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3 powerful ways to make your cold calling strike the right chord

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make your cold calling strike the right chord

Making cold calls stand out for the right reasons isn’t easy. That’s because for most of us, getting a case across in a way that’s professional and informative, is simply more natural when we’re face to face. Sadly, most people find the very idea of cold calling sends shivers down their spine. However, there are some great reasons why cold calling is a business skill like no other.

For a start, using the phone is instant, you can reach many potential buyers or prospects in any given day. You don’t need any professional equipment for cold calling, other than a phone, so anyone can take advantage of the benefits. It’s also cheap, and unlike other forms of marketing, doesn’t need specialist design or knowledge to administer, so you can be your authentic self.

1. No scripts

Cold calling should be spontaneous, and every call completely unique. A script is unhelpful in so many ways. Firstly, every person you speak with will have their own set of circumstances and objectives. Trying to stage a conversation around the narrative you were having in your head when you wrote your script is bound to end in failure. They will say things you were not expecting, and you will flounder and lose control of the call.

Secondly, by forcing your conversation along prescribed lines, you’ll end up blurting out a pitch that’s trying to pack as many features in as possible as it’s not built around the prospect you’re cold calling. This will make your call boring, rushed, and irrelevant. Finally, scripts remove all the highs, lows, and modulation of the voice, making it robotic and hard to listen to.

2. Do the numbers

On average it can take between eight to thirteen dial attempts before a decision maker at an organisation is reached. Sometimes more. If you’re one of those people who try three times and give up, or worse, leave a message, your chances of converting that prospect are low. Patience is important when you’re cold calling, people are busy, so keep trying. Spread your dial attempts out over several days, or even weeks if you have to. Don’t use your redial facility to attempt dialling over and over. And never leave a message, by doing so you hand the responsibility and the control element over to your prospect.

Build benchmarks for your progress. How many dials it takes to reach a decision maker, how many decision maker conversations it takes to convert a lead, how many new names you can qualify and add to your database. These numbers will all help your cold calling collect momentum. It’s also a good way of maintaining productivity and ensuring your work is successful.

3. Pepper people with reasons to choose you

Being clear about the difference your product or service makes will help your cold calling come across as passionate and expert. Ask open questions to get your prospect talking, for example, ask about what’s important to them. Open questions generally begin with words such as what, when, why, or how. They will get your buyer talking and yield information that helps you understand their needs, and therefore highlights what you need to say in order to meet their needs. If you understand what’s important in that person’s world, you can pepper them with reasons to speak with you, and transact with your business. It also helps you to demonstrate a personality that builds warmth, trust and makes you the supplier a prospect will want to work with.

Avoid the temptation to email prospects just because it’s easier than cold calling them. A telephone call is filled with personality and charisma, so it can touch prospects with your message and brand far more than an email ever could. In fact, according to CRM experts Salesforce, on average, business people send and receive 115 emails a day. They add “this is one of the many ways that email can never replace human interaction. Instead, you should pick up the phone to cut through the clutter”.

Reception techniques used by market research companies

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Reception techniques used by market research companies

Moving past the receptionist to reach a decision maker is a key skill market research companies need to master. It’s one of the first things trainees are faced with. And while they may spend hours learning the techniques, anyone can do it. Firstly, it’s really important to understand that no method works all the time. Sometimes you do just have to be patient, and willing to keep trying. However, if you find yourself getting frustrated with receptionists, or gatekeepers as they’re often known, read on. Learning a few practical tips and techniques used by telemarketers and market research companies will get you racing past receptionists.

Mind your tone

Trying to get past a receptionist can be frustrating. However, it’s important you don’t allow your emotions to come across in the manner or your voice. Sometimes, quite unwittingly, our voices betray how we feel, if we’re impatient it may well seep into our tone. Even the mildest of people can say something on the phone that somehow creates a sense of impatience or frustration. It’s not necessarily in the words we use, it’s often just an underlying tenor or hint in the voice. This serves only to alienate the receptionist and make the job of market research companies harder than necessary.

If we were receptionists, nobody would get past us

No one goes to work to do a bad job. The receptionist is legitimately carrying out their brief. At Blue Donkey, we’re a conscientious bunch, we aim to be one of the best market research companies around. So, to be fair, if we were receptionists rather than telemarketers or researchers, of course, nobody would get past us! And if we did choose to put someone through, they’d be the ones we warm to. So instead of getting cross, use positive energy, a bright, cheery smile, and all the kindness you can muster. It’s natural for humans to mirror each other, so this habit will help you bring the receptionist onside with positivity.

