Qualifying inquiries and making “warm” prospecting calls are essential functions of the B2B contact center. They allow you to build an accurate lead database to use in future marketing campaigns. They also cement your relationship with potential buyers and ensures sales-qualified leads for your reps to close.
When a B2B prospect contacts you, a fast response greatly increases your likelihood of a sale. But, qualifying inquiries and responding appropriately is often a slow and frustrating process. Incomplete information, high volumes and limited internal resources are common challenges. It’s one of the top friction points between marketing and sales teams.
A warm calling campaign can help you maximize the potential opportunities in these segments:
Marketing-generated leads
Marketing-generated inquiries are people who have expressed interest in your brand by getting in touch proactively, typically through marketing touchpoints such as lead forms, emails, advertisements, or by calling your business directly. However, no matter how targeted a B2B marketing campaign may be, not every marketing-generated inquiry is going to be sales-ready lead.
Warm calling campaigns offer businesses a chance to gather more insights with these contacts through effective conversations. The goal is to determine where the potential buyer is on their journey. That lets you prioritize effectively.
Armed with information from your call, you can:
- Pass the contact on to the sales team as a qualified lead.
- Further nurture the prospect through digital campaigns and periodic phone calls.
- Remove from your database those who are not a good fit for your product or service.
Event and trade show inquiries
After leaving an event or trade show, B2B companies come back with plenty of opportunities. Webinars and virtual events produce similar amounts of information. Now, someone needs to triage stacks of business cards, as well as contact information derived from badge scans and registrations.
Which individuals represent the best short-term prospects? Which will convert in a few months—if you nurture them properly? It’s important not to waste these opportunities. However, the grind of making contact and gathering the additional data needed for lead scoring is not the best use of time for the sales reps. Neither is letting weeks (or months) pass between the event and a follow-up from your company. A warm calling campaign can be the answer.
Leads that have gone cold
When a lead doesn’t make an initial purchase or stalls in the sales funnel, it has gone cold. However, since they have expressed interest initially, it is possible that their interest can return when the timing is right. A warm calling campaign ensures that these cold leads aren’t ignored entirely, keeps the lines of communication open and helps to keep your company top of mind. Warm calling campaigns can help resurrect these leads.
Past customers
B2B companies change product or service providers for many reasons, and not all of these may be within your control. What you can control is timing and persistence. Because a past customer could become a customer again in the future, a warm calling campaign helps to maintain this relationship.
With past customers, callers can emphasize any of these:
- New products or services
- Enhancements to your core offering
- Changes in pricing or contract length
- Customer service and training opportunities
It’s also wise to simply listen and truly understand your past customer’s needs, then show how your offering is a strong fit.
Current customers
It is less expensive to retain current customers than it is to acquire new ones. A warm calling campaign can help you engage and retain your base—and tap into additional revenue opportunities from existing customers. The goal of a warm calling campaign in this case is to reach out to current customers to ensure their satisfaction and advise them about new or enhanced products or services that complement what they are currently using.
Warm calling and inquiry qualification campaigns are essential for B2B companies. Experienced callers provide a crucial person-to-person connection that builds a strong relationship, gathers important data and feeds your sales team a steady diet of qualified leads. Contact us to learn more about warm calling campaigns and our inquiry qualification services.
