Local/central government
NHS (inc GPs & care homes)
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Home » Marketing Databases » Telemarketing database » Public sector calling list

Promote your products and services by phone to the public sector

More Than Words Marketing’s public sector calling list contains the contact details of over 250,000 decision makers within the United Kingdom’s government, civil service, local councils, NHS and more.

Use our public sector calling list (part of our wider UK public sector database) to generate new leads from departments with the greatest operational need for your products and services.

The data will be licensed to you for 12 months, during which time you can promote your company, what you sell, and the benefits your customers derive from your products and services.

And, over the course of a year, you’ll have complete access to an account manager, our technical support team, and our advertising and marketing support specialists.

Making the most of your public sector calling list

The public sector has a much longer buying cycle than the private sector.

It is one that is built on establishing and nurturing relationships rather than the “hard sell”.

promote your products by phone with a public sector calling list

For advertisers, using a public sector calling list requires an effective telemarketing strategy.

Your strategy should be designed to create and find new opportunities, that can then be nurtured into leads over time.

What can you use a public sector calling list for?

There are a wide range of options for making connections in the public sector through your in-house contact centre.

These include:

Appointment setting

Decision-making within the public sector is complex and relies on input from multiple fellow decision makers and influencers.

Using calls to book appointments with budget holders in your chosen sector offers you a set time with a prospect.

During your appointment, your sales rep can explain what it is that you are offering and the value that your company delivers to its public sector clients.

Lead generation

While the public sector relies on tenders for its largest purchasing decisions, those purchases under £100,000 and for certain products and services go through public procurement departments.

Using your public sector calling list you can speak with the key decision makers involved in making these purchases to find out what their needs are.

A telemarketing call is also a great opportunity to find out:

  • what public sector organisations purchase,
  • how they do this, and
  • when they are likely to have a need for your product or service in the upcoming months.
generate leads from the public sector

Market research

Within your target market there will likely be a mix of potential customers.

Among them are decision-makers and influencers, buyers, managers and advisors but also, to some extent, sub and prime contractors.

Sub and prime contractors are excellent contacts to have as they are not your direct competition.

They also have insider knowledge of how public bodies are run.

Use your calling list to ask questions and get the contact information for others involved in the organisation.

Understanding your target market

Many public services are still managed and paid for by the state. However there are many departments and organisations within that now rely on private service contracts.

Public services managed by the organisations themselves (instead of by government agencies) are referred to as public service markets.

This is an often overlooked but important target market.

The contracts you win in these markets are between you, the service provider, and a public sector body such as a local authority or clinical commissioning group.

However, it is the point-of-service employees who are most affected by the suppliers chosen so it is these people that you need to impress.

Whilst budgets are important, the majority of public sector contracts will not go to the lowest cost option.

Instead, buyers are instructed to achieve the Best Value for local government services, taking into account what is being offered and its value to the institution instead of its price.

Thus, your telemarketing calls must aim to inform the prospect about the guaranteed outcomes they can expect from choosing your product or service.

How to generate enquiries and leads from your public sector calling list

telemarketing campaigns targeting the public sector

Once your research is complete then you can start making calls.

We run telemarketing campaigns to public sector organisations and our expert advice would be to follow these four steps.

1. Have a plan

Decide and write down an objective for every call you make. Plan for every outcome including what to do if you don’t reach the contact you wanted.

This is crucial when speaking with, for example, a government department. These organisations are adept at keeping their phone lines free for only the most important calls.

It is your job to ensure that you are considered an important call. Your plan should demonstrate this from the outset.

2. Write a call brief

A calling brief is essential to the telemarketing process. It provides a roadmap for the conversation to help you achieve your objectives without sounding unnatural.

3. Speak slowly and naturally

It is natural to be nervous when making a telemarketing call or be tempted to rush through the first part of your script.

However, this style of delivery actually makes prospects less likely to listen to you.

Force yourself to speak slowly and in a relaxed tone of voice that displays confidence and authority.

4. Have a conversation

Remember that you are opening a dialogue about what you can offer them.

Be prepared to have a conversation and answer their questions.

Analysing the telemarketing data on your public sector calling list

The majority of digital marketing approaches provide reporting that analyses the success of your campaign.

Telemarketing is a more traditional medium. Often you or your telemarketing team will analyse the data from call outcomes manually.

There are plenty of telemarketing report templates available online. However it will be useful to create a specific report for your own campaign.

Using your segmented public sector calling list, you could also run A/B testing on different approaches.

Analyse the success of each to refine your campaigns over time.

Public sector calling lists - FAQ

A public sector calling list is a database of the telephone contact details of decision makers within parish councils, the NHS, Parliament, local government, housing associations, higher education, further education, dental practices, central government, and care homes.

When you speak with one of our account managers, they’ll help you select the decision makers and influencers most likely to have a budget and an operational need for the products and services you sell.

You don’t have to buy the entire public sector calling list – if we find there are only a few hundred decision makers of interest to you, that’s what we’ll present you with.

When you have your telemarketing list, you can use it in one of two ways:

  • your current in-house telemarketing representatives contacts the decision makers on the database or
  • you outsource your telemarketing to a third-party provider if you don’t have a telesales team at the moment.

If you’d prefer us to make the calls for you, please ask your account manager about our telemarketing campaigns to the public sector.

There is no clear and widely agreed distinction between telemarketing and telesales however, internally within More Than Words:

  • telemarketing refers to booking appointments, generating leads, conduct market research, and promoting any events you’re attending or hosting and
  • telesales refers to making sales over the phone where a transaction is agreed and paid for without the need for a face to face meeting.

We cannot recommend strongly enough that you use the gentler and more consultative telemarketing approach rather than telesales.

