October 2019 | Blue Donkey

Quality Management System ISO:9001 in B2B Lead Generation

Posted on 31 October 2019 by bluedonkey

B2B Lead generation has increasingly become more complex and specialist with influences such as GDPR and CTPS making successful telemarketing trickier than ever. Quality management systems (QMS) have always had a big role to play in defining the specialness of a business, but today more than ever, a good QMS can be the difference between success and stagnation, particularly in B2B lead generation where output can be so variable.

History of QMS

QMS first emerged at the time of the industrial revolution, when consumption habits changed and work typically went from simple subsistence methods to large organised factories and places of work. 19th century pioneers such as Frederick Winslow Taylor, best known for his remarkable innovations in the early manufacture of the Ford motor car, designed a system that took the production of the Model-T Ford from an artisan creation which took a matter of weeks per car, to the production of a vehicle in a matter of days. Essentially Taylor removed the variability of output, so there was a ‘best way’ to do everything, and then he modelled all the processes around this ‘one best way’ hence the birth of the production line and all modern manufacturing. Coined the father of scientific management Taylor emphasised standardisation of design, to ensure a consistently high quality product was produced in the most efficient and effective way to ensure satisfaction, and price was optimised.

ISO 9001

As they did then, todays managers working on creating and implementing quality management systems, need to look at their different functions and decide on the best way to create the desired output. ISO 9001 is probably the most popular QMS in the services sector but there are others such as Kaizen, which is typically used in manufacturing. ISO: 9001 is an internationally recognised quality management system, based on eight quality management principles. These principles cover all areas of management including customer focus, leadership, continual improvement, mutually beneficial supplier relationships, and fact-based decision making. By adhering to these principles, organisations can ensure they’re constantly improving and driving standards ever higher. Defining a QMS can also help business leaders to focus on their company as a whole and move the entire organisation forward.

For any business looking to achieve excellence, not just in their B2B lead generation, but across all their routines and processes, a sound QMS is possibly the only way to sustainable growth. According to experts if a company is looking to strengthen its processes, increase customer satisfaction and grow revenue, ISO certification is a sound investment because it’s the brand potential customers recognise and trust.

The very basis of developing a quality management system is that it offers a business the opportunity to define what exactly it is that differentiates it and model a cycle of continuous improvement around those attributes

Developing a detailed QMS approach gives business leaders the opportunity to think carefully about the different elements of their organisation and how these come together to form a successful unit. Although the same basic elements are applied in each QMS, the way they’re implemented in each individual organisation will be unique. For example, a business that relies heavily on skilled, highly trained employees will respond differently than a business that works in tandem with its suppliers.

The process of examining every aspect of a business, and the way the QMS is implemented following development, helps business leaders to define what exactly it is that makes them unique. Understanding this in more detail can help managers to get the best out of their business model, their employees, and their suppliers.

To learn more about getting the best out of your business and maximising your organisation’s potential, explore our site or give us a call and speak to one of the expert members of our team.

How to create powerful B2B telemarketing messaging

Posted on 30 October 2019 by bluedonkey

Telemarketing is all about communicating product or service benefits in a way that’s compelling and captures attention. The more intelligent and persuasive your argument, the more likely you’ll be to achieve your business objectives. Structure and content of telemarketing calls is an area many people find daunting, often resorting to writing a script to avoid brain freeze or blunderbuss attempts at drawing people into a conversation. A script is almost always the wrong approach, so what’s right? Take a look at our guide to creating a compelling case to ensure you’re as persuasive as possible next time you pick up the phone.

KISS

No matter how impressive your products or services are, people won’t want to hear a long speech about the benefits and features you have to offer. The acronym KISS is perfect for describing the best approach: Keep It Sweet and Simple. Not only will being brief and plain-speaking endear you to the person you’re talking to, it will also help your key points to stick in their mind. Most of us can’t remember endless technical detail presented over the phone but we will recall specific unique qualities which resonated about a product or service to make them stand out. Use simple language, avoid technical jargon and present the services you’re offering as clearly and as concisely as possible.

Proof points

There are few things more compelling than cold, hard evidence. If you can clearly demonstrate how your company can offer better value for money or a higher quality of service than an existing company, or if you can prove exactly how what you’re offering is different compared with others in the market you’ll have a better chance of success. Before you pick up the phone, collate relevant data and proof points that help illustrate your strength. Proof points are examples that provide irrefutable evidence of the quality, importance or uniqueness of something. Use this information to support your pitch and persuade the decision maker to take action.

