The internet, smartphones and social media have radically changed how businesses market their products and services. The result has been a shift from traditional channels such as print, TV, radio and direct mail toward digital marketing.
Companies now have numerous ways to reach their target audience. They can use social media marketing on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram. Businesses can also run paid advertising campaigns on Google or programmatic display ads.
Despite all the changes technology brings, many traditional marketing strategies continue to deliver a strong return on investment. Several industries still heavily use telemarketing to sell B2B products and services. Some examples include businesses in healthcare, SaaS (software-as-a-service) and financial services.
In a digital-first world, your ideal customers are bombarded with emails and ads. Cutting through the noise to have a real conversation and build a predictable sales pipeline feels almost impossible. Your best sales reps are bogged down with prospecting instead of closing, and relying on passive inbound leads is slow and unpredictable. Every day you wait, your competitors are having direct conversations with your future customers.
This guide is your complete 2025 playbook. We’ll walk you through a step-by-step strategy to leverage B2B telemarketing, from writing a high-converting script and navigating TCPA laws to measuring ROI and integrating calls with AI to gain a competitive edge.
What Is B2B Telemarketing?
Business-to-Business (B2B) telemarketing is a marketing strategy companies use to sell their products and services to another business over the phone. B2B telemarketing is a cost-effective method to generate leads, build brand awareness and gain valuable insights into your target audience.
The purpose of the call can vary. It could be a cold call to generate leads, a follow-up call to nurture and qualify a prospective customer or an outreach for market research. Telemarketing is a broad term; it’s not limited to just cold outreach.
Any business or company can stand to benefit from B2B telemarketing. It’s most commonly used in financial services, healthcare and SaaS industries. An in-house team can run B2B telemarketing; however, some companies outsource the task to a call center. Outsourcing can save money, time and resources.
B2B telemarketing is cost-effective. It builds trust and connects your best salespeople with key decision-makers. With your best sales representatives on the line, you’ll be able to qualify leads faster and close more deals.
B2B telemarketing can be used to sell several types of products and services. It’s particularly effective for more expensive products with longer sales cycles. When developing a telemarketing process, it’s important to consider the complexity of the purchasing decision. Ask yourself how many key decision-makers are involved and make sure your team is ready to cater to each business.
What Is the Difference Between B2B Telemarketing and Telesales?
B2B telemarketing and telesales are two distinct functions within a sales strategy, though many people use the terms interchangeably.
B2B telemarketing focuses on lead generation, demand generation and information gathering. Its purpose is not to make an immediate sale but to identify and nurture potential customers, create brand awareness, conduct market research and set appointments for the sales team. It operates at the top of the sales funnel, acting as the initial touchpoint and filtering out unqualified leads.
B2B telesales focuses on closing sales directly over the phone. It is a pure sales function focused on converting qualified leads into paying customers. It operates at the bottom of the sales funnel, taking qualified leads and focusing on the transaction.
The fundamental difference is their objective: telemarketing creates opportunities (lead generation), while telesales closes deals (sales conversion). An effective analogy is to think of a soccer team: Telemarketing is the midfielder who passes the ball and makes the assist, while telesales is the striker who takes the shot and scores the goal.
Why Is B2B Telemarketing Still a Powerful Strategy?
When implemented correctly, B2B telemarketing is a time-tested strategy that can lead to several positive business outcomes. This is true even though digital marketing has become the most widely used marketing approach. It still pays to pick up the phone and call.
Here are five major benefits of B2B telemarketing:
Generate Higher Quality Leads
Qualified lead generation is the biggest and most obvious benefit of telemarketing for B2B companies. The strategy works by acquiring a list of prospects, which can be accomplished in several ways. The easiest is to use a lead generation tool like UpLead.
A telemarketer will call each individual or company with a targeted prospect list and generate qualified leads. These can then be passed along to a representative from the sales team to close the deal.
B2B telemarketing is great for qualified lead generation, even compared to digital marketing strategies like email marketing. Communicating over the phone is more personal than any other form of contact. This makes it an extremely effective prospecting method.
