Getting personal has worked small wonders for companies working financial services. Banks, advisors, and even accountants tend to work better with clients who actually treat their connection like a real, human relationship.

It’s also been said that the introduction of data technology can only improve those relationships by making it easier to know things about clients and prospects. More data certainly does improve lead generation campaigns and helps you predict buyer behavior.

And yet, is observing behavioral data and tailoring automated marketing responses really the way to communicate? Is it really the sort conversation that nurtures human B2B relationships?

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Tags: b2b lead generation • b2b telemarketing • big data • finance lead generation • lead generation • lead generation for financial advisors • telemarketing lead generation

When your target leads are women business decision-makers, it’s not a huge stretch to try and consider workplace gender issues, especially when you think tackling these can help you better understand and engage your leads. Be warned, though, that dwelling too much on things like these can backfire on your campaigns.

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Tags: b2b lead generation • b2b telemarketing • sales leads • telemarketing tips • women's history month • workplace gender issues

When it comes to financial services, there’s really a lot of dread when it comes to the phone. No, telemarketing calls about mortgage schemes or credit card management hardly frighten. What business owners truly fear are calls from collectors and loan sharks.

Unfortunately, these fears only worsen the general attitude towards a necessary evil in the finance industry. Money that is lent must be returned. It’s that simple. But at the same time, marketing the services that ask for that return make you look like a crime lord (or at least, the right hand man of one).

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Tags: b2b telemarketing • debt settlement leads • finance telemarketing • lead generation • prospect education • sales leads • telemarketing

Already the first month of the new year is coming to a close. Throughout the year, you may have already tried many new and innovative marketing techniques. However, it also pays to review the basics such as what makes for a successful telemarketing campaign in the financial services industry.

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Tags: b2b lead generation • b2b marketing • b2b telemarketing • financial telemarketing

Big Data. You might have heard or read it somewhere (and most likely, the source was business IT-related). It’s a term that is seeing increased use in all areas of business management from marketing and sales to accounting and manufacturing. However, what does this have to do with financial services and more importantly, what’s the connection to making sales leads?

Well a few months back, Networkworld published a slideshow that might be of some interest to those in the financial services industry:

“When it comes to Big Data, the financial services sector has been somewhat slow on the uptake. Neil Palmer, partner of SunGard Consulting Services’ Advanced Technology Business, explains it as a cautious approach to innovation driven by the heavily regulated nature of the industry. But with data growth becoming a challenge and increasing pressure to bring down operational costs, Big Data is beginning to shape financial services too.”

Notice how the slideshow goes on to describe the rising demands and how it says that Big Data is supposed to meet these demands. If your financial service firm has already understood, then it’s likely you already have (or at least just begun) to incorporate Big Data for your functions.

The question is: Does your client know?

Not just your current clients either, but also the potential ones you’re qualifying and pursuing as financial leads. Going back to the slideshow, there’s a chance that they might understand one or two slides. However, what about the rest?

What you’ll see is the risk posed by Big Data and one of the things it’s supposed to manage: large, and large amounts of information. The problem is that same volume could overload the minds of your prospects and give them an unnecessary headache.

Prior to qualifying your sale leads, your marketing agents should go to the prospects first and ask just what is it that they want to know. Financial services cover a wide array of business functions but the top-most concern for an individual prospect might be a selected few. If not a selected few, they could still rank them all in terms of priority. If you’re going to involve Big Data, you need to prepare for the following questions:

• How does this help? – This is one of the most popular questions posed for Big Data gurus. You don’t have to be at that level but it helps to at least have marketing inform sales that the relevance of Big Data is an issue for the prospect.

• What helps where? – The slide show demonstrates how Big Data assists in the processes of several functions. But as stated before, these functions can have varying priorities for each, individual prospect. Demonstrate how Big Data aligns to these priorities.

• Will this raise costs? – Big data can be expensive. And at first, that runs counter to companies like yours who offer cost-effective services for outsourcing clients. Marketers should be ready to warn sales of if this will be a concern for a qualified prospect.

Whether the qualification was done via social media engagement or B2B telemarketing, qualified sales leads should be for the purpose of helping sales teams prepare. Your use of Big Data in your own services may not always ring well with your prospect. That doesn’t mean you should reconsider it but it should mean that you must avoid the dangers of data overload.

Tags: appointment setting • b2b leads • b2b telemarketing • financial leads • lead generation • sales leads