telecommunications

Lead Generation: Quality vs. Quantity

Posted Fri, 2009-06-05 17:36 by chris

It is the age-old question that has haunted sales VPs since the dawn of time: should I focus on quality or quantity in obtaining leads? Of course, ask ten sales VPs this question and all ten will tell you that they want both. But, given the cost trade off, what is the best course of action when it comes to lead generation?

Leads come in varying degrees of quality, also known as the level of qualification. Highly qualified leads include up to date contact information, access to the decision maker, and an established level of interest or need. Poorly qualified leads may be little more than a company phone number.

Outsourcing lead generation at the highest level is appointment setting. With appointment setting, the lead provider takes on the responsibility not only for obtaining the lead, but also for qualifying the prospect and actually setting a time for your sales force to meet with the prospect to close the sale. Outsourcing your appointment setting relieves your sales staff of a great deal of unproductive prospecting, but is expensive to come by. Only the best lead generation companies can offer value as appointment setters because of the high level of training and extensive manpower required to provide this service.

Technology

We understand that outsourcing to any company can be a risky decision. At TeleArk, we want to ensure that our customers fully understand how we operate from day one. When TeleArk was started, our founders had a clear vision for applying the best of technology to not only provide outstanding service to our customers, but to ensure that our entire infrastructure is as reliable as possible.

"Connecting businesses to customers" is our motto.

TeleArk targets your customers!
  • Redundancy - TeleArk's data and telecommunications infrastructure is mirrored in world class and fully secured data centers located within the US.  With the addition of off-site backups and remote VPN networks, our entire infrastructure is robust.
  • Quality Infrastructure - We only use the highest quality hardware and software to provide our call agents with the latest tools in technology that would aid them in delivering the service and satisfaction that we promise.
  • Real-time Reporting - With our real-time TeleArk Client Portal, all of our customers get instant information about their outbound or inbound campaign, submit support incidents or even pay your invoices online (http://www.teleark.com/reviewing-invoices-in-the-client-portal).  In addition, each call is recorded in real-time and accessible through this portal 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
  • Latest Technology - TeleArk is constantly improving upon the way our business runs.  By leveraging the latest technology to fully train new call agents or deploy new servers in a manner of minutes, we are able to respond to nearly any type of inbound or outbound campaign in a very orderly and professional fashion.

The TeleArk Client Portal is the central location where all TeleArk clients can monitor their campaigns 24 hours a day at their leisure. Within the TeleArk Client Portal, TeleArk customers can:

  • Appointment Notifications - TeleArk automatically notifies you over email when you or your sales team has a new email.
  • Appointment Calendar - View all appointments in real-time. Export them directly into iCal or vCal format for use with calendar systems such as Microsoft Outlook.
  • Complete Campaign Reporting - View status of any campaign in real-time. Export a complete report in PDF, Excel or XML formats. Some of the specific reports included are Campaign Summary, Campaign Lead Performance Summary, Campaign Call Log and Lead Report Details reports.
  • Recordings - Listen and download any campaign recordings within seconds of the call being completed.
  • Email and Calendar Invites Directly to Prospects - TeleArk can notify your new prospects via your organization's email. In addition, these emails can be sent out on behalf of your organization and often can include a calendar invite to further build rapport with each of your prospects.
  • CRM Integration - With TeleArk's direct CRM integration, our clients can have their leads automatically added as we generate them or even updated for database cleansing/profiling within your favorite Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRM vendors that TeleArk currently support include those from Salesforce.com, vTiger and SugarCRM. Did you know that TeleArk can even integrate with your favorite CRM? Contact us today to find out more.

Whether your campaign is inbound or outbound, TeleArk has the personnel and infrastructure to meet your business needs.