Diallers

I'm looking for anecdotal evidence around the successful use of a dialler, particularly in a B2B environment. Good and bad points, advice, recommendations......would be much appreciated. Got the technology, understand the metrics, used many times in a B2C, but large scale B2B an unknown. Have the data, many million records. Will be using for re-activation, upsell, welcome etc etc.

B2B dialling is different from B2C but when planning your dialling campaign there are points of similarity. I suspect that this is particularly true in klw’s case where there are “many million records” and we are talking “large scale B2B”.

Almost by definition I would expect a target audience of many million businesses to comprise a very high number of very small businesses including one-man-bands.

Trying to contact small businesses is not too different from contacting consumers – the winning trick is to work out the best time to call. For example if your data includes shops don’t call on a Saturday – call on Monday afternoon. Focus on builders on rainy days… It’s one of those areas where a bit of clichéd thinking works wonders.

Differences to consider are:

You will reach a higher proportion of voice mail/answer machines in a B2B campaign compared to B2C, but listening to the messages will deliver valuable contact information “I’m not here… but you can reach me on….”

You will receive a lot of inbound traffic. Small businesses are more likely to view a missed call on their phone as a missed opportunity to sell to you! Be prepared for them to call you back. You need to ensure that your inbound call handling is at least as slick as your outbound.

Expect to reach a large number of people who, on first contact, will provide a time to call back “I can’t talk now but you can call me at…”. Ensure that you have strong processes or supporting technology to support specific timed callbacks

Businesses use mobile technology and are extremely likely to use email. Consider mixed media campaigns. If you can’t reach someone on the phone get your dialler to send an email or text message. But don’t forget the consequential impact on inbound.

The bottom line is that large scale B2B isn’t too different from B2C. If you have the right information to support clear targeting, dialling technology delivers results.