Telemarketing advice

[billtheinvoice]

Hi,

A business friend of mine who is an IFA wants to get into some telemarketing to increase leads.

I know this is a very general question, but is anyone involved in telemarketing/ran a telemarketing function?

If so, are there any tips on any aspects of telemarketing you could share?

 

telemax and kate1 should be along to help you im sure

 

[JessicaAutumn]

Get organised. Do not even pick up the phone until you have everything you will need pre-prepared. Too many people tell themselves they are Telemarketing for an hour, when really they spend most of the hour shuffling paper, looking things up online or doing other time wasting activities.

 

[AndyOwl]

We've tried everything! In the end, we came to realise that we just couldn't hack cold-calling - you have to have a thick skin and a HUGE amount of drive to do it for long periods of time.

Someone who was a proven expert in this advised me recently that you should make sure that you get at least two people to do it if you're outsourcing, so they can motivate each other.

Our worst moment came when we went to an agency: they charged us a fortune, and the telesales person turned out to have lied about their age on the form!

 

[Chappie]

This is a subject I'm interested in and would like to here about experiances.

I was considering using a telemarketing company to get me appointments with the decision maker.

What do they charge per hour and what claims do they make for sucsess?

Has anybody had value for money experiance?

Has anybody used them to get appointments with the decision maker and was it worth it?

 

[webgeek]

Check out Market Makers. Talk to Tom James there... If they can't help you, I know they can point you to the right solution.

If you're going to outsource telesales or telemarketing, make sure that you clearly understand your USP's and why someone would want to do business with you. Goals, objections and rebuttals need to be understood before anyone touches a phone.

With pros like MM, you get full transparency, so you know # of dials per hour, # of actual contacts, can listen to each and every call to monitor quality, etc. Transparency and professionalism are two things that separate pro telesales and 'phone rooms'.

 

[kate1]

Op, if you are going to give it a go, I think the main problem is people make a few calls and then give in, you have to keep going. Getting passed the gatekeeper is initially your first step, be pleasant and be honest, if the decision maker is not there, call back when they are. Dont let the person who answers the call try and make the decision for the whole company. If you know your product well you should be able to handle the objections your going to get. I think once you have done some calls it should get easier. Try not to speak to the prospective as if its a sales call as such, try and get a bit of rapport going

 

[Chappie]

Check out Market Makers. Talk to Tom James there... If they can't help you, I know they can point you to the right solution.

If you're going to outsource telesales or telemarketing, make sure that you clearly understand your USP's and why someone would want to do business with you. Goals, objections and rebuttals need to be understood before anyone touches a phone.

With pros like MM, you get full transparency, so you know # of dials per hour, # of actual contacts, can listen to each and every call to monitor quality, etc. Transparency and professionalism are two things that separate pro telesales and 'phone rooms'.

Thanks, that's great advice and I'll give Market Makers a call.

 

[Chappie]

Op, if you are going to give it a go, I think the main problem is people make a few calls and then give in, you have to keep going. Getting passed the gatekeeper is initially your first step, be pleasant and be honest, if the decision maker is not there, call back when they are. Dont let the person who answers the call try and make the decision for the whole company. If you know your product well you should be able to handle the objections your going to get. I think once you have done some calls it should get easier. Try not to speak to the prospective as if its a sales call as such, try and get a bit of rapport going

I don't mind doing it and I'm sure I will have a bit of success, I had my own PA where I worked and I know the kind of things she would say to filter the calls and stop every caller getting through to me. The purpose for me is to get somebody else to get me in front of the right person and then I can sell myself and services. It would be more productive if I wasn't on the phone all day.

 

[Paul12]

Chappie

I work alongside Tom James and have sent a private message across with my work email address for you. I will be more than happy to discuss the potential of telemarketing with you.

Kind Regards

Paul

 

[theleadmachine]

My two pence worth.

The following is really if you're thinking of doing it yourself. Outsourcing telemarketing has its own considerations such as paying per lead against paying a day rate.