Visualisation techniques

Telemarketing and market research companies talk a lot about visualisation. This is when you imagine a person in your mind and speak with them. You expect your interaction to go well, and your voice carries that pattern of energy and enthusiasm you’d have face-to-face. Visualising an actual person in your mind’s eye will help you remove the barriers that the telephone places on human contact. Because we’re used to using all five senses as a means of communication, having just two can change our behaviours. We can all become cold and unfeeling if we’re under pressure and unable to read the face or body language of someone. Seeing them in your mind will artificially replace some of the senses you lose on the phone. It will help us stay calm, focused, and professional, and engineer the outcomes we need.

There’s a lot of good science around visualisation techniques now. They can help with everything from relaxation, mindfulness, to workplace performance. It can help with career challenges like staying calm on the phone or big things like putting on a presentation. According to Headspace, visualization, on its own, involves picturing in your mind the outcome of something before it’s happened, whether that’s a task or opportunity at hand — such as getting on stage to speak before a large audience — or a sport about to be played. Visualization gained popularity in the 1980s when the Russians began using the technique to excel in sports following the 1984 Olympics.

Confidence is infectious

When people come across as confident and authoritative, receptionists are more likely to put them through to a decision maker. If you’re nervous or fixed in the mindset of ‘they won’t want to take my call’ it will come across. Your voice will sound weak, you’ll seem to lack confidence, and you’ll be blocked from speaking with decision makers. Sometimes you just have to pull on your big boy pants and go for it.

Be bold, have courage, remember you’ve something really special to offer, channel your inner Richard Branson, and be heard. If you come across as apologetic, subservient, or bored guess what will happen. Even when you don’t feel confident, take a deep breath, and pick up the phone. Even seasoned telemarketers and market research companies sometimes have to smile as they dial and focus on the bigger picture.

Siting up straight will help your voice sound clearer and more compelling. Be free of distractions so you can concentrate. Market research companies are gathering important information, a moment’s lapse can cause their outcomes to change. Being clear and purposeful about the call objective, checking spellings phonetically, and repeating back information all aid successful reception handling.

If you would like to know about one of the best market research companies around, talk to Blue Donkey today. Explore our site or get in touch to find out more.

How to make your telemarketing dazzle

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How to make your telemarketing dazzle Telemarketing isn’t an exact science. Success is made up of many interrelating attributes and skills. To get consistent results you need a regular cycle of routines and habits, from asking great questions, to handling resistance. For an outsourced provider like Blue Donkey, information metrics give us up to the minute data, at the touch of a button, regularly throughout the day. So for us, measurement is key, and tech provides that beautifully in the form of different systems and control levers. We also need techniques, feedback loops, support frameworks, sophisticated quality management, and data.

Audaciously you

The good news is you don’t need systems or processes to turn your telephone into a lead generation machine. You just need a passion for your business, unrelenting energy, and some good old fashioned hutzpah! In fact, according to Forbes magazine, we are living in a new era dominated by millennial hoodie-and-Converse-wearing billionaires, a world in which a staggering rate of change and disruptive innovation is the order of the day. Old-fashioned charisma is no longer enough to get attention, get ahead, or get the job anymore. Now, it’s those with the fearlessness to go after what they want and the audacity to do it how they want who are making their mark and changing the world.

Self analysis

We are all empowered to decide what we want and to go get it. The telephone is the perfect facilitator because it’s instant, cheap, and everyone has one on their desk or in their back pocket. With a bit of imagination, we can pick up the phone to someone who matters and present ourselves, how they want to see us. By assessing our own strengths and weaknesses, we’re able to constantly improve the armoury of weapons we use to win over people’s hearts and minds. So let’s look at some of the common barriers to achievement, and devise a plan to overcome them.

Measure twice, cut once

If you find yourself saying ‘my results can be inconsistent’, ‘I’m unorganised’, ‘I find it hard to concentrate sometimes’ you need to consider measuring your output. Set yourself benchmarks and goals. The Russian proverb ‘measure twice, cut once’ comes to mind here. Care taken in preparation will prevent failure, so set the right goals, to begin with.

