Telemarketing sounds like a simple idea. Make a few calls, speak to people and promote your business – you’re bound to get results right?
Of course, it’s never quite that easy. Telesales is as much science as is is business, trying to match your service with the data and people you contact. If you’re just starting out on your telemarketing journey, here are 4 top tips that you can begin to implement today.
Know your target
Too many telemarketers just believe that “dialling numbers” will get results. Sure, that’s true to an extent; however, if you take the time to try and contact the right people – your conversion rate will improve massively. At the lowest level, this means filtering your data for old numbers, disconnected lines and obviously incorrect details. Once you clean up your basic data, you can move towards purchasing and finding data that perfectly targets your demographic. For B2B campaigns, finding the correct decision maker is vital to getting the responses you need; without this information you’re firing blindly.
Top Tip: Get your data right before you start dialling, spending time each week continually cleaning and optimising the contact details you have.
Tailor the message
Every person you speak to is going to have their own view on what makes the perfect solution for them. For some, it’s entirely going to be about price, whilst others will look at ease of use and how it’s going to make their life easier. Your best telesales staff will understand quickly what drives the decision maker on a particular lead, tailoring their pitch to help clear the path to a converted sale. Your job, as the person who runs the campaign is to help give them the tools to change pitch if required
Top Tip: Spend some time thinking about the different people who purchase your product/service. Once you have these persona types, you can create different pitches and themes to help convert these disparate groups.
Maintain your call amounts
This sounds easy right? Make enough calls and the sales will follow won’t they? Yet you’d be surprised at how often telemarketing campaigns slow down after their initial burst. There are a number of reasons for this:
- Not buying enough data.
- Not managing staff effectively.
- Not creating a culture of hard work and benefits.
- Not employing a dialler manager skilled enough to maintain a healthy campaign.
In an ideal world, you have enough quality data to dial – segmented into the many customer persona types you’re aware of. You also manage your staff, ensuring they’re actively canvassing and taking calls throughout the day. You should also have one person working within the campaign who understands how to operate your dialler system of choice, ensuring that you’re getting the best ROI on every data batch you purchase.
At Blue Telecoms, we offer quality training for any managerial or support staff you employ – helping them to deliver on the ROI you expect.
Top Tip: Aim for a level of calls per day that’s comfortable, then deliver the leads and management that can hold at that level for the long term. Once you do this, your campaign should deliver consistent results overall.
Engage and always prepare
This is a bugbear of B2B marketing, where telemarketers contact very educated prospects without any prior learning. This is a huge problem, as in B2B marketing, your decision maker is likely a professional in their chosen area. This is also an issue when you’re dialling to promote higher value services, as those you dial will likely have done some prior research and/or be knowledgable about the subject.
The way to combat this, is via good quality training and also fostering an environment where your agents want to learn about the product they offer. This education can take many forms, from simple product knowledge to an overview of the industry and your competitors.
Top Tip: Good rapport, knowledge and questioning skills make all the difference. These are all things that can be trained and reviewed periodically.
There are loads more tips to help you build and maintain a good telemarketing campaign. The tips above are a great start; however, one of the great things about telesales is that there are so many new skills you can add to over time. The best telesales agents, are always looking to build on their skillset. Your job as a campaign manager, is to give them the tools to do this.
If you’re looking for more tips, visit our telemarketing and dialler blog.