Telemarketing GB

TangerineDream Launch New Services

2011-09-12T17:15:00.005+01:00

TangerineDream Consultancy is one of the leading telemarketing companies in the UK and have been a member of our website for over 4 years. In that time they have gained a ROI of over 1400% thanks to the leads we have provided them.

Recently TangerineDream have added a brand new website and 2 new products alongside their traditional telemarketing and lead generation services.

The first new product is an intense telemarketing and lead generation campaign design to take place during and immediately after an exhibition, seminar, conference or trade show. Research shows that 90% of all B2B sales are a result of following up leads and attendees after the event. However over 70% of companies never do anything of the sort and leave the leads and contacts till it's too late. Currently TangerineDream are arranging sales appointments with 1 in 3 of the leads generated at exhibitions, tradeshows and seminar with their exhibition and seminar follow up.

The second product TangerineDream have developed a 7 stage data cleansing process for companies that need to ensure their data is really accurate and represents the audience a company may wish to market too. All too often data is inaccurate, even if purchased from a data broker approx 60% of the data will be wrong or missing. TangerineDream allow you to tackle the issue of data decay head on and start cleaning up your data.

New Telemarketing companies join telemarketinggb.com

2010-08-20T21:59:00.004+01:00

We are delighted to have two new telemarketing companies join our website http://www.telemarketinggb.com/ 3D Marketing and ICS Group are now receiveing requests from buyers looking to oursource their telemarketing and providing them quotes.

Over 1000 enquiries in less than 3 years

2010-08-05T17:35:00.006+01:00

Today we reached a huge milestone. We published our 1000th telemarketing enquiry, just weeks before our 3rd Birthday.

So far we have had over 18,000 visitors to www.telemarketinggb.com with an interest in outsourcing their telemarketing. This has resulted in our members winning over £1.5 million of new business as a direct result of subscribing to our service.

Telemarketing companies tell us that they get a return on investment of over 1400%. That's equivalent to £14 back for every £1 they spend.

To find out more about how you can leave details of a telemarketing project or to join as a telemarketing company email us at contactus@newbusinessgenerator.com or call 01926 831600.

If I ever hear “no names policy again”……..I’ll screeeaaaaaammmmmm

2010-08-05T17:33:00.002+01:00

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.

Want to increase your number of meetings? …… Do nothing, don’t call to confirm!

2010-07-09T17:09:00.006+01:00

Appointment making is tough and having arranged sales meetings it’s disappointing to hear that the prospect has cancelled the meeting which you set up. So how can you make sure that your meetings actually take place?

Here are 4 tips when confirming your sales appointments:

1. When you book the meeting ensure that you have been clear about the time, date and confirmed the address for the meeting.
2. Immediately after putting down the phone send out an email and a hard copy letter confirming the time, date, location of the meeting and all your contact details. You could also send an outlook meeting request, getting the details directly into the prospects diary.
3. Don’t call the prospect to confirm the meeting is still ok.
4. Make sure the sales team have the correct details of the meeting and they turn up at the meeting on time.

The most difficult aspect of this process is to control others in the sales process..
Often salesmen insist on calling the prospect to confirm the meeting is “still on” under the guise that they don’t want to waste all that time travelling unnecessarily. The effect of this, leads to significant number of meetings arranged being cancelled or postponed. It’s not surprising then that this reinforces the salesman’s desire to do the same for all meetings that have been arranged for them. They have no realisation it is their actions that have resulted in the cancellations.

Over time I have run different split tests to understand the reasons for high “blow out rates” and then run surveys back to the prospects to understand the real reason for them postponing or cancelling a meeting when they have been called just before.

The conclusions are surprising.

Based upon identical groups, 32% of prospects will cancel or postpone a meeting if they are called by the salesmen in the days immediately before a meeting to confirm it is “still on”. Alternatively only 2% will actually contact you to cancel or postpone if there has not been a “confirmation call”.

When surveying those that have cancelled the meeting after receiving a call over 91% stated they cancelling the meeting to save / create some extra time in their diary and they were really busy that day / week. Further, of those 85% responded that if they had not been called, they would have attended the meeting on the original time and date arranged and they had an interest in learning more about the product being offered.

So next time you have arranged a sales leads and hand it over, think about what the sales team are going to do with the meeting. Give them confidence that you have confirmed the meeting and that you have done everything reasonable to make sure the prospect will be waiting for them, and give them some facts on what is likely to happen if they call in advance or if they don’t. When you describe our results your sales team will attend more meetings and make more sales and you have done nothing at all.

Telemarketing in the summer and at Christmas…..Is it worth it?

2010-06-25T13:08:00.005+01:00

I am often asked about the value of telemarketing during the summer and December. The instinct of many salesmen and managers is that you can’t make the meetings during this time as people are on holiday, so what’s the point. As a result they do not make any effort to create any meeting for effectively 2 months of the year.

Wow…….

That’s 16.5% of the year’s capacity to generate new sales meetings taken out.