1. Be prepared - like Jessica said earlier make sure you've got a few things ready before you even consider picking the phone up.

Data - where are you getting this from. I'm assuming you'll be calling consumers. There are loads of comanies out there selling consumer data and most will allow you to purchase lists which are targetted (eg, consumers over 50, specific geographic locations, net income that sort of thing). Data goes out of date fairly quickly, especially consumer stuff so don't work from old data - its a false economy in the end as the cost of data will only ever be about 5 - 10% of the cost of the campaign.

Script (ish) - know what you are going to say. Write a loose pitch. This doesn't mean sticking to it word for word but. There is no right or wrong way of doing this - only what works for you but getting things out in the right order is important. Intro, reason for call, need finding, benefit matching, closing

Features and Benefits - Always, always, always tell your prospect about the benefit associated with your feature. Don't assume by giving someone a feature that they'll decide for themselves what the benefit it. Don't feature dump ! Too many sales people just list off a bunch of features which mean bugger all if you don't back it up. In order to sell a benefit its got to be relevant to the person you're speaking to so do some need finsing in the early part of your pitch so you can match your features and benefits up against them. If yous sell cups for example theres no point selling the benefit that it has a handle and therefore means you won't burn your fingers when you pick it up if the person you're selling it to DOESN'T drink hot drinks !

Objection handling - this is part of being prepared. If you know what sort of objections you are likely to get you should also know the best way to overcome them. There are many schools of thought to how best to do this. Some people say ignore the first objection, skirt round the second and hit the third. Some people say if you've handled 3 objection and still not getting anywhere then knock it on the head. I use an old addage that works well with my team called WOQ (welcome, overcome, question)

Be realistic - Cold calling is about building a pipeline up. Don't expect to book a load of appointments on first calls. It needs to be done regularly. Far better to do regular short bursts than the odd full day here and there.

Activty - the more times you pick up the phone the more opportunities you'll give yourself to book an appointment. This isn't rocket science but it is the single BIGGEST reason why people fail when cold calling. Set a decent amount of time to one side and then focus soley on calling - don't get distracted. You should be aiming for a talk time of at least 33% but closer to 50% if you can.

Follow ups - if a prospect asks you to call back on a certain day at a specific time then do just that. Don't call the day after. If you can't follow a simple request by a client then how are they going to react to the other parts of your business.

Keep motivated - 95% of your calling time will result in what most people consider to be a negative result (no appointment, answerphone, future call back etc). Don't see it as a negative, see it at a necessary stage of telemarketing in that you're cleansing the data ready for making appointments. Do you think ye olde gold diggers from times past were any different ? Most of their time they were finding anything BUT gold but when they came across a nugget it made all the other "wasted" time worthwhile, its the same with telemarketing.

Aside from the above, and like the old Nike strap line "Just Do It"

Good luck

 

[Chappie]

This is the kind of help and advice I joined this site for.

Thanks Pete, I'll get some business friends to let me practice on them.

 

[theleadmachine]

You're more than welcome to practise on me if you like. I'd be happy to give you some useful feedback.

You can find my contact details on our website or drop me a PM if you want

Cheers

Pete

 

[Chappie]

Thanks Pete,

I'm going to take you up on that in the near future.

Dave

 

[MaxDigitizing]

Always keep in mind that every new call is new life, just forget about last call. What was the response in last call, how the person behaved etc.. remember every call is your first call, first life.

 

[Chappie]

Always keep in mind that every new call is new life, just forget about last call. What was the response in last call, how the person behaved etc.. remember every call is your first call, first life.

You make it sound so easy, just shrugging off knock backs. I suppose it's something I will have to learn with time and experience.

 

[captaincloser]

This is the kind of help and advice I joined this site for.

Thanks Pete, I'll get some business friends to let me practice on them.

Anyone with experience will probably tell you as I am that there is no such thing as practice with using the phone. Any artificial call is just that...contrived.

