first impressions Archives

Help your B2B lead generation team stand out from the crowd

Posted on 12 November 2019 by bluedonkey

We all understand that how we come across is incredibly important in the world of business, and more particularly in B2B lead generation where we are trying to cultivate long and high-value relationships. If you get off on the right foot you might just create a professional relationship that will last a lifetime, get off on the wrong foot, however, and your liaison could be over before it’s even begun. Ensuring that your telemarketing team is making a good impression when they pick up the phone for your precious brand is therefore essential.

NO to scripts

Keeping a few notes and bullet points handy isn’t a problem, however, you should avoid having telemarketers follow a script. Reading text out word for word will instantly make a call sound robotic and boring. It’s disempowering and unfair on your staff too, why hire them if you don’t trust them to represent your business? At best you’ll keep staff but they’ll become apathetic and inefficient, at worst, the potential clients receiving your team’s calls will view your company as mundane and lose interest in what your telemarketers are offering. Not helpful to your B2B lead generation objectives, or your company’s long term success.

Telemarketers need to possess some natural communication skills and be familiar with and interested in the products and services their B2B lead generation is about. If they’re able to engage quickly and easily with the potential buyer and talk freely about your business and your company’s USP, they’ll be able to navigate past the gatekeeper and get a real, two-way conversation going without a script in sight.

Removing the notion of a scripted dialog also helps build skills and challenge your B2B lead generation team to step outside their comfort zone. According to Finance company Fleximise, challenging work can be a great motivator, as it keeps employees engaged and interested in their role. For many people, having to overcome some level of difficulty in their work is much more preferable to the boredom of an easy, unchallenging job.

It’s all in the targeting

The success of your B2B lead generation will largely depend on the effectiveness of the list you provide to your telemarketers. A well selected and profiled list will mean that every call your team makes has the propensity to convert to either a lead or the beginning of a worthwhile relationship. This is because the company size, type, geography and so on, have been specially selected to fit with the ‘ideal type’ prospect. In other words, the records in your target list should be homogeneous (or have similar needs) so your B2B lead generation team can connect the right messages to the appropriate buyer in a more knowledgeable way. This is great for morale and will help every telemarketer in your company to approach calls in a motivated and positive way.

If you have a poor quality call list, on the other hand, your team may strike out again and again with a low rate of success. As well as creating a negative atmosphere in the office, this can cause your team to become complacent and to reduce the amount of commitment they invest in each call.

Get excited!

Positivity is incredibly important when it comes to making good first impressions. Try to get your team motivated about your company, your products, and your services. Before they pick up the phone – or while they’re calling – have them think of five to ten of your key business benefits. This will help them to sound enthusiastic and passionate when the prospect answers, two things that can help to make a great first impression.

Smile & sit up straight

Two of the simplest ways to improve the way you come across on the phone are smiling and sitting up straight. Encourage your team to ‘smile as they dial’ so that the prospect hears the positivity in their voice the moment they answer the call. Sitting up straight will help your telemarketers to feel more awake and more alert.

Communication, not sales should be the focus

Although you want to see results from your B2B lead generation, it’s important that your team focuses on building relationships rather than just selling. If the main purpose of the call is sales, the decision maker may be put off, damaging your chances with the prospect for good. Encourage your team to see communication as the goal. If your telemarketers can create a good first impression, find out more about the company’s needs and arrange a time for a future meeting, it will help to produce long term results.

Find out more about improving your telemarketing technique by exploring our site today.

How to create first impressions that last

Posted on 5 November 2019 by bluedonkey

Knowing how to make a strong first impression is one of the most important skills in B2B telemarketing. Not only will it help you to start your calls off in a positive way, it will also allow you to begin to build rapport with a potential buyer and lay the foundations for your future business relationship.

Smile

A simple and instantly effective way to come across well in B2B telemarketing is to speak with a smile. The person your speaking with will hear this as confidence, and enthusiasm. Your smile creates charisma and makes you more interesting and engaging to talk to.

Over the years scientists have sought to understand why the simple smile can do so much to elevate the mood of the person smiling and those around them. Experts have found a strong link between good health, longevity, and smiling. Most importantly, studies show that just the act of smiling (making the physical facial shapes and movements) whether the result of real joy or an act, can have both short- and long-term benefits on people’s health and wellbeing.

Sit up straight

Posture also has a big impact on how you come across on the phone. Before you dial, take a few seconds to ensure you’re sitting up straight. Maintaining a good posture when you’re on the phone will help you to come across as more passionate, more focused and more engaged, all things that will contribute to a great first impression. In fact, there are several benefits of good posture, if you are sat up straight you can breathe better for one, so the voice is clearer and unconstrained, giving the impression of confidence. If you ever go home after a busy day on the phone with a sore throat, sit up, so the sound is generated in the diaphragm, not the throat, and finally, sitting up straight helps you position your eyes upward, which in turn helps you think more creatively (what’s your favourite tree? – See, you looked up!)