Smart goals are the best kind. These are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed. And break your goals down per hour, not per day or per week. You can correct a bad hour where you may struggle to correct a bad day or week. An example of a smart goal is ‘I’m going to reach 2 decision makers each hour’. When you’ve set your goals, make sure to keep a note of your progress. The more you achieve it the better you’ll feel and the more fertile your calls will become. If you feel good about your work, it will come out in your voice.

Who Dares Wins

If you site your lack of performance as any of the following, think about creating a mind map. ‘My product knowledge isn’t good enough’, ‘people don’t want to talk to me’, ‘I like to send an email before I call’, ‘my data’s bad’. All of these barriers to success are related to a lack of confidence.  Who Dares Wins is emblazoned across the Special Air Service’s crest which features sword-bearing angel wings. The idea behind the motto is that if one has the courage and audacity to take risks, that person will succeed in life.

Make a mind map, diagram, or a simple list of points about what makes your business special. What do you do that makes a difference? How can you change a company’s prospects? How do you help a business overcome a problem, or maximise an opportunity? The answer to these questions will help spruce up your thinking, so you’re clearer about what you’ve got to offer. All you need to do is pick up the phone!

When dialling a cold call, are you clear about your mission?

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When dialling a cold call, are you clear about your mission

In business, a mission is the thing that defines who you are, what you do, and why you’re special. It’s an essential component in a cold call. Maybe even the most critical, because it gives someone a reason to listen to you. But, for many cold callers, the first moments patched call-to-call is nerve wracking. So much so that they simply forget to state their mission in a clear way. This creates a distance between the caller and the receiver of the call who will be thinking ‘what do you want’. Worse still, the caller often blunders through precious moments, asking questions they don’t want the answer to (how are you today).

The impact of the first impression is never more profound than on the phone. On a cold call, you have a few short seconds to impress a decision-maker enough for them to stay on the phone. Often they’re not impressed, so they snatch back their time, politely or otherwise. This is why cold calling can be peppered with feelings of rejection and failure.

It doesn’t have to be this way. As telemarketing experts, Blue Donkey knows the first skill we need to impart to rookie cold callers is the ability to open a call with strength. A call with a smooth, purposeful, opening has a greater chance of getting a fair hearing. We’ve gathered together a few simple steps to help warm up your cold calling.

What is a mission

Being clear about what your mission means. Make sure you know what you need to achieve on a call and can articulate it smoothly. What are you trying to get across, how can you help someone, and what’s the actual purpose of the call. All these are questions you need in mind. They will help prompt a succinct informative and compelling opening. So the first things you open your call with make sense and are loaded with business reasons for someone to listen. It’s not unlike the mission of a business, but it’s more specifically about what you need to do in that particular call. So yes, you need to use your own personality and communication style, but what you say needs to be sympathetic to the broader mission.

According to entrepreneur.com, the company mission defines what an organisation is, what it does, and its reason for being. A cold call is exactly this, except the particular objective in a cold call is to gear this message around the needs of the particular potential buyer.

So what’s your mission

The best way to re-engage with your company’s mission is to write down six things about your business that excite you, and which differentiate you from the competition. These are the factors that make you want to pick up the phone and talk about the business. They can usually be described in a simple sentence such as ‘we work with / we’re the biggest / the fastest / award winning’.

Having a clear mission is not the same as using a script. Nobody should ever use a script. Instead, being genuinely invested in the things that are great about your company, and using these to inspire your first line of discussion will work wonders. It will get people to listen, and more importantly frame the next stage of your call: the open question. A great opening will make your open question work much harder so you get more expansive answers. That in turn builds trust and rapport.

Ketchup is for burgers

As well as making your mission and objective clear, you should take care to come across industriously. Many cold callers make the mistake of using fake friendliness to try and warm their calls up. You don’t need to be friendly, your prospect is not looking for friendship. Your language should be reflective of your brand. In other words, avoid presenting your call in a way that undermines your purpose. For example, using expressions such as ‘I’m just calling’, ‘I was wondering’, or ‘I know you’re busy’.

The language you use in calls will set the tone of your outcomes, so if your words lack gravitas, the response will be limp. Our own personal bugbear is ‘I’m calling to catch up with you about…’. It’s highly unlikely you’re going to phone somebody from your prospect database for a catch-up. Ketchup is for burgers, so call them to discuss what process they use to achieve X, or to understand how they do Y. By doing so you’ll increase your chance of being taken seriously and reduce the chance of being hung-up on.

