Successful Telemarketing

Setting a telemarketing campaign up for success

 I hear telemarketing being bashed a lot!  So many business owners say that it has not worked for them, my first question back is to ask them how they prepared, executed and followed up.   Interestingly there is a strong correlation between successful telemarketing  and a well thought out brief.   So many  of you out there expect a huge return for a pretty p***s poor preparation to be honest.

People will give you anything but their time

How do you really expect to get an appointment from a campaign when the poor person you are chasing does not even know you exist – relationships just don’t happen like that do they and neither does telemarketing.  If you are just supplying a cold list of connections for an agency (or your own people) and letting them start “bashing the phones” I am not sure what results you genuinely expect to get.

But if you consider the 5 strengths of telemarketing as offering

• human, personal interaction you can tap into that to gain insights into where they are at right now, how they feel towards your company/industry/solutions and their motivations.
• Telemarketing is the  most flexible and agile communication tool there is – the ultimate “bot” is trying to replicate the phone call! Don’t forget you can actually invest in the real thing!
• Rapport building and intelligence gathering – there is alot of insight to be gained from an experienced conversationalist on the telephone.
• Measurable and manageable you can be so finely targeted optimisation is a given.

 So if you have some curiosity and can see the qualitative information you would like to learn what might be a better approach to preparing for your next telesales campaign:

8 tips to planning a successful telemarketing campaign

 Somethings to consider and think again about:

1.  The list of contacts you want to connect with and where they are in relation to you, your industry and the buying journey (are they  strangers, clients, lapsed clients, old leads.
2. What is your number one goal (eg get an appointment) of the call
3. What qualitative information can you get from the exercise. When do they consider the purchase of what you offer (for instance if selling insurance there might be set renewal dates), how do they do what you can help them with now, what does it cost them,
4. What are the 6 most frequently asked questions you get about what you offer – make sure you have these written up in the brief you give to the team executing the work.
5. Have a curious, beginners mind. Don’t second guess the outcome.
6. If you equip your team to have the knowledge to be able to flex and take the conversation where it should naturally go and able to engage with people they will stand a better shot to connect with your audience.
7. Have a beginners mind, suggest a pilot of 50 calls before you review the script and approach for further tweaks. Your initial prime goal might just be too big a step to get too (a stranger to an appointment is a huge step – people will give you anything but your time) but with this wider remit and more natural “human” engaging and enquiring approach there are a variety of wins to get.
8. What is your follow up activity immediately and ongoing. An email phone email is a great opening telemarketing campaign but you need  a nurturing funnel to take your leads on a journey.

 Telemarketing is a great skill to outsource and here at Your Lead Generation we can bring a strategy and insight to your telemarketing approach and help you build a nurturing environment for successful sales.