Build Real Human Relationships and Trust
In an increasingly automated B2B landscape, genuine human interaction is a significant competitive advantage. Telemarketing allows for dynamic, two-way dialogue where sales professionals can understand specific needs, answer questions in real-time and build trust.
Non-verbal cues like tone of voice convey empathy and sincerity, which are crucial for building rapport. This human element is especially important for complex B2B sales cycles where multiple decision-makers need to feel confident in both the product and the people behind it.
Companies like Intelemark, with over 20 years of experience and now part of Global Empire Corporation, emphasize a quality-over-quantity approach using experienced, US-based agents for complex sales cycles.
Increase Brand Awareness
Another primary benefit of B2B telemarketing is brand awareness. Even if you don’t close a deal, you’ve made the lead aware of your company and its products and services. This exposure gets your business’s name out there and feeds into your inbound sales strategy.
Gain Immediate Feedback
Learning more about your target audience is essential to operating a business. To sell your product or service, you should understand your prospects on a fundamental level. B2B telemarketing is one of the best ways to get immediate feedback from your target audience.
One of the great things about B2B telemarketing is that it’s done over the phone. This means you can record calls and review them to learn what worked and what didn’t. Telemarketing technology also allows you to track and measure call data. This can include metrics such as call length and connect rate.
Achieve a Measurable and Scalable ROI
B2B telemarketing is highly measurable through KPIs like ROI (calculated as ((Revenue Generated – Campaign Cost) / Campaign Cost) * 100), Conversion Rate, Cost Per Lead and Lead Quality Score. This level of measurement allows you to optimize your campaigns continuously.
It’s also scalable by adding more agents, increasing call volume or refining target lists. Compared to other marketing and sales strategies, B2B telemarketing is cost-effective and provides a strong return on investment. Many modern approaches to marketing involve more indirect methods that take longer to pay off.
Is B2B Telemarketing Still Effective in the Age of Digital Marketing?
Despite the rise of digital marketing, B2B telemarketing remains highly effective in 2025. Here’s why:
Cuts Through Digital Noise – B2B decision-makers face digital fatigue with attention spans just over 8 seconds. However, 57% of C-level executives prefer phone contact for complex purchases and 82% of buyers have accepted meetings from cold calls.
Builds Genuine Human Relationships – Phone conversations allow for real-time, two-way dialogue that builds trust and rapport crucial for complex B2B sales cycles.
Generates Immediate Feedback – Telemarketing provides instant response, allowing reps to qualify leads, handle objections and gather market intelligence in real-time.
Delivers Proven Results – Recent 2024 data shows an average B2B cold call success rate of around 4.82%, with over 50% of B2B leads still originating from cold calling. Companies like Leads at Scale demonstrate this effectiveness, with their US-based team making over 12,000 outbound calls per month to generate pre-qualified appointments.
What Are the Main Types of B2B Telemarketing?
There are two main types of B2B telemarketing: outbound and inbound. Both are effective strategies for generating new leads, building brand awareness and gaining immediate feedback from your target audience.
Below, we’ll cover the particulars of inbound and outbound telemarketing and explain how they differ from each other.
Outbound Telemarketing
Outbound telemarketing is when your company initiates an interaction by contacting a prospect. This type of telemarketing uses cold calling when you contact a prospect you’ve never interacted with.
Many sales reps shudder at the thought of cold calling. However, it’s still one of the most effective ways to reach key decision-makers. Outbound sales representatives need strong people skills to effectively engage cold prospects and sell them your products and services.
Let’s walk through an example so you can better understand how outbound telemarketing works. Let’s say you’re a key decision-maker at a manufacturing company. You receive a call from a technology company that sells a SaaS (software-as-a-service) product.
You discuss it with the sales representative. They explain what their product is and how it can help your business. The offer sparks your interest, so you talk about pricing and meet with other key decision-makers at your company to discuss adopting the product.
Your team agrees that it can benefit the company. You return the call to the sales rep, and your business becomes a paying customer.
Inbound Telemarketing
Inbound telemarketing is when a prospect initiates an interaction by contacting your company. This is typically a phone call, but contact can also be initiated via email or a social media message. These leads are already interested in learning more about your company’s products and services.