Over the past 7 years I have studied this to see if there really is a link between the ability to make sales meetings and the time of year. The conclusion is clear. There is no difference regardless of the time of year, industry, size of business or level of target contact in the number of meeting a telemarketer generates.

In fact ever year I am shocked at just how consistent telemarketing is as a form of generating sales leads, month in and month out. However, I have spotted something else and this is the root of the impression so many people have. It relates to when the meetings actually take place. Salesmen often see a sharp decline in the number of sales meetings they attend in late July / early August. With very few meetings held in August at all then an abnormally high number of meetings in September. This same pattern is then repeated in mid December into mid January.

If you look at the graph you can understand the sentiment of those who feel that holiday periods are a waste of time for telemarketing. However, I would urge you to think about this very carefully next time it is discussed. Do you really want to reduce your telemarketing capability by 16.5%? The evidence would suggest that you keep telemarketing every working day of the year.

New Business Generator is an online lead generation service specializing in matching companies with marketing projects to potential suppliers. To learn more visit www.telemarketinggb.com

Internal v's Outsourced Telemarketing

2010-06-11T10:22:00.008+01:00

When considering telemarketing as part of your marketing mix, companies are often faced with a similar dilemma. Why should we outsource our telemarketing rather than do it ourselves? However, it is easy to under estimate the amount of resource and effort that is required to deliver an effective long term telemarketing campaign. Companies face a number of real challenges such as:

• Recruiting reliable and experienced staff
• Training and providing effective product knowledge and skills
• Capturing and communicating the correct message to individual prospects
• Targeting the correct market and effectively reflect this within a marketing dataset
• Holding all the information within a CRM solution that allows the telemarketers to control their calls and report results accurately
• Creating sufficient new sales appointments for your sales teams to meet your strategic business objectives

Often when a company or an individual considers starting a telemarketing campaign, their first thoughts are to look at employing some staff and completing the project themselves internally. On the surface it does not seem too difficult. A good employee calling the data already in the database should be easy to source and manage. The problem is that often it is just not that simple..

The whole process of creating and managing an internal telemarketing department or campaign is fraught with difficulties and the biggest single casualty of not getting this right is the sales team, when fewer meetings are made than should have been. This costs the company in missed opportunities in their sales pipeline and fewer chances to win new client business.

So what are the difficulties and why does outsourcing your telemarketing to specialist telemarketing companies mitigate the risks and maximises results?

There are certain factors that affect the outcome of a lead generation campaign over and above any others. These are:

• Recruiting highly skilled telemarketers with a proven track record of making meetings at the highest level
• Identifying the entire target market and correctly representing this within your CRM database
• Creating a robust and reliable process behind every call, so that the correct marketing message is presented to the prospect every single time and the progress of the campaign can be accurately reported.
• Creating and maintaining realistic and achievable targets that motivate and encourage telemarketers.
• Eliminating distractions and other tasks pull your telemarketer away from their core task reducing their effectiveness.

Outsourced telemarketing companies have the skilled staff, the cultures and environment to optimise these important factors. They maintain a pool of skilled telemarketing consultants with a proven track record and have a talent for developing qualified sales meetings that add real value to their client’s sales pipeline. Consultants have under gone advanced telemarketing training and dedication to their profession results in an optimum quantity and quality of sales meetings. Their work space is designed to focus on the production of sales meetings for their clients and nothing else.

New Business Generator is an online lead generation service specializing in matching companies with marketing projects to potential suppliers. To learn more visit www.telemarketing.gb.com

6 basic telemarketing rules

2010-06-10T22:26:00.003+01:00

By following these 6 basic telemarketing rules you will dramatically improve the number of meetings you create, the quality of the sales meetings you arrange and increase the revenue generated as a result of your work. The job will also become easier and less stressful.

1. Know your market, know who to target.

It is vital to start by clearly identifying those companies who you wish to do business with and have an incumbent need for your service. This can form a blueprint for your target market which includes verticals, size and other more specific criteria.

Once established this specification can be used to purchase or research all the companies that fit your description. As with every form of marketing, each company that is not present within your target market will be a potential opportunity lost. Whilst those companies that do not fit your target prospect profile will detract from the efficiency of the telemarketing campaign.

The difference between a well defined target market and not, can be as much as a 240% increase in telemarketing results..

2. Clean the data.

Once you have established which companies you wish to target, turn your attention to who you wish to arrange sales meetings with. Call each company and ensure that you have the correct names for the positions / responsibilities of those that you wish to speak with. This can dramatically effect the very first impression you make when you call, while also ensuring that you engage with the right person in the sales process. Our research clearly indicates that by initially not setting the meeting with a key decision maker you can reduce the chances of making a sale to as low as 10% of what it would have been, if the initial meeting was with a director or true decision maker.

3. Create a data base.

Having clearly understood who you are going to target, then store this information in a database or CRM. This allows you to accurately record every call and to report upon your objectives. A well maintained CRM will tell you:

• Who the call was made too
• What was the outcome of the call
• Did you speak to your intended target
• What was discussed
• Where follow up actions were agreed
• What call backs and further actions are needed to be completed each day

It is not possible to remember every contact, every call and what is needed to be done on what day while telemarketing. A good CRM will do all that for you and ensure that opportunities are not missed. It can also provide invaluable information about the effectiveness of the campaign.