Selling is a huge subject and there is no substitute for proper training. However that does not seem the road you will be going down ?

In which case here's one tip. Remember not to vomit over your potential client...ie talk too much.

If you are trying to set a meeting..focus on setting the meeting NOT selling your product or service. Once you have achieved the object of your call...shut up and get off the phone. Many people keep talking way past the point where they are being effective.

Good luck, you will need it. The way to learn is to make mistakes, get on that phone and make mistakes... No phoning up of buddies will help you ..that I am sure of. That would be like practising chat up lines on your dog....no sense in it...but boy is it easy !

 

[Chappie]

Anyone with experience will probably tell you as I am that there is no such thing as practice with using the phone. Any artificial call is just that...contrived.

Selling is a huge subject and there is no substitute for proper training. However that does not seem the road you will be going down ?

In which case here's one tip. Remember not to vomit over your potential client...ie talk too much.

If you are trying to set a meeting..focus on setting the meeting NOT selling your product or service. Once you have achieved the object of your call...shut up and get off the phone. Many people keep talking way past the point where they are being effective.

Good luck, you will need it. The way to learn is to make mistakes, get on that phone and make mistakes... No phoning up of buddies will help you ..that I am sure of. That would be like practising chat up lines on your dog....no sense in it...but boy is it easy!

How did you know about this? Some of them weren't that ugly, well not after a load of beer

 

[captaincloser]

Just before the mods get involved....this is what I was referring to :

These guys buy everything you pitch them....

 

[Mitchell]

If you are trying to set a meeting..focus on setting the meeting NOT selling your product or service. Once you have achieved the object of your call...shut up and get off the phone. Many people keep talking way past the point where they are being effective.

Or; once you've struck Gold, stop boring.

 

[Chappie]

I've had a meeting with my business coach today and he has given me some tasks to do, one of them is to get my 60 sec pitch perfected. That should give me a bit of practice for when I'm calling.

 

[captaincloser]

Hold up ! You are the 'business improvement consultant' and you have a 'business coach' ?

I used to 'mentor' business coaches in how to sell themselves ('cos they didn't expect to have to do that and I sure showed 'em how to)....now they are coaching 'business improvement consultants'.

So how long will it be before I have a business improvement consultant knocking on my door ? Is this what they call the 'learning loop' ?

 

[Chappie]

Hold up ! You are the 'business improvement consultant' and you have a 'business coach' ?

I used to 'mentor' business coaches in how to sell themselves ('cos they didn't expect to have to do that and I sure showed 'em how to)....now they are coaching 'business improvement consultants'.

So how long will it be before I have a business improvement consultant knocking on my door ? Is this what they call the 'learning loop' ?

My core skills are improving the business elements like production processes, systems, quality control, risk reduction but selling myself is something I really need a coach for. How to find the right kind of companies and get a meeting with the decision maker is not anything I've done before. "Learning loop" or whatever new age funky name the buzz words are at the moment, I need it!!

 

[captaincloser]

My core skills are improving the business elements like production processes, systems, quality control, risk reduction but selling myself is something I really need a coach for. How to find the right kind of companies and get a meeting with the decision maker is not anything I've done before. "Learning loop" or whatever new age funky name the buzz words are at the moment, I need it!!

I made up the 'learning loop'...I know it'll catch on...

 

[Data Rich Australia]

Hi,

It's worth a try if you're really motivated, just be prepared for the rejection that comes with telemarketing so that you wont be easily demotivated.

Be aware if you are setting up an in-house team it really is a full time job just keeping the team motivated and performing.

Generally most businesses find it much easier and rewarding to outsource the telemarketing that way all their time and effort is spent selling.

 

[CallboxInc]

Bill,

The first thing that the company needs to do is figure out what they want. Do they want to generate leads or set appointments? Next, what are their target market, what industry, how big is the company and what specific area.

After they have settled this, they can look up telemarketing companies and present their plan.