A telemarketer will communicate with the target prospect and nurture them until they’re engaged enough to become a sales-qualified lead. The telemarketer will then pass the lead along to a sales development representative. The sales representative aims to close the deal—turning the prospect into a paying customer.
Let’s review an example to help you understand what inbound marketing is. Let’s say you’re watching television and see an advertisement about a mobile plan. You are impressed with the pricing and offers, so you call the number on the screen.
An inbound telemarketer accepts your call. They provide you with additional information about the mobile plan. You like what you hear, so you tell the telemarketer you’re interested in making a purchase. The telemarketer will either sign you up for a plan or transfer you to a specialized sales representative who can discuss the plan in more detail and make the sale.
How to Create a Winning B2B Telemarketing Strategy
Many components contribute to a successful B2B telemarketing strategy. Below are eight essential steps to build a winning approach.
Step 1: Define Your Goals and a Clear Offer
Setting well-defined goals before beginning your B2B telemarketing strategy is important. Start by defining your total addressable market—TAM for short. This is how big the market is for a specific product or service. It also makes sense to consider your competitors’ market share.
Next, detail what you hope to accomplish with your telemarketing efforts. Contemplate both short-term and long-term goals. Don’t forget to consider how the campaign will fit into your budget.
Step 2: Build a Precise Ideal Customer Profile
You should understand your audience fundamentally if you intend to sell them products and services. It’s important to create ideal customer profiles. Customer profiles help define the characteristics of your ideal customers and clients. They’re also referred to as buyer personas.
Client profiles include firmographic information about your target companies, such as annual revenue, number of employees and geographic location. They can also include demographic data about key decision-makers within the companies.
Developing highly accurate buyer personas is an essential part of your sales process. It’ll align your product, marketing and sales materials closer to your target audience’s pain points. This kind of unison will help create a customer relationship built on trust.
A B2B lead generation tool like UpLead can help you find your ideal target prospects. The platform offers an extensive B2B contact database with information on businesses and key decision-makers.
Step 3: Source a High-Quality, Compliant B2B Contact List
The first and most important step to B2B telemarketing is to target the right prospects. What is the point of calling someone if they don’t fit your ideal customer profile/buyer persona? Your target audience should be individuals or companies that have the potential to become paying customers.
If you want your B2B telemarketing efforts to be successful, you must invest in high-quality prospects. There are several ways to uncover high-intent leads for your company. One of the best methods is to use a B2B lead generation tool like UpLead.
UpLead offers its customers access to an extensive B2B contact database. Over 180 million B2B contacts with email addresses, 16+ million company profiles, 16,000+ technologies tracked and much more. There are also mobile and direct dial phone numbers, and the database comes with a 95% data accuracy guarantee.
You can use over 50 search filters to explore the database and find your ideal prospects. UpLead allows you to search based on company size, annual revenue, demographics of key decision-makers, technology stack used and more.
Step 4: Craft a High-Converting B2B Telemarketing Script
A high-converting B2B telemarketing script is a flexible framework, not a robotic monologue. Your script should guide the conversation while allowing room for natural dialogue.
The 6 essential components are:
1. The Opener – Grab attention, establish credibility and get permission to continue in the first 30 seconds using a ‘permission-based opener’ like “Hi [Name], this is [Your Name] from [Company]. I know I’m catching you unexpectedly, but could I take 30 seconds to explain why I’m calling?”
2. The Value Proposition – Concisely state the benefit you offer, focusing on benefits not features, answering “What’s in it for me?”
3. Qualifying Questions – Ask open-ended questions to understand needs and challenges, turning the call into a dialogue.
4. The Pitch – Present your solution as the answer to their specific pain points with social proof.
5. Objection Handling – Prepare respectful responses to common objections like “Just send me an email.”
6. The Call to Action – Secure a clear, low-friction next step like “Does it make sense to schedule a brief 15-minute call next week?”
A customized cold-calling script can prepare your salespeople and telemarketers for various scenarios. It helps promote confidence, consistency and productivity. Scripts also reduce mistakes and make it easier to train new telemarketing agents.
Step 5: Know the Best Times to Call
The time that your sales reps and telemarketers call prospects can strongly impact your connect and conversion rates. If you call leads too early, you might disturb them while they’re sleeping or they may have their phone on silent. If you call them too late, they might be busy running errands.