4. Set realistic targets.

Look at setting targets for a campaign that are realistic and attainable. Focusing upon less important KPI’s and setting unrealistic targets is highly demotivating for those making the sales calls, especially when these targets are linked to their pay packet. Keep telemarketers motivated and do not burn them out by placing insurmountable targets on them that are just not possible. Focus on achieving a realistic number of appointments every month first and foremost. High KPI’s relating to the number of conversations and calls do not necessarily correlate with more appointments.

5. Communicate the benefits and know your case studies.

Ultimately, you have to stop preparing and start calling your target prospects. Once connected there is only a limited time to grab your targets attention, communicate your message and arrange the meeting. Each call warrants communicating all the top business benefits that your product has, then back these up with case studies or references to clients you have worked with. It is possible to very quickly start building a compelling case for looking at your product with this technique. It clearly tells the prospect the value your product could bring, how it can solve their business pains, but also induces curiosity in the prospect. They will want to know how others companies have reduced cost, gained efficiencies and increased their sales.

6. Close for a meeting.

Conversations are great, but do not forget why the call was made in the first place, to make a meeting. Keep a clear vision of the objective and quickly look to close for a meeting. It’s very likely that you will be presented with an objection or two, but handle each objection and then close again. On average you will receive 2 or 3 objections before a prospect agrees to arrange a meeting, so do not give up at the first hurdle, keep going and keep closing. The average length of a call that results in a meeting is 2 minutes 40 seconds. Long conversations do not add any value to the objective of booking more sales meetings. Keep the calls focused and always think about how you are going to close for a meeting.

New Business Generator is an online lead generation service specializing in matching companies with marketing projects to potential supplier. Looking for a quote from 10 of the top telemarketing companies in the UK visit http://www.telemarketinggb.com/

How to prepare for a telemarketing campaign

2010-06-10T22:00:00.002+01:00

Preparing for a telemarketing campaign

The preparation for any marketing campaign is one of the most critical issues that will determine its ultimate success.

Accurate data means you can deliver your message to the right people in the right companies. However, data whether bought from a list broker or in your CRM database is not necessarily “fit for the purpose” of marketing. Our research has shown that marketing databases have a typical error rate of 60%, primarily due to:

• Prospect companies that do not meet your prospect qualification criteria
• Incorrect contact details (Phone number or address)
• Key decision making contacts having left the company
• Key decision making contacts not being present
• Key decision making contact details missing (Email address, job titles)

Here are some of the ways to prepare your data for a telemarketing campaign or any other marketing campaign..

Firstly, visualize who you want to win business from and then build a data set that will accurately represent the prospect companies that you wish to market your business too. Once achieved, visualize who in these companies you want the sales team to be meeting to increase chances of a sale. When you are visualizing this think about:

• Define a specification of the vertical(s) / type(s) of business you wish to target
• Define who you do not wish to do business with
• Create a list of all the companies similar too or competitors of your current and past clients
• Understand what characteristics you need a prospect company to have so that it is more likely than not to be a profitable client
• Understand the job title and, or responsibility, of people within a company that would make the buying decision for your product
• Which individuals have you proved to be the most effective to arrange a sales meeting in the past
• Understand the job title and, or responsibility of people that you do not want to arrange a sales meeting with, as they are unlikely to either make the ultimate decision or influence the sales process

How to cleanse data?

Once the data has been gathered - whether obtained from a third-party, list broker or from your own data - examine all of it, line by line. Discard all the companies that fail to meet the specification you visualized. Next start your data cleansing. Phone every company by phone up to 3 times to ensure the data is accurate and each individual has been correctly identified. All the time watching out for:

• Duplicate entries of the same company not picked up by software and make them into one record. Watch out for common data entry issues that create duplicates. You will often find Limited / ltd / LTD/ Ltd, Acronyms with or without spaces ABC ltd or A B C ltd, Acronyms and full names BBC and British Broadcasting Corporation, Companies that have changed name but entered under both the old and the new, Mergers and Acquisitions.
• Incorrect phone numbers and addresses
• Spelling errors of companies, people and titles
• Companies that are no longer trading or insolvent
• Old contacts that no longer work for the companies

While at the ask for the names of as many new contacts as possible and their contact details (direct line, email address, postal address.)

Finally, it’s time to get started on the campaign

Having finished the data cleansing you are ready to start the telemarketing campaign. However never forget that all the work that you complete in the preparation is only a starting point and accounts for approximately 80% of the total information you can gather. The remaining 20% can be found out every time you call a company. Confirming contacts are still with the company, finding missing contacts names, adding direct dials and email addresses are all essential maintenance of a data set that enables you to be as effective as possible when you call.

New Business Generator is an online lead generation service specialising in matching companies with marketing projects to potential supplier. To learn more visit http://www.telemarketinggb.com/