Be specific

Giving specific examples of the benefits your products and services can offer will help the company you’ve contacted understand how they could be relevant to them. Asking relevant open questions will help you establish what’s important to each buyer and their commercial challenges or opportunities. Answers to your open questions will help you base your discussion around the buyer, the business, and their specific needs. This insight will help you create dialog that is specific about how you can meet particular business needs and support their objectives. Asking the right open questions are key here and at Blue Donkey we set a lot of store about designing and using good questioning method. When it comes to questioning techniques, personal effectiveness trainers Mind Tools say the principle of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ applies to the use of questions, if you ask the wrong one the information you get will be flawed and unhelpful.

Listen and adjust

Whenever the person you’re speaking to contributes to the conversation, make sure you listen to what they’re saying. If it’s relevant, adjust the angle of your dialogue to address their concerns, objections, or queries. Involving them in the call in this way will help to create a genuine dialogue. It should also help them to see how your products or services could relate to them and demonstrate that your company is one that takes customer service seriously.

To learn more about simple, but effective telemarketing techniques, contact a member of our expert team or explore our site.

Why good posture is important to telemarketing agencies

Posted on 29 October 2019 by bluedonkey

Telemarketing agencies need to craft verbal communication in a way that makes a difference in the buyer’s mind, so the voice is a seriously important tool. However, there’s a lot more to sounding good than just pitch or tone of voice. In fact, there are a large number of other factors involved in connecting with a potential buyer, building rapport and communicating effectively over the phone. Surprisingly, many of these elements are not vocal. From posture to positive thinking, many different things can have an impact on the tone, feel and success of a call. Telemarketing agencies know that developing these auxiliary elements can greatly improve the quality of your campaigns, helping your company to connect with existing and potential clients and boosting the chances of your telemarketing achieving its goals.

Why posture is key to great telemarketing calls

When someone walks into a room head high, chin up, and back straight, they instinctively come across as confident and commanding. This impacts how other people in the room perceive them and how they approach the interaction. What’s more, the person will feel more self-assured, and compelling, something that’s certain to come across in their performance. The same is true when it comes to telemarketing, although the telemarketer can’t see the person they’re speaking to, the conviction they draw from sitting up straight and maintaining good posture can be heard in the voice. It makes the telemarketer seem more confident, more focused and more engaged in the call and can make a big difference to the impression they deliver.

If a telemarketer slouches when they make a call, the voice becomes stilted or over formal, put simply, this factor comes across as a lack of confidence. As well as impacting on the energy of the call, posture can affect the clarity of the voice, like a wind instrument (no jokes please) long straight lines create a sound that’s clear and bold. Notwithstanding the importance of product knowledge, this factor alone is a quick shot in the arm for connecting with the prospect and delivering the best chance of success. In fact, telemarketing agencies know that if you do nothing differently but sit with a straight back, your calls will improve.

Eye contact

Eye contact is, of course, important for effective face to face communication. Telemarketing agencies believe that to come across in a positive and enthusiastic manner on the phone, you need to simulate some important face to face techniques. By imagining a face in your mind’s eye and focusing your conversation towards that person, you will artificially create the warmth and character your discussion would have face to face. Again, this is a sure-fire way of transforming calls with little or no effort, while creating interactions that your potential buyers will find more energetic and confident.

Body language

The eyes, eye contact, and body language generally are important in non-verbal communication, however, scientists are increasingly understanding that eye contact and body language impact how we feel and respond to others. Kinesics or kinesic communication is all about communication through body movements, such as gestures, facial expressions and communicating using the body as a whole. We call this ‘body language’. The founder of kinesics, American anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell said all body movements convey meaning to the outside world but also to ourselves, and we can create a mindset, and improve performance by eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture.

He argued that non-verbal behaviour had a grammar that we could analyse in similar terms to spoken or written language. What’s your posture saying?

Maintaining the right posture

Before picking up the phone to call a prospect, telemarketers should take a minute to ensure they’re sitting up straight with their shoulders back. This instantly makes them feel more energetic, more confident and more focused, all things that will come across in their voice when they speak to someone.

Although some people may feel like maintaining a good posture is tiring, in reality, a good posture energises the body and helps to focus the mind. Telemarketers will also find their work a lot easier, and their calls and mindset more positive, if they maintain good posture throughout the day.

Learning how the different elements of body language and tone of voice impact telemarketing are key to improving the quality and the success of your campaigns. To find out more, or to learn how we can help you raise the bar for your telemarketing team, explore our site today.

How telemarketing companies create calls that work

Posted on 21 October 2019 by bluedonkey

Telemarketing companies stand or fall on their ability to make their client projects perform. Often calling programmes that don’t succeed within a company’s own four walls will fly in the hands of the right telemarketing companies. No surprise there since telemarketing is increasingly becoming a specialist craft like payroll or PR. However, there are several techniques and tips used by the experts that anyone can adopt. Read on to learn more.

