December 2020 | Blue Donkey

3 Big lies about B2B Telemarketing

Posted on 31 December 2020 by bluedonkey

Pants on fire! We’ve heard some nonsense about the relevance of B2B telemarketing for today’s marketing mix. From robocalling to off-shoring, B2B telemarketing has suffered a reputational pounding over the past few years. But are marketers who choose to avoid it missing a trick?

What happens when something good comes along – you want to tell someone. What happens when you get a great idea – you’re eager to speak to people about it. What happens when you’re really excited about the awesome things your business can do – you want to reach new people with your thoughts. That’s basically B2B telemarketing, harnessing the power of the spoken word.

Lie 1 – Not something nice companies should do

Most organisations can trackback to the original connections made with their major customers. A large number of those big relationships would inevitably come from a phone call. Yet many will actively avoid B2B telemarketing because of a fear of failure. There’s even a medical term for this kind of fear. Atychiphobia is an irrational and persistent fear of failing at a particular thing. It causes anxiety, panic, and feelings of helplessness, and triggers the flight fight response. Hence a self-fulfilling prophecy. According to experts writing for the Harvard Business Review, these reactions mean you’re ready to fight — not think. The fear of failure causes the blood flow to diminish your cognitive ability, which in turn limits your ability to think and respond quickly, which in turn hurts your lead-generating results. The negative cycle is reinforced when a sales professional confirms the expectation by saying, “I hate cold-calling. I’m lousy at it!” The key to getting better at cold-calling is to simply get more accustomed to it, so your body does not perceive fear.

Lie 2 – You should always use a script

One way some companies attempt to remove the fear element has been the adoption of scripts. So you don’t get tongue-tied, and you do remember your own name.

At Blue Donkey, we’ve been making outbound B2B telemarketing calls for our family of clients for over 23 years. We have never used scripts and definitely never advocate the use of them.

The best way to get over the fear of cold calling is to develop the skills to engage and interest buyers quickly and effectively. Use open questioning technique to ask a relevant question, and get buyers talking. Once they’re contributing, two things happen: firstly you make a connection with them (people like people who get them talking – don’t ask us why, it’s simply a universal truth we accept) and you begin building that precious relationship. Secondly, you’re getting information about their needs as a business, so you’re ready to start showing how you meet those needs. Question – listen – meet need…. Rinse and repeat.

Lie 3 – B2B Telemarketing is a numbers game

Wrong – and dangerous! When something is described as a numbers game, it means an increase in a certain action will lead to a greater chance of a particular outcome. So more calls to get more leads. This idea is totally flawed. Focussing on the number of calls made will only serve to burn through scarce data resources. It carries a number of pernicious risks. One of them is the damage caused to brands of making dial after dial – one of the reasons telemarketing suffered a fall from grace a decade or so ago. The second risk is the numbers of people who will opt-out of future calls. Sales is a tough gig if you don’t feel passionate about the business you work for. This is especially the case in B2B telemarketing as client spend is usually associated with relationships.

If there is a single element that will always improve B2B telemarketing, it’s quality. So it’s not a ‘numbers game’ it’s a ‘quality game’, not as poetic, but definitely more success inducing.

Get cuddly with your features and benefits, know your place in the competitive environment – believe in what you’re doing, and the rest will happen, as if by magic.

Blue Donkey is delighted to have secured the Investors In People standard for its 14th year

Posted on 29 December 2020 by bluedonkey

Having recently achieved another year of the ISO:9001 quality standard, Blue Donkey are absolutely thrilled to have now secured yet another year of Investors In People (or IIP) too. As an IIP telemarketing business, we’re committed to the growth of our people through both the training we provide and the collegiate practices we share.

We strongly believe being an IIP telemarketing firm is important for a business like ours that attributes people power as one of their main competitive differentiators. Blue Donkey enjoys the prestige this internationally acknowledged accreditation gives companies that demonstrate strong leadership, excellent employee development, and robust people management systems.

