Category Archives: Business advice

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).

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.

No matter how good your product or service is, and how loyal your buyers might be, no one should ever completely relax about the importance of customer service. We all want our customers to love us, and let’s face it, no one goes to work to do a bad job, but the truth is, at some point you’re going to get something wrong.

So when the unthinkable happens, what should you do, and how can you steer your precious relationships back to a safe and happy place. Great customer service isn’t always about doing the right thing, sometimes it’s about doing the right thing about the wrong thing.

Listen

First things first, let them tell you their complaint. Before jumping in to defend your business you need to execute priorities carefully. First let them speak, then seek to understand. Customer service is about the customer, not you, so let them vent, scream or whatever they need to do in order to get their complaint out. It’s not personal. Listen carefully, sift through the information to build a picture of what when wrong and why. Be prepared to silently rearrange what the customer is telling you about what happened since most people will react incoherently when they are cross about something. Give them time to get everything off their chest.

Never try to avoid an angry customer, always pick up the phone and speak to them rather than email. Putting the human element in your customer service will help defuse the situation.

Apologise

When you’re sure the customer has finished speaking, apologise. A sincere apology is absolutely always helpful when customer service falls short. Insincere half apologies are not. “I’m sorry you feel that way” is not an apology, it’s distancing yourself from the issue and putting the blame in the customer’s corner suggesting they and their emotions are somehow to blame.

Don’t react to their anger, and certainly don’t allow any irritation on your part to seep into your voice. When they’ve come down off the ceiling, try to gently probe, so you fully understand the problem. Don’t be surprised if you restoke the fire, again just let them offload. At this point, you’re looking to get all their anger out so you can start dealing with the problem. They’ll feel much better once they’ve had the chance to let off steam.

Do something nice

When you completely understand the problem, tell your customer what you’d like to do to remedy the situation. In some instances you may feel your process wasn’t to blame, or the issue wasn’t caused by a fault on the part of your business, however it’s important you don’t divert responsibility. Gently offer an explanation and some means to avoid a repetition.

Doing something nice will help win customer service brownie points. If it’s appropriate for a discount or a gesture towards their next purchase will demonstrate your commitment. If that’s not appropriate, think about ways you can win trust and respect. For example, calling them at an agreed time to make sure the problem has been properly resolved, or speaking to anyone else involved in the supply chain to check they have the right details to avoid reoccurrence.

It’s long been understood that customers who are happy with the way a complaint has been dealt with become more loyal than before their grievance happened.  For customer service managers, this presents a valuable opportunity to uncover bugbears and improvement opportunities without the costly need for market research. According to business insurance giants Simply Business, dealing with customer complaints can be a business owner’s worst nightmare. But with lots of attention and creative thinking, you can turn them into a great opportunity.

There is a lot of talk right now about authenticity and being authentic in your work. So what do we mean by being authentic? Being authentic means that you act in ways that are genuine, true to yourself, and how you feel. That means to succeed in being authentic in the world of B2B sales, you have to think and act in a manner that’s congruent with your own values and beliefs.

During challenging times this is even more important than normal, due mainly to most of us feeling thrown off-balance by external factors anyway. So you might find yourself being more distracted or less empathetic than you might normally be. Being authentic in B2B sales means you will connect with the people on your database that you genuinely feel you can bring something to. It also means you reflect upon opportunities from the viewpoint of the buyer, not as the seller who needs to benefit. Is that a self-indulgent luxury we can’t afford, or can we make being authentic work for our business?

How you want to be perceived

B2B sales typically has a longer gestation period than consumer selling. It’s less transactional which means it’s not usually a one-off or price driven purchase. In fact it’s based on relationships, and relationships are based on winning trust, nurturing empathy, and making long term connections with people. Not by accident then that you need buyers to ‘like’ you, and respect you as a professional. That’s so much easier to do if you’re being your true self. So you give advice and build messaging according to the particular needs of the individual you’re dealing with.

