1. Think that this is episodic – innovation is, contrary to popular notion, not an occasional event. Do not think about reinventing the wheel. Think about doing things in a consistent manner, and in a process that can be repeated long term. That is good innovation in your appointment setting campaign, one that can keep you in business long enough.
2. Keeping funding tight – one thing that you have to deal with innovation is the cost. If you really want your marketing campaign to pay out, you have to be willing to spend much at the start. Not doing so defeats the purpose of investing in innovation in the first place. Yes, you have to give funding to your current profit generators, but if you want to innovate to success, you need to learn how to spend more.
3. Forcing innovation to fit your business – if anything, innovation in B2B lead generation can only work if you are willing to adjust your business around it. You see, the reason you innovate is because something is missing in your current business set-up. Innovating within the confines of your business is not innovating at all. This is just plain changing the collar of the same dog.
4. The innovation leaders are out of tune with the market – when you innovate, you want to be responsive to the needs of your market. In other words, you need to think along the lines of your customers. But how will you do that if the people involved belonged to demographics and preferences that are different from the market? Now that is an innovation challenge. You might want to increase the diversity in your workplace.
5. Trusting assumptions – never, ever, assume that you know your market well, that your plans will pan out all right, or that you have all the things and the people you need for the job. Assumptions are, for lack of a better term, mere guesswork. And what does guesswork do for you? It simply messes up the innovations you have made for your telemarketing team is going.
As you can see, innovation is not a business strategy that you can fully control. But it can lift you up once you know which direction to throw it to. If you want it to improve your lead generation campaigns, you should be willing to take the risks that innovative processes bring.