Organisations looking to achieve the standard are assessed using a broad framework that challenges the ability to perform across all of the complex IIP barometers. For an IIP telemarketing business to demonstrate their competence in this way, they have to truly embrace the idea that people are not just staff. In fact, our people are our main stakeholders, and they contribute something special with every dial or key stroke. Only their continued dedication allows us to clock up another year of IIP, and our 24^th year with, in some cases, a client family who joined on day one.

Investors in People accreditation is a standard that recognises people management and people management systems. It’s granted to companies who invest the time and resources to observe certain key measures. Until 2017, Investors in People was owned by the UK government because it was considered such an important enabler of success for the countries workforces. Since then it has transitioned to the Investors in People Community Interest Company and conducted through local centres across the UK and internationally.

In September 2015, Investors in People launched the sixth generation standard, evolved from the previous fifth generation to keep pace with modern practices. The current framework reflects the latest workplace trends, leading practices and employee conditions required to create outperforming teams. The latest framework focuses on three key areas: leading, supporting and improving. Within these sit nine performance indicators based on the features of organisations that consistently outperform industry norms. Organisations are assessed against these indicators using a performance model made up of four levels: Developed, Established, Advanced, High-Performing. In order to achieve the minimum level of accreditation against this framework, an organisation must meet all nine indicators at ‘Developed’ level

Though UK-based, the Standard has been licensed to a number of other countries through Investors in People International. Investors in People International operates in more than 80 countries and delivers services in more than 30 languages

According to Investors In People “Your people are your most valuable commodity. Central to the success of any organisation – whatever their size or sector – is the right blend of talent, motivation and leadership. And for this reason, investing in your people is not only the right thing to do, it’s proven to be essential in delivering sustainable results, especially in a crisis. Organisations that lead, support and develop their workforce effectively are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable. Employers who get this wrong not only suffer the performance consequences but also see a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of their employees.”

Wellbeing and physical activity when WFH

Posted on 24 December 2020 by bluedonkey

Did you know that active workers take 27% fewer sick days a year? If you factor in the mental health benefits of regular activity, that number goes up significantly. We generally recognise that being physically active is good for our bodies, we may not be so aware of the positive impact on our mental well-being. Physical activity reduces depression, helps us manage stress, improves mood and sleep, and reduces anxiety. It’s also great for inducing the release of happy hormones like dopamine.

The big surprise is that you don’t have to be a gym bunny to be active. Regular movement alone, for example leaving your desk every 30 minutes to get a cup of tea or load the dishwasher counts as being active. At Blue Donkey we aim to delight clients with our service. The best telemarketing output takes focus and hard work, something we associate with sitting at a desk, however punctuating hard work, with some movement might just be the factor that tips us all from good to great.

There was a time when sniggering urbanites dubbed Fridays their shirking from home days. The current pandemic has forced organisations to dramatically rethink the traditional structures of their business. At Blue Donkey we trust our amazing team, and we’re confident they deliver some of the best telemarketing in the industry. But despite this, before Covid, managers would never have opted to put precious resources into developing systems that allow people to work from home. In fact, it’s the last thing on earth the business would have adopted as a means for producing the best telemarketing possible for our clients. However, Covid has forced unthinkable change.

Trust

Much like Blue Donkey, companies are learning to trust their teams to work as diligently from their home, as they would do in a workplace. People understand the responsibility that is placed on them, so they work really hard. Whether you’re aspiring to produce the best telemarketing or best of something else, working from home requires self-discipline. Inevitably employees are being compared with their peers for productivity and output, so they feel they must constantly prove themselves. Where in an office, the water cooler chats, and corridor banter would have moved people from their desks and provided some human interaction, the absence of this, coupled with the relentless motionless hours, and stress of uncertainty has brought about seismic change.

Lone workers

This is particularly worrying for people who live alone, where the counterproductive impacts of working harder, blurring of lines between work time and home time, and physical inactivity coupled with loneliness are the perfect cocktail for depression. This is no small thing, in fact, ACAS report that since Covid, depression among workers has gone up by 20%, so 1 in 5 people now experience depression. It’s therefore really important that managers do something to ensure there is balance in how much work and interaction is inserted into the day for their staff. Managers need to shift from thinking about the best telemarketing, or the most efficient widget to considering the benefits of happy staff.