When you’re being authentic in B2B sales, you don’t set out to sell come what may. Everyone you speak with will have their own set of circumstances and objectives. Showing you understand and are willing to mould your offering around them will win the confidence of your buyers, and give you a sense of meaning. Over time, you will build an army of advocates that become friends, promoters, and customers for life.

Scripts absolutely will not help

At the risk of being boring, since we’ve said over and over, scripts don’t work, for a million reasons, they don’t work. Trying to stage a B2B sales pitch around the narrative you were having in your head when you wrote your script is bound to end in failure. You will have a fixed patter to rattle off, they will say things you weren’t expecting, and you’ll lose control of the call. This will make you feel phony and cheap.

You don’t need a script, you need some grit, great product knowledge, and the desire to talk about what you have that’s special. To be authentic, you need to ask a couple of questions that relate to the product you’re selling, and then listen carefully to the answers. Those answers will tell you what you should put on the table in order to be valuable to your buyer, by meeting their unmet needs. If your questions fail to do this, review them, or get consent to speak again in the future when the buyer’s needs may change. As ever, if there’s no need, there’s no lead.

Mould messaging around your audience

Being clear about the difference your product or service makes will help you come across as passionate and expert. Get your buyer talking, and seek information that helps you understand their business, so the service you deliver is aligned and makes a real difference. Make your B2B selling technique all about your audience, this means every call and interaction will be distinctive, so they are memorable to you, as you are to them.

Where you don’t manage to create a selling opportunity (the majority of your outcomes) do gather relevant information, and build a pipeline of future opportunities, so over time your data gets warmer, your brand resonates in the mind of potential buyers, and your sales increase. By following this routine, you plant seeds that propagate sales over time, instead of compromising yourself to reach deadlines or targets.

Tell stories, ask questions, make your selling all about the individuals in the audience you are connecting with. By doing so you’ll feel enriched and personally invested. Not only will your sales figures benefit from winning long term loyalty from committed buyers, but you’ll feel proud of the contribution you’ve made to their business and your own.  According to thought leadership experts at Business 2 Community, one of the greatest competitive edges in business today is authenticity. Professionals and companies that encourage practices based on this authentic truth immediately differentiate themselves from the competition. You can learn more about authenticity in B2B sales here.

If like many, your telesales team is now working remotely, you’ll probably have noticed that creating a feeling of connectedness isn’t easy, especially where teams are young or holding entry-level positions. This can be bad news for the business, not just for sales figures or company growth, but also for staff retention.

Arguably, however, more important than the business impacts of your telesales underperforming, is the potential cost of staff wellbeing, especially for younger workers. The current pandemic has caused a widespread spike in mental health problems but according to the Mental Health Foundation, the UK’s leading charity for mental health, young people are particularly at risk. “Our study has consistently found that young adults were more likely to report stress arising from the pandemic than the population as a whole. Findings from the third week of June show that 18-24 year olds were still more likely than any other age group to report hopelessness, loneliness, not coping well and suicidal thoughts/feelings”.

So how can you bring your telesales team together ‘under one roof’ when you’re all in different places? We’ve pulled together some of our strategies for team bonding, and remote management for you below. Not forgetting that whether your team are outbound or inbound, their objective to win sales, or generate potential doesn’t change just because there’s a pandemic, if anything, they need to be even more able to win customers away from the competition as conditions get tighter.

Happy staff make happy customers

As managers, we have a vested interest to make sure our staff feel happy and secure. Not only does this have a positive effect on telesales figures, it also makes for an environment that buzzes with energy and motivation so your customers or potential customers benefit from a good impression of your brand. You can help the energy flow by setting smaller targets and goals, and then having a brief recap after each is reached. Set milestones, and ask your team to contribute their thoughts and feelings freely on email, or online chat facilities. Be clear about goals so everyone knows what is expected of them. Assign buddies to support each other, encourage focus on the positives, and have your telesales team report the highs, lows, and any suggestions for improvement in a morning meeting session.