Can’t decide whether to use outsourced telemarketing services or stay inhouse?

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Can't decide whether to use outsourced telemarketing services or stay inhouse

After the year we’ve had, getting your sales machine up and running again may well be a bit of a challenge. For some, decisions about how to build their new business pipeline will include whether to use outsourced telemarketing services. It’s a good question since many of us have grown up with the notion that cold calling builds careers. And actually the fundamental principle of telemarketing is pretty straightforward, call a target list, uncover buyer requirements, and pitch. But in reality, it’s rarely that easy. Telemarketers run into a host of barriers when making their calls. How they deal with those barriers will determine whether their calling is a success or a failure.

Often, businesses come to Blue Donkey because their attempts at telemarketing haven’t produced the results they were expecting. To help you improve a telemarketing campaign’s chances of success, we’ve compiled some of the steps we take. By following these basics rules we ensure the outsourced telemarketing services we provide clients, thrive, and grow in our hands. The good news is, you don’t have to outsource to benefit from the disciplines outsourcers adopt.

Scripts are never OK

Who would use a script in life? Even the most basic task would be impaired if the doer were asked to follow a script. Most of us can’t recall a time we received a scripted call we found helpful, informative or one that sparked our interest.

On that basis, few providers of professional outsourced telemarketing services would contemplate using scripts. Skilled, intelligent people are easily able to have a professional conversation without having their words prompted.

At Blue Donkey we never use scripts. We believe the right people, training, skills, and experience are easily the best way to produce good calls. In fact, we do what our clients would do. We hire the best staff we can afford, we value, praise, and invest in growing their competencies. So the outsourced telemarketing services they deliver on behalf of our client family are intelligent two-way conversations.

Instead of using scripted or formulaic structures, trust and empower your staff with the information they need for inspiring connections. By doing so you’ll have teams that are committed to communicating your brand in a convincing and compelling way. That’s the best possible tool outsourced telemarketing services can ever hope to offer. You can create and nurture that internally.

Jargon

Blue Donkey is based within the Cambridge technology bubble. Dubbed Silicon Fen, our geography has meant we’ve become accustomed to working with sophisticated organisations in complex industries. Over the past two decades, we’ve discovered that packing too much in-depth technical detail and jargon into calls is counter-productive. This is because jargon is clichéd for the person receiving the call and overwhelming for the person dialling. Specialist jargon or language is a big turn off for professional buyers and decision makers. What’s more, with the technology industry moving at lightening pace, the language being used is often out of date before the pitch has even begun. Your message should be about how the product or service makes a difference to the buyer.

Stick to the benefits

When making a telemarketing call, outsourced telemarketing services would always advocate discussing the benefits delivered by products, not their features. As consumers, we buy for all sorts of reasons. It’s quite likely we’ll purchase something just because we ‘like it’. In a business context, a buyer would generally only ever buy something for reasons to do with time, effort, money, or security. These are what Blue Donkey teams describe as ‘benefits’. So we talk in terms of the business benefits delivered by something, rather than its specific features or attributes.

It’s also important to avoid too much detail in the discussion. Understanding the buyer’s needs, and building a narrative around those needs is enough. Delving every aspect of the product or service will make the call too long and rambling. It will also risk negating the point of even having a meeting.  Outsourced telemarketing services ask questions, establish needs, address those needs with benefits and proof points, then ‘close’ for the meeting.

Manage the objective

Whether you have an in-house function or use outsourced telemarketing services, getting good quality meetings takes time and effort. You can’t expect to cold call a company and get a meeting straightaway. If this does occur, it happens with the lucky few only and is not the norm. Instead, you’ll need to nurture the relationship, ask questions, understand needs, and work towards a face to face appointment. If you have had previous contact with a company, it shouldn’t take you as long to obtain a meeting. However, you’ll still need to put some legwork into building strong links if you want the relationship to be successful.

Outsourced telemarketing services are likely to achieve higher appointment rates, but is often down to efficiency and good training. Not a magic wand. There’s no reason why a dedicated team shouldn’t achieve the same high-performance levels, as long as they are supported. So trainers on tap can help to work through any pain, and systems enable the team to manage consistent metrics.