You matter to us

Sending out the message that staff matter, as much as the quality of their work must be the new theme. For the economy to recover, as it no doubt will, moving from minding the output to minding the whole business needs to happen. Teams need to know they matter, not just their work. Particularly when they’re working from home, because they can’t see us smiling, and they won’t hear our warmth when we say well done, thank you, that’s the best telemarketing we’ve seen today.

Regular communication is, of course, important, at Blue Donkey we still have morning meetings by video for 10 minutes first thing to say hi, celebrate the day prior and recap goals. Regular one to one video calls allow managers to gently drill down on how individual team members are feeling, and the socially distanced workspace is available for anyone who needs a bit of support or time out of their home offices.

We’re moved

No doubt the simplest and most effective intervention we can make however is to tell our teams to move. Encourage lunchtime walks. If necessary block out diary time each day to get out of the house and grab the benefit of green space. Be clear that staff are not expected to be at their desk every moment of the day. In fact, the impact of physical inactivity costs UK businesses an estimated £6.6 billion a year. According to experts at Living Sport, lack of physical activity is one of the ‘big four’ causes of preventable ill-health along with smoking, poor nutrition and excess alcohol. However, inactivity affects the largest proportion of the population and is the least well known. Low levels of increased activity can make a huge difference and bring about dramatic benefits, improving physical and mental health and quality of life. Daily tasks are made easier and independence is increased. As well as improving fitness and strengthening muscles and bones, it also contributes to brain development, improves concentration and learning, encourages movement and develops coordination.

Living Sport is a charity, set up in 2006, to improve the health, happiness and wellbeing of the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by inspiring them to get active. Speak with them today about how you can move your teams to be more active.

The potential benefits of physical activity to health are huge. If a medication existed which had a similar effect, it would be regarded as a ‘wonder drug’ or ‘miracle cure’ (Chief Medical Officer (2009) Annual Report 2009, Department of Health).

Blue Donkey Intelligent Telemarketing again rates as ‘Strong’ in latest industry report

Posted on 22 December 2020 by bluedonkey

Blue Donkey Intelligent telemarketing has once again been rated as STRONG in the latest analysis of the UK’s 245 influential Call Centre companies. The Plimsoll Analysis (December 2020) also reveals Blue Donkey among the fastest growing in the market. What is more impressive is that Blue Donkey has achieved this in a tough market where 65 companies have made a loss, with 41 of those having made a 2 year loss and struggling to find liquidity.

As with previous years, Blue Donkey Intelligent telemarketing has taken great pride in being rated as Strong, as this is the highest rating available. However, it’s more important this year than ever before in our 23 year history. The Coronavirus epidemic has placed a huge pressure and challenge for the business to perform, more than we’ve ever seen as a business or as an industry. Clients need the absolute best from their projects and budgets right now, so every penny they spend with Blue Donkey is tasked to do more than it was previously.

With this in mind, we’d like to express gratitude to our wonderful client family for their continuing support of Blue Donkey. We are so lucky to work with client colleagues who aspire to be the very best in their markets, it’s a pleasure to serve you.

And special gold star thanks to the amazing Blue Donkey team. Your hard work, good humour, rock solid support, and unerring confidence make Blue Donkey the best B2B telemarketing agency in the world!

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 Intelligent telemarketing on 01353 724 880 or follow us on Linked In and Twitter.

Do you really believe… in your B2B marketing?

Posted on 17 December 2020 by bluedonkey

As Christmas approaches, we’re all reminded that Santa only comes to those who believe. It’s a little like lead generation.