Zoom

You can’t manage a team without contact, so in the absence of a shared building, video meetings, such as Zoom or Teams should be a regular feature of how you connect with your telesales team. Clearly, this form of communication is not ideal. We’re all familiar with the expression Zoom fatigue, this is because this type of meeting forces us to focus more intently in order to understand what’s being said. Additionally, the only way to show you’re listening in a video call is to stare at the screen, however, this kind of fixed stare is tiring and not natural, you certainly wouldn’t do it face to face.

To make your meeting more relaxing and engaging, consider going around the room to ask friendly questions, or recall small details about individuals, their day, or telesales outcomes. Using graphics, cartoons, charts, etc will help break the monotony. As the meeting host, try not to ‘read’ people’s faces, and if you think someone looks bored or dejected, don’t pick them up on it. It might make you feel uncomfortable to be jollifying a team of blank faces, but hey tough times!

Private chats

It’s absolutely possible to cultivate a happy team remotely, provided you can all learn to tolerate and thrive, despite strange conditions. Managers must attune to the unique needs of each member of their team, so if someone seems a little subdued or bored in your morning team meeting, have a private video call/meeting. Don’t pull them up on how they seemed in your morning team session, the last thing you want is for your team to feel somehow judged or threatened by your meetings. Instead, try opening with, you wondered how they were and wanted to say a quick hello. Then you can gently address anything else that needs to be discussed. Have a plan to follow up, try giving them a spot in one of your morning meetings to voice their ideas on how to do something.

Always look to highlight positive events, contributions, or news. The more you can bring individual ideas and contributions to the team, the better they will function. Making people feel like they matter is especially key to the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and whole businesses right now. We all need to know we make a difference.

Catch people doing good

When people feel strained or anxious they may naturally underperform to some extent. This is probably inevitable. However, the more robust your quality management system, the better you will be at picking up potential problems quickly. Given telesales is fairly high on the spectrum of stressful jobs anyway, you won’t want to jump in with a criticism of your team member’s performance. So instead of pulling them up on a bad thing, pull them up on a good one.

Look for opportunities to praise and congratulate and use this to highlight what good looks like. This is often referred to as the ‘sandwich technique’. The sandwich method is a form of feedback that wraps negative feedback in praise. This means that the feedback discussion starts with positive comments about some element of the staff member’s performance, and is followed by negative criticism before appreciative words are again used. The lasting impression is one of positivity, even though the shortcoming was clearly addressed and understood.

If you Google the term ‘cold call’, most of what you’ll see is a negative or distasteful account of the telephone being used for unsolicited selling. No surprise then that it’s not seen as something ‘nice’ people do for a living. If on the other hand, you get a business call from a bank manager at your local branch, about a new account, you’re probably not going to think of that as a cold call. What’s the difference? Well largely, it’s the perception of those two activities that’s different. In fact there are more similarities than differences. You didn’t ask for the call, you don’t know the caller, and you don’t ‘want’ a new account, it’s the job of the caller to stimulate your interest.

At Blue Donkey, we think a cold call is only one that leaves you feeling cold, so we do our best to make nice, warm, snuggly calls instead! Whether you’re a first timer, or a seasoned cold calling aficionado we have a few suggestions to help you shake off the shivers.

Fear is not always bad

Fear is an emotion or sensation we get when we are worried that something bad will happen. In cold calling terms that amounts to being hung up on, humiliated, or undermined in some way. We describe that fear as irrational because logically, it’s not likely to happen.

At Blue Donkey, we’re dialling calls all day every day, and it’s pretty rare that anyone gets hung up on. And if someone does get a bad reaction to their call, they’ll usually ask for a manager to listen to the call to establish if they did something wrong, so they can reduce the chances of it happening in the future. By looking at the factors that cause you fear, you can arm yourself with the knowledge and ability to counter them, so you can make cold calls that are informative and well received. Like anything, the better you get, the more you’ll enjoy the experience.

