Telenet Marketing Solutions : Blog

Calling Tip - Be Passionate and Build Rapport

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

It’s easy to develop rapport with someone when you are face to face. Making eye contact or a friendly handshake are things that can help build that connection. In order to develop into an effective lead generation agent, you must address the emotional queues from the customer or prospect as well as follow proper procedure. Some contacts may desire that you to get to the point while others may need a little more information before “opening up” and answering your questions.

A few techniques to build rapport:

Be Natural! Have a conversation like you would with a colleague. Some organizations provide agents with a rigid script to follow with structured questions and statements. This can limit an agent from developing a relationship with a prospect naturally. Instead, develop an opening that works for you, select good probing questions that relate to how the conversation is going with the prospect/customer you have on the phone at that time. Every question may not be appropriate depending on who you are talking to. For best results, marketers should work to develop call guides instead of rigid scripts.

Watch Your Tone! Agents should try and match the rate at which the receiver speaks and their tonality. One of the reasons agents fail so many times is because they speak too quickly, and never have a normal conversation, at the same pace as the other person. If you match the tonality and speed of the prospect you are more likely to come across as friendly, understanding and ultimately you stand a better chance at communicating with your customers. Tone, breathing patterns, pace, volume and inflection all have an impact on your prospects and how receptive they are to you.

Be Passionate! I always tell agents…”be passionate about what you are calling about!” Don’t ask for forgiveness when you call a contact by saying, “I’m sorry to bother you, but do you have a few minutes?” You have something of value to offer them. Now, while it may not always be the best time to talk when you call, you shouldn’t feel bad for picking up the phone and offering them information or a solution that could ultimately improve their business.

Sit Up Straight! Don’t forget to sit up straight and show some enthusiasm. Changing your posture can have a huge impact on how customers perceive you. Being slumped over limits your diaphragm from inflating fully and therefore restricts the volume of oxygen and energy available when you make calls. You will instantly recognize a change in your ability to build rapport over the phone.

Best of Luck!

How to Develop a Telemarketing Call Guide (not a script!)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

With each cold call that is made, the telemarketer has an ideal conversation in his/her mind, including an opening, probing questions, value messaging and a closing. A key component to every Lead Generation campaign is the calling script. However, a call script does not typically yield results. Rather, those who utilize a call guide are most successful. Keep reading to understand the difference…

A call guide is not a verbatim script that a marketing or sales professional should read like a robotic machine. This approach nearly always strikes out. While having a plan of attack is very important, verbatim scripts cannot start a real conversation. Conversely, not having a clear direction will also fail. Thus, it’s important to create a call guide, including key messages to convey, as well as pertinent open-ended questions to engage the prospect in a back and forth discussion. Remember…not every call is the same, so you also have to plan ahead for variations. Here are a few tips to consider when developing your call guide:

Open your call with purpose that gets a prospect thinking and reacting. Develop various opening statements that excite your prospect for different scenarios. It’s best when you can pinpoint something unique in your opening statement – such as relating to their industry, specific job function, installed environment, etc.
Be prepared by developing strong information statements that accurately portray your product when responding to your prospect’s questions.
Create multiple open-ended questions that engage your prospects in the conversation. No one wants to answer the phone and hear a recited script. Having multiple open-ended questions allows for different pains and challenges to be identified while engaging in a back-and-forth conversation.
Your value messaging should convey whatever pain is uncovered. Not everyone will benefit from the same message. Have a few key benefit statements that are tied to specific situations in your arsenal.
Make sure your team has a clear understanding of what information should be uncovered. Define a successful discussion.
Finally, set clear next steps based on what has transpired during the call. Is an introductory meeting or a face-to-face meeting needed? Does additional information need to be emailed? All of this should be factored into your closing options. Don’t leave your prospect wondering what happens next.

None of this can be achieved with a calling script, as each conversation needs to be unique. Set your Lead Generation team up for success by guiding them with the proper information and conversation talk-tracks.

Keeping Sales Engaged in Your Telemarketing Initiatives

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Many marketers, working to better align marketing and sales efforts, are challenged with keeping Sales engaged in a meaningful way and getting the feedback needed to optimize the performance and results of telemarketing lead generation programs. Beyond getting Sales’ input and “buy-in” during the development of the program, listed below are 3 additional ways you can keep Sales involved in a relevant way:

Program Launch –Schedule a team meeting, approximately 1 week following the program launch, designed to discuss the initial results and market reaction. Getting Sales’ input regarding the market’s reaction to the messaging, unexpected objections and/or early trends provides the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments early in the program.
Weekly or Re-Occurring Update Meetings – Invite your sales team to join ongoing update meetings. This is a great way for sales to understand how the program is performing and receive real-time feedback from the telemarketing team. It also provides the opportunity for them to ask questions and provide feedback of their own. Listening to telemarketing calls during this meeting and discussing the leads that Sales has received are very constructive activities. It may not be realistic to have Sales join every meeting, and in those cases we recommend inviting select sales management and/or sales reps to join calls every other week or even monthly.
Customized Program Elements– Understand the current prospecting goals and activities of your sales team. For some programs, it may be possible to customize the calling to assist your sales representatives with their strategies – such as focusing on key accounts, appointment setting in areas where the may be traveling, etc. Working in this manner requires a high level of involvement from Sales, and often produces confidence that the program is truly working for them