So many sales people invest time and effort into their appearance, their presentation, and their market or business knowledge. They commit to what their lead generation needs from them. They’re the real deal. The shiny happy know-alls that have everything going for them. Except for one thing – they don’t believe. They don’t 100% share in the vision and goals of the business they work for. Whether it’s caused by mismatched recruiting, poor training, or bad management, a lack of belief will ooze through the voice and sabotage sales efforts. Unless you and your product are absolutely, resolutely connected, your results will give you away sooner or later.

Believe in your business

Lead generation is a tough gig if you don’t feel passionate about the business you work for. This is especially the case in B2B marketing as client spend is usually associated with relationships. Consumer marketing is arguably less demanding since products or services tend to be more transactional in nature. So if they’re well thought out, customers will purchase, whether the human connections are convincing or not (utilities being a typical example).

It’s so much easier to communicate the strengths and attributes of a business if you actually believe what you’re saying and you ‘believe-in’ what you’re doing. According to entrepreneur.com “your beliefs determine a significant portion of your life. They inform your decisions, they dictate how you react to different circumstances and they even affect how you interact with the people around you”. Typically we think of beliefs as faith or values, but it also applies to deep seated feelings about our work.

A company doesn’t need to be perfect in order for their teams to buy-in emotionally to the mission. Especially for those involved in some form of lead generation activity, there needs to be a strong, shared, sense that what the business stands for is fundamentally meaningful and worthwhile. If a company simply exists to box shift, or make money, the lead generation team tasked with talking to potential clients all day will need to be motivated by things other than the ‘cause’. These are typically devices such as money or competition that create a strong element of self-interest. Once the short-lived excitement and adrenaline wear off, they’ll seek more meaning and inevitably move on.

Companies should make a point of shouting about their mission. Sharing the good news, giving public praise, promoting client testimonials and industry benchmarks will all help give their people a sense of being part of something special. Everyone will benefit from this, not just the lead generation team. There are other benefits too, it will help retain talent, inspire discretional effort, and steady the ship during rougher times.

Believe in you

It’s not all down to the business. We all have a responsibility to build our own belief system. One way is to do this is to hang on to good news and leave behind the bad. Making an active effort to collect and retain ‘good emotional baggage’ instead of ‘bad emotional baggage’ is a habit we can all nurture. Often those involved in lead generation will hang on to the negative soundbites they get over the phone, even if they’re untrue but forget the nice things clients may say. From the time a job seeker starts comparing roles, they need to attune to the companies that offer them something exciting. Whether it’s the product, the industry, the people or something else, we should be aware of the often subtle things that help us connect emotionally to a business and its mission. Only then can we truly propagate a belief in ourselves.

How to build the best kind of telemarketing script

Posted on 15 December 2020 by bluedonkey

The best kind of telemarketing script is no script at all. Scripts are bad for brand and bad for business. That’s because your personality will always represent greater collateral in a call than your words alone. The way you think and communicate was after all why you were hired in the first place, so taking on a false persona in a telemarketing script will jar with the real you.

Humans are complex animals, we need some things in order to perform. Increasingly, business trainers talk about the importance of authenticity in the workplace. Without it we struggle to find meaning or connection in our work. Authenticity is about being true to yourself, saying what resonates with you, in your own way. By doing so, you drive your telemarketing so it feels right, rather than following the patter somebody else designed on a telemarketing script. As the experts at People Management magazine put it, the term ‘authenticity’ in the workplace has almost become overused. But there is something behind the jargon – ideas that have been around for centuries that can help people in the workplace gain a sense of identity, honesty and passion.”

Choose you

People who feel like they are being themselves and speaking from their own voice rather than a telemarketing script enjoy deeper customer engagements on the phone. They ‘get into’ their calls more comfortably. Importantly, when you feel like a real person being listened to, that ‘bottom of the food chain’ feeling that cold calling can give is eliminated. However, communicating freely, imaginatively, and authentically requires certain conditions to be met. The words and thinking must come from you. A telemarketing script cannot wrap itself around the requirements of individual buyers either, and all buyers are individual. So how can you build the best kind of telemarketing script, given scripts don’t work?

