5 Reasons Why Human-led Telemarketing Still Gets Results

With the increasing push to shift to AI for a whole range of services, you could be forgiven for thinking that the era of telemarketing is well and truly over. But interestingly, it seems that AI and other digital channels are making us value human-to-human conversations more, not less.

So, if you’re considering your life sciences marketing strategy, don’t write off telemarketing. In fact, you should explore how to bake it into your strategy so that you take advantage of our increasing desire for connection.

Let’s explore the top five reasons why human telemarketing still has value in a digital world.

Understanding the mood

When a human agent calls someone to discuss your product or service, they will listen closely to the intonation and words being used to determine whether they are receptive to the call. 

A human can adjust their approach accordingly, whereas an AI agent will continue along its pre-determined script regardless. This can make the person on the other end of the line frustrated and result in them hanging up when a human touch could have kept them talking.

So, while fully automated AI calling agents might sound great because they can get through a lot of calls and don’t need breaks, they are only valuable if they’re not frustrating the people they’re calling. 

Particularly in the early stages of nurturing a relationship, it’s essential to listen to what each prospect needs and adapt accordingly. This is where experienced human telemarketers come into their own. 

What’s more, research from Hubspot found that 96 per cent of marketers reported that personalisation increased sales, highlighting how valuable it is to meet your prospect where they are.

Regulating tone of voice

In interactions such as phone calls, tone of voice is vital for expressing yourself and building a connection. In fact, people are much more sensitive to the tone of your voice than the words you use when you’re communicating verbally. 

This is another reason why human-led telemarketing is so valuable. An experienced telemarketer will be able to match their tone or modify it to meet the person they’ve called where they are. 

Control over your brand positioning

When you engage a specialist life sciences telemarketing team like ours, they will take the time to get to know your brand inside out. That means they can confidently and accurately answer a prospect’s questions and tailor that answer to meet their needs. 

Digital sales agents are often fed a lot of company information, but they lack the ability to apply that information with nuance to different conversations. 

Naturally, a human telemarketer will read the room and be better able to position your brand in a favourable light. 

Using human-led telemarketing also gives you an opportunity to introduce prospects to the character behind your business. You can explain how you want your organisation to be represented and your telemarketing team can then behave accordingly. 

Building trust

This is perhaps one of the strongest arguments for continuing to use a human telemarketing team rather than outsourcing every activity to AI agents and chatbots. 

Research by Survey Monkey found that 84 per cent of consumers believe humans are more accurate than AI, while 79 per cent of Americans would rather interact with a person than an AI chatbot.

While AI solutions are undoubtedly improving, the perception among those using these tools is not following suit. 

Consider also what using AI agents says about your company to a prospective customer. Based on this research, many are likely to take it as a sign that your business doesn’t value their custom because you aren’t providing human-led support. 

This could negatively impact perceptions of your brand, even in B2B sales environments because even though a purchase is being made on behalf of a business, it is still a transaction that occurs between people. 

It demonstrates respect for your prospects

Investing in human-led telemarketing also shows your prospects that you respect them because you understand they are likely to want to have a comprehensive conversation rather than have a few simple questions answered by a chatbot.

This is particularly true in complex industries, such as life sciences, where a potential client may want to discuss use cases that are outside the norm, or where they may need to explain innovative approaches and technology to help you understand how your product could support them.

When you have a trained, experienced human team making those outbound calls, their quality will be higher and you will learn more about each prospect than you would if you used an AI agent that followed the same script regardless of what it was told. 

There is no doubt that AI agents and digital technology will continue to evolve and will improve how they work. 

However, even if they do, it’s important to remember that people still like to communicate with and buy from other people, which is why traditional telemarketing isn’t going anywhere.