The Importance of Analyzing Telemarketing Data

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Data analysis is an important component of telemarketing strategies. Our program team is constantly analyzing data obtained throughout our calling efforts in order to make appropriate recommendations based on hard statistics. While obtaining feedback from your telemarketers and listening to recorded and/or live calls are very important components, there is no substitute to analyzing data. Doing so will help to validate assumptions and/or uncover trends that may not be readily apparent. And while performing analysis takes time and resources, it is well worth the expense.

Additionally, it’s also valuable to look at your data across multiple telemarketing campaigns in order to compare findings, look for overall trends and discover “big picture” results beyond the campaign level. We recently performed a deep dive analysis for one of our clients in order to compare and contrast sources from multiple campaigns based on several key measurement criteria. What we found was rather surprising and proved counter intuitive to what was expected. Thus, performing this type of deep dive analysis has set the stage for a host of activities that may have gone unrecognized.

Are you analyzing your telemarketing data in order to uncover trends and recommendations? If not, this is a missed opportunity. Be sure not to dive into a recommendation based on a hunch – instead seek to understand the data and look at hard statistics.

Managing Your Peaks & Valleys With Smart Telemarketing

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

High-tech manufacturing and integration usually involves growing and moving through partners, and since there are severe market peaks and valleys in that industry- outsourcing marketing efforts makes good sense.

A challenge that marketers face is handling the inevitable peaks and valleys associated with creating leads for partners as new products are announced and others are retired. Although it may be ideal to always have a consistent level of activity, most of us understand that business demands may require us to ramp-up and scale down. When ramping up telemarketing efforts (or scaling-back), HR pains of doing so in-house may entice you to partner with an external telemarketing vendor.

An outsourced marketing vendor allows you to holistically manage the peaks and valleys of business demands. Once the vendor is trained on your business model, products, services and objectives, that knowledge is retained and leveraged as increased marketing efforts are needed. When it gets busy and initiatives are planned, your vendor is ready to ramp-up the team. When it’s time to wind down based on need- it’s also possible to scale back efforts to only a core team.

A big advantage of utilizing an outsourced team is the focused energy- in demanding times having a staff working for you that is not involved directly in the internal pains and challenges you are experiencing, can help to yield opportunities more quickly.

A Simple Telemarketing & Email Approach That Works

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Most of us understand the impact of multi-touch campaigns using multiple media. However, telemarketers, as well as sales reps, can still overlook the simple impact of following a telemarketing voice mail with an immediate email message.

Recognizing how prospects like to communicate is important. There are prospects within your telemarketing database that are simply too busy to answer the phone or return a call. However, that does not necessarily mean there is no interest or need.

If you have attempted your target prospect via phone and have not been able to connect, then try this simple approach: Leave a benefit-focused voice mail referencing that you will follow-up via email. Immediately after leaving the voice mail, send a personalized email reiterating why you would like to connect, as well as a very brief description of the benefits your service/solution offers (make sure it’s relevant to their industry, type of organization and/or job function!).

On average, 5% of conversations with B2B decision-makers can be initiated using this simple tactic.

Marketers should arm their telemarketing team with benefit-focused voice mails (see our article on Critical Issue Voice Mails), as well as email templates to make this an easily implemented process.

Word of caution: Depending on your organization’s privacy regulations, even one-to-one personalized emails may need to be restricted until email preference is obtained. Check your policies before you move forward.

B2B Telemarketing Recruiting Step 1: “The Resume”

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Hiring the “right” person for a B2B telemarketing position is a complex process, which includes detailed screening, multi-step interviewing and thorough testing. Although each step is important, the candidate’s resume – our first impression – is long lasting.

Through the years that I have been in the recruiting profession, I have screened over ten thousand candidates for various jobs. Prior to working for TeleNet, I screened for various jobs, ranging from Receptionist to Application Developer to Operations Management. Each position that I recruit for requires a specific set of skills and characteristics that will eventually match with the perfect candidate. When I joined TeleNet nine years ago, I was able to hone in on the specific skills and characteristics that were necessary for the positions that are represented in our contact center and other supporting departments. More specifically, the primary position in our call center, the Marketing Communications Specialist (MCS), requires a specific set of skills that must be demonstrated before an offer letter can be extended. When seeking MCSs, we want to find the most qualified human capital available. Even though the unemployment rates are high, the challenge in finding the “right” talent requires us to consider a number of candidates that must be reviewed, tested and interviewed. Before that can take place though, the resume or the proverbial first impression, has to be good enough to drive the process to the next step.