Questions and answers

At Blue Donkey we have a neat little training tool that helps us to organise material in a way that is accessible. It’s mission critical that any kind of telemarketing script or prompt allows the user to dip in and out according to what the person on the other end of the line needs. Here’s how it works. We start by asking an open question. These usually start with the words what, when, where, why, or how. Then we calibrate the response to that question with the objective of understanding their primary needs. Once we’ve understood their needs, we pick from a menu of juicy facts in order to respond appropriately.

Must say, Should say, Could say

These juicy facts are compiled on a set of lists called Must says, Should says, Could says. They are essentially a menu of soundbites, in order of importance. You can create them as a simple list, on a piece of paper folded landscape, into three columns. This is definitely not a telemarketing script, it’s a simple road map of keywords that get you thinking – so the words come from your own head.

The Must says are pretty much self-explanatory. This is the stuff that has to be communicated in every call, it contains the essence of who you are, and what makes you special. These things will be front of mind for you every time you think about your business. Your Should says might include important things such as accreditation, systems, or structural attributes that help define you as a business. They’re pretty important, but possibly not as much as the Must says. Could says will be the factors you use to address particular aspects of an individual customer’s needs. It might refer to preferences they expressed, for example, flexibility because they’ve mentioned that their incumbent supplier can be inflexible.

The Must say, Should say, Could say menu will be designed around the potential needs of homogeneous buyers. So if you sell to schools, your lists will be designed around the needs of schools generally. The different categories of information should be drawn upon as you need them. Unlike the telemarketing script, your conversations will be freefall, and completely unique every time. If you speak to someone who is particularly drawn to a solution that does ABC, you pick the features and benefits that relate to ABC in the way you wish to present them. You should have a smattering of proof points, stories, or interesting facts that you can pepper your call with, depending on each particular buyer’s needs. This list can be single words or bullet points so how you present them is entirely down to you.

You too can learn to love your phone…

Posted on 10 December 2020 by bluedonkey

Phone based marketing is not something most people enjoy. At Blue Donkey, we’ve made the concept of intelligent telemarketing our own for over 23 years now. We do this mainly by building some, then we share them with each other. It’s like anything, the better you get the more you achieve, and the more you achieve the greater the love.

Human contact is a key ingredient to making this love happen. Studies have shown that voice communication will create much stronger bonds than text. A person’s voice reveals qualities of warmth and other emotional experience that you can’t get through text according to Amit Kumar, PhD writing for the Journal of Experimental Psychology. It’s also useful to know that while a global pandemic stops us meeting face to face, what we’re missing out on in terms of the power of human connection is apparently, not as much as you might think. “Being able to see another person does not make people feel any more connected than if they simply talked with them. A person’s voice is really the signal that creates understanding and connection.”

Type less, talk more

Kumar’s research concluded that participants felt more connected to the person they spoke with, even strangers. They added “People tend to undervalue the positive relational consequences of using voice relative to text alone, leading them to favour typing rather than talking. But that’s a potentially unwise preference. The takeaway message here is: Type less, talk more”.

If you’re tempted to email instead of call, remind yourself that it’s hard to make an impact, never mind a positive one, with a cold email. But an email sent as a follow up to your call will serve to reiterate your purpose and business strengths.

Expect good things to happen

One way of learning to like phone based marketing more is to shift your frame of reference. If you expect the task of cold calling to be hostile, chances are it will prove you right. The science of psychology has told us for years now that you get what you focus on. If you focus on getting more positive interactions, you will. And then, like the Blue Donkey team, the more you achieve, the more you’ll associate your phone based marketing work with warm feelings. Then make a point of remembering the good stuff. Surround yourself with reminders of the positive things that have happened and gently allow your focus to drift there as you’re working.

Have a gratitude attitude

People don’t have to speak to us. They have their own priorities and problems. It’s exhausting and frustrating to get blocked in the task of lead generation, market research or any form of phone based marketing. Therein lies the rub. You need to speak to people, people are too busy to speak with you. So what to do?