According to American Express, “there are three vital factors to in-house hiring and outsourcing: cost, expertise, and flexibility”. Outsourced telemarketing services like Blue Donkey are experts at a niche task. All our systems are designed around that and only that, while our clients focus their resources on their core tasks. It’s not necessarily the case that outsourcing is better or worse than staying inhouse, it’s really a question of resources. If you can gather together and maintain the right skills, support, and systems, inhouse works fine. Otherwise outsourced telemarketing services will provide a facility that can scale up or down as your business needs change.

To find out more about outsourced telemarketing services or running telemarketing campaigns that produce real results contact a member of our team.

For a telemarketing agency, feelings mean more than words

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For a telemarketing agency, feelings mean more than words

We all know that for someone to purchase from one business rather than another, they have to show how they’re different. Whether they get great results or have outstanding customer service, it is essential businesses tell their customers exactly why they should choose them. However, convincing people you’re special is impossible if you don’t believe 100% in the product or service you’re offering.

A telemarketing agency is representing product after product, so learning to believe is key to their very survival. As you can imagine, they must take some important first steps well before going anywhere near a phone.

Let’s get excited

Before a project is even in the planning stage, a telemarketing agency has to take time to understand a business. What makes them different, how they stand out, where competitors sit by comparison, and what clients say about them. These differentiators, and achievements that help the organisation stand out are thoroughly explored. Frankly, a good telemarketing agency will only take the projects that excite them. So for a client seeking the best partner, it’s pretty much a two-way sale in the beginning especially.

For the agency, they are hoping to become a part of the company’s future, so investing full-hearted emotion is essential. Far from being a simple list of benefits, this exploration is about really getting under the skin of a business. Understanding what it does for clients and how it can improve a company’s competitive advantage is key to building confidence. The telemarketing agency will want to make sure they’re absolutely filled with excitement and enthusiasm, to make each dial count.

Understand the business

As well as knowing products and services inside out, a telemarketing agency will familiarise themselves with the wider market. By understanding what potential buyers are choosing between, they can convincingly explain how products are different. Knowing where a company falls in the business landscape enables telemarketers to deal with objections or resistance convincingly.

Entrepreneurs starting a business will have clear ambitions and dreams about the buyers, companies, and markets they’re interested in. They will visualise success and have key brands in mind that they are looking to take market share from. Getting into the headspace of the founder and their original mission will help nurture buy-in to the business goals.

Scripts are bad for business, trust is good

Whoever needed a script to express the reasons why something matters to them? Companies that have no faith in their recruitment function, their people, or their brands need scripts. The rest of us should share the gift of knowledge with our people and let them get on with the job. A scripted call can never replicate the power, passion, and charisma of a spontaneous individual in a two-way conversation. Asking open questions, and being directed by the answer, enables the telemarketing agency to design each call around decision makers. This makes calls unique, vibrant, and produces fertile discussions that build rapport, relationships, and brand.

Enjoy!

Another drawback of scripts is that they make all interactions the same. This isn’t fun for the telemarketer making the call, or the person receiving it. A telemarketing agency will always aim to take the different needs, preferences and goals of each prospect into account. If calls are not unique, decision makers are prevented from becoming fully engaged in the call. Where telemarketers are given the space to draw on their own personal style, they’ll be able to create heartfelt interactions. That way they can really get under the skin of the people they’re speaking to and actually enjoy their interactions.

Not only is this good for a telemarketing agency and its clients, it’s also a great way to empower agency staff. Being trusted to take on board knowledge, and make decisions about how best to use it, also benefits customer experience. For many organisations, this is becoming a key success factor, and one of the reasons candidates want to work there. According to HR News, nearly 90% of organisations say success depends on empowering frontline employees to make decisions in the moment.

The telephone is unique in its ability to connect businesses with customers and enable real communication. By being able to speak knowledgeably and freely on the phone, telemarketing agencies make the most of this powerful tool and make a positive impact on the people they’re speaking to.

By empowering their teams with the confidence and the skills they need to communicate, a telemarketing agency can free them from the script. By doing so they allow them to make calls that really make a difference. To find out more, get in touch with us today.