Check your data

When making telemarketing calls, it’s important to know who you’re calling and have some understanding of the needs and requirements of the company you’re contacting. Checking the database record carefully, getting the website up as you’re dialling, or doing a small amount of research to see when they were last spoken with, will allow you to answer any questions with authority and composure. This kind of response goes a long way to assuring a potential client that you’re capable of fulfilling their needs. In other words, use the time between calls to concentrate and plan the next interaction, typically this is the moment we use to chat with our neighbour about dinner! Save that for the water cooler.

Positive attitude

Before you pick up the phone, take a minute to think about all of the positive aspects of the product or service you’re offering. Memorise its USPs and try to get yourself excited about what’s on offer. This positivity will automatically come across in your voice and will help the prospect to warm to you. Listening is one of the most important parts of a telemarketing call. If you lecture a prospect, they’ll soon get tired and could well begin to view you negatively. Failing to listen can also cause a call to come across as too ‘salesy’, another pitfall that will cause clients to switch off. Instead of launching into some ill-considered “pitch” and talking relentlessly, try to listen. This will help you to have a real two-way conversation with your prospect, build rapport and engage them in a productive call. This isn’t a mass-marketing ploy, but a chance to talk to a decision-maker at a company. Make it count by using your ears.

Put the buyers needs before your own

Putting the prospect at the heart of the call is a good way to ensure you make a good first impression. In sales we have a tendency to be driven by targets, which is important, but does have inherent dangers so take the middle line, buy working efficiently, but putting the customer first. Make it all about them by discussing their needs, their requirements and their company structure. You can then use this information and demonstrate to the prospect how your product or service can make their life easier. Making a good first impression will help your telemarketing call to get off on a positive note and will give you a better chance of success. To find out more about improving your team’s telemarketing skills, explore our site or contact a member of our team.

How telemarketing companies create calls that work

Posted on 21 October 2019 by bluedonkey

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

Think yourself happy

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

Smile as you dial

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

Sit-up and breathe!

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

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

Lead generation, where first impressions last

Posted on 7 August 2019 by bluedonkey

B2B lead generation is definitely one area of business where no matter what your role, sector, or industry, first impressions matter. Though it may be a cliché, it’s true that you only have one opportunity to make a good impression because, as well as getting your B2B lead generation off to a good start, a strong first impression will lay the foundation for a long term relationship. The impact of those first moments can go on to create a partnership that gives you and your business a client you can work with for years to come.

First impressions

Though first impressions take just moments to form – according to Business Insider, it’s only seven seconds – their impact can be very long lasting. Come across as aggressive, bored or, untrustworthy, and your brand’s reputation could be in tatters before you’ve even launched your pitch. They add that the key message here is preparation. People who think they can always wing it, bluff their way past tough questions, or expect the other party to bridge all the gaps, sadly often find that what they think is a win, is actually a loss which can never be regained. On the other hand, come across as friendly, reliable, passionate and knowledgeable and your B2B lead generation could be on track for success from the start.

Making a good first impression

Recovering from a bad first impression can be difficult at the best of times when you’re trying to engage a new potential client over the phone, it can be all but impossible. This means it’s essential for salespeople to make a good first impression if they want to reach the right buyers and create new exciting B2B lead generation opportunities for their business.

Though there are no hard and fast rules for making a good first impression, there are many good techniques to help us make sure we embark on the B2B lead generation journey successfully.

Smile!

As we’ve said numerous times before, it’s really important to smile as you dial. This simple but powerful technique gives your voice a more engaging tone and puts you in a more positive frame of mind. As it turns out the simple smile can help us in other ways too. According to The Best Brain Possible when you smile, your brain releases neuropeptides. These are nerve proteins that regulate the way cells communicate with each other, they influence your brain, body, and behaviour in many major ways including your learning and memory, helping negate stress, aiding sleep, and elevating mood. Who knew? Now that’s definitely something to smile about.

See happy images

Another technique we use is positive visualisation: we ask our team to think about the person they’re calling, visualise their face and focus on the positive outcome of the call. We suggest they reflect on the last time they were really happy with a B2B lead generation interaction they had when they achieved something remarkable. This helps the salesperson to engage with the contact on a more human level and gives them a better chance of a successful outcome. We also encourage our telemarketers to get excited about the product or service they’re promoting by focusing on its competitive benefits before they pick up the phone. This enthusiasm will come across in the call, helping to create a great first impression.

Improving your technique

By continually working to improve the quality of the first impression you and your team make, you can help your sales department to achieve its goals and create positive relationships with the companies you contact. If you need help developing your telemarketing techniques, or if you think there’s more your team could learn from us, get in touch with Blue Donkey today.