It’s generally good practice to call prospects during working hours. Any time between 9 AM and 5 PM works. The day of the week matters as well. It’s unlikely that your target audience wants to answer business-related calls on the weekend. Most people spend their weekends with family and friends and are busy with hobbies and recreational activities.
Only call prospects during the work week—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If possible, make the call on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Monday might be too early in the week—people may need time to tie up loose ends from the previous week. And Friday may be too late—many people are already focusing on wrapping up their workday before the weekend begins.
To summarize, it’s best to call prospects on weekdays between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Step 6: Master Objection Handling Techniques
Your sales representatives and telemarketers should be experts in objection handling. Objections are when the prospect expresses why they don’t want to make a purchase or raises an issue with your product or service. A skilled telemarketer can overcome objections and alleviate concerns about the product. They know what to say to move the deal forward.
Use the LAER framework: Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond. Here are common objections with proven responses:
| Objection | Response |
| “Just send me an email” | “I can certainly do that. So I can send the most relevant information and not waste your time, could I ask you two quick questions about how you’re currently handling [business area]?” |
| “I’m not interested” | “I understand. Many of our best customers said the exact same thing when we first reached out. They found that by spending just 15 minutes with us, they could [achieve specific benefit]. Would you be opposed to learning how they did it?” |
| “We don’t have the budget right now” | “I completely understand that budgets are tight. Most of our clients see a full return on their investment within X months by [solving specific pain point]. If I could show you how this could actually save or generate money for you, would that be worth a brief conversation?” |
Step 7: Choose the Right Technology Stack
In today’s world, most marketing and sales decisions are data-driven. B2B telemarketing is no exception. If you want to generate many leads and close more deals, use high-quality tools.
A modern B2B telemarketing tech stack integrates several key categories:
B2B Data & Lead Providers for access to contact databases with filtering by industry, company size and location. Examples include ZoomInfo (enterprise-level platform with extensive global B2B database), Apollo.io (combines large contact database with sales engagement tools) and Cognism (focuses on globally compliant data with verified mobile numbers).
Sales Engagement Platforms & Dialers as engines of outreach campaigns, automating interactions across multiple channels. Examples include Salesloft (comprehensive platform combining sales engagement automation with conversation intelligence), Outreach (leading platform for automating and optimizing sales cadences), HubSpot Sales Hub (all-in-one CRM and sales platform with sequencing and call tracking) and Kixie (Los Angeles-based platform offering multi-line power dialer with AI-powered local presence dialing and deep CRM integrations, recognized with multiple G2 awards in 2024).
Conversation Intelligence using AI to record, transcribe and analyze sales calls. Examples include Gong.io (market leader analyzing customer-facing interactions to deliver revenue intelligence), Chorus.ai by ZoomInfo (captures and analyzes sales conversations for deal health insights) and Avoma (AI meeting assistant providing call analysis and coaching tools).
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as the central database. Examples include Salesforce Sales Cloud (highly scalable enterprise CRM with extensive automation) and HubSpot CRM (user-friendly with powerful free-tier for SMBs).
You should also consider using a cloud phone system or call center VoIP software that makes recording, measuring and tracking call performance possible.
Step 8: Integrate Telemarketing into an Omnichannel Approach
Treating telemarketing as a standalone activity is no longer effective. A modern omnichannel strategy integrates cold calling with other channels like email and social media to create a cohesive and persistent outreach effort.
This approach increases connection chances by meeting prospects on their preferred platform, builds brand familiarity before calls are made and creates multiple touchpoints that reinforce your value proposition.
Sample 14-Day B2B Omnichannel Sequence:
- Day 1 – LinkedIn connection request or profile view
- Day 3 – Personalized email referencing specific pain point
- Day 5 – First call attempt referencing the email
- Day 7 – LinkedIn engagement with their content
- Day 10 – Follow-up email with valuable resource like case study
- Day 14 – Final call or polite ‘break-up’ email
The key is adding value at each step rather than just ‘checking in’, with messaging consistent but tailored to each specific channel. Companies like Sobot, a well-funded San Francisco-based company with $205M in funding, provide omnichannel AI contact center solutions that integrate multiple communication channels including voice, chat and social media for comprehensive customer engagement.
