It’s so simple, pick up the phone and speak to them….telemarketing is great. You get to speak to hundreds (or thousands) of your targeted prospects and communicate directly with the decision maker. So what can go wrong?
Why doesn’t it always work?
Mainly it’s because some key elements of a campaign are not planned properly or may be missed out altogether. We have plenty of experience managing telemarketing and lead generation campaigns and so we’ve put together a quick guide on what not to miss out of your campaigns to ensure you get successful results every time.
Planning
Most businesses plan their telemarketing – at least to some degree. The trouble is it’s always seen as a stand alone activity and not part of the long-term sales plan or integrated marketing activity (see previous blog post: http://wp.me/p1dj1C-3A Using telemarketing as part of an integrated campaign). Whilst telemarketing does work on its own, it’s far more effective when it’s part of an integrated approach and you have the chance to consider all the stages of the sales cycle.
“You know how some telemarketing companies start a campaign without doing a pilot to test out the data, decision contact rate, scripting, approach, call flow and results. Which means that you cannot test their promises. Well what we do is pilot and test all our clients’ campaigns for 6-12 weeks before we start. Which means that you know what you’re going to get and can make changes before a full roll out takes place.”
Data
Good data is the key because it’s very demoralising for either skilled telemarketing agents or in-house teams to be working with data that is out of date, where people have left a company. It’s easy to clean the date first and then you can proceed with confidence and better than average conversation rates.
“You know how some telemarketing companies collect renewal dates but no other information. Which means that you only get part of the picture. Well what we do is collect additional information during the call to check contact details, value of premium and permission for ongoing contact. Which means that you get true marketing insight into your customers up to date details and purchasing choices.”
Objectives
Sales isn’t it? Well yes, but you can’t expect everyone to be at the buying stage right now. So it’s sales now, or in the future – and that means capturing relevant customer insight such as “why not now” and “when might you” and “if not us, then who and why”. A key objective is to turn todays “no” into a “yes please” in the future.
“You know how some telemarketing companies only contact your customers once a year. Which means that you don’t know what’s relevant to them. Well what we do is deliver integrated keep warm strategies to touch points at various stages throughout the year. Which means that when it’s time to talk about the matter in hand your brand is firmly in their mind.”
Training
The trouble is with telemarketers is that they come… and they go. This means that regular training is crucial to the team’s success. Training about products, sectors, markets and insight into types of businesses and individuals is a key part of getting it right. A council is very different from a mobile phone company. A Financial Director is very different from a Marketing Director. They all need to be contacted at different time, on different days, in different ways.
“You know how some telemarketing companies employ temporary staff who are highly commission driven. Which means that the quality of contacts and conversations to your clients/prospects may suffer. Well what we do is only employ salaried staff who have been recruited for their B2B aptitude. Which means that they are confident having decision level conversations at all levels of the organisation.”
Objections
Plan to receive rejections – because a major part of telemarketing planning is not about getting the objections but how to deal with them. Often to an inexperienced telemarketer they’re viewed with fear, but actually they should be welcomed. Why? Because you cannot make a sale without objections they are a natural part of making a decision and objections often mean that someone is interested and wants to know more, or is seeing how you behave and how you handle their objections. Welcome them and plan for them.
“You know how some telemarketing companies take ages to feedback what’s happening on a campaign. Which means that you can’t react as quickly as you’d like. Well what we do is feedback quickly and amend the campaign with updated information in real time rather than waiting for review dates. Which means that we don’t waste a minute of your calling time getting it wrong
We believe that telemarketing is not a job that simply starts and finishes with someone (anyone) talking on the phone, we know that it involves sophisticated market analysis and target profiling, expert data sourcing, results focused analysis and reporting and more importantly a team who have telemarketing in their heart to consistently deliver your message to the right person, at the right time and in the right way.