Pay per lead telemarketing

When it comes to marketing, nothing beats picking up the phone and having a one-to-one conversation. Emails are easily missed and social media posts often only get a few seconds of our time, at best.

But the personal touch of reaching out to someone over the phone can go a long way. If you can get hold of the right person, that is.

So, how do you do that, and is it worth paying for it? Here, we explain all.

In this article you will learn:

• What is pay per lead telemarketing?
• What costs are involved?
• How can it help my small business?

What is Pay Per Lead Telemarketing?

Simply put, pay per lead telemarketing is a type of affiliate (or partner) marketing where a third party company generates leads for another company. Generating leads just means tracking down potential customers.

Often, this involves tasking an independent agency with discovering people online who are already looking to buy something, and asking if they would like to be put in touch with a company offering relevant products or services.

If they do, they will be connected with you, so you can work your magic in making the sale. And as the name suggests, of course, you only pay per lead.

Outsourcing this digging stage to experts in this area can be a great idea for small businesses or startups. It gives you easy access to the people who are most likely to become a fully-fledged customer one day.

What do leads mean?

People who already buy from you are customers, of course. And people who don’t? Well, they are just people. But anyone who has expressed an interest in the products or services you offer are known as leads.

If they are a quality lead, they will have actively given their contact details to a third party, and requested a sales callback (from you). This means they are potential customers – they may not have heard of you yet, but they are likely to want to.

Isn’t that cold calling?

Yes and no. Lead generation can involve cold-calling, but this mostly touches the third party you work with. They often call the customers first to double check they are interested in hearing from the sales team (you). In fact, this means your salespeople will make fewer cold calls.

This helps ensure the leads are of the highest quality, and really just avoids wasting your time. So, by the time you get through to your leads, they will be ready and waiting to hear your pitch.

What do I do when I get leads?

There are really two simple ingredients to doing pay per lead telemarketing right if you are on the sales (or in-house) side. Be fast, and be relevant.

Of course, the best people to speak to are the ones who have expressed a recent and active interest in your product.

Ideally, they will have given their contact details with the hope of getting a call back, and the sooner it comes through, the more likely it is that you will make that sale.

So, what is expected of you when the leads start coming in?

1. Act fast – It’s not complicated. The sooner you call, the more likely you are to close the sale. That is because you stand a better chance at beating your competitors, and people will be more willing to give you their time if they are still actively looking for what you are offering.
2. Tailor your calls – A key benefit of using a third party lead generation provider is the added insight they could give you into your leads. Often, the potential customers will already have answered some questions about their needs, so you can save time and be sure to tick all their boxes by giving them exactly what they want from the get-go.

What types of telemarketing are there?

There are three main types of telemarketing:

1. Telemarketing appointment setting – Pre-arrange face-to-face meetings or phone calls with potential customers. Interested? You can read more here
2. Lead generation – Find potential customers with third party help. The most common form is acquiring e-newsletter lists, but these leads tend not to be qualified
3. Pay per lead telemarketing – This is a specific type of lead generation, where you only pay per lead received. Let’s find out more

Salespeople are always on the look-out for the next potential customer. But they can be harder than you’d think to find. And in today’s fast-moving world, people only tend to be on the look-out for a small window of time.

More often than not, sales teams spend their precious time and resources trying to track down new customers to call. This is not very effective because they could be more focused on getting on the phone and closing sales.

Outsourcing the more complicated task of lead generation can help your small business by driving more leads and better leads.

If you opt for this, you have two options: hire an agency or freelancer and pay per hour, or pay per lead. Small businesses are often best going for the latter.

By relying on a company that specialises in generating leads, you can benefit from their expertise. And by only paying for the leads you get, you have a better chance of not being out of pocket as a result.

Although you may associate telemarketing companies with nuisance callers, you may be surprised to learn how effective this marketing strategy can be, especially for small businesses with fewer resources.

Read more: Small business telemarketing services

Pay per lead telemarketing options

There are two types of pay per lead: high range and low range.

The high range option will need you to dig a little deeper into your pocket, but the quality of those leads will be higher because more will be qualified before they reach you.

Then, there is the low range type, which tends to drive more leads but they may be less sales-ready.

What are the costs involved?

So, what will it cost you? There is a lot to consider with this form of marketing, which makes predicting prices tricky. It all depends on the type of pay per lead you opt for, the number of leads you get, and the quality of those leads.

That said, here is your best estimate.

What should you look for when making your choice?

More than anything, you will want to know that the lead generation company you go for has a great reputation. It’s no good them sending you all the leads in the world if many of them are duds.

The best companies will take the time to qualify the leads. Of course, this costs more, but also means that the people you are put in touch with will be much more valuable to you, and will waste much less of your sales team’s precious time.

As with most things, though, paying more will not necessarily guarantee quality. You can help to protect yourself from this by talking through various options over the phone before you commit. To do just that, simply fill in the form at the top of this page.

What is High Range Pay Per Lead Telemarketing?

High range pay per lead telemarketing can cover a wide range of products. Although, as the name suggests, they will tend to fall into the high-end category (i.e. goods that are worth more).

Typically, the high range leads will offer more value to your small business or startup.

