Be Careful With Contact Data When Outsourcing B2B Telemarketing

You might think that outsourced B2B telemarketing services can save you the hassle of directly managing the process for generating targeted sales leads. However, that doesn't mean people still won't find a way to hold you responsible. Guilt by association may be a logical fallacy but if there's a direct connection between you and a telemarketer of ill-repute, then that won't be the case. In some way, you still played a part in whatever offense they committed.

Fortunately for you, excellent telemarketing is neither blind nor deaf to the demands of responsibility. One the greatest and gravest of such responsibility is the handling of customer data.

There are two ways that telemarketers acquire their data:

• Self-acquired – Their contact database is the result of their long years in the business. It's the compilation of many call campaigns, qualified leads, and even customer surveys.

• Client-Provided – Some clients approach them with readied contact lists and hand it over to  telemarketers to manage and qualify as targeted sales leads.

Regardless of how it's done, information like that is sensitive. It won't just contain phone numbers but it could also include physical and email addresses, their company websites, and the names of the decision makers. Whether you rely on them to obtain that information on their own or provide it to them, you should keep that sensitivity in mind. There are many dangers out there that threaten the value and quality of that information. Your outsourced telemarketer must be ready to assure you of security and is capable of taking countermeasures.

Here are just some of the things that can jeopardize business contact information:

• Lack of Back-Ups – Luckily this danger is the easiest to avoid. It's also the most basic. Many things can cause the loss of data whether it's something as sinister as a virus or something as natural as physical damage to the infrastructure. In any case, backing up your data is just as good an idea in business as it is when you're maintaining your own PC.

• Lack of Updates – This too is another basic requirement but what's interesting about this danger is that it also tests the quality of the telemarketing service. Information gained from lead generation should provide accurate insight based on up-to-date information on a prospect company. It should also tell you in what stage they are in the whole sales process and how fast they are being qualified. A lack of updates can indicate laziness and an unreliable lead generator.

• Outside Threats – In this category, you will find the dreaded hackers and viruses that will always remain a threat to anything digital. Anybody who reads online tech news will always encounter a report about password leaks, security breaches in even major web companies, and the growing notoriety of the so-called internet 'hack-tivism'. These threats should merit standards of security that you need to hold every telemarketer.

Now remember, if you hand over data to a telemarketing firm (or any other kind of marketing company for that matter), you can tell how much they've invested when they have a credible reputation for data security. You can never be too paranoid about competitors so you can't be too paranoid about the safety of your prospect data either. Storing, maintaining, and protecting that information is a great responsibility that every lead generator should be willing to bear.