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A Long Summer of Sales

Aside from the natural increase in everyone’s mood when the sun makes an appearance, we’ve had our best summer yet for sales, which has rocketed our business growth.

In past years, we’ve always experienced a lull in the summertime, due to the fact that most senior decision-makers are out of the office at various times in the season, therefore making contact rates difficult to maintain. Due to this difficulty in communication, June – August have always been our worst months, and until now, we have always accepted that.

However, this year has been different.

We looked back at the previous patterns of highs and lows and decided to do something about it. We ramped up our marketing and created a specific strategy to try and increase our brand awareness and emphasise our existence at a time where the contact rate was the lowest. From doing this, we found that we had built up a pipeline of interested prospects that we could speak to at a time that suited them best.

By making changes to our usual marketing plan and trying new channels, our whole sales pattern changed, which has shone a huge light on how significant marketing is for any company’s growth. This is the message we try to convey when speaking to prospects about lead generation; regardless of pre-determined opinions, it’s important to try new avenues and channels as one may be the catalyst to success.

When prospects are considering using telemarketing and lead generation, we urge them to think long-term. Our ultimate goal is to become a part of their ongoing marketing strategy, and to do that we need to provide good results. This consequently means that the only way we profit is if the client rebooks, and if they rebook, it usually means they are happy with the results produced from the campaign. This gives our customers solace as they know that in order for us to be successful, we need our clients to be successful.

Due to the incredible weather we’ve had, we have been able to do a lot more team activities. We’ve had barbeques in the sun over lunchtime, end of week meetings in beer gardens and sports day socials. As a company, we feel like this has really boosted morale and raised spirits within the office, which has shown in our results. For us, creating an environment that’s enjoyable to work in has always reflected in the success of the business.

If you’re looking for a new marketing channel to increase sales and boost business growth, get in touch on 0333 207 0540.

Getting the Best ROI

When deciding to go ahead with a lead generation campaign, it’s important to know that you’re going to get a good return on investment. We know this and like to ensure a good ROI through a number of different factors.

The first thing to consider when setting up a successful telemarketing campaign is the contact data. Data is one of the most important ingredients within lead generation, because it contains the contact information of the prospects you will be introducing your product to, and if the information is either invalid or incorrect, you’re not going to get very far. We have used the same provider for over 3 years, simply because we have consistently provided good results whilst using their data, which is fully GDPR compliant with paper trail evidence of opt-in information upon request – which is an important factor in our industry now.

Having an experienced telemarketer is a given when working with us, but it does massively assist in the smooth running of a lead generation campaign. Our clients have to put a lot of trust in a telemarketer when allowing them to represent their company, and a large part of our set up process requires plenty of communication between our clients, the account managers and the telemarketers to fully understand their company culture. When a client rebooks after an initial campaign, it allows the relationship to continue to grow, meaning the telemarketer can become more knowledgeable in the product/service they are promoting, and therefore become more confident when speaking to prospects on the phone.

As a company, we believe in creating a motivational and enjoyable environment for everyone in the office. We want people to be happy in the workplace, and not to dread coming into the office each morning. We know this is the best way to encourage good results. Setting realistic but challenging targets help create healthy competitiveness within the team, which is vital in the sales industry.

Another part of our set up process involves working closely with the client to produce criteria against which the telemarketers can qualify leads with. For many high value products and services, the contact needs to have certain qualities in order to be a worthwhile prospect. For example, one of our clients, The FD Centre, requires the prospect to operate within a business turning over at least £1 million to warrant the placement of a part-time Finance Director, who would be charging £1,000 a day for their service. Having criteria helps our telemarketers avoid booking meetings or passing through leads which definitely wouldn’t convert. This prevents time wasting whilst increasing productivity.

Lastly, it’s important to give your campaign enough time to get off the ground. Some campaign aspects can take time to develop, such as the telemarketer’s product knowledge, the efficiency of passing leads through to the relevant person within your business and testing different communication variables to find out which gets the best response. Being patient during this stage will allow you to see the processes which work best, thereafter you can expect to get good results consistently and a high ROI.

To find out more about our B2B telemarketing services call us for a non-committal chat on 0333 207 0540.

Telemarketing – Breaking the Stigma

Unfortunately, it’s well known that telemarketing has a bad reputation. We spoke to our Managing Director and Group CEO, Toby Blatchford-Tagg, to see how he deals with the stigma and how he responds to this on a day-to-day basis.

“I think that telemarketing gets a bad name from the consumer industry, I feel this came from the boom of window sales along with other consumer services since the 1980s. B2B telemarketing is completely different; we contact highly professional businesses with the intention of offering a service that contacts are genuinely likely to be interested in and also likely to benefit their respective business.”

Although our service differs to the common misconception of telemarketing, it doesn’t change the fact that some people have immediate apprehension with what we do. This is why we feel it’s important to give people a better understanding of our services and the processes we use, after which they will be well informed about the industry and can base their opinions on tangible facts.