Be curious

Fear of cold calling can be reduced by knowing your product well, and being very clear about what you have that’s special, and how you can provide something to improve the lives, or at least the business life, of the people you’re calling. When you think about it, if something great happens, you are compelled to tell people. When you’re genuinely excited about your product or service, the feeling of wanting to shout about it is the same.

Have some clear graphics or diagrams to hand that help remind you what you’ve got to offer that’s special. Use stats, case studies, or client experiences, and data to add proof points to your messaging, and remember to ask open questions. Being curious about your business and its successes, as well as having curiosity and interest in the people you’re speaking with will help place your cold calls on a much stronger foundation. As your results improve, so will your attitude to cold calling.

Irrational fear

Most people have a fear of cold calling and usually it’s an irrational one. Yet we can all cite at least one or two of our best business relationships that originated with a thoughtful call placed out of the blue. More than ever, companies are choosing to outsource their cold calling to professionals like Blue Donkey. Whilst that’s a great idea, and we’re always delighted to hear from new clients, as purse strings inevitably get tighter, now might be a good time to dust down your headset and start honing the skills for yourself.

Visualising is one way to help reduce the fear of cold calling. Seeing a person in your mind and speaking with them, rather than a stranger will help put you on a better footing. Visualising success is also important for helping us break unhelpful cycles of negative belief, where you think you can’t do something, so you underperform. According to meditation and wellbeing experts Insights Timer, we need to have more self-belief. They say many people follow negative thought patterns which become an accepted part of their life, preventing them from achieving their true potential. Have a listen to their guided meditation here.

If you run a team of lead generators, or if you’re a lead generator yourself, you’ll know that staying positive and motivated are essential for achieving any kind of success. Unfortunately, however, it can be hard to remain positive and upbeat all the time, especially when the whole world seems discombobulated. And when one person is a little down, it can have a Mexican wave effect that spreads across the team.

Some natural ebb and flow of mood are, of course, normal, but for professional lead generators, it’s important they don’t allow productivity to fluctuate. So what can you do to give yourself or your team a lift? At Blue Donkey we have a few strategies to help our amazing team of aficionados get back their mojo and fly through their day.

Mindful breathing

Mindful breathing is helpful, deep breath in, hold for a few seconds, and out sloooooowly. Mindfulness is a powerful technique for managing stress, it focuses on bringing our mental state back to the present, and centering in the moment. According to experts at Positive Psychology, setting aside a few minutes each day for mindful breathing can make a big difference to your day. Mindful breathing is a tool you can use to bring yourself back to the present in stressful situations, and who wouldn’t appreciate having such a valuable tool on hand for those times in the day when you need it.

Look up

Posture is important for lead generators, on so many levels. It’s not by accident that granny used to say ‘look up’, and we use expressions such as ‘things are looking up’. Well, they are!

Looking upwards helps us to think more creatively, sit more upright, and therefore come across with better clarity. All of this helps people receive and relate to our calls in a better way, and therefore we get an improved response and a shot in the arm for our mojo. Try sticking a picture high above your desk, of a friendly face, or an inspirational image, that draws your eyes upwards and reminds you to look up and sit straight.

Visualise

See people in your mind as you’re speaking on the phone. Imagine them smiling. Use the feelings this conjures up in your mind to empathise and connect with prospects more deeply. This is a great way to create an instant lift in your lead generation results because if you operate on a more human level, you’ll be liked more. This will help you build rapport, trust, and warmer relationships; powerful happy factors for lead generating.

Create positive cycles

Notice the difference your improved mind-set makes to your results. Practice being grateful to people for the time they afford you (rather than being disappointed when they don’t have time for you). These behaviours are habit forming, so before long you’ll find yourself doing them naturally and creating a virtuous cycle. And the better your outcomes, the more you enjoy and find meaning in your work, the more you want to pick up the phone.

