Telemarketing Helpful hints

[Newbus]

Don't know about you but when receptionist tell me it's company policy not to give out names I could scream.



If you were to believe the receptionists or as we tend to call them "gatekeepers" that we speak to every day you would be under the impression that companies are holding meetings with senior execs making decisions about whether they can release the name or not of the directors, which are already in the public domain, but the truth is there is rarely ever such a thing. Instead there is the receptionist making up the immaculate excuse to shift us telemarketers off the phone as quick as possible with an excuse that we cannot argue against.


So, if you want to proactively get ahead of your peers and develop proactive sales meetings from your target audience then you need to "put your body on the line". By this I mean get stuck into the calling and not allow any form of obstacle "gatekeepers" get in your way.


We know that before we speak with a senior exec it is likely that we will have to pass through reception & the PA. Both have the potential of presenting you with barriers that may appear difficult to overcome. Here are the most regular blocking techniques that we see everyday in our lead generation and our basic approach to them.

1. "No names policy" - Don't waste time debating. Just ask for the CEO's PA. Then ask them the same question. You will be amazed how many time this works. If not call back every few days and ask again and again, and again. It is highly unlikely that this is "Company policy". It is most likely the personal choice of the person you are speaking too and they have to take holiday etc eventually. Then someone else will answers the phone and hey presto.

2. "Send me information and I'll pass it on. If they are interested I will call you back" - WE NEVER AGREE TO THIS. The moment that you release information gatekeepers can block you unilaterally. We call with the express intention of holding a business discussion. Stand your ground and call back another time without sending information. Otherwise you might as well have just had a direct mail campaign.

3. "They never take cold calls" - Ask / insist the gatekeeper attempts to put the call through. This works about 30% of the time. For the balance thank them and just call back and try again another day.

4. "Tell me what's it about and I'll let you know who would be the best person" - DON'T DO IT. Again gatekeepers will never tell you that you intended to speak to the right person, and end up palming you off to a subordinate. Ultimately, this just sabotages your sales process. Just stand your ground and if necessary call back another day.


If telemarketing was easy companies would be overwhelmed with new business. The facts show it is not. You need to be dedicated, consistent and persistent.

If you are going improve any one skill, concentrate on getting past gatekeepers. It is the single biggest factor that will increase the number of meetings you create.

Basis lead generation stats show that for every 100 calls to a director of a £100million+ company you will speak to 10 people and then make 1 meeting. Speaking to just 2 extra people a day would increase the number of meeting you can make in a full working week from 5 to 6. Take a moment to calculate through what that would mean to your business based on sales value, margin and close ratio. Then you can see the impact it makes

 

[Justin_B]

Some good tips here, despite the post being a rather thinly veiled advert for your business.

I’ve done a lot of cold calling in my time and I find that being honest helps a lot, tell the receptionist that it’s a speculative call and ask for their help. You’d be surprised how often this works.

 

[telemax]

Some good tips here, despite the post being a rather thinly veiled advert for your business.

I’ve done a lot of cold calling in my time and I find that being honest helps a lot, tell the receptionist that it’s a speculative call and ask for their help. You’d be surprised how often this works.

Exactly, just tell em it's a sales call right from the off and it's 10 times easier to build a rapport with a gatekeeper. In doing this you are separating yourself from the 99 other cold calls they received that day.

 

[Chrix]

Never say "I'm not selling you anything - I want to help you save money".

It's the biggest turn off of the lot. If they aren't selling why on earth are they ringing. Goodbye!

 

[maxine]

The thing about a "no names policy" is that it is the gatekeepers way of telling you that they don't want to put your call through as you have been lazy and not even researched the name of the person to speak with before making your call. And they are right!

So, do some research, get a name, and no problem with the no names policy. But better than debating whether it is a real policy or not.

And actually in some companies it is a real policy. Receptionists or Administrators will complain about the number of cold calls they get that takes them away from other tasks. Or bosses will ask how many cold calls they get. Hey presto - a real policy is born and its agreed by directors. Furthermore some of them will get into trouble for putting rubbish cold calls through.. it is their job!

Cold calling and gatekeepers in general is a whole other topic. Forcing, manipulating, cheating your way past gatekeepers can have a habit of biting you on the bum when you do eventually get through to a decision maker who is not chuffed about talking with you. There are other ways but for my view this comes down to respect and co-operation.

Here's an article on getting past the gate keepers



I struggle to say the word "speculative" on the phone so I just say sales call! lol

 

[ZMakarov]

its a greet post.. i really do not know about telemarketing before i read this.. its help me a lot in understanding things..

 

[activealex]

I love telesales! I always start by telling the receptionist 'This will be today's daft phone call!'. Then explain what it is I wish to discuss and ask who is the best person to speak with. 99% of the time I get the information I'm after. It's just a numbers game! Always remember to smile when you're on the phone!

 

[James1980]

*makes notes*


James

 

[David White]

Sounds like your making hard work of generating leads when places such as Linkedin and Google make generating much higher quality leads possible. Life is much easier when you already know the name and/or email address and/or direct number of your target.