5 Top tips for B2B data cleaning

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5 Top tips for B2B data cleaning

B2B data cleaning is one of those areas of marketing that seems to attract endless questions about how, and why. The mystique is probably down to the fact that data is pretty high-stakes, yet opaque. Companies worry about the state of their data in case it affects their growth potential. Almost every time a Blue Donkey client presents their database for telemarketing, they do so in the shadows of shame. Usually, their anxiety is unfounded and the company database performs better than a newly purchased one would. This is simply because some previous thought or reason has gone into adding a record in the first place. This may be an enquiry that’s gone cold or a buyer that stopped buying.

So if data is the precious lifeblood of marketing, how do you know if it’s good enough to use? And what’s the best form of B2B data cleansing? A few simple tests can usually determine whether it’s worth using existing data, or doing B2B data cleaning first. Or if it’s worth binning altogether and starting again with bought data.

1. Try a telemarketing & data cleaning combo

In general terms, B2B data cleaning by telemarketing tends to drive more positive outcomes than any other method. A human voice asking questions and responding according to answers will get results. This is mainly because you can profile and prioritise the data as you go along. If you’re outsourcing to a professional agency, they will usually move straight from the data cleaning to the lead generation. This can even happen in the same call.

So it’s not always the case that B2B data cleaning has to happen in an entirely separate exercise to your lead generation. In fact, if you’re cleaning data and doing lead generation simultaneously, the data is in the best possible shape. And if you’re lucky, your project will begin paying for itself with leads before your investment is complete.

2. Be cautious

Good campaigns start with good data, and if the data is bad, the project will underperform, sometimes spectacularly. If you’re using your data for a marketing activity before your telemarketing team starts work, check it first. Data itself can be purchased quite cheaply. By contrast, the cost of irrelevant data going in the top of your sales funnel can be high. Everything you do with the data once it’s in your database is what starts racking up costs in wasted marketing. B2B data cleaning doesn’t always have to be a lengthy or complicated process. Sometimes it’s just a case of electronic pre-screening against the preference services, address checking, standardising and deduping. After that, you can add and append new data and information as you touch it, with telemarketing, email, etc.

3. Link your B2B data cleaning to your marketing

Data should be carefully checked for accuracy and completeness before you start plugging it into your broader marketing cycle. You can do this quickly and simply by dialling every few records and checking the information at reception level. Look out for changes in decision maker name, job title, and postcode. Your B2B data cleaning should follow a pattern that’s linked with the broader goals of your marketing. If you target companies with a certain turnover, for example, make sure that’s built into your questioning. There’s a lot of information you can gather at reception level. How many sites, website address, number of staff, etc can all be gathered at reception. Do remember however that the receptionist doesn’t have to help you, so be kind, and show respect.

4. Mind what you ask for

Take care to ask questions in the right way. That might seem obvious but it’s easy to add incorrect information to a database simply because the question was vague. For example, ‘what’s the name of the person who deals with your company finances’ – is probably the wrong question. Unless you want the day-to-day contact, rather than the decision maker, the question won’t yield the right outcomes for marketing. Instead, ask for ‘the name of the person who makes decisions about company finances’. If the question was wrong, any communication you have with the irrelevant contact is wasted. Even worse, they could turn into gatekeepers and render that company record lost forever.

Under GDPR you don’t have an automatic right to names, job titles and emails so check out the rules. According to the ICO, “GDPR applies wherever you are processing ‘personal data’. This means if you can identify an individual either directly or indirectly, GDPR will apply.

Equally, do make sure your team obtains consent for calls and marketing as they progress through their sales or telemarketing. By doing so, their B2B data cleaning becomes more robust, whilst also building the database into a valuable company asset.

5. B2B data cleaning is never completed

Data is never an infinite resource. Even if there was a company database, once the B2B data cleaning and telemarketing starts happening, you see gaps appear. As fast as people are moving jobs, company characteristics, and targeting evolves, so data comes in and out of criteria. Therefore, all databases are constantly a work in progress. Additionally, there are decisions to be made about whether it’s quicker and cheaper to make or buy the data. Where the data is simply based on turnover, sector, geography, it’s quite possible to purchase a list faster and cheaper than B2B data cleaning by phone can manage. Unless decision maker job titles are common ones like Finance Director, it may be better to build a database. This means buying a selection based on targeting characteristics, then qualifying by researching and appending decision maker names.

Database headings and drop-down menus can be used to help uncover patterns or similarities in decision types. Anything you need to select or target on can also be built into the structure of your database before any B2B data cleaning starts.

