of prospective clients, calling each of them individually, and then trying to talk the customer into buying the product or service on offer.

Prospective customers are identified by a range of criteria that include past purchase record, credit history, if they have shown an interest in the company before and any customer surveys they may have taken.

Or sometimes companies sell lists of customers to related companies e.g. a computer company might sell a list of recent customers to a warranty service provider.

Sharing of information amongst related companies is a common way of obtaining quality customer information.

Lead Generation

Lead generation refers to the process of generating new potential customers to contact. Firstly, those potential customers need to be identified before they can be contacted.

Companies will generate leads in a number of ways, which include promotions in places like shopping centres, competitions, mail/leaflet drops, door to door surveys and websites where people registered interest in a particular product.

Lists of potential customers, along with contact details, can be generated in this way.

These are forms of lead generation that cost money to promote, but a free way of generating leads is to study organic search engine results or referrals from previous customers.

Businesses are always looking for what they term quality leads, usually denoting the likelihood that the potential customer will go on to make a purchase.

Telemarketing Costs for B2B & B2C

Most companies that use telemarketing often employ a separate telemarketing agency to do it for them.

Finding the best price deal can be difficult as there are many companies out there offering different kinds of service.

It's worth remembering though that telemarketing companies prices basically fall into two categories:

•   Flat Rate of Pay
•   Pay per Lead

The flat rate form of pay involves paying your employees on an hourly or daily basis, the advantage being that you know exactly how much you will be paying each day, but lacks any performance incentive.

This method is best for working through large lists of clients and assessing potential interest in your product or service.

The other way is to use the pay-per-lead method where you pay the telemarketing company for the number of leads they generate.

The more leads they generate for you, the more you pay. This obviously is more incentive based than the flat rate method and is better if you are looking for more solid leads that you can rely on to make a purchase, although it will cost you more.

Prices for generating leads will vary according to the difficulty of generating the leads for your particular product, but can cost anything from £20 to £150.

Potential Cost Savings

There are a few ways of cutting the potential costs of telemarketing. The first is to provide your own list of potential leads, this will cut down on costs significantly.

However, you need to make sure that your leads are good quality and have good sales potential.

Another consideration is where your telemarketing company is. Companies in London are generally much more expensive so it is a good idea to look for a more regionally based company, although this might not be advisable if you are concentrating your marketing on the London area.

And finally, most telemarketing companies will charge more for converting potential sales leads into actual sales appointments.

If you feel able, you can do this bit for yourself and use the leads given to you by the telemarketing company to arrange your own sales and appointments for yourself.

This not only reduces costs significantly but also gives you more hands on control over the sales process and more contact with your potential customers.

Next Steps

If you are interested in hearing more about telemarketing prices for your business, then fill out the form at the top of this page and a select group of excellent suppliers will get in touch with you.

Compare telemarketing prices for B2B or B2C with Expert Market.