Top 5 Tips for Telemarketing Success
We are often asked by people what are your top tips for success when you are planning a telemarketing campaign – so here they are by popular demand!
1. The Elevator Pitch
It may seem an obvious one to start off but, funnily enough, is one thing that is often over-looked when a company is looking to generate leads. Be very clear about the product or service that you are calling about. It is useful to put together a compelling reason for the call or elevator pitch as it is often known. Generally when you make a cold call into a company you will have between 8-10 seconds to get across why you are calling and why they should be interested in hearing more!
Image Source – Gideon Tsang (CC License)
2. Target Right Customers
Think about your ideal client’s profile. If you already have some good clients then look for similar ones as they will almost certainly have the same issues and pain points that you can satisfy.
Put together a list of the different clients that meet your criteria and then give them to your bespoke telemarketing company to source similar companies. Generally you can search on vertical markets such as Manufacturing, Public Sector, Finance Services, then size of company by employees/turnover and then geographic location down to post code.
You can then get a data count and select the ones that you wish to call and in what priority. 3. Share Information
Your chosen telemarketing company should ask you to prepare a Cheat Sheet or briefing document. This should be used to brief the caller and project manager from the telemarketing company. The more that they know when they are calling the better they will be able to articulate your value proposition.
The Cheat Sheet should include; the elevator pitch that we spoke about earlier, key features and benefits of your product or solution, typical objections that the caller can expect when they are speaking to a suspects and how to overcome them, a list of competitors and their limitations and finally some testimonials that the caller can quote when on the phone to help build credibility.
Have a call with your chosen caller before the campaign starts to ensure that there is good synergy between both parties. Your project manager will organise the kick off call with all key stakeholders, the purpose of the call is to run through the campaign and agree how the leads will be passed over and whether the caller will book meetings or calls and enter them directly into your online calendar. It may be useful to set up the caller with a company email address so that when they are calling they can send agreed collateral information over to the company and then follow up to develop a sales pipeline.
4. Universal message 5. Regular Communication
Ensure that all of your information collateral and your online presence reflect the message you caller is promoting. Make sure that there is information about the product or service on your website and that your website is accurate. Make sure that your caller has up-to-date information to email out. Finally and very importantly – Tell your switchboard staff that you have a caller calling so if someone calls back for them a message can be passed on!
It is vital that you stay in touch with the telemarketing company especially in the first few days of the telemarketing campaign. Setting up a Skype or other Instant Messenger chat line with the caller is a great way to keep in touch with the caller and overcome objections real-time as they occur. Suggest that you organise a formal conference call at the end of the first couple of days and this is useful to tweak the campaign as you go along.
If you have enjoyed reading the above tips then you may be interested in learning about what Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) can do for you. Get in contact and find out more.
Looking for more tips?
- Top 10 Killer Tips for Telesales Success
- 10 Tips for Following up Seminar Attendees
- 13 IT Lead Generation Tips to Improve Results
- Top 10 Appointment Setting Tips for Small Businesses
- Top 5 Cold Calling Tips!
Tags: Telemarketing
Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.