Many industries are backing off of telemarketing as a business tool.  For many this is wise, since more people are utilising caller ID and refusing marketing calls.  However, there are some tips and tricks to help make a phone call campaign successful.

1.       Make it About the Customer

Traditional sales calls are a thing of the past.  It used to be that telemarketing was all about quantity and practically forcing a sale.  Now, people have myriad ways to avoid accepting calls they are not interested in.  Instead of preparing a sales call, do follow up calls for purchasers.  Call them to see how they like their product and ask for suggestions for improvement.

2.       Be Sincere

When you call a customer you should be prepared to take time with each person.  Phone calls are no longer quick sale opportunities, but instead chances to make lasting connections.  Ask for opinions and discuss the potential benefits.  Get into why the customer chose a particular product and what they’d like to see in the future.

3.       Listen and Track

Instead of a super-fast sales pitch, these slower paced calls allow telephone operators to find out more about the customer.  It is important for them to listen carefully to what the customer says and take copious notes.  Every customer should be tracked when possible.  Larger companies with huge customer bases can’t track preferences this way, but small businesses can.  Play to your strengths and keep customer preferences on file.  When follow-up calls are made the caller can record specifics that can lead to further sales down the line.  For example, if you own a clothing store and a client expresses a love for cardigans or the colour aqua, you can make a note in their file and when a product matching their specifications becomes available, there is a great opportunity for a direct sales call.

Small businesses often don’t have the resources to contract out this type of call, but they can usually be handled internally.  Business usually has busy times and slow times.  During slower times of the year, employees can make follow up calls to keep customers connected.  Getting a call three weeks after you buy a new pair of shoes or watch to see how you like it is always a nice pick me up.  Then getting another call a month down the road letting you know that a new shoe or jewellery item has come in with a similar style can lure you back to the store.  This less aggressive marketing strategy is a great way to adapt traditional telemarketing to modern applications.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Most people want to launch right into a script, babble about the benefits of their products and services, and attempt to make a sale. This is NOT an effective method of telemarketing.

What you should do is take the information you have about your product or service and use it to formulate a list of questions that will help you gain a better understanding of your prospect’s needs. Once you have a list make sure you ask one question at a time and then listen to the answer. Your prospects will tell you what they need without ever realising they’ve done so.

Another common problem is silence – as in, the lack of silence most telemarketers create. Silence is golden when you’re making phone calls. A silent moment or two means your prospect is formulating his or her answer and, when he or she finishes speaking, silently counting to two in your head before speaking will prove that you were listening instead of simply waiting for the next opportunity to speak again.

In your role playing practice (you do role play to prepare for telemarketing calls, right?) make sure you prepare not only to ask questions, but to respond to the answers. What’s the point of asking someone a question if you don’t do anything with the answer?

Lastly, don’t focus on presenting your product. Focus on listening to your prospect, asking detail-oriented questions, and then setting a follow up appointment where you can present a tailored proposal. Your prospects will appreciate the extra time you take to be attentive to their needs.

Telemarketing isn’t easy, but you don’t have to turn it into a terrifying ordeal for yourself. Simply know your product, relax, and enjoy getting to know your future clients!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Today we’re going to take a look at a few things you can do to plan for your calls as well as what you should do when you get a screener on the phone (ie. before you speak to the decision maker).

Before your calls:

Identify your purpose. What do you want to achieve as a result of this call? You may be dying for a sale, or you may simply be happy with generating a new prospect or lead for your team. If you can’t visualise the results you want to achieve, you’ll never reach them.

Question yourself. Think about your purpose and make a list of questions for yourself. Ask yourself how you’ll achieve the goals you’ve set, what actions you need to take, and what actions you’d like your prospect to take. Then ask yourself how you’re going to go about taking those actions.

Have a backup plan. In short, have a goal and a smaller subgoal. Say your goal is to make a sale today. Perhaps the person you are speaking to can’t afford to make a purchase. Will you settle for obtaining permission to contact them again or to send out an information package?

Once the call begins:

When you start making phone calls you’ll run into a number of situations where the person who picks up the phone is NOT the decision maker. You’ll need to be prepared to deal with a screener and know what to say in order to make it through to the person you really wish to speak to.

Do unto others. Treat the screener as politely as you would treat the person you really wish to speak to. He or she has the option of letting you through or not. A misstep on your part may result in a hang-up!