This is for four key reasons:

1. More qualified leads – High-range leads are often qualified (called up by the third party) to check they are interested in your call back
2. More insights – They will include extra gems of information (such as endorsements or qualifying notes), so your sales team will be ready to give them what they want
3. More exclusivity – High range leads are more likely to be exclusive leads for you, so your competition will not get a look-in
4. More time – A lower volume of leads can help less stressed sales teams take the time needed to win a new customer

To summarise, high range pay per leads are ideal for small businesses offering goods that are expensive enough to justify the higher cost per lead. Although it will mean coughing up more per lead, if more of these convert into a sale, it is easy to see how this could be a great investment.

What is Low Range Pay Per Lead Telemarketing?

Of course, there is another option too. Just like with high range leads, low range ones can make sense for a variety of businesses. Low range pay per lead telemarketing tends to drive more leads, but, as you would expect, they are less valuable.

This is for four more reasons:

1. Less sales-ready leads – You might wonder why this option is less expensive if it delivers more leads. It’s simple: the leads it discovers are less likely to convert into sales, so they are less valuable to you.
2. Fewer insights – Your sales team will be experts in your products. But they will know less about the caller or their specific needs. Of course, you can find this out over the phone and win them round, you’ll just be less prepared.
3. More competition – Since potential customers are connected with several suppliers at once, your salespeople run more risk of missing out. That said, if you can ensure your sales team has lightning reflexes, they could still be sure to get there first.
4. More hidden gems – Low range leads can absolutely produce fantastic results for companies. It just requires more digging to find the most receptive people to call. This can be a problem for small companies, as it requires time and resources you may not have.

With low range pay per leads, your sales team will need to go the extra mile to track down the quality potential customers, and beat your competitors. But depending on your business model, this might be worth trying.

Is High Range or Low Range right for me?

If your business deals with high-value products and services, you may prefer the high range pay per lead option. This is because the lack of competition will give your sales team more time to tailor their pitch to each potential customer.

As people tend to take more time when deciding on more expensive products, the delay in response time should not be such an issue. Effective preparation will give you a better chance of success, but you also won’t want to wait too long.

Although you will have fewer leads, the theory is that if each lead is of a higher quality, they will translate into more sales anyway.

Smaller companies often lack the resources and expertise in training their salespeople, so giving more responsibility to lead generation agencies can be a cost-effective way of making up for this gap.

And the more willing people are to talk with your team in the first place, and the more you already know about them, the smoother your conversations are likely to go.

On the other hand, low-value products will be able to get more value from a low range lead. With this option, you will have more leads coming in.

This means you will have a larger pool of potential customers to fish in, and if your salespeople are quick off the mark and well-prepared, the possibilities are endless.

Finally, if you are completely new to pay per lead telemarketing, you may even choose to test-drive a combination of both strategies, so you can see what works best for you.

There is no one-size-fits all solution, and the best option will depend in part on how you work with the leads you get.

What are the benefits of Pay Per Lead Telemarketing?

As a small business owner, any opportunity to save time and money will be music to your ears. But the benefits of pay per lead telemarketing stretch even beyond these easy wins.

Here is how:

• Work with the pros – You know your products and services better than anyone else, so you are the best company to close your sales. But finding the most fruitful people to pitch to is a different beast altogether. Pay per lead telemarketing firms will often have access to special software and expert teams to give you the greatest number and highest quality of leads. Put simply, it is no easy task, and money spent training your sales team might be better put to use by just trusting the experts.
• Don’t let your competitors get ahead – Today, pay per lead telemarketing is taking many industries by storm. That means even if you are you not taking advantage of their services, there is a good chance your competitors will be. If they are able to get on the phone to potential customers quicker than you, you will get left behind, no matter how good your offer would have been.
• Only pay for what you get – It’s easy for companies to promise the world. But by only paying for the leads that are delivered, you are less likely to lose out on your investment. By quantifying the process, you can also more easily measure the impact pay per lead support is having on your business, so you can decide how much sense it makes for you.
• Grow your business abroad – Most small businesses start by developing a reputation locally. But it may not be long before you are itching to grow, and connect with customers further afield. Many pay per lead telemarketing companies will already have access to a wide reach of markets, and could open these doors to you too more quickly than you might manage yourself.
• Get the low-down on your leads before you talk – As expected, lead generation agencies will help generate leads for you. But while they’re at it, they may also be able to collect exclusive information on potential customers. Knowing that bit more about what they want means you or your sales team will be in the best possible position to close the sale when you get them on the phone.
• Boost your staff morale – Having a great conversation and making a new customer is a fantastic feeling. But sometimes, the legwork in getting to that point can be a drag, especially all those hours just spent hunting for new leads. Outsourcing this stage can not only lift the numbers, but keep your staff more motivated by focusing on, let’s face it, the more rewarding part of sales.

Break it down for me

Research has shown that the biggest gripe for sales teams is the time spent trying to find new customers, rather than flexing their sales muscles over the phone. That makes the telesales process, when it is all done in-house, very inefficient.

This is especially true for small businesses, who usually have even less manpower. In these cases, outsourcing the lead generation stage can be a great investment, and allows your sales pros to focus on what they do best.

In a nutshell, pay per lead telemarketing will help you:

• Get more leads
• Check those leads are sales-ready before they reach you
• Have more insights to close more sales

Compare Pay Per Lead Telemarketing quotes

You should now have a better understanding of what pay per lead telemarketing is and what it can do for you.

But after all this talk of the benefits of speaking on the phone, perhaps it’s time you had a proper conversation with some potential suppliers.

To compare quotes or simply find out more, just click below. Our quick form will do the legwork, and match you to the best providers of pay per lead telemarketing for small businesses today.

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