Whether written by someone else, or by the candidate, this document can be a stand-alone view to the potential success or failure of the candidate. In the resume review process, multiple observations are made to determine if the candidate is a potential win for TeleNet:

Is there an objective? If there is an objective, does it relate to the job at hand? I have seen multiple canned objectives that make the resume look more like a flyer to be posted on a bulletin board. Specific objectives get attention.
Is correct grammar and spelling consistent throughout? Generally, if there is a misspelled word in a resume, it is put to the side. This document, above all, should be immaculate.
Is it written in first person? Using “I” as the start of every position’s description, (i.e. “I made outbound calls”) quickly highlights the candidate’s lack of writing expertise.
Are gaps in employment explained? When appropriate, gaps should be explained on the resume (for instance, explaining a two-year gap was the result of school or a desire to be a stay-home mother for a period of time).

Observations, during the resume review, are what drive our interest (or lack of) in moving the candidate to the next step in the screening process. It takes time and scrutiny to review resumes, and honestly, most are put to the side. When it comes to seeking qualified human capital in a labor market that is overflowing with available talent, the main challenge comes down to finding the people who take extra time to meticulously present themselves well before even meeting the perspective employer.

Three Things Lead Generation Managers Should Do in the Fourth Quarter

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

For those of us on a calendar fiscal year, we are now entering our final quarter. Right now your sales team is focused on closing business. Your sales reps are aggressively working the bottom of their sales funnel in order to close deals and maximize the potential of their 2009 compensation plans.

So with an agressive focus on closing business, what isn’t your sales team doing?

First, with only 3 months left in the year, they are likely NOT nurturing long-term opportunities since they must focus all their efforts on immediate opportunities in order to impact their quota
Chances are, they see pursuing tradeshow attendees or other unqualified responses as a waste of their time and in the best scenario, they “cherry-pick” the lists.
Most have abandoned their cold-calling activities. Noone likes cold calling. It’s done out of necessity. So, those sales reps who are cold-calling during Q4 are likely your “weak-links” as they are only cold-calling now because they weren’t effective in building their pipeline throughout the year.

Given this typical fourth quarter situation, as a marketer in charge of lead generation activities, what should you focus your time on right now?

Build Your 2010 Pipeline. When the dust settles and sales teams have closed all that they can to meet/exceed their quotas for the year, they will be in desperate need to obtain new opportunities for the top of their sales funnel. Get ahead of this by spending significant time in Q4 qualifying leads (tradeshows, webinars, etc) and generating new opportunities (cold-calling) that will positively impact your first two quarters of 2010.
Nurture Your Long-Term Opportunities. Be careful not to send your sales team long-term opportunities when they are in “close business” mode. Instead, this is the time to gear up your nurturing activities so you can keep prospects warm until they are ready for sales attention.
Requalify Your Leads. Look at your leads from the year. Chances are some have fallen through the cracks. By implementing a requalification telemarketing program in which you reach out to your past leads in order to determine current situation/needs, you will likely uncover several “immediate” needs that will impact your Q4 sales numbers. Get these to your sales team asap!

Is the Government Stimulus Working For You

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

When the government stimulus package came out a few months ago, like many marketers, I wrote a blog outlining several steps to take in order to refocus telemarketing efforts on key industries: government, healthcare and education – Government Stimulus – Steps to Shift Your Telemarketing Focus

Now, six months later, we have just finished a detailed analysis of the lead conversion rates on several recent programs that targeted commercial markets as well as government & education markets for one of our clients. The results of the comparison are intriguing. The list to lead conversion rate (defined as the number of leads derived from a telemarketing list) was significantly higher – in many cases double – on the segment of the list targeting the government & education markets, compared to the commercial markets.

What type of results are you seeing??

Gatekeepers: Strategies That Work

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

As some of you know, one of the single most challenging factors in lead generation is dealing with the Gatekeepers. These are individuals, more commonly known as administrative assistants, operators, etc, who guard the communication lines of the decision makers we want to reach during our telemarketing efforts. Like it or not, this is part of their job. Their job, in a nutshell, is to let the right person in and keep the wrong person out.

Below are some useful and tested techniques we practice on how to work with (notice I didn’t say get around) these gatekeepers effectively:

Be confident—Believe in your product, service, or solution. If you don’t believe that the person you are speaking to needs it or can benefit from it, neither will they. Believe me, if you stumble, the gatekeeper is not going to put you through – no matter how nice he/she may be.
Listen for their name and use it— The moment you hear the gatekeeper’s name, write it down. This can be a warm way into the call. Refer to them by name, every time.
Treat them as a decision-maker— As soon as you possibly can, let them know exactly why you are calling. Remember that this person and his/her time are just as important as the decision-maker. For example, let’s say you reach an executive assistant. If you treat that executive assistant gatekeeper as a senior executive, you’ll learn more about the strategies and main concerns of the executive you are seeking to reach.
Leave a good impression—Be polite and respectful. If you think being rude or pushy is going to work, then you are wrong. You should respect everyone you contact. Always leave them with a positive impression of you and your company.

Becoming an expert at working with gatekeepers is a necessary task for anyone who makes outbound calls. And yes, it’s going to take a little practice and some effort. Happy dialing and remember that gatekeepers are people just like you!