What Are the Most Important B2B Telemarketing KPIs to Track?
With any business strategy, it’s essential to track and measure key performance indicators. Keeping an eye on important telemarketing metrics lets you know how successful your efforts are.
Metrics you should be tracking include:
Contact/Connect Rate – The percentage of calls that reach a live person. A good benchmark is 15-25%. It takes an average of 8 call attempts to reach one prospect.
Lead Conversion Rate – The percentage of contacted prospects who become qualified leads. A typical B2B range is 2-5%.
Cost Per Lead – Total campaign cost divided by the number of leads generated. This helps you measure efficiency.
Sales Cycle Length – The average time from first contact to closed deal. Note that 80% of sales require 5+ follow-ups.
Return on Investment (ROI) – Calculated as ((Revenue Generated – Campaign Cost) / Campaign Cost) * 100.
Collect your data and create a weekly report. Your B2B telemarketing strategy should constantly be put under the microscope. Your key performance indicators will measure how well your campaign is performing.
Analyzing these metrics will guide your strategy; they’ll let you know what’s working and what isn’t. You should constantly improve your process—always look for ways to optimize the sales process. Whenever you make a change for optimization, always test and retest to see if the new strategy provides value. Don’t forget to consider your budget; improvements only make sense if your company can afford them.
What Are the US Laws and Regulations for B2B Telemarketing?
Disclaimer: This information is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You must consult with a qualified legal professional to ensure compliance.
Key regulations include:
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) – Applies to both B2C and B2B calls, particularly concerning calls to mobile numbers. Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) is required for automated calls to cell phones, with penalties of $500 per incident, increasing to $1,500 per incident if the violation is found to be willful. These fines are uncapped and can accumulate to millions in class-action lawsuits.
Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) – The FTC amended the TSR in 2024 to apply prohibitions on misrepresentations to B2B telemarketing calls due to rising B2B scams, meaning B2B callers must not make false or misleading statements.
National Do Not Call Registry – While primarily for consumers, its rules can apply to B2B calls, especially dual-use numbers. Businesses must scrub call lists against the National DNC registry at least every 31 days and maintain an internal DNC list.
State Laws – Many states like Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland and Connecticut have enacted stricter ‘mini-TCPA’ laws with penalties reaching up to $20,000+ per violation.
MarketReach Inc., with over 20 years of experience in compliant telemarketing campaigns, emphasizes the importance of understanding both federal and state regulations for US-based B2B telemarketing.
How Much Does B2B Telemarketing Cost?
Understanding the true cost of B2B telemarketing is essential for budget planning. There are two main approaches: outsourced services and in-house teams.
Outsourced B2B Telemarketing Costs:
Professional telemarketing services cost between $20-$60 per hour, with most businesses paying between $35-$60 per hour for experienced agents. Costs are influenced by factors like campaign complexity, agent experience and list quality.
Alternative pricing models include:
- Monthly retainers: $4,000-$10,000/month
- Pay-per-lead: $50-$300+
- Pay-per-appointment: $150-$450+ per appointment
Companies like SalesHive offer tiered pricing starting at $6,000/month for email and LinkedIn outreach, $8,000/month for phone and email outreach and $12,500/month for full multichannel campaigns. Martal Group offers fractional sales executive plans ranging from $4,100 to $10,500 per month, with one plan targeting 45-65 sales meetings per year from up to 2,500 prospects per month.
In-House Costs:
Average SDR base salary is approximately $55,000-$60,000 per year, with an additional $20,000-$25,000 in potential commissions, leading to an on-target earnings (OTE) of around $85,000. Technology stack costs $18,000-$36,000 annually, data and lists cost $12,000-$24,000 annually, plus recruitment, training and infrastructure costs.
Total estimated annual cost for one SDR: In-house ranges $138,000-$183,000+ vs. Outsourced around $83,200+.
AI Alternative: AI-powered solutions like Callin.io offer entry-level plans starting at $30/month for 215 minutes, with unlimited plans at $499/month for 4,990 minutes, potentially reducing costs by 65-80% compared to traditional staffing.
