January 2019 | Blue Donkey

Blue Donkey rated as ‘Strong’ in latest industry report

Posted on 30 January 2019 by bluedonkey

Blue Donkey has been rated as STRONG in new analysis of the UK’s 234 leading Call Centre companies. The Plimsoll Analysis (January 2019) also reveals Blue Donkey among the fastest growing in the market. What is more impressive is that Blue Donkey have achieved this in a difficult marketplace where 53 competitors are in financial danger and a record number are making a loss.

Sureya Landini, Managing Director comments “We are delighted it’s been another excellent year for Blue Donkey, this is testament to our unwavering commitment to making the best B2B telemarketing calls in the industry. Encouragingly our clients fully understand the value and importance of continuing to speak to their customers and to seek out new business opportunities, despite current economic uncertainty. Life does go on, and those that ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ will come out stronger and better prepared for the future… I feel humbled to share such closely aligned objectives with our client partners, some of whom have chosen to work with Blue Donkey for our entire 21 year history, and we look forward to embracing the improvements that often result from times when we are forced to re-evaluate and evolve.”

If you would like some advice on how best to uncover B2B market opportunities or service your existing B2B customer base please contact Blue Donkey on 01353 724 880 or follow us on Linked In and Twitter.

Common habits to avoid when you are Cold Calling

Posted on 24 January 2019 by bluedonkey

Learning how to make successful cold calls is an integral part of telemarketing. Although it’s one of the most challenging and daunting parts of the job, cold calling can bring fantastic results and really help businesses to achieve their goals. As @Entrepreneur says, cold calling “is an invaluable way to not only jumpstart your outreach but also grow your name recognition and develop valuable product feedback and validation through conversations that you otherwise would not be able to have.”

Learning what to say, and what not to say, on a cold call can improve your telemarketing results. To help you get the most out of each conversation, we’re taking a look at common habits to avoid when making a cold call.

Avoid announcing your call

One of the most important things to avoid when making a cold call is announcing yourself to the first person who answers the phone. If you were calling the doctor for an appointment, you wouldn’t explain yourself to the receptionist before speaking to the doctor, you would simply ask for the person you want to speak to and wait for the receptionist to ask for more details.

The same principle applies to cold calls. Announcing who you are straight off the bat can give the impression that you’re pushy or salesy. It can also cause some gatekeepers to close you down before your call goes any further. Instead of opening your call with a long description of who you are and what you do, keep your intro brief and to the point. The more confident you sound and the less salesy you are, the more chance your call has of getting through.

Imagine you have the right to speak to the buyer

If you sound unsure or unconfident on the phone, the gatekeeper will be more likely to block your path. Going into a call worrying that you’re being a nuisance will make you sound less confident and your negative expectations are likely to come across in your voice.

Before picking up the phone to make a cold call, spend a few seconds imagining that you have the right to speak to the decision maker. Remember what it is that makes your product or service special and remember that you’re offering your potential customer something that will enhance their business. The gatekeeper is likely to pick up on your confident tone and will be more likely to put you through as a consequence.

Expect success

Another good way to create a positive first impression and get past the gatekeeper is to think positively and expect your call to be a success. This positive approach is likely to have an impact on your results and boost the success rate of your campaign.

Learn more about practical and effective telemarketing techniques by exploring our site or getting in touch with a member of our team.

Dispelling the myths surrounding B2B telemarketing

Posted on 23 January 2019 by bluedonkey

Done well, telemarketing is an incredibly powerful business tool. Helping companies to connect with clients, research potential markets and promote their products and services, telemarketing can inform and empower innovative marketing strategies. More and more companies are recognising the need for outsourcing their B2B telemarketing because it has become such a specialist skill. So much so, internal team members can struggle to learn the competencies and disciplines associated with successful systematic B2B telemarketing. Often doing it in-house, at best works for a while and then quickly loses it’s effectiveness.

However, many – if not most – telemarketing campaigns are not done to this high standard. Companies often use the tool as an afterthought or don’t utilise it to its full potential. As a result, a lot of businesses have the wrong idea about telemarketing and a number of myths have built up around the industry.

To help you sort the telemarketing facts from the fiction, we’re dispelling some of the most common modern telemarketing myths.

Telemarketing can’t work for complex products or services

Skilful telemarketing is all about distilling key business benefits down to a few pithy points. Whether you’re talking about scientific equipment, or a simple consumable, what captures the interest of your buyer will always be associated with business benefits, namely improved time, effort, cost, or security advantages delivered by your product or services.

Invariably they want to know ‘what’s in it for me’ and communicating this succinctly and compellingly in the opening of the call will lead to a richer more informed dialogue.

Just get in front of the buyer

Using hard closes, scant detail, or pushy techniques to get in front of buyers is unlikely to position the selling organisation as a potential partner or supplier of choice. In Blue Donkey’s 18 years of experience, we’ve found there is no substitute for a detailed two-way conversation, where criteria has been properly established on both parts, so the buyer knows how they would benefit meeting with a potential supply organisation, and the supplier knows that the buyer satisfies criteria for them to potentially enjoy a valuable mutual long-term partnership.

Investing more time and effort at the telemarketing stage will not only save costly wasted meetings, it will set the selling organisation apart as a best in breed compared with competitors. More importantly, your telemarketing will reflect your brand values.

You need a written script for your telemarketing to work

If B2B telemarketing is about connecting with the right people and building a relationship, then using a script, or any kind of formulaic process will be a hindrance to that objective. Where in life would you speak with somebody using a predetermined script. Scripts are designed around assumptions about what a buyer will want and the basics of the product or service on offer. It’s far more rewarding for the maker and the receiver of a call if the dialog is based on sensitive questions and sound product knowledge. After all people buy from people.

People hate cold calls

We all dislike receiving calls that are irrelevant, banal, or pushy. The telemarketing industry has been awash with shocking examples where the telephone as a business tool has been abused. Fortunately most marketers today understand the importance of customer experience and are therefore far more tuned with the principles of good database management, understanding customer needs, and the importance of structuring campaigns to touch the right buyers.

What’s more, most business decision-makers accept that being effective depends on them keeping the channels of communication to the outside world very much open, they don’t want to receive irrelevant or scripted calls, they might welcome a call from a supplier who can help their organisation achieve its objectives. Indeed in such cases the way a call resonates will determine whether or not a buyer even considers it a cold call. Our experience tells us, people only perceive a call to be a cold call where it leaves them feeling cold.

Everyone who works in telemarketing is young and inexperienced

Though some unscrupulous companies may staff their call centres with students, part timers and untrained recruits, most good quality enterprises highly value experience and training. In fact, most professional telemarketers undertake significant, on going training, even holding the Investors in People accreditation and encouraging staff to continually add to their expertise, improve their technique and innovate.

Telemarketers use aggressive tactics

Coming on too strongly, being pushy or using aggressive tactics is counter-productive in telemarketing. Call recipients are likely to put the phone down if a telemarketer overwhelms them, something that’s not useful or productive. Instead of using aggressive tactics, our telemarketers try to connect with the people they’re speaking to, developing a two-way conversation instead of a monologue. More likely to get results, and more pleasant for the call recipient, this technique helps to build trust and rapport between telemarketers, the business they represent and the companies they’re calling.

One of the most powerful business tools available, telemarketing can be used for a wide range of purposes and in a variety of industries, to find out more, take a look around our site today.