 

[firephoenix]

what about some rubber stamps, business cards, printing, stationery, office supplies, name badges, or labels .. I know about online shopping for these items

 

[Chris Kaday]

Sounds like your making hard work of generating leads when places such as Linkedin and Google make generating much higher quality leads possible. Life is much easier when you already know the name and/or email address and/or direct number of your target.

Agree with you 100% David but most dont know how to do it or wrongly think social media is a waste of time.

Regards to all
Chris

 

[kate1]

Done ever sound desperate!!!

Myself I think that every person you speak to is of a different personality and adjust your pitch to suit the person you are talking to

 

[Petra Filiz]

Recently inthe news was a major issue affecting the telemarketing industry, which could have a positive impact on the direct mail business. what was the issue?

 

[Newbus]

It's true that more and more tools are becoming available to the telemarketers. Social media (linkedin and others) are great tools as are apps that can be added to CRM's. I'm thinking of OneSource and Hoover that provide direct access to information on contacts that you can download into the dataset you are working on. We deploy all these tools. But there are still gaps and there are still gatekeepers that we need to interact with. many of these are constructive and enable us to add to our knowledge.

However there are still contacts that all telemarketers need to identify that cannot be found by these means. At this point we still have to rely on the essential core telemarketing skills that I discussed at the beginning.

 

[Mike George]

I don't know why you worry about getting people's names, I'm a one-man business and when I answer the phone I say "Hello this is Mike George". If the caller says (as they often do) "Can I speak to Mr George please?" I hang up.

 

[What If]

I find that if you can make a positive impression on a receptionist it can be priceless. Too often people put a front on when faced with decision makers, but show their true characters to front line staff. This is especially true with job candidates!
Anyway, my advice would be as charming and memorable as possible, because they can be quite influential.

 

[Kernowman]

Firstly, there is no such thing as "telemarketing". You are either selling or you are not and true Marketing is a million miles away from that particular activity.

Here is the best methodology of all, so read this carefully

Ask yourself this question before you make your call and in all probability you will find all the answers you need in these four simple words:- "How would I feel?".

Firstly, I have received around 40 calls this past week from all sorts of sales people on the telephone and to be honest I cannot remember a single caller's name and their business. Why? Because they have become mechanical and robotic in their initial approach to me and my pen and paper is less than 4 inches from my hands and yet couldn't get there quick enough to even make a note of who was calling me. The onus is not on me to comprehend who that caller is, so . . . . . . .

TIP NUMBER ONE: Speak s.l.o.w.l.y and concisely instead of rapidly blurting it out. Make your recipient feel that this is the FIRST call of your entire career and you have not descended into just being an answering machine.

Secondly, forget about the word "business" and render it down to the notion of one PERSON speaking to another PERSON and not a gatekeeper. Think long and hard about that concept and suddenly it all makes perfect sense. You are probably the umpteenth speculative caller that morning/afternoon and it's all the same heaps of sh*t with a different label on to the recipient. Your immediate priority one task is to turn your particular bucket of sh*t (in the mind of the recipient) into a basket of sweet smelling flowers for them to smell. Disarm them with a bold statement like (but not limited to - make your own up!): "I am speaking to the most gorgeous/handsome girl/chap in the county of XXXXXX?" which at the least will make her/him smile. Crikey, that's different to "I am Fred Bloggs from the Acme Brush Company" to which she/he has been conditioned to be instantly switched off from and put the defences up. Wise man he say: "Never go to riverbank for fishing with just one worm".

TIP NUMBER TWO: Be different from the thousands of others that daily plague these businesses.

Thirdly, take that concept of PEOPLE to PEOPLE one stage further by treating them as a human with sensitivities. Ask the gatekeeper if they are busy right now to spare a minute and enquire when is the best time to call that will not cause any inconvenience to them, plus ask if the person you need to speak to is also likely to be available - in fact you would prefer to do that when things are less stressed. Remember, this is still only the "gatekeeper" we are talking about and in no way are they a hurdle to jump, or an irritant to brush aside, but your biggest ally in the company - for now. Before the call finishes thank them for their time and the next time you call it will be a much warmer response than the first because I guarantee you will be remembered if you did it correctly during the first call.

TIP NUMBER THREE: Treat people as people with respect and courtesy - no matter who they are.

Finally, if you have been given a particular time to call when they are not busy or likely to be less busy (noon and 4.00 generally good I find), then ask the gatekeeper a simple question like: "Call you tell me a little bit about your company" then shut up. WOW! Different again to the thousands of telesales turkeys that annoy, because you are doing the exact opposite!!!!! Your gatekeeper's defences are well and truly down now, so proceed ahead to your orginal objective.

And all because you used those four simple little words beforehand: "How would I feel?"

 

[LJatSpear]

You often find that companies who have a 'no names' policy also have every single staff member.........including the receptionist who just told you they dont give out names......listed .........with their picture....and email address...on their website.
Never ceases to amaze me.

 

[maxine]

ha ha Lyndsay... even with their hobbies, how long they have been at the company, their linkedin profile, their twitter names and facebook pages! funny old world eh? Don't you just love it when you can call back literally 2 seconds later with a name

 

[Vacman2000]

Dave you hit the nail on the head, linkedin is the way to go.