“Here at The Lead Lab, we stand firmly against traits such as ‘phone bashing’ and harassment, that’s not what we’re employed to do. We believe each individual person we speak to deserves to be treated with respect and consideration. Although I find myself defending what we do, I can’t defend the behaviour that some companies adopt, which include scams and cons. These companies inherit a ‘rough culture’ in which the only thing that matters is the sale – and not the person on the other end of the phone. We want to offer a service that is actually going to help a business in one way or another. If it doesn’t, we move on in a polite and respectful manner. There needs to be mutual gains for our service to work.”

There are a number of huge benefits to lead generation and telemarketing services that aren’t often talked about. For example, telemarketing to generate brand awareness is often utilised by charities to make people aware of certain projects or fundraising throughout the year. Brand awareness is a huge asset to a business as it allows people to know the business exists – which is one of the hardest things to achieve in a saturated industry with plenty of competitors. Another simple benefit is the amount of created opportunities which would not have existed otherwise, this gives businesses a platform to engage with ‘warmed up’ prospects who are already qualified and are interested in what they have to offer, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

“If I had to say one thing to people who thought negatively of telemarketing and lead generation I would simply say – we’re not all the bad guys. Our business values and culture reflect our success and ultimately, we want to increase sales for the client and offer a beneficial service to prospects, as well as creating a motivating place for employees to spend their days.”

To find out more about the way our business works and how it could help increase sales and business growth, contact us on 0333 207 0540.

Customer Service – The Backbone To Any Business

If you were to ask any business owner, from any industry, how important customer service is to them, I’m certain they would stress how fundamental it is to their success. It can be the make or break of a company, and the sole reason why a prospect is retained and therefore becomes a repetitive buyer.

Customer retention is the ultimate goal, simply because the prospect is happy with the product/service they were provided with and therefore spending more money with your business, without the need for you to invest any money on acquiring that spend i.e. through marketing /advertising. Retaining customers also contribute to the channel that is ‘Word of Mouth’; recommending your business to like-minded people without incentivisation. However, this is not a simple implementation.

To earn a returning customer, you need to ensure they have received the highest quality experience whilst buying your product or service. This includes good value for money, a high standard product in full working order, guidance through the buying process, contact on demand and reassurance on any questions they might have. Throughout our telemarketing campaigns, we ensure the highest visibility for our clients by keeping them up to date with the amount of leads we are generating, whether the leads are qualified and meet the predetermined criteria, who we are contacting on their behalf and if the telemarketer is using the correct terminology and language to fit your business model.

It’s also important to make the experience personal; we like to make every client feel valued by spending the time to assure the telemarketing campaign is running as they would like, whilst ensuring they are happy with the leads we are producing. This is extremely important to us; if our client wasn’t completely happy we would take immediate steps to try and change that. This is the main reason why we have consistent and regular communication with our clients, we prevent time from being wasted when the telemarketing campaign is live. We do this through weekly catch up calls between the client, the account manager and the telemarketer(s), whereby feedback and constructive criticism is welcomed and discussed.

The relationships we have with our clients are based upon trust, visibility and the delivery of good results, which is why we have a high percentage of customers who have on-going telemarketing campaigns with us rather than one-off trials. We like to prove concept by having a minimum spend of 20 days for each lead generation campaign, as we feel we need a sufficient amount of time to get a campaign off the ground and running effectively.

We love receiving feedback from people who have used our service, you can read our testimonials on our website or check out our Google Reviews. Alternatively, to find out more about what we do, call us on 0333 207 0540.

Quality Trumps Quantity

Here at the Lead Lab, we always work by the ethos that quality trumps quantity. It’s what makes our service valuable and retainable. Telemarketing is a competitive industry and quality control is a major factor which affects both reputation and brand; two things we care about a lot.

This ideology has shaped a lot of our processes, with our day rate proving to be a good example. The reason we work on a day rate is because our experience has shown this to be the best way to generate high quality leads through our telemarketers.

We believe that a ‘Pay Per Lead’ system encourages telemarketers to generate high volumes of ‘leads’ that do not necessarily qualify against client needs, which ultimately is a waste of the client’s time, the telemarketers time, and our time as a business.

We strive to be efficient and to provide a high return of investment for anybody who chooses to work with us, meaning that the significance of one lead conversion is of much higher value than 10 leads that do not convert.

We utilise quality control by having complete clarity with the client on what they want and what they describe as a lead, which can differ for every business dependent on sector, target market and location, as well as many other factors. We can then qualify any generated leads based on set criteria approved by the client, leaving no space for any misunderstanding from the telemarketer and no low-quality leads passed to the client – meaning that everybody is happy!