This is for two reasons:

  • decisions within the public sector are often taken by multiple directors and managers all of whom have to be won over to your company and its products and services prior to purchase and
  • scrutiny over spending is much greater because funding for the public sector comes wholly or mainly from general taxation.

When you speak with your account manager, s/he will advise you on the most constructive and successful approach to take when in conversation with your target decision makers.

On each of the records on our public sector telesales database, the following information about the contacts are included:

  • salutation – Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms, Dr – etc
  • first name
  • last name
  • contact initial – the contact’s first name abbreviated to the first letter
  • job title
  • qualifications – the highest know educational or vocational qualifications the contact has achieved
  • seniority – the contact’s level of Management of the contact within the organisation
  • contact phone – the direct number for the contact (if they’re not available the main telephone number)
  • main phone – the main switchboard number for the organisation the contact works for
  • department – the internal department the contact leads or manages

On the same records as the decision makers, we include the following information about the departments and organisations they work for:

  • annual organisational spend expressed in millions of pounds
  • county – the county in which the organisation or department is based
  • main site – this lets you know whether the contact works at head office or from a different location
  • organisation name – the official legal title of the organisation
  • staffing levels – the number of staff employed at all levels across the organisation
  • notes – we include information of importance about each organisation upon discovery including forthcoming changes, mergers, and so on
  • higher organisation description – for example, whether the organisation is an NHS Trust, Local Authority, etc.
  • lower organisation descriptions – used to describe departments within organisation or to give more information about a larger organisation, for example Acute Trust, Metropolitan Council, etc.
  • Economic Planning Region for which the contact has responsibility (London/South East/etc)
  • Town or city – the town or city in which the contact is based
  • General area of government, for example Local Government, Regional Government, Central Government, NHS, QUANGOs, etc

When choosing the contacts you wish to get in touch with, please ask our account manager to select parish, town, or community councils containing the desired level of population.

We can include the banding of each parish, town, or community council on each record of your database for a small additional fee.

You can search for an NHS organisation’s official practice code, the numbers of GPs within practices, and the population covered by GP surgeries (provided in bands).

For an additional charge, we can include this information on the database you purchase from us.

You can select which decision makers appear on your telemarketing list of local government offices by the following criteria:

  • forthcoming date of the next election date,
  • number of seats within an local authority,
  • official LA code,
  • political party in control,
  • population covered,
  • the year in which political control last changed, and
  • ward names.

You can select Housing Associations to include in your telemarketing campaign using the following criteria:

  • number of units or houses owned/managed,
  • parent organisation name (if applicable).
  • type of housing,
  • type of tenants, and
  • whether the association intends to build new homes or units.

Yes.

When you call us, let us know the minimum and maximum numbers for the universities or colleges you wish to target.

Yes.

Please let us know which types and capacities of homes you wish to contact and we will run a count for you to let you know how many we have.

We have grouped the contacts on our public sector calling list in the following way:

Central government, further education, higher education, and Housing Associations

  • Chairman
  • Vice/Deputy Chairman
  • Chief Officer
  • Clerk/Secretary
  • Top Level Director
  • Second Level / Head of Service

Local government

  • As central government plus…
  • Deputy/Assistant Chief Officer
  • Third Level/Head of Service/Manager

NHS, NHS Management, and GP Surgeries

  • As central government plus…
  • Third Level/Head of Service/Manager

NHS consultants

  • Chief Officer
  • Top Level Director
  • Second Level / Head of Service
  • Third Level/Head of Service/Manager

Care Homes

  • Chief Officer
  • Top Level Director

Dentists

  • Chief Officer

Parish councils

  • Chairman
  • Chief Officer

The reason we have grouped the contact in this way is that each organisation within the public sector has a different internal structure.

They also often use different terminology to describe the same jobs.

We therefore use a system of seniority – the higher up the bullet points, the more responsibility they have for making purchases.

Next to each contact on our telemarketing database is an indication of their superiority together with a description of the products and services they’re responsible for buying.

Yes – you can add public sector email addresses to your calling database.

Please bear in mind that we only have email addresses for around 40% of the decision makers whose contact details we’ve recorded.

If you wish to have the ability to promote your products and services by both phone and email, please ask your account manager to make sure that both fields are fully populated on your database.

Yes – you can add public sector postal addresses to your telemarketing database.

Please ask your account manager when you get in touch for more information.

Yes. Your use of our public sector calling list is compliant for the following three reasons:

  • you are approaching the individuals on the database in their capacity as a decision maker for the organisation they work for,
  • the products and services you’re promoting benefit the organisation and not the individual in a personal capacity, and
  • marketing is a “legitimate reason” for using a contact database.

If you are concerned about GDPR, please ask your account manager for our GDPR policy when you call – we’re happy to answer any questions you have.

No – once your 12 month licence has expired, you need to renew the licence for another 12 months in order to be able to continue contacting public sector decision makers by phone.

There are three exceptions to this rule though and they are as follow.

You can continue to stay in touch with a contact if they have responded directly to a telemarketing campaign and they have:

  • purchased from your company,
  • negotiating with you but they are yet to purchase from your company, or
  • indicated that they wish you to stay in touch with them in writing (please keep these records safe).

Buying a public sector calling list from More Than Words

Get in touch with More Than Words Marketing

We’re open during office hours between Monday and Friday.

Contact us and let us know what you want to achieve when you buy a telemarketing list.

We’re available on 0330 010 8300 or you can email our marketing databases team by clicking here .

Contact us about our public sector calling list

To speak with one of our account managers, please call us on 0330 010 3495, click here to email us, or fill in the form below and we’ll get back in touch with you as soon as possible.