Telesales is the most vital activity for lead generation say 48%

What is the most effective marketing channel for lead generation and sales? 48% say it is telesales according to our Lead Finder Survey.

The Lead Finder Report survey ran by Kompass provided some fascinating insights into what your partners and competitors are doing to win business contacts for their CRM and sales teams.

Last year Kompass surveyed hundreds of marketers asking key questions about their most successful methods of lead generation, what their focus is for the year and how they rate their approaches. There were some fascinating headline findings and statistics, including:

·  Online Search is the major source of leads

·  Marketing teams devote on average less than 3 days per week generating new business

·  The purchasing department is the most targeted division of prospective customers

·  Only 15% of marketers think their efforts are very successful

·  The ‘Brexit’ effect does not appear to have significantly diminished UK companies appetite for seeking business in Europe, with EU nations being the top countries marketers are looking to work with

What kind of approach are marketers today using to gather interest?

It’s probably not surprising to find that data is king in driving activity and in the business markets good quality B2B data is an essential ingredient. Top of the list of the headline questions, which asked for the most used channel, was Email Marketing – 69% of respondents using it. Second, perhaps a little more surprisingly, was another personal owned data driven medium, direct mail (read direct mail marketing). It has been written in many marketing blogs that targeted direct mail is making a comeback and this evidence would appear to bear it out. Social channels were a close third, with the diametrically opposed Google Adwords and Print advertising less favoured, with 23% of respondents citing each of them.

These headline results display broad similarities with the overall UK picture, where email marketing accounts for the highest level of spend, though in the Kompass survey direct mail is far more popular. Conversely Google display is less used than the national average with respondents.

The full weighting of answers is below:

which types of marketing activity does your company currently undertake chart

Which web search option is most used for prospecting?

The most used search engines for prospecting were of course, Google. Over 90% of respondents used the world most popular search tool to find prospects, bang in line with Google’s share of the world market. Bing, Yahoo and interestingly, Ali Baba were also mentioned, the latter most likely for companies working in Asian markets. Where in the world are marketers looking to target?

Most respondents were looking to make contacts within the UK. Of those facing out to international markets, big players France, Germany and Italy are the three most chosen lands that firms would like make inroads into. Territories outside the EU were represented however, reflecting the UK’s global outlook, with Canada (20%), USA (17%), Hong Kong and Russia (both just under 15%) the favoured ‘rest of the world’ destinations.

UK growth pips overseas expansion

Perhaps the news buzz surrounding the UK’s impending departure from the EU had an impact on the main business goals of organisations participating. At the same time, as 56% stated increasing market share in the UK was their main goal, only 22% chose exporting to Europe. This figure was topped by the nearly 30% aiming to boost worldwide exporting. One fifth were prioritising a new product launch.

What is your business focus for the year?

·  Increasing Market Share in the UK – 56.04%

·  Exporting to Europe – 21.98%

·  Exporting Worldwide – 27.47%

·  Launching a New Product – 20.88%

·  Brand Visibility – 29.67%

·  Responses

·  Other – 8.79%

The sales function performing well

The telesales team is the most vital component of both lead generation and sales; it would seem from the findings. 48% of respondents said this was their main activity, whilst field sales were just behind. Over 15% of the sample used trade shows, further proof in the power of face to face media traditional routes.

The sales teams in question however are seemingly well versed in the mine of diverse prospecting information on the World Wide Web. Over 70% of sales teams are using online search to build customer knowledge. In house data was a close second. However, some may find it surprising that 50% of sales functions are employing cold calling, according to their representatives. That is close to twice as many that are delving into social media. Who are you selling to? Purchasers are the targets.

Probably due to the process based nature of having to win contracts, nearly half of the group (44%) said they were targeting purchasing departments. Sales were the second key focus. Over a third of marketers are targeting their own kind by approaching the marketing teams of their prospects.

Timely and effective

Marketers seem to be relatively time savvy when it comes to finding leads, devoting less than 3 days a week to the exercise to get the results they are after. Perhaps this is because over 85% of them report that their sales teams are successful in some way at prospecting.

SME or Corporate?

There was a very even spread of size of company targeted. Though there was a slight bias towards firms with over 20 employees, this response reflects the diversity of companies in the chosen space.

Keyword battles

Finally, the question every PPC executive wants to know; what keywords are my peers targeting? Of course, there were many different responses here. There was a split between marketers targeting individual vertical markets to get into by name, on the one hand. The service they offered on another, for the latter ‘UX agency’ and ‘IT services’ appear the most in demand with the survey completers, followed by variants using the word ‘software’.


Author: John Fenna Head of Marketing, Communications & Digital at Tavistock Relationships


Disclaimer: Please note that this blog only contains general information and insights about legal matters. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. Kompass.com

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