Think yourself happy

Knowing how to make a strong first impression is one of the most important skills telemarketing companies will master. Not only does this help them to start calls off positively, it also allows their team members to begin building rapport with a potential buyer and laying the foundations for a future business relationship. We suggest that anyone making outbound calls should take time to get to the bottom of just why and how their business is special and build this into the language they use. If you’re truly convinced by your product or service and you’re fuelled by all the reasons it’s better than the competition, you should feel happy to tell people, in your own words and a manner that’s authentic to you. Reflecting on the positive and staying in that happy space as you dial your calls will help you engage others using words in an endearing and compelling way. As ever, enthusiasm is infectious.

Smile as you dial

Telemarketing companies know that one of the simplest and most effective ways to come across well on the phone is to speak with a smile. The person you’re talking to will be able to hear the smile in your voice and this will help to get your call off on the right foot. Even more importantly, however, smiling is good for us and has been shown to contribute positively to mental health. In fact, according to behavioural psychologist Sarah Stevenson, smiling elevates your mood and creates a sense of well-being, makes you look younger, and induces more pleasure in the brain than chocolate (OK, we’re not buying that one). Even a forced smile can lead to a mood boost – so go ahead, fake it till you make it!

Sit-up and breathe!

Posture also has a big impact on how you come across on the phone and the language you use. Telemarketing companies are keen to ensure the calls they create are imaginative and sensitive, characteristics thought to hail from the right hemisphere of the brain, where logic and reasoning can be argued to come from the left side. Before you dial, take a few seconds to ensure you’re sitting up straight. Neurologists at Brain Made Simple say maintaining a good posture when you’re on the phone will help you to come across as more passionate, more focused and more engaged, all things that will contribute to a great first impression. Deep breathing improves brain function and response time when faced with a challenging question or objection. Additionally, deep breathing and upward eye movements will help ensure you are using both sides of the brain in your communication.

Making a good first impression will help your telemarketing call to get off on a positive note and will give you a better chance of success. To find out more about improving your telemarketing campaigns, explore our site or contact a member of our team.

How to shine at B2B appointment setting

Posted on 14 October 2019 by bluedonkey

B2B appointment setting is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Often the key to achieving business targets and goals, appointment setting is the factor that brings your sales force and your potential new clients together. As well as being one of the most essential parts of telemarketing, appointment setting is one of the most challenging and feared. However, since few relationships in business can begin without first speaking directly to the potential client, appointment setting is something most professional sales people will need to master and get comfortable with at some point in their careers.

It’s all about the client

When working towards making an appointment, it’s important that the whole B2B appointment setting campaign is entirely focused on the client, their needs, and their preferences. By asking meaningful questions and dovetailing the discussion around the potential client’s interests, a telemarketer is more likely to earn the clients time in successfully generating a meeting to take the discussion further. Additionally, by focusing on the client and their needs, the B2B appointment setting process will create opportunities that have a greater chance of converting to long term relationships; because they were based on good initial interactions that have won the confidence of the client.

Giving the prospect space

Telemarketers should make it clear that the product or service they’re offering will benefit the potential client. They should try to avoid giving the impression that failing to set an appointment or make a sale will negatively impact on them or their business. And remember, B2B appointment setting isn’t designed to close sales, it’s designed to open up opportunities for long term relationships that are fruitful for both parties. So it’s important to give clients options about whether they would find a meeting helpful or if they’d prefer another call in the weeks or months to follow. Allowing a potential client space to reflect and consider their personal choices is increasingly important in B2B appointment setting and sales. In fact, Harvard Business review says ‘As B2B offerings become ever more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal concerns that business customers bring to the purchase process are increasingly important’. These so-called Elements of Value are key to how a company appears to a potential buyer. The face-time they are awarded as a result and the eventual outcome of the relationship, all inevitably evolves from the ability of the telemarketer to engage a potential buyer sensitively.

Confirm the contact

It’s essential that telemarketers confirm they’re setting appointments with the right person. The sales force needs to know they’re speaking directly to the decision maker, otherwise, they’ll be wasting their time as well as the potential client’s time. Taking a moment to confirm the appointment is with the right person will give the meeting a better chance of success and get the sales force off on the right foot.

Focus on the task in hand

The main goal in B2B appointment setting curiously is not to set an appointment, it’s to communicate the benefits of a product with a view to setting an appointment. It’s a crucial difference that telemarketers sometimes fail to appreciate. They should avoid trying to sell products or services to the prospect and instead keep the focus of the call on the benefits of the product. It also gives them the opportunity to tailor their call to suit the requirements of the prospect and give themselves space to answer questions and offer solutions. It’s then up to the sales force to move things forward and take full advantage of the hard work the initial telemarketer has done.