How Is AI Transforming B2B Telemarketing?
AI is significantly transforming B2B telemarketing by enhancing efficiency and personalization.
Generative AI for Personalization – Tools analyze customer data to create hyper-personalized content for every stage of the sales funnel, with Outreach using generative AI to create personalized email copy based on past conversations.
AI Co-Pilots and Real-Time Coaching – Act as live assistants during sales calls, providing real-time suggestions and feedback, with Microsoft Sales Copilot providing intelligent meeting insights and Dialpad offering real-time coaching.
Conversation Intelligence – Platforms like Gong use AI to automatically record, transcribe and analyze 100% of customer interactions, extracting insights like topics discussed, customer sentiment and competitor mentions.
Predictive Lead Scoring – Uses AI to analyze historical and behavioral data to identify which leads are most likely to convert, with tools like HubSpot’s ‘Likelihood to Close’ score and Salesforce Einstein Lead Scoring.
AI-Powered Calling Platforms – Solutions like Kixie offer AI-generated call summaries, sentiment analysis and predictive forecasting with up to 96% accuracy, while platforms like Callin.io provide AI virtual agents for both inbound and outbound tasks using technology from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s PaLM2.
Use UpLead to Build Your B2B Telemarketing Engine
The success of your B2B telemarketing strategy will largely depend on the quality of your leads. There’s no point in cold-calling companies and key decision-makers with no potential to become paying customers.
One of the best ways to find high-intent prospects is to use a B2B lead generation tool like UpLead.
UpLead is a cloud-based B2B lead generation platform that makes prospecting easy. It provides access to a large B2B contact database that customers can quickly sift through to find the best leads for their company.
The UpLead database features over 180 million B2B contacts with email addresses. Many of these contacts also have mobile and direct dial phone numbers. There are also 16+ million company profiles. Best of all, UpLead’s database guarantees 95% data accuracy.
UpLead has a powerful suite of features that can be used to explore the contact database. Over 50 search filters include demographic, firmographic and technographic options.
For example, you can search based on company size, annual revenue, geographic location and the technology stack used. UpLead tracks over 16,000 different technologies. You can also find key decision-makers thanks to the platform’s organizational charts.
If you’re considering running a B2B telemarketing campaign and want to start with high-quality leads, consider using UpLead today.
Frequently Asked Questions About B2B Telemarketing
Telemarketing is used for both B2B and B2C. Both have similar approaches but are geared toward different types of buyers. Business-to-consumer (B2C) telemarketing is designed to appeal to consumers. In contrast, business-to-business (B2B) telemarketing is often a more complex process since several decision-makers may be involved in the purchase.
There are two general types of telemarketing: outbound and inbound. Outbound telemarketing is when you have a targeted prospect list and your sales reps or telemarketers reach out to contacts. Inbound telemarketing is when a prospect calls you after developing an interest in your products and services. They may have visited your website or seen an advertisement and want their questions answered.
There are three main types of B2B sales: supply, wholesale and service/software.
Recent 2024 data shows an average B2B cold call success rate of around 4.82%, with over 50% of B2B leads still originating from cold calling.
It takes an average of 8 call attempts to reach one prospect, and 80% of sales require 5+ follow-ups.
The Future of B2B Telemarketing Is Human-Centric and Tech-Powered
The marketing landscape has shifted dramatically over the last two decades. The internet, social media and smartphones have changed how companies promote their products and services. Digital marketing strategies like SEO, PPC and display ads, social media marketing and email marketing have become focal points.
Traditional marketing channels such as print, TV, radio and direct mail have become less of a priority. However, for certain B2B industries, telemarketing still provides a strong return on investment. For many companies, it’s one of the best ways to reach key decision-makers and populate a sales pipeline with high-quality leads.
This guide covered everything you need to know about B2B telemarketing in 2025. If utilized correctly, this marketing method can generate leads, increase brand awareness and provide you with immediate feedback from your target audience. It’s also one of the most cost-effective strategies being used today.
The future belongs to teams that blend genuine human connection with smart technology—from AI-powered conversation intelligence to omnichannel sequences that meet buyers where they are. Start building your winning B2B telemarketing strategy today.
