5 Top Telemarketer Mistakes.
August 18, 2009
1.Not getting to the point. Telemarketers who call and waffle on the introduction. You have about 20 seconds to get the prospect engaged after this time there is a good chance you have already lost them. Clear introductions are the key; get across where you are calling from and the reason for the call.
2.Being a robot. Nobody likes listening to a scripted conversation. This is not saying you can’t have a framework for outbound calling, but you do need to be able to improvise and mould your call around the conversation.
3.Not acknowledging what people say. This can be quite frustrating for the person on the other end of the phone. You need to let them know you have been listening. Acknowledge you have heard what they have said. Then take control of the conversation by using a bridging sentence such as “I hear you are happy with your supplier however……..”
4. Eating or drinking whilst on the phone. This is a big sin as the microphone will pick up every noise you are making. Nobody likes listening to someone eating crisps while in the middle of a conversation. Try ringing a friend and eating crisps or drinking while you are talking and hear what they say!
5.Pretending to be an expert on something you know very little about when appointment setting. You may be calling on behalf of a company that you have not dealt with before and therefore are not an expert on what they do. You can possibly impress the receptionist but come unstuck on the prospect. If you are not sure about some aspect of the company don’t try to bluster your way through just say it’s “not my field” or “I’m not the expert”. You can then use this to you advantage and book an appointment with someone from the company who is.
B2B or B2C which would you prefer?
August 18, 2009
I had a friend ask me the other day what type of telemarketing would you prefer to do. I had to think about this and out of the two came to the conclusion that making outbound telephone marketing calls business to business was the preferred option. This does however depend on the products or services you are promoting. If you are appointment setting and are promoting a business that provides a service that will cut costs for another company it should be relatively easy. However if you are calling B2C and trying to get money from the customer the task is exponentially harder. Opinions please B2B or B2C?
Which recording system to buy?
August 17, 2009
There are various call recording facilities available on the market and though they all pretty much offer the same thing, prices can vary dramatically. Shop around before you make any decisions and speak with other companies who use similar products. My experience is that a good product for basic use is the RETELL product. Reasonably priced and offers full functionality with most CRM systems
Call recording offers transparency
August 17, 2009
Always choose an agency which is able to offer call recording of all calls made on your behalf. An agency offering this isn’t afraid to offer complete transparency of how they operate.
Calls are recorded and stored for each client. Calls that culminate in an appointment can be emailed over to the client in the form of a Wav or WMA file along with the usual report and call history. The client or sales consultant can get more of a feel for the appointment before visiting the prospect. It also allows the client to ensure they are happy with how their company is being represented and that the telemarketing company has a full understanding of the product or service they are calling about.
E-Mail marketing – Does it really work?
August 14, 2009
More and more telemarketing companies now are using bulk E-mail marketing now as a way of promoting their business. E-mail marketing can be an effective and relatively cheap way of promoting your business. The key here is to analyse the results. There is no point in just sending out thousands of E-mail and then sitting there waiting for the phone to ring. First of all you need a good E-Mail marketing program that allows you to track the history the E-Mails you send. Then you need to drill down into the statistics that this produces. Statistics to look out for are how many have been opened and how many have been unsubscribed to. This will give you a good idea of how successful your campaign has been. The thing not to do with any E-Mail campaign is to fall into the trap of adding attachments to E-Mails as many of these will either be caught by spam filters or rejected straightaway without being opened.