As appointment setting is such a fine art, many companies outsource the task to third parties. This helps to ensure the job is done well and often gives telemarketing campaigns a greater chance of success. To find out more, or to learn about the services we provide, explore our site today.

Does your B2B telemarketing make the right impression for your brand

Posted on 10 October 2019 by bluedonkey

Your B2B telemarketing will often be the first time your brand engages with a particular company or decision maker. So your telemarketing campaign will form the basis of the first impression your brand makes. The tone, messaging and success of your call may well shape the future relationship between your business and its potential client base. It’s important then, that your B2B telemarketing gets things off on the right foot. Even if a prospect is aware of a brand and its products or services, the first time they interact with a representative of that brand will have a significant impact on how they view the business.

Placing people at the heart of the call

As far as is possible, telemarketing calls should be all about the client. The telemarketer needs to place the requirements and interests of the potential client at the heart of the call. By asking relevant open questions, listening carefully to the answers and using the opportunity to demonstrate how the services their company offers could help meet the business needs identified. By putting the client at the centre of the call, telemarketers can show that they value and respect their client’s input and that they are genuinely interested in meeting needs. This strategy also provides telemarketers with the perfect opportunity to find out more about potential customers and to handle any objections or questions the potential customer might have. By approaching their B2B telemarketing in this way, telemarketers can create a positive first impression, build the foundations of a solid relationship and get a real two-way conversation going.

Put selling aside

Although the main aim of most telemarketing calls is to generate new relationships and sales, putting this goal aside can actually help telemarketers to make a good impression and ultimately get more from the call. Taking the focus away from selling can remove a lot of the pressure from the call and open up the conversation in a way that’s more authentic to most professionals. This can provide an opportunity for the telemarketer to build rapport with the prospect and allows the prospect to ask questions. Asking questions, or even raising objections, is a sign of interest in B2B telemarketing, and offers the telemarketer the chance to develop the conversation and go a little deeper into the benefits and features of the product or service.

People do business with people they like

As most professionals know, people do business with people they like. If telemarketers can create a positive impression, it will reflect well on the brand and will make it a more attractive company to do business with. By being respectful, positive and informative throughout a call, and by ensuring the call doesn’t become too ‘salesy’, telemarketers can help a brand to grow and get customer relationships off on the right foot. According to database experts Salesforce.com, B2B companies can forge stronger bonds with customers and prevent churn by viewing their B2B telemarketing roles as essential ‘happiness heroes’, because done well, the telemarketing campaign can facilitate longer and happier relationships with customers.

To find out more, or to learn how our team can help your business to succeed, explore our site today.

B2B lead generation language faux pas

Posted on 3 October 2019 by bluedonkey

Few things expose a person’s lack of experience or preparation more quickly than cheesy language or jargon. Clichéd, repetitive and often meaningless buzzwords and jargon are irritants to senior executives’ who would far rather speak to people that are authentic and genuinely interested in them. We all have our own selection of irritating euphemisms, idioms or buzzwords, so we thought we’d name and shame some of the worst offenders currently doing the office rounds in B2B lead generation circles.

Win-win Situation (Sorry Mr Covey)

Annoying ‘management speak’ is often deployed in B2B lead generation by those attempting to impress. The Plain English organisation are campaigners for clearer communication. They say that apart from the usual business jargon and gobbledygook, offices up and down the country, and indeed across the world, resound with corporate ‘management speak’, or ‘marketing speak’. Last year, a survey revealed that many staff who work for big corporate organisations find themselves using management speak as a way of disguising the fact that they haven’t done their job properly. Their favourite examples included ballpark figure, a win-win situation, and take it to the next level – pass the bucket!

Think outside the box

According to a recent survey by the Institute of Leadership and Management, 57% of executives find the phrase ‘thinking outside the box’ to be the most infuriating of them all. A fairly unconstructive way of telling people to come up with a new, unique idea, the phrase should have been ditched from the B2B lead generation dictionary years ago.

Going forward

The survey showed that the next most annoying phrase was ‘going forward’ with 53% of respondents ranking it as an irritant. Though it may seem fairly inoffensive at first, repetition has made the words two of the most hated a B2B lead generation professional can hear (or use).

Touch base

A favourite phrase of networkers and people trying to show a light touch in management, ‘touch base’ has been winding up senior executives for a few years now. It’s recently been joined by the even more unnecessary ‘touch base offline’ which is a roundabout way of asking someone to meet face to face.

