Been on social media lately? Turned on the TV or radio?
If the answer to either question is yes, then you’ve no doubt been bombarded with noise surrounding the upcoming election—angry rants, scathing campaign ads, squabbling media pundits, conflicting poll numbers, and an endless stream of inflammatory headlines. Throw in the closeness of the presidential race, and it’s no wonder that people of all political leanings are stressed over what the immediate future might bring.
But anxiety over the outcome of a presidential election is not unique to 2024. This trend has historically affected B2B sales; a recent study reveals that firms reduce investment expenditures by an average of 4.8% during election years. Presidential elections and the immediate aftermath often create economic volatility, leading to longer sales cycles and a hesitancy to make significant financial commitments.
Given this political climate and financial uncertainty, it’s easy to understand why business owners might want to put off thinking about the future until the turn of the calendar. But waiting until 2025 to start planning for 2025 has its drawbacks, especially if your competitors are already taking steps to grow their business in the year ahead.
Truth is, now’s the perfect time to start positioning your company for success in 2025, perhaps by partnering with an experienced lead generation and appointment-setting firm to help fill your sales pipeline.
Here are five ways a telephone lead gen campaign can help ensure a bright future, no matter how chaotic the present:
1. Spreading brand awareness
With all the noise and negativity surrounding this election, it’s sometimes easy to forget that businesses across the country (and your prospects specifically) are still dealing with everyday challenges that have zero to do with the political unrest. It’s felt lately like the world has gotten away from “normal” conversations, but now’s as good a time as any to reach out to your prospects, learn about their most pressing business concerns, and let them know ways your product or service can fill a possible need. Not through aggressive sales pitches, but rather through respectful communication.
Explaining their reasons for partnering with us, one current VSA client says: “We wanted to increase brand awareness through volume of new contact calls.” The more cold calls you make to new prospects, the more conversations you have with qualified decision-makers—and the more your company becomes front of mind.
2. Building authentic relationships
It’s hard to know what’s real anymore, especially on social media, where the words you read could just as easily have been created by an AI bot as an actual person. And that’s true for non-political content as well. Regardless of what people are selling or promoting, it feels like authenticity is in short supply.
Which is why building relationships and establishing trust through genuine human-to-human conversations remains crucial to achieving your sales goals. Social media and email outreach may be effective means of delivering your message, but they lack the immediate, personal connection that the telephone provides. Speaking directly with your prospects and truly listening to them eliminates any doubt that you’re a real person and lets them know you care about finding ways to help.
3. Reconnecting with current or lapsed customers
People are on edge these days, and that’s unlikely to change in the weeks, or even months, after the election. Hearing from a friendly, familiar voice might be a welcome reprieve from the nonstop negativity.
It’s always smart to check in with current or former customers to show your appreciation for their business, see if their needs have changed, and find ways to offer additional support, especially during times of economic uncertainty. Demonstrating genuine interest in your customers’ success and stressing the stability of your services helps strengthen relationships during a time when trust is in seemingly short supply. Maybe such warm outreach earns you a valuable referral. At the very least, it lets your customers know they haven’t been forgotten.
4. Researching changes in your market
Elections often directly impact the economy, which in turn affects the buying habits of your prospects and your market as a whole. Gathering valuable market intelligence through brief telephone surveys could give you an edge over your competition as you evaluate changing trends and plan your strategies for 2025.
Whether your market research is done in conjunction with an appointment-setting campaign or is strictly an information-gathering endeavor, it’s a great way to learn more about your target audience (and maybe even your competition) amidst changing times.
5. Fine-tuning your messaging
Generating interest from prospects during a cold calling campaign is never easy, but it’s virtually impossible without illuminating the value of your solution (as opposed to describing the solution itself). This becomes even more critical if your prospects are reluctant to make significant purchasing decisions, which may be the case during election years.
Updating your messaging to emphasize direct benefits and cost savings, perhaps by sharing ROI stories and case studies, may be just enough to pique a prospect’s desire to take the next step in the sales process.
Conclusion
Elections and their aftermath create unique challenges for B2B companies, and this year seems especially daunting. But normalcy will return, and it’s important to leave your business well-positioned for success in the year ahead.
If you’re considering new lead generation strategies in 2025, let’s talk. Regardless of what’s going on in the world, VSA is always excited to find ways to help companies grow their business.