We spend a lot of time communicating with our clients before a campaign starts, mainly to understand the standards and culture of the business we’re working with. We never fall short on the representation of our clients, which is something we pride ourselves on and one of the most important values of our reputation.

To find out more about what we do and how we work, get in touch on 0333 207 0540 for a non-committal chat.

Bitcoin, The Craze That Caught Everybody’s Attention

In 2017, Bitcoin exploded. Over 40 billion dollars was invested into the cryptocurrency, which is why it’s been the main topic of conversation over the past 12 months.

I spoke with our Managing Director, Toby Blatchford-Tagg, to find out his views and opinions on the matter.

“The first time I really experienced the boom of Bitcoin was on my flight to Las Vegas last year. I stood up from my seat and nearly every passenger was watching the film ‘Banking On Bitcoin’ on their personal screens. I realised that Bitcoin was something that everyone has taken an interest in, and I wanted to find out more about it, which proved the marketing and PR had worked a dream.”

“I often relate it to our telemarketers working on their campaigns. The people who invested in Bitcoin want to promote it as much as possible, in order for their investment to rise. It works in the same way that a telemarketer wants to create as much brand awareness for their client to create success, as their own success and financial benefit lies within that client’s success.”

It’s not just the marketing which induced the success of Bitcoin, of course, the integral and intricate technology behind the digital currency is what creates its physical value, but when people spread the ‘buzz’, that value dramatically increases.

“However, Bitcoin’s value had dropped by a staggering 50% in the last month, and I believe this is largely due to 8 countries banning/illegalising the digital currency as it’s not backed by any central bank or government, which I think creates doubts in everybody’s mind. I’ve heard many stories of investments vanishing overnight, which is always a risk with web-based products.”

China and Russia are the two largest countries to have banned Bitcoin and reducing the currency’s potential, along with Nigeria, Columbia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Vietnam and others.

“I did think about investing a long time ago, especially after seeing the characteristic similarities between our own telemarketing business. However, I personally prefer to invest my money in long-term projects, despite the slow return, as I feel assured that the investment isn’t going to go ‘out of fashion’”

Brand awareness is vital for any business growth, which is demonstrated by the Bitcoin craze. Here at The Lead Lab, that’s exactly what we do for our clients. We reach out to potential prospects and introduce our clients’ offering, getting their name out to people who would have never known they existed beforehand. Our success is in direct correlation to the success and retention of our clients, meaning their best interest is always at the heart of our campaigns.

To find out more about how we can generate leads for your business, get in touch on

0333 207 0540.

Why Telemarketing isn’t Going out of Fashion.

Here at the Lead Lab, telemarketing will always be current and valuable. That’s because we live and breathe it. Whilst we know that many people consider the word ‘telemarketing’ to carry negative connotations, we strongly believe this is simply due to a lack of knowledge around the service.

Whilst speaking to our Managing Director, Toby Blatchford-Tagg, we discussed the benefits of telemarketing and why companies still revert to it as their number one marketing channel;

“I believe the biggest perk of using telemarketing is that it grants control over who you market your product to, meaning that you contact the people who you deem the most important and you can tailor your pitch to conform with different people and their needs. It also creates urgency; you get to speak directly with prospects immediately and in high volumes, meaning the efficiency levels are immense.”

Some people may question why they should fully invest in telemarketing when there are less costly marketing channels available, such as social media marketing or content marketing. We have been asked this many times, but we have complete confidence in our response;

“I believe it depends on the business in question. B2B businesses with high product/client values have the potential for high returns when using telemarketing due to a deeper and more personal engagement, this is because people want to fully understand the concept of something before investing money into it. However, social media can be really effective for consumers and when it’s used in conjunction with other channels.”

The negative association with telemarketing is something we tend to address when talking to businesses. Sometimes it can be due to a bad experience, or just simply down to misconception. We completely understand this, and prove concept to prospects by successful case studies and demonstrating our ideologies and our business model.

“The reason I think telemarketing gets a bad name is through ‘old school telemarketing techniques’, as I like to call them. This includes methods such as ‘phone bashing’ and harassing contacts until they are forced to listen. We steer very clear of this. In the B2B industry, the approach is much more formal and ‘non-salesy’. We like to contact people because we genuinely believe they will benefit from our client’s offerings. We also integrate our telemarketing with other channels such as email marketing, creating multiple touch points which might suit the prospect better.”

Toby started telemarketing when he dropped out of college 14 years ago, and wanted to earn money to travel the world. He saw the potential and was drawn in by the direct and ‘to the point’ approach, whilst having a great sense of satisfaction in assisting with the success, growth and sales that telemarketing offers to businesses.

“Telemarketing will be around forever, simply because you won’t ever be able to beat the genuine human interaction it offers. I strongly believe that, in my lifetime, there will not be any development that will replicate the engaging and captivating approach our telemarketers take.”

To find out more about what The Lead Lab do, call us on 0333 207 0540.