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Drew Patel on leading telemarketing

By Drew Patel

Director - Your Lead Machine

Much like the ethos and approach of his lead generation business, Drew Patel has built his career from the ground-up: with hard work formed from the foundations of trust and reputability.

From beginnings in the metals and plastics industry, to working as a carer, and a stint for Royal Mail, Drew found his entrepreneurial calling via the BNI when a business coach was looking for a telemarketer.

With a character compatible with the telemarketing trade, Drew soon found increasing demand for his skills and established Your Lead Machine, making telemarketing and other lead-generating services accessible to other small businesses.

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What's the business setup and services of Your Lead Machine?

The business has evolved and adapted over time. We're a lead generation agency and we understand the multiple touch points. We do all the legwork for clients – we make the phone calls, we send emails, we find the decision makers on LinkedIn, we create blogs, case studies, social media content – everything that ensures that our client will be remembered by prospective customers because they've been nurtured in a professional but educational way.

We’re about lead nurturing, lead managing, and building a very strong pipeline. We’ve got a team of telemarketers that do the initial grunt work, and we've got a couple of digital marketers who do the email follow ups, LinkedIn campaigns, social posts, case studies, and content creation. I'm the MD, and my business partner, who's my brother, is our sales and marketing director.

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What type of businesses do you support with lead generation marketing?

We support businesses as small as a one-man band carpenter who just needs a phone answered. We do a call answering service as well as support with social media and lead generation.

At the other end of the scale, one of our larger clients is E.ON. We work for their electrical charging division, contacting locations with large car parks about installing electrical chargers.

And we cover anything in between – software companies, coaching companies, packaging companies, logistics companies – we mainly specialise in B2B telemarketing lead generation.

What does your client journey look like?

Initially, it’s fact-finding – understanding their current issues, challenges, setup, what they’ve done in the past to generate leads, their current top clients, and where they’ve come from – so we can start profiling the ideal client.

The next stage is a strategy session. We create a bespoke strategy that works for their business, budgets, and target market. We’ll also analyse their website and other marketing materials to make sure they have the right messaging before starting the lead generation process.

When they come on board to work with us, we gather all their content and resources needed to start a campaign. Most campaigns are initially three-month campaigns. They get weekly reports, an update on what the activity has been, and a monthly review call.

Trust is a big thing in our industry, people have been burned with telemarketing so many times. We invite people to the office to sit with us whilst we’re doing telemarketing for their campaign – we’re so transparent and our team is so empowered and skilled that they’re open to anyone sitting with them.

"We’re about lead nurturing, lead managing, and building a very strong pipeline."

How big a part does social media play in your lead generation strategies?

We use it as a touch point. We might have made thousands of calls and have 200 prospects who want to find out more. We add those 200 prospects to our client’s LinkedIn profile, and then post content that their target market would want to see – it might be a case study, proof of concept, up-to-date projects they’re working on, or industry news – so that those new contacts see them in a very positive light.

It’s about being seen as proactive but not pushy, we don’t do social media ads, it’s just social media management and making companies visible to the target market.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

I go to the gym every day – for me, it’s just my personal time. I enjoy spending time there and going swimming.
I’m a big advocate of self-development. I enjoy podcasts, audiobooks, and reading.

I’m a massive Manchester United fan and I go to Old Trafford once or twice a month. I love Formua One; I’m a big F1 fan.
I like spending my social time in a quiet atmosphere – I love board game nights or having friends over for dinner. As much of an extrovert I am, socially I just want to chill.

"Trust is a big thing in our industry, people have been burned with telemarketing so many times. We invite people to the office to sit with us whilst we're doing telemarketing for their campaign – we’re so transparent and our team is so empowered and skilled that they’re open to anyone sitting with them."

Drew Patel - Director, Your Lead Machine

What was the last good thing you listened to, watched, or read?

Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast is consistently good, and I also enjoy Steven Bartlett’s and Jay Shetty’s podcasts. And Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy’s podcast is absolutely hilarious with great jokes.

Drew Patel portrait