Carry good baggage

Lead generation teams often banter about the calls and situations that crash and burn spectacularly. This is healthy and humour is always good, however, do take care not to internalise the negative aspects. If you only remember the negative or the ridiculous, when you’re feeling low those stories will collect to make the job harder. If you make a point of remembering the great times, the big hits and the people for whom you made a difference, finding and restoring your mojo will be a piece of cake.

The world has changed a whole heap this year, things we once took for granted have been snatched away and we’re adapting. Whether you’re the CEO or one of your organisations frontline telemarketers, you can’t have failed to notice that the telephone is suddenly our main route to the outside world. Those who embrace the opportunity, hone the right skills, and hit the phone hard will be the superstars that bring a company growth, in adversity.

As expert telemarketers, we’ve gathered together a few of our favourite hints and tips about how you can improve your hit rate and feel great about your phone prowess.

Speak to a person, not a phone

Being on the phone is unnerving because you’re reduced from using your normal five senses to just two. When asked why people dislike telemarketing, they’ll often say it’s because ‘you can’t see a person and read their body language’.

Body language is important in human communication, academics have spent years trying to understand its hidden codes. According to career and management learning experts Mind Tools, body language refers to the nonverbal signals that people use to communicate. It includes posture, facial expressions, and hand gestures. The ability to understand and to interpret body language can help you to pick up on unspoken issues, problems, or negative feelings that potential buyers might have.

No surprise then that the absence of seeing someone’s body language unnerves us enough to make us avoid the phone if face to face is an option. So what can you do to get around the problem, well surprisingly, lots!

Firstly, when you’re in telemarketer mode, make sure you’re somewhere quiet and free of distractions. Take a deep breath as you’re dialling, and visualise a person in your mind as you speak. Most people are happy speaking by phone to someone they know, it is cold calling strangers that have a particularly hard edge. Imagining your buyer will help you direct your message in a way that feels more natural, and more congruent with your normal method of communication. Like most skills in the telemarketer armoury, this one takes practice, but its habit forming so it is well worth getting through the learning curve. Try it for a week – we promise it will pay dividends.

Stand up, look up, speak up

When asked about the problems people face in playing the telemarketer role, they often say it’s demeaning, no one wants to talk to me. These sentiments are not uncommon, in fact, it’s a problem professional communicators at Blue Donkey invest a lot of time and energy in overcoming.

Standing up will help you project your voice so you are understood and more likely to be listened to. People with good projection naturally speak up, have presence, and sound more important. Looking upwards will help you breathe more deeply, use the creative side of your brain so your messaging is more likely to pick up subtle signals, and make you better at overcoming resistance.

Smile

It’s a fact for any telemarketer that feeling good about your work will help your message resonate in a more lively and compelling way. The simple smile will provide your calls with a fast and effective shot in the arm. The great thing about the idea of ‘smile as you dial’ is also that you can ‘fake it till you make it’. So even if you weren’t feeling happy to begin with, you soon will. Just painting a smile on your face does something to the voice that changes how buyers perceive you. Honest! Try it!

Know your stuff

The one sure fire method for coming across convincingly is to be really clear about what you’re offering. Take pride in your organisation, and the difference you make. Have diagrams, lists, pictures, flight cards, flowcharts, mind maps, or anything else that provides a visual cue of all things fabulous about you. Getting fuelled up with all this positive energy will mean you’re bursting to pick up the phone and tell someone about it. Pride and passion are powerful motivators. If you can get into a headspace where you’re continuously reminded how great your business is, it won’t fail to shine through in your manner and words.

The methods above will help you bring incremental improvements to every dial. Some will work for you better than others, but all of them need to be used mindfully and deliberately so you’re working at each call from an entirely new template. Do remember that even the slightest improvement in how you come across will make a difference to your collective outcomes. And like anything, the better you do, the more likely you are to want to pick up the phone and do more.

