Monthly Archives: November 2017

Learning how to make an excellent first impression can help to improve the quality and success of your telemarketing campaigns. As well as helping to make the initial call more enjoyable for both the telemarketer and the prospect, a good first impression can help to lay the foundations for a positive and productive business relationship. Although your team are unlikely to have a 100% success rate when it comes to charming the person on the other end of the phone, practicing a few effective and reliable techniques will help to give them a better chance of getting their calls off on the right foot.

Setting the tone

The first impression a telemarketer makes when they dial a potential client will set the tone for your B2B relationship. If your telemarketer is too pushy, bends the truth, or is rude to the gatekeeper or the decision maker, it could spell disaster for your future prospects. If your team member can come across as professional, polite and well-informed, both the gatekeeper and the decision maker will be more likely to listen to them now and welcome their calls again in the future.

Working with the tools available

When we meet people in person, body language is a major factor in deciding how we judge someone. Often, when someone is trying to make a good first impression, they’ll smile, mimic their counterpart’s body language and hold themselves in a way that makes them appear open and friendly.

Using the telephone, telemarketers have to rely on their verbal dexterity to convey the information normally communicated through body language. Although this does present challenges, an experienced telemarketer should be able to use their communication skills to engage the prospect. They can create a productive dialogue and thus make a great first impression without ever having to see the prospect.

Body language still matters

Although the spoken word is king when it comes to telephonic communication, body language does still have a part to play. Smiling as they dial will help your telemarketers to sound more friendly and enthusiastic over the phone and sitting up straight will help them to feel alert and focused. Using the whole body when we place a call can go a long way to making the voice sound more approachable and the conversation more engaging.

Speak to a person, not a company

One thing that makes a poor impression is scripted, robotic telemarketing calls. Impersonal and unhelpful, decision makers and gatekeepers can tell a generic sales pitch from a mile off. A good way to ensure the calls your company makes aren’t dismissed as irrelevant or poor quality is to remind your team they’re speaking to people, not companies. Thinking about the gatekeeper and the decision maker as a person, and remembering that they’re often busy and under pressure themselves, can help telemarketers to get a rapport going and create a productive two-way conversation in the process.

Although making a good first impression over the phone takes skill and ability, with practice and commitment your team should be able to start a call off well every time. For more information on improving the quality of your telemarketing calls, get in touch with a member of our expert team today.

Cold calling is never easy. Even skilled telemarketers can struggle with garnering productive results from calling a company out of the blue. In general, the key to success is warming your call up as quickly as possible. The faster you can go from disembodied voice to professional contact, the more chance you’ll have of achieving your goals and developing a productive business relationship.

Ask an open question

Realistically, most gatekeepers and even decision makers will try and get you off the phone as quickly as possible. Asking them a closed question that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ can give a gatekeeper an excuse to end the call. Ask an open question, on the other hand, and you’ll open up the dialogue and get a conversation going. As well as giving you more time to talk to the prospect and create a good first impression, this also gives you a valuable opportunity to learn more about the company and the decision maker.

Before you pick up the phone to make your call, think of a couple of open questions that you can begin with. Try to make them insightful but uncomplicated, and try to pick questions that will naturally lead the conversation onto the products, or services you’re offering.

Get a conversation going

Ideally, your open question with lead you into a conversation with the decision maker. Getting a real, two-way dialogue going will create a rapport and engage the prospect. You can also learn a little more about the person you’re speaking to. Even if you’re not able to make a sale during this initial call, the decision maker will be a lot more likely to remember you next time you get in touch. Remember, no one wants to be talked at, especially during a cold call, so try to start the conversation as quickly as possible.

Listen

All too often, telemarketers making cold calls fall into the mistake of talking quickly at the prospect as soon as they answer the phone, in an effort to prevent them hanging up. Although this tactic may work in the short term, in the long term it’s very unlikely to have significant results. Instead of talking at the prospect, ask your open question and then listen. Often underestimated in the world of telemarketing, listening can make a real difference to the outcome of your cold call.

Forget short term goals

If making a sale is the be all and end all of your telemarketing call, the prospect will be able to hear it in your voice the moment they pick up the phone. Instead of focusing on sales and targets, try to think of the conversation itself as the goal of your call. As well as helping the prospect to feel valued, this will help your call to stand out from the crowd and ensure you’re remembered for all the right reasons.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your telemarketing techniques, we can help. Take a look around our site today.

Since it first became a major industry in the 1960s, telemarketing has evolved to become more efficient and more effective. Taking a look at the impact these changes have had on the industry can help to inform modern telemarketing campaigns and help telemarketers to take full advantage of all the tools available to them.

Lifetime value

A major change in the world of sales and telemarketing is that businesses have begun looking at long term goals rather than just short term gain. For a long time, the main focus of telemarketing calls was making a sale. The telemarketer would be expected to convince the prospect to sign up for a trial service or sell a certain number of products on every call they made. This made calls very sales-orientated and lead to telemarketing earning a poor reputation with the public.

These days, most successful telemarketers and forward-thinking businesses have changed the main focus of their campaigns. Instead of making one-off sales, telemarketers are now encouraged to think about the lifetime value of a customer and to build long lasting relationships with the companies they’re calling. Placing the focus of a telemarketing call on communication rather than sales has helped many businesses to create more productive B2B relationships and find clients with high lifetime values.

Big data

Although phone systems have become faster and smarter over the years, the basic tools of telemarketing are the same. However, one significant change is the information telemarketers now have at their disposal.

For years, all the caller would have had was a company name, a little basic information about the industry and, if they were lucky, a contact name. These days, telemarketers have a lot more to work with. The internet makes it possible for callers to research a company as they dial, allowing them to have the information fresh in their minds when the prospect picks up the phone.

On a larger scale, big data is now providing telemarketers with a vast amount of information about the businesses they’re trying to speak to. It allows campaigns to hone their call lists and find companies who are genuinely in need of the product or service they’re providing. Companies can also use social media to get to know their prospects better, improving their chances of telemarketing success.

Understanding

As sales and lead generation are integral parts of business, it’s no surprise that a huge amount of research has been done on communication and marketing techniques over the years. This research has helped to inform telemarketers working today, allowing them to improve the quality of their calls and raise the bar in telephonic communication. Using basic psychological techniques developed through decades of research and experience can help telemarketers navigate past gatekeepers and communicate effectively with decision makers. This can go a long way to helping a company achieve its goals and boost its profits.

Find out more about improving the quality of your business’ telemarketing calls by getting in touch with a member of our team.