Ask for help. Just because you’ve reached a screener doesn’t mean he or she can’t give you information. Gathering information about a business is essential to your ability to tailor a sales call, so take the opportunity to ask the person who answers the phone for help answering a few questions and then ask to be transferred to the appropriate party.

Telemarketing can result in tremendous sales increases if done correctly. We’ll talk about other telemarketing tips in the future. In the meantime, take a few moments to stop and think about your goals. Are you really prepared to pick up the phone?

Happy Telemarketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Some people love it, most people dread it!

If you are making these calls at the moment, here are some tips to make you more effective at making them. If you are not making any telemarketing calls you are probably missing out on a lot of additional business by not making them.

Here are just a couple of tips to get you started:

TIP – KNOW YOUR OBJECTIVE

Go into each call with a specific objective in mind.

Is it to create awareness?

Generate a lead?

Make a sale there and then?

Think this through.

TIP – CREATE QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU CALL

Armed with your calling objectives, create some questions that well enable you to move closer to your objective.

Focus on their situation, not yours.

TIP – KNOW YOUR OBJECTIONS IN-ADVANCE

It’s not rocket science but every telemarketer will face the same objections.

“We’ve got no money”

“We are not interested”

“We don’t have the time”

“Can you call back later”

The list goes on!

You need to be armed with responses to each of these in advance to move the sale forward.

TIP – HAVE A PLAN B

So you are going nowhere with the call. Have a plan B up your sleeve!

This might be the case of sending them your brochure or adding them to your mailing list or digging for some further information of when they will be in the market for your product.

Be prepared.

TIP – YOUR OPENING GAMBIT

Introduce yourself and then your opening statement when you call should create some curiosity and interest so that they will want to hear what you have to offer.

Focus on them and not you.

TIP – REVEAL WHAT YOU ARE OFFERING WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT THEY WANT

Only talk about what you are offering when you know more about their situation or the probloem that they are facing. You can then tailor your pitch with their requirements and needs in mind.

Do you make cold calls to generate leads?

If you do, do you actually like making them?

Well, whether it is your full time job to make them or whether they are part of your job, the vast majority of people who have to make them do not like doing so.

I actually put this down to the way that cold calls are perceived by the person making the call and the fear of failure.

Hear me out here.

I bet the type of calls that you make either have a positive outcome i.e a lead generated or a negative outcome where the prospect does not have a need for what you are offering at this moment in time.

I’ll just back track for a second. I just used the term prospect for the people that you are making cold calls to. You know what? They are not even a prospect are they when you think about it? A prospect has just that – prospects of buying your produce of service! Cold call recipients are more like suspects!

I digress but it’s something to think about isn’t it?

As I said before many of you will view a cold call as a success or failure activity.

Let me ask you a question:

How many people that you know actually like failure?

Let me ask you another:

How many people do you know would do something 1000 times knowing that they would “fail” 995 times?

Not many I am sure and herein lies the problem.

It is the way that you approach your cold calls that makes you think that you fail if you do not get a certain outcome.

From here on in I would like you to view making cold calls as raising the awareness of your products and services. Do not go into the call thinking that you MUST generate a lead for your sales team, instead go in with the attitude that you are just raising the awareness of what you do.

Therefore, if you make 500 awareness calls per day over time you will build up a data bank of statistical performance that you can use.

You see, you cannot determine whether your suspect actually wants your product at the time of your call but you can control how you approach each call and what you say during each call.

Soon, you will know how many awareness calls you need to make to generate 1 sales appointment for your team and then you will know how many sales appointments your company requires to generate 1 sale.

Therefore, by knowing the stats you can mentally prepare yourself each day knowing that by making your 500 calls you will be generating £15,000 for your company for example and that will help you get through your calls.

You will then know the impact of making an additional 100 calls per day overtime and what it means to your bonus levels.

There’s an old saying – If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

So, in summary – change your mindset and you will change the way that you view making cold calls and you will feel more comfortable making them.

Also, understand the wider context of what you are doing in terms of calls to leads and appointments to sales ratios and it will help you to remain focused on the job in hand.

Happy Telemarketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Telephone 0800 849 6732

Marketing Consultant – Internet Marketing Expert – Sales Guru