Understanding that it’s not personal, it’s not unusual, and it’s not permanent is a great way to view the issue. Hence you can’t do much other than improve your technique, but even that doesn’t guarantee everyone will be available or able to speak with you. It can take roughly 15 dials for each decision maker reached on a newish project and 8 on an established one. That’s pretty standard even to expert communicators like those at Blue Donkey. The best thing to do is celebrate the conversations you do have, treat them as special and focus on having them. At Blue Donkey we call this having a Gratitude Attitude. Being grateful when we do get through, rather than frustrated when we don’t. That’s also an excellent mindset when you do reach someone, as you’re already mentally positioned to get the most from the human connections you do make. And so, they get more from you.

3 power packed ways to make question techniques work for you…

Posted on 8 December 2020 by bluedonkey

The way you ask questions makes all the difference to the answers you get. That may seem simple, banal even, but a bit of deep digging will demonstrate just how profound the question technique can be to output. If there is one element of telemarketing, lead generation, market research, or pretty much anything in sales that matters most, it’s question technique. The way we ask questions, and the question itself can be the factor that makes us successful.

Selling is about building rapport, which means you have to get people talking. It’s about generating relationships that have the potential for the long term, which means you have to get people talking. You have to show you understand customer needs, which means you have to get people talking. Essentially, your question techniques must enable you to Get in – Get on – and Get out, so the cycle of your calls is built upon a robust objective and process. Sounds complicated? It’s not. You won’t do it by accident, but carefully controlled use of good questions works a treat.

1. So how do you get people talking

At Blue Donkey, our intelligent telemarketing model rests on ‘needs based selling’. One of our mantras is ‘where there’s no need, there’s no lead’. You can’t just call people, tell them what you’re offering, and produce a lead. The cheap and cheerful telemarketing agency model will do just that. This method will produce some leads, but they won’t be based on two way conversations, so they will ultimately fail to win the hearts and minds you need for good long term relationships to happen. Creating leads that endure relies on drawing people into discussions about their business and its objectives. This means your question techniques have some important work to do.

The first step then must be to work out what you want to know. Then base your question on that only. Ask one thing at a time but strip out questions that don’t directly address what you want to know. Often people ask a question because they want it to lead to something else. For example ‘How is business right now?’ Usually, vague questions produce vague answers. You need questions that draw people into relevant conversation quickly and deeply. Open question techniques are always best for this, and generally, they begin with When, What, Why, How. So ask yourself, what do you need to know – then use one of those to compose a short question that gets that information. If it doesn’t get the information you need, redesign your question.

2. How do you find the right information

We describe certain types of question as fertile. Fertile open questions are those that address the big picture of an organisation in relation to your product or service. They could be questions that start with ‘Tell me about how you…’ or I’d be keen to understand what…..’ These won’t be a one size fits all. One question may work for you but flop for someone else. So it’s down to the individual to find questions that work best for them. Keep testing out new ones to build your skills and question technique. Your favourite question will sometimes just break! When it stops working for whatever reason, it’s great to have the skills to just adopt a new one.

Questions that ask about lots of aspects at once are great for drawing people into deep discussion. So ‘How do you achieve maximum efficiency in ….’ Is a good example because it’s about several different features of the business. A buyer will answer that question with deep thought, and whilst they’re doing that your relationship magically begins to grow shoots. People like people who get them talking. The question technique you use at this stage requires you to speak a little, and your buyer to speak lots. Hence you collect a maximum amount of the right information with the minimum words on your part.

3. How to prompt further action

Usually, the goal of the question technique is to get your buyer to the stage where they are eager to take the discussion to the next level. This might be a meeting for example. It’s really important to understand the goal is to create and ‘eagerness for’ not a ‘willingness to’. If a potential buyer is eager, they have brought in, they are invested, and your lead will endure – hopefully to convert to a sale and then a long term relationship. If your potential buyer is only ‘willing’ to go to the next step, you haven’t finished the job. More questions and deeper discussion is needed if you’re going to successfully generate a properly qualified outcome.

