Singapore-Australia Telemarketing

Going international can indeed expand your client base and add a significant boost to your B2B software sales. However, that’s only because pursuing foreign prospects for B2B lead generation is an obviously bigger challenge. Language barriers need to be overcome. Entire national economies might need to be discussed. Finally, you have time zones to worry about.

Whether you decide on emails or phone calls (or even both) when contacting potential clients, none of them will get you a decision maker’s ear if you don’t know the right time to call. Suppose you live in the US and decided to target companies in Asian countries like Japan or Singapore. Do you really expect someone to pick up a phone when your day time is their night time? Most likely, your target CEO is already on his or her way home.

Timing requires strategy and part of that strategy includes location. You need to a more active presence in the area that goes beyond just a website. Now of course, you can always just send some representatives and have them take a look around. However, are you prepared to pay the costs?

Just to be safe, try first outsourcing a B2B telemarketing that’s based in Asia or at least has the resources to conduct telemarketing there. It could be a company with Japanese contacts in its database or a call center Singapore. That way, you can at least get a good idea from them on the average working time in those countries (or other countries for that matter as some companies have quite a coverage).

The world is shrinking. But unlike how the explorers of old have shrunk it through discovery of uncharted territories, 21^st century man has shrunk it through the vast, new frontier that is the internet. With the internet, we have managed to bridge connections without the need for so much wait or travel.

And naturally, new technology and new discoveries only herald more business opportunities. While the age of exploration brought about trade, our age of information brought about its own version in the form of lead generation. B2B businesses in particular (like those in the ERP software industry) are now able to look up and pursue prospects from all over the world. Couple this with how the internet has enabled the transfer of software products in particular, and virtually any software company can now go beyond national borders without ever leaving their headquarters.

However, people shouldn’t be too excited. The age of exploration did open entire nations to each other but voyages were never without peril and not all inhabitants of the New World took kindly to their colonial visitors. A similar world awaits those sailing the internet for possible software leads. Communication is faster sure but that still doesn’t eliminate the barriers of language, culture, as well as timezone.

That’s why despite the birth of new methods, old methods shouldn’t be discarded and in fact both should be used together. Look at telemarketing for example. If you’re sending emails to Singaporean prospects, respond to the interested ones by outsourcing a company that does telemarketing in Singapore. That way you come off as more active and you also get to know each of your prospects even if they’re from any part of the world.

Implementing B2B software takes a while. However, throwing in the prospect of sometimes having to personally travel around to check on problems and oversee projects really complicates things, especially when it comes to getting new leads to keep work coming in. Hence, plenty of B2B businesses prefer that their lead generation campaigns add in a bit of appointment setting.

Travel still takes time and whilst the amount of time a person spends in going around the world has been significantly reduced in comparison to centuries past, it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a clogged schedule. And remember, it’s not just your schedule that needs considering. Your clients too need to be informed of things beforehand.

Such announcements require fast, real-time communication. Short messages, convenient they may be, are not going to cut it. You’ll have to use the phone which means using telemarketing methods may be your only chance of giving yourself and your prospects the heads-up.

Now of course, having to deal with so many international clients might already be too much if you need to make another in-house team to call and set appointments. However, that’s where outsourcing telemarketing services can come in. You don’t have to spend so much hiring and training new personnel or setting them up with new equipment.

When outsourcing however, you should of course choose wisely. The company you’re looking for must have agents armed with the communication skills you need but can’t afford. The same goes for technology as well as experience and information. A strategic location is also advised (like if you’re targeting Asia, you might want a call center in Singapore). More importantly however, is that you should be quick in your decision or else the search will complicate your schedule even further.

Supply chains have a strong connection with trade. When you’re managing something that oversees the journey of a product from creation to delivery, it’s usually in the delivery portion that the subject of trade starts to come in. Look at Singapore or Hong Kong for example. They are both bustling economies because of their strategic location and the way they take advantage of their ports. In fact, theirs are one of the busiest ports in the world. Those seeking to expand their SCM software enterprise would do well to take advantage of the potential demand found in such countries.