To find out more about B2B data cleaning or our intelligent telemarketing approach, speak to us today.

Objection handling for sales lead generation

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Objection handling for sales lead generation

Handling objections is an important aspect in the process of sales lead generation. Most buyers will listen to a call and think of at least one thing they’re not sold on. Good telemarketers must be able to address and overcome resistance if they’re going to steer the conversation towards a successful conclusion.

When dealing with objections, it’s important to remember that they can actually be a positive sign in sales lead generation. Often, potential customers will raise concerns when they’re interested in a product. So in some cases, objections are actually buying signals. They offer the perfect opportunity to provide more information about your offering and to learn more about buyer’s needs and requirements.

In general, objections fall into two main categories: emotional or factual. If telemarketers are going to allay the concerns of their prospects, they need to understand the differences behind these two types of objection and learn how to address them.

Emotional

Emotional objections can come in many forms. Some of the most common include things like ‘changing supplier will be too much hassle’. Again, one of the keys to overcoming this type of objection is understanding. Even if the objection isn’t completely rational, it’s a real concern to the potential customer so important to your sales lead generation. You need to take the time to put their fears to bed.

Try to lay out why your product or service offers the perfect solution to their needs. A good way to do this is to pick one feature that demonstrates the advantages your company can offer. More often than not, people find it easier to remember one strong, valid point than a long list of advantages.

Emotions are increasingly playing a bigger part in business, so emotional objections are every bit as important as other objections. The success of a company’s sales lead generation depends on many things, including sensitivity. Just because a prospective customer might be taking a dislike to something based on emotion, it’s no less valid. In fact, according to Harvard Business School “a revolution in the science of emotion has emerged in the last few decades, with the potential to create a paradigm shift in thinking about decision theories. The research reveals that emotions constitute powerful, pervasive, and predictable drivers of decision making.”

Factual

Factual objections are often caused by a misunderstanding or a lack of information. For example, the potential customer may not be able to see how your company is different from its current supplier, or how your product or service offers a solution to its professional needs.

If you come across a factual objection, the first step to overcoming it is finding out more about it. Once you understand, you can explain how your products or services offer them the perfect solution. For example, if the buyer is concerned about price, you can talk them through the various benefits of your particular offering. Your sales lead generation will get much better long term outcomes and build better relationships with this approach.

When dealing with factual objections, it’s important to listen carefully to what your potential customer is saying. Showing empathy and understanding during the call will not only help you to build rapport, it will give you the chance to uncover needs. Before any kind of sales lead generation can occur, this is essential.

Handling objections just one part of good sales lead generation. To find out more about how we can help you, give us a call today.

How to make the right telemarketing hires

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How to make the right telemarketing hires

 

Good telemarketing staff are worth their weight in gold. In business terms, the work they do is nothing short of pure magic. They pick up the phone, pull a few nifty moves and POW! You have a new client. So how do hiring managers attract them, identify the right talent for their organisation, and onboard them?

It’s one of the questions we’re asked year after year at Blue Donkey. And while we’ve learnt a thing or two about making good hires, there’s definitely no exact science. Here are some of the things our recruiters are mindful of.

Avoid the suggestion there’s ‘no cold calling’

The basic truth in telemarketing is that sometimes you need to cold call. All businesses have telephones, yet so few people are comfortable dialling someone they’ve never spoken with and starting a conversation. On this basis, you might decide to include the words ‘no cold calling’ in your job ads. You might not include those words but suggest it in your discourse. Maybe based on you having a list of customers, ex-customers, people who have enquired or called at some time.

Telemarketing from a list, to build rapport, and build relationships with potential buyers is essentially cold calling. Warm list, cold list, it doesn’t really make a material difference to the job.

Honesty is the best policy

Learning how to engage someone you’ve never spoken with, and can’t see, is a skill worth mastering. So instead of saying ‘no cold calling’ in your job ads, consider saying ‘we’ll teach you to make great calls’.

Being completely transparent and honest will help you make the right hires, win their respect and keep them long term. Creating a picture that’s not entirely candid won’t. The concept of the psychological contract in HR appeared a few years ago to aid understanding of these scenarios. The damage that can be caused by well-intentioned recruiters misleading candidates can be hard to fix.

According to experts at HR Zone, “The psychological contract refers to the unwritten set of expectations of the employment relationship as distinct from the formal, codified employment contract. Taken together, the psychological contract and the employment contract define the employer-employee relationship.”