Reach out

A lot of people in the B2B lead generation business seem to think the phrase ‘reach out’ is friendlier and less intimidating than ‘contact’, ‘get in touch’ or ‘call’. This has led to the phrase finding its way into countless marketing dictionaries. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before it finds its way out again.

Idea shower

You’ve heard of a brainstorm, well, now it’s time to have an ‘idea shower’. Some managers believe this is a less threatening way to ask for input from their team. The fact that it doesn’t offer us anything new hopefully means it won’t be around for long.

Let’s action that

Instead of saying, ‘let’s action that’ at the end of a meeting or discussion – why not just say, ‘that’s what we’ll do’?

Synergy

One of the most meaningless buzzwords out there at the moment: ‘synergy’ seems to have a huge number of meanings in the world of business. From ‘balance’ to ‘combination’ and ‘collaboration’ to ‘cooperation, the word is thrown into the mix whenever someone wants to sound like they know what they’re talking about.

Going forward, whenever you touch base or reach out to your customers, you’ll be able to action removing buzzwords and jargon from your sales pitch. This should help to create synergy and allow your idea shower to flow freely. Now that is a win win situation.

To find out other ways to improve your communication skills, explore our site, or contact a member of our team.

B2B sales nurturing

Posted on 2 October 2019 by bluedonkey

B2B sales nurturing and relationship building is key to sustainable growth. Organisations that systematically invest in identifying, nurturing, and growing the right relationships with their potential buying universe can expect to be rewarded with increased brand awareness, improved market share, and long term survival against the competitive forces in their particular market.

Ask the right questions

Most of us know that while B2B sales nurturing is important, calling clients and potential clients is heavy on resources, whether it’s done in-house or outsourced to reliable partners like Blue Donkey. The demands of the job mean it takes highly skilled people, time, and excellent infrastructure. It’s a sad fact then that so many organisations haemorrhage resources by taking the trouble to call the decision makers on their database but neglect to ask the burning questions. Instead, they share a few moments of friendly dialog about the product or service, ask a few rudimentary questions about the business, but completely fail to reach the nub of the matter. If nurturing the sale means asking about timing, we need to ask the question ‘when will you be making a decision’, if cost is a consideration, we need to ask ‘what is your budget’, and where we are concerned about the competition, asking the question ‘how close are we to winning this order’. Only by being brave and confident enough to ask the right questions can we adapt to meet the needs of, and win the custom of a potential new client.

First impressions last

It may sound obvious to some, but the basis of many strong business relationships is a good first impression. The initial contact between a company and a prospect should be friendly, professional and mutually beneficial. Like other areas of life, B2B sales nurturing needs to take in the fact that first impressions last. This will help the prospective client trust the business, value the communication, and it will make them more inclined to work with the business in the future.

According to start-up advisers First Business, the phrase: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is one that you will hear frequently in the business world; if you want your venture to succeed, it is essential that you take the time to get it right in the first instant. After all, a bad impression can seldom be remedied. A business runs on personal communication as much as it does on money, and if you want to be successful, it is vital that those who have cause to connect with you receive the very best impression from the outset.

Inform

In most cases, prospects will want to know more about a business, their people, and their products or services before wanting to work with them. After the initial contact, telemarketers and their marketing colleagues will need to work together and drip-feed information about the business to keep themselves front of mind. Speaking to their prospects regularly means your sales team can answer questions and deal with objections as they occur. This conversation is an important part of growing a business relationship in the B2B sales nurturing process as it offers telemarketers the opportunity to demonstrate they understand the needs and requirements of their potential buyer. This stage also provides telemarketers with the chance to learn more about their customer base, something that can be invaluable when it comes to tailoring products and services and developing new lines.

Communication

Once a prospect has turned into a client and has begun buying from a business, it’s up to that business to ensure they’re meeting their clients’ needs. The most effective way to do this is to develop clear and convenient lines of communication. If clients know that they can contact a business with a query and that the business will be friendly and informative, it will aid in growing the relationship and building trust. Not only does maintaining communication help clients to trust suppliers, it also helps businesses to create personal relationships and be more than just an email address or a logo. After all, happy clients who enjoy good relationships with an organisation will become advocates, and far more likely to recommend the business to their peer group and friends.

Effective B2B sales nurturing in the form of telemarketing campaigns can be used to maintain communication with customers and keep brand awareness high. Every telemarketing call should be seen as an opportunity to nurture the relationship between a business and its customers. This will help buyers to feel invested in the brand and valued by their supplier.

Find out more about developing long lasting business relationships by exploring our site or talking to a member of our expert team.