However, there are some significant obstacles and language is just the tip of the cultural iceberg. Even methods like telemarketing, which is a considered a direct and effective approach without the costs of actually having to send someone to survey the area, will have no effect if you don’t speak any form of Chinese language or know any laws governing telemarketing in Singapore.

And despite it being less costly than sending over representatives just to scout for leads, telemarketing is by no means inexpensive.

You’ll need to acquire data from basic contact information to more specific information such as the structure of a target country’s supply chains. This of course is assuming you’ve already bypassed the obstacles of language, time, and even culture.

For a truly cost-efficient telemarketing campaign, you’ll have to outsource it. Things like database, communications equipment, CRM software, and professional telemarketers can all be made available to you that way. Sure there’s no harm in doing it in-house, but it’d be better if you had some experience in seeing others to do it for you first.

When people accuse telemarketers of being too direct with their methods, there’s really no denying it. However, it would be intellectually unfair to assume that they don’t know how to tone it down or develop subtler methods in contacting and qualifying leads. The truth is they can and to great effect.

However, is being direct always a stigma? Actually, it’s really on a case-by-case basis. There are definitely industries out there that need things rushed but prospects themselves should be given time to think. For instance, there are companies who are looking for ERP leads for their company management software. ERP software takes quite a while to implement, even for small companies. Therefore, companies need to have as many leads qualified and turned into appointments around their schedule. The slightest delay could mean a painful dry period with low sales because there’s not a lot of work being done.

On the other hand, you can’t be too direct when it comes to approaching the target decision makers themselves. If they say no, move on. If they ask for some time first, comply. That’s what good follow-up strategies are for. Believe it or not but professional telemarketers know how to do that.

Now you might be wondering, where in all of this are the sales going to come from? What’s the value of your software leads when nobody’s egging your targets to give you your sale?

The value you’re looking for is in the information. An appointment is not a guaranteed sale unless both you and your prospects are both given enough information to believe a sale can be made between you two. Knowledge is power after all. Why not outsource a telemarketing firm and see for yourself what such power can do?

In our IT age, there has been a strong link between communication and information. In terms of communication, the internet has enabled contact and interaction between people (or even groups of people) living in across international distances. In terms of information, this same internet has allowed access to a wealth of information and knowledge couldn’t be more accessible.

The marriage between the two has enabled new advantages for old practices like B2B telemarketing. For example, you’re a BI software group and you’re thinking of outsourcing to another company for your B2B leads.

One of the oldest forms of B2B lead generation is in fact telemarketing. However, unlike their B2C counterparts, there are still plenty of businesses who use it to target B2B prospects and attract and measure their interests. As a matter of fact, there are cases where the decision maker can only be contacted by the phone in his or her office and nowhere else.

Still, that doesn’t mean telemarketers don’t know a think or two about using the internet for getting leads. A particular method is to use emails to a list of prospects, carefully selected from their large database and then sending a small email.

This email strategy actually serves as a filter to help identify the most qualified candidates. Decision makers who respond with an interest are then directed further to a call center representative for further qualification. They are certainly not falling behind other lead generation companies who use internet-age methods. However, you’ll only see this better for yourself if you start outsourcing one today!

A pre-packaged list of B2B software leads shouldn’t be a cause for overconfidence but it always can be. Hence, qualification is important to make sure that disappointment doesn’t happen. In terms of really touchy departments like HR, contacting them to make a sale might intimidate them and they’ll just close themselves off to you entirely.

Now of course, there are probably good reasons for you to buy a list in the first place instead of manually spending hours searching directories for contact information. In other words, you don’t have the time. Further still, if the qualification leads for HR is every bit as lengthy and intricate as some say it is, you definitely don’t have time for that either.

Outsourcing would be your only choice in this case. More importantly though, you must outsource to people with enough experience with HR decision makers to make a smooth first contact and then carefully getting them to open up. Hopefully, whatever information they give on their current status of employee management will be enough to qualify them for leads or at least, enough to point them in that direction.

Such a feat can only be done by professionals and it must be done fast. For this, professional telemarketing services are turned to because even in this internet age, the telephone remains to be highly used medium in business-to-business communication. The conversations can be polite, brief, but only if you put them in the hands of experienced professionals who have enough years behind them to successfully acquire information and appointments from such a delicate process.