Relationships—a Foundation for Trust
To help buyers feel secure in their decisions, vendors need to establish a trusting relationship with them. You can start to build trust with a buyer by publishing content on your website such as case studies, testimonials, white papers, and more. But the most important foundation for trust is a personal relationship.
Not only is relationship building essential, there are two characteristics of the B2B market that make it possible.
First, the market is generally limited to a much smaller universe than, for example, the beverage-drinking population targeted by The Coca Cola Company. Second, B2B relationships tend to be long-term rather than short. Therefore, businesses can justify the cost of building relationships based on the lifetime value of a client.
The Power of the Human Touch
When a B2B marketing organization reaches its customers and prospects on a human, emotional level, the effects are powerful. The best way to do this is through honest, memorable, relevant one-on-one conversations. This enables a B2B organization to break through the clutter and establish a true connection, building trust, gaining credibility, and maintaining valuable relationships.
In addition, it allows an organization to glean valuable business intelligence. That’s because these conversations are more about listening than talking. You learn about the prospect’s challenges, how their decision process works, objections they have to your solutions, and other obstacles thrown in the way of a sale. These include anemic budgets, lack of purchasing authority, a whirlwind of changes within an organization, and more.
The Smart Way to Build Relationships
Let’s face it, people are expensive. So hiring enough sales people to build all these relationships could take its toll on your bottom line. But you actually don’t need to add people on the street. You just need people on the phone. That’s because when you’re building a relationship, prospects might be happy to chat quickly on the phone, but they’re not ready for a face-to-face meeting.
B2B telemarketing, however, has proven extremely effective in developing a rapport with prospects. And, of course, these prospects are much more likely to turn into buyers once you’ve developed the relationship. So telemarketers build the relationships, pass quality leads to the sales force, and ultimately the human touch drives growth. Telemarketing offers lead nurturing that works.
To learn more, read our free white paper: Human Touch in a Digital World.