Despite its huge potential for building relationships, generating leads and boosting brand awareness, the telephone remains undervalued as a sales tool by many businesses in the UK. Often, this ambivalent attitude is the result of a lack of confidence on the part of the company, a previous telemarketing campaigned that has failed due to a lack of consistency or a lack of planning or simply limited understanding about the power of the telephone.
At Blue Donkey, we know just how impressive telemarketing results can be – we also know that it takes planning, skill and persistence to achieve these results. If your company is considering running a telemarketing campaign, or if you’re currently working on a telemarketing strategy, here are our top tips for real telemarketing success.
1. It’s all about the database
The database you use for your telemarketing campaign will have a big impact on its success rate. A database that’s well-profiled and up to date will help your telemarketers to hit their goals, if your data is wrong to begin with then it will impair the quality of your calls and will make it almost impossible for your team to achieve their sales targets.
2. Create a benchmark for success
A big part of creating a consistent telemarketing strategy is finding a way to measure performance. The more information you have about your team’s approach and their success rates, the easier it will be to create benchmarks and drive your team onto ever better results.
3. Keep track of results
As soon as your telemarketing campaign gets underway, try to keep track of vital information like how many dials it takes to reach a decision maker and how many conversations you need to have with a decision maker to generate something useful. Once you know this information, you’ll be able to get a better idea of how your telemarketers are performing and if there’s anyone in the team who is struggling to hit their targets.
4. Get your message right
Another important thing to note is how many people are saying they’re not interested in the products or services you’re offering. If a high percentage of the people you call aren’t interested, it could mean your database needs adjusting or that your message needs a little attention.
5. Get a little something extra from each call
Even if your team can’t secure a sale on every call, they can aim to get an email address, permission to call again or the name of someone in the organisation that might be able to help them. By getting something from every call, your telemarketers can widen the scope of your campaign and boost its long term impact.
As well as focusing on short term goals, it’s important to remember that one of the biggest benefits of telemarketing is the opportunity it offers to build long term relationships with your clients. The telephone can be used to create and maintain these relationships, making it an incredibly powerful sales and marketing tool. To find out more about intelligent telemarketing and the impact it can have on sales, get in touch with a member of the Blue Donkey team today.