In football, the play that often gets the most attention is the one where a touchdown is scored. This play is reviewed and analyzed repeatedly because it marks the moment of success. However, if we assume that the touchdown occurred from the opponent’s 5-yard line, it’s important to recognize that the drive began at the offensive 20-yard line. Over the course of eight well-executed plays, the team moved down the field, setting up the final scoring opportunity.

Similarly, in outbound telemarketing, scheduling a qualified appointment - the first crucial step in the sales process – its not the touchdown play, it’s the play that got the scoring drive started. This case study examines the series of "plays", the call attempts, that led to successfully setting appointments.

Since June 2016, Dunlap Marketing has been conducting an ongoing telemarketing campaign, which has resulted in the scheduling of 2,784 appointments as of August 2024. The campaign focused on companies with fleets of vehicles, particularly those with more than 80 vehicles. Key performance metrics include:

For this client, each prospective company is important, primarily because there is a finite number of total prospective opportunities available. The key point here is a finite number of selling opportunities.  The fewer there are, the more valuable each becomes.  In this case study it is also relevant to recognize the target markets represented by private and public sector companies while trying to avoid governmental organizations.

When you have a finite number of prospective companies to develop, and the value of each is high, time and tactful persistence plays an important role relating to putting them in front of your sales team.  If you can get appointments set, and your sales team presenting services, often the reward is high once you sell the business.  It is common that these types of prospects, when converted to customers, sign multi-year contracts and they generate high volumes of recurring revenues.

Other marketing strategies were being applied during this same period through social media, print media and digital marketing.  Outbound telemarketing was the foremost one-on-one marketing method implemented to support our clients' sales team.

This case study shows the importance of persistence in outbound sales efforts - just like in football, executing each play effectively leads to scoring the ultimate goal.