Long days dialling call after call can be a daunting experience for anyone. Especially under current conditions where face to face contact is so limited. Keeping yourself or your workforce productive and motivated is perhaps even tougher now than under normal conditions. For the average lead generation agency however, staying motivated is very much business as usual.

With a little concerted effort and support from their managers, most lead generation agency employees are able to find the energy they need to knuckle down and get their calls fired up and ready for action. Take a look at some easy and effective motivational techniques that will boost productivity and improve morale in no time.

Herzberg’s motivation theory

Frederick Herzberg, an American psychologist, became one of the most influential names in business management in the 20th century. Known for his two-factor theory of motivation, his book ‘One more time, how do you motivate employees?’ sold more than 1.2 million copies when it was published in 1968. His ideas may now be half a century old, but they still hold true. A reliable lead generation agency like Blue Donkey measures productivity right down to the last few minutes of each hour. In such environments, the motivation of teams can be the key success factor in differentiating a business. Managers looking to inspire employees and boost productivity can use this theory to enable motivation. Understanding how their teams think and respond to certain things can help create the mind-set and appetite for optimum results.

Two factors

Whether you run a lead generation agency or factory floor, Herzberg believed that motivation was driven by two distinct factors. These factors fell into two broad categories: motivators, and hygiene factors. Motivating factors were those that actively encouraged a better rate of work or ‘discretionary effort’. These are special things that gave employees the energy and the drive to put more into their role. Without motivators, employees would struggle to put 110% into their work.

Hygiene factors, on the other hand, wouldn’t necessarily motivate workers to be more productive simply by being present. However, the absence of hygiene factors would demotivate workers and reduce productivity because they are considered essential. Ensuring the presence of both hygiene factors and motivators, therefore, is critical. Especially where forces of competition are high. In competitive markets like the lead generation agency, managers absolutely need to get the very best out of their workforce.

Motivators

There are a number of motivators that Herzberg identified in his theory. Chief among them was the belief that by giving workers increased responsibility, meaningful and fulfilling work, and increased autonomy it would improve motivation levels. He also encouraged managers to reward achievement and recognise hard work among employees. For a lead generation agency, this might mean rewards like money or other incentives. However, Herzberg emphasised that money is not the only motivator, and for many, not even a motivator at all. So understanding the individuals on your team, and creating motivators that work ‘for them’, is key. For example, flexible work times, dress-down days, free fruit, may motivate more than financial rewards. For others, extra training, access to information, or a simple pat on the back might be a bigger motivator.

Hygiene factors

In Herzberg’s theory, hygiene factors are basic provisions that can demotivate a workforce by their absence. These include adequate pay, good working conditions, and fair and appropriate supervision. Although the presence of these important factors won’t necessarily motivate a workforce, their absence will significantly hinder productivity and sap employee morale in the process. Shared knowledge, training, free flow of information, and influencing ability are increasingly creeping into this category. Blue Donkey has implemented Investors in People as a tool to help support hygiene factors especially. For a lead generation agency, the nature of constant targets and deadlines places extra importance on motivation and its benefits.

A two-pronged approach

Managers looking to boost motivation should, therefore, take a two-pronged approach if they want to improve productivity for good. Looking at both motivating factors and hygiene factors will help company managers provide the best conditions possible for their workers and increase motivation levels across the board. Additionally, something Herzberg won’t have foreseen, is that growing pressures of life have led to a global mental health crisis. Work is no longer just about work. A lead generation agency like any other business now has a duty to protect and promote staff wellbeing.

Experts at Very Well Mind (do subscribe to their daily newsletter – it’s excellent!) say motivation is the force that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. It is what causes us to take action, whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enrol in college to earn a degree. The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social, emotional, or cognitive in nature….. While no single theory can adequately explain all human motivation, looking at the individual theories can offer a greater understanding of the forces that cause us to take action.

If you’d like to find out more about our amazing lead generation agency, get in touch with a member of our team.