Look for carers, not closers

For outsourced providers of telemarketing, reputation is everything. At Blue Donkey, our unique brand of intelligent telemarketing is reliant on team members putting the customers they are speaking with at the heart of their call. At the interview stage, situational interviewing techniques are used to assess how candidates handle real world situations. They are questions that often begin “tell me about a time when you …” These methods help Blue Donkey recruiters select a potential telemarketing person who displays signs of the carer personality trait. These questions help the hiring manager gain insight into how a candidate actually reacted in specific circumstances. So they might, for example, ask about when a candidate chose to pick up the phone and call someone.

Seek out the right behaviours

The term ‘hungry’ is often used in job ads for telemarketing staff. It describes someone who hunts opportunities in a voracious or eager manner. While this word still seems to appear in job ads, most professional organisations steer away from modelling their roles on this kind of behaviour. These people might cold call, they might hit targets, but over-goal-seeking behaviours are loaded with peril. By having these personalities on your sales team, the risk they present may not be worth the gain. Far better to remove that kind of language from your communications completely.

Equally, big incentives and bonuses will pose the same risk. They don’t make the job anymore fulfilling. Money incentives will attract staff, but they’ll be staff looking for high earnings, not those looking for careers. In telemarketing roles, that can again lead to conduct that is not consistent with the company’s values or mission. Making sure your values come through in your job ads is important to the type of people you attract.

Our 22 years make Blue Donkey one of the most established telemarketing companies around. Talk to us today about how our expert teams can help you reach your next gamechanger client.

Red-hot cold calling tips for B2B lead generation

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Red-Hot cold calling tips for B2B lead generation

Producing productive business relationships from completely cold contacts is one of the most exciting skills a sales professional can acquire. It takes skill, diplomacy, and practice and can be a challenge even for the best telemarketers. However, as the impact of cultivating strong business relationships is so positive, it’s well worth the effort. A really successful method of B2B lead generation is cold calling by phone. But as one of the most feared methods of marketing, it’s one that is often avoided or outsourced completely. So, could capturing some of the thinking behind outsourced telemarketing help your team? Here’s what Blue Donkey says about creating calls that sizzle.

B2B lead generation needs a long term view

If you really want to cultivate a warm relationship from a cold call, you may need to begin by changing the objective of your calls completely. Often, telemarketers are tasked with getting an appointment, a sale, or achieving another tangible goal from each call. Though this may hit short term targets, it’s less likely enduring business relationships will develop from these targeted sales calls. Instead, try to make the relationship the focus of your B2B lead generation. Think about how your team can really engage the people they speak to in a two-way conversation. They should aim to build a connection, and develop a level of trust. If you can do this, you’ll be well on your way to creating a meaningful business relationship.

Two-way discussions

Instead of simply talking at the contact, or giving a presentation, try to turn each conversation into a two-way conversation. Making an effort to engage the person you’re speaking to will show you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say. That way your B2B lead generation activities will demonstrate to potential buyers that they’re more than just another contact.

Open question

An open question is a great way to start a conversation in a B2B lead generation call. Instead of asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes/no, ask a question that requires thought. These questions usually begin with keywords. They include words like who, what, when, why, and how. And the tone that they are used with will also help. This question should give you an insight into the needs of the business and prompt what you say next. The information you supply about your product should relate specifically to what was said in answer to your open question.

Solutions

In general, people buy from people they like and companies that can help them. For your B2B lead generation to work, you must get the contact talking about their needs and requirements. Once you’ve done this, you’re able to demonstrate how the product or service you’re offering could make their life easier. It will show you care about their company and that you’re really listening.

Intelligent data

A carefully profiled list and an intelligent approach are much more likely to yield results from your B2B lead generation. Ideally, the list will have been specially organised for the size and type of business that will need the products or services you’re offering. As ever, do make sure your telemarketing is adopting a position of not just compliance, but best practice. This means checking your data against the preference services. According to Marketscan when it comes to your B2B telemarketing campaigns, TPS and CTPS are two terms that you need to be familiar with. The Telephone Preference Service and Corporate Telephone Preference Service are opt-out registers for both consumers and businesses that do not want to be targeted over the phone by marketers.

If you think your marketing could benefit from professional B2B lead generation, we can help. Get in touch with Blue Donkey to find out more.