Closing questions and techniques are important here. Sincere and straight forward is always the best way to build a close. This is because its core to winning the elusive and mysterious quality of trust. According to Entrepreneur.com getting customers, clients and employees to trust you can be complicated, but it is imperative for success – perhaps more important than sales. If you get others to trust you, it’s easier to grow and nurture your business and give everyone excellent service. The 1980’s were responsible for all manner of blunderbuss closing techniques, most of which failed to grasp the point that if the potential buyer is not invested in what you have to offer, no question technique or close will change that fact. Uncover an appropriate need, and then simply ask the question in your head – which will be something like ‘Can we come and see you’.

Your mission, should you choose to accept…

Posted on 3 December 2020 by bluedonkey

How many people plan their B2B telesales with the big picture in mind? Probably not very many. Instead, they grab the phone with a vengeance, eat through precious data, on a single-minded mission to sell stuff. Is that bad? Yup, it’s pretty bad. Telesales in B2B needs to do more than simply box shift. In fact, there’s arguably no space in the world for box shifting telesales in consumer marketing now either, since transactional, one-off selling, has moved to cheaper forms of marketing such as online.

For B2B operations, selling has evolved hugely over the last decade. We no longer look for the cheapest, or fastest, when buying goods and services. Organisations are seeking the special attributes that make a supplier shine out. Corporate buyers especially, look at the whole business, so how a company treats its people, respects the environment, and their social responsibility, all matter now. Where companies used to buy the particular thing and move on, they now buy with a deeper relationship in mind. In turn, we as businesses don’t want to just sell anymore. We want a relationship. Our mission, therefore, as sellers, is to make sure our B2B telesales builds the big picture in the mind of the buyer. Who we are, what makes us worthy of not just one, but all the sales, needs to be present in our thinking and our sales story all the time.

Purpose

The big picture in B2B telesales is all about the thinking, the history, the ethics, the principles, and the values that make your brand unique. It’s not enough to believe in our business, that belief has to seep through into our words, especially in B2B telesales, where often new connections are being made from cold.

Consulting firm McKinsey, describe this factor in their article More Than A Mission Statement. They created a framework that breaks down the mission or ‘purpose’ called the 5Ps – People, Process, Portfolio, Performance, and Position. They propose these 5Ps embed purpose and meaning into work making organisations more resilient and better at delivering value. “We’ve all seen it: companies that have the “it” factor, enthusiasm and passion that lights up employees, delights customers, and shines for investors. It’s not just the company’s warmer fleece, or more delicious ice cream, or even a breakthrough technology. And it’s so much more than just a mission statement. It’s purpose. Purpose answers the question, “What would the world lose if your company disappeared?” It defines a company’s core reason for being and its resulting positive impact on the world. Winning companies are driven by purpose, reach higher for it, and achieve more because of it. Competitors wonder where they can get some of that magic and how they might sprinkle it on.”

Key success factors

One way of sharing and embedding purpose in B2B telesales is to work on what McKinsey describe as the ‘it’ factor. Making sure your team can describe your business and your purpose in a way that captures the interest of buyers, and paints colourful, engaging pictures about how you can help them. Identifying and promoting the company’s Key Success Factors (KSFs) will help implant in the mind of your people, the things that differentiate you from the competition. Key success factors can be determined by asking three questions: What do customers want – analysis of demand. How does the organisation survive competition – analysis of market. Finally, what are the company’s specific success factors, based on the customer needs you can meet, in order to win relationships with them.

Scripts won’t help

Creating meaning and purpose in a B2B telesales operation relies on an organisation being able to embed their mission and KSFs into the minds of their people. This can’t be script driven, it just can’t. Scripts don’t afford your team the opportunity to speak from the heart, and if your message isn’t heartfelt, it won’t work. After all who ever heard of a relationship blossoming where there’s no heart.

Being clear about the difference your product or service makes to the life of buyers will help your B2B telesales team come across as passionate and expert. A clear purpose and mission will infect buyers with enthusiasm that what you deliver is aligned with their needs and can make a real difference.