The question that Whitney Houston asked in her hit song \u201cHow Will I Know” is often asked by Telemarketing Managers. Of course they ask, \u201cHow will I know if Sales really loves us?\u201d Here are a few best practices that will make your Telemarketing team loveable, for years to come.<\/p>\n
First, make sure that you have a well-defined lead qualification process. Get buy-in from all stakeholders including Marketing, Sales and Product Marketing. Once you have determined the lead qualification process, map this process into your sales automation application. Ensure that the mapping includes workflows that enable approval for leads before they get turned over, officially, to sales. (Check out the SOMAmetrics blog \u201cCRM: Is Your Lead Process Mapped\u201d, to get more details).<\/p>\n
Now that you have the infrastructure in place to manage the flow and qualification of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales Qualified Leads, you are ready for the next step. Here\u2019s the secret sauce that will get your Telemarketing team rave reviews. Your leads need to contribute 3X or more to the sales funnel and contribute a minimum of 50% of the revenue.<\/p>\n
Below are the best practices that I have implemented to support these outcomes:
\n-Pay a bonus for every SQL that is approved by Sales. The bonus amount should be commensurate with the complexity of the solution and the Key contact required for a qualified lead. For example, if your solution is a high priced IT Infrastructure Solution and VP\u2019s and C-Level contacts are required to consider the SQL as \u201cqualified\u201d you may need to pay a handsome bonus to keep your Telemarketers motivated.<\/p>\n
-Assign an SQL-to-Sales Funnel Quota for each Telemarketing Rep. For example, if your Telemarketers are supporting 2 Sales Reps (a ratio of not more than 1 Telemarketer to 2 Sales Reps, is highly recommended) and each Sales Rep has a quota of $1M, the Telemarketing Reps Sales Funnel Quota is $6M. Pay a bonus for pre-determined increments of this quota.<\/p>\n
-Make sure that Fifty percent (50%) or more, of closed deals, come from SQLs that were generated by Telemarketing. Therefore, using the example above, the Telemarketer should have an SQL-to-Revenue Quota of $1M. The SQL-to-Revenue bonus should be the largest component of the Telemarketing Reps variable compensation.<\/p>\n
Telemarketing Managers should be compensated in a similar fashion. If everyone on the team is accountable for highly qualified leads, the Sales Funnel and Revenue, your Telemarketing team will be in complete alignment with the Sales team. Sales will really love you if Telemarketing focuses on what they focus on: sales funnel growth and revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"