How to get B2B prospects talking

Posted on 15 July 2019 by bluedonkey

There is nothing more painful in telemarketing than the challenge of picking up the telephone and getting B2B prospects talking. In fact, getting strangers talking to us is potentially one of those life skills that defines high achievers from non-achievers. So it’s no accident that the first lesson in sales starts with getting a prospect talking. Most of us find that once the conversation is flowing it’s easy to get our points across and create a comfortable, natural and flowing discussion.

But what happens if the person we’re calling is uncommunicative and cold, does that mean our chances of creating a relationship are diminished? Even though these experiences are an important part of B2B telemarketing, many people are still baffled by how to get prospects talking. While some are held back by fear or nerves, others just lack the human skills required to break down barriers and make meaningful connections.

The time between getting past the receptionist and waiting for the decision maker to answer the phone is important. During these moments you’re taking a breath and are poised to make your call opening. The success or failure of your call is often determined by how well you perform in those seconds. If they go well, you’ll glide effortlessly into your call and connect with the prospect you’re speaking to. If you make a mistake however, you could end up fluffing your pitch, making the call awkward or even crashing out altogether.

To ensure disasters like this don’t happen, we’ve developed a range of techniques to guarantee a great first impression, every time. Keep reading to find out more.

KISS

The old adage ‘keep it simple sweetie’ is definitely a principle worth noting here. Make your opening introduction as quick and as straightforward as possible. Who you are, where you’re calling from and the reason for your call is the means by which you should introduce yourself. The sooner you can get this bit over and done with, the sooner you can ask your opening questions and get the prospect engaged with the call.

Use open questions

An open question is a question that can’t be answered with either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Your question should be relevant to your call, so you glean useful insight from the answer. Avoid pointless questions like ‘how are you?’ as these are not relevant or sincere since you’re calling someone you don’t know so they won’t further your call, they may even irritate your busy prospects and serve to undermine your call.

Show and create interest

People like people who are interested in them. Ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. Probe relevant details, and be ready to illustrate how your product, or service, aligns with their needs. Rather than listing off the benefits of your products and services all at once, prioritise the information you give, according to your prospect’s particular requirements, preferences or business.

Enjoy the ride

Though your call should always be professional and on point, as a skilled communicator you should also be able to inject an element of enjoyment into the conversation. If you’re confident and charismatic, then this sense of fun will automatically enter your call as most people get a lot of enjoyment from doing a job they’re good at. The more success you have, the more you will enjoy yourself, and the more your enthusiasm will be communicated to the person you’re talking to.

At Blue Donkey, we’re always looking for ways to improve our techniques and our success rate to ensure our telemarketers are doing a job they find meaningful and rewarding. To find out more, or to learn how we can help boost the success of your telemarketing team, get in touch with us today.

Helping your team to make a great first impression

Posted on 31 October 2017 by bluedonkey

First impressions are incredibly important in the world of business. If you get off on the right foot you might create a professional relationship that will last a lifetime. Make a poor impression, however, and your B2B contact could be over before it’s even begun. Ensuring that your telemarketing team are making good first impressions whenever they pick up the phone is therefore essential. Your business should create long lasting relationships with other companies and see real results from its telemarketing campaigns.

Avoid scripts

Though keeping a few notes and bullet points handy isn’t a problem, you should avoid having telemarketers follow a complete script. Reading text out word for word will instantly make a call sound robotic and boring. The prospect is likely to view your company as impersonal and lose interest in what your telemarketers are offering.

Ideally, you want your telemarketers to have natural communication skills and be familiar with the products and services that they’re talking about. If they’re able to engage quickly and easily with the prospect and talk freely about your business and your company’s USP, they’ll be able to navigate past the gatekeeper and get a real, two-way conversation going without a script in sight.

Create a targeted call list

The call list you provide to your telemarketers will form the base of the campaign. If you have a list that’s been well researched and well put together, every call your team make has the potential to produce results. This is great for morale and will help every telemarketer in your company to approach each call in a motivated and positive way. If you have a poor quality call list on the other hand, your team may strike out again and again. As well as creating a negative atmosphere in the office, this can cause your team to become complacent and to reduce the amount of commitment they invest in each call.

Get them excited about your business

Positivity is incredibly important when it comes to making good first impressions. Try to get your team motivated about your company, your products and your services. Before they pick up the phone – or while they’re calling – have them think of five to ten of your business’ main benefits. This will help them to sound enthusiastic and passionate when the prospect answers, two things that can help to make a great first impression.

Smile and sit up straight

Make communication, not selling, the focus of the call

Although you want to see results from your telemarketing campaign, it’s important that your team focuses on building relationships with other businesses rather than just selling. If the main purpose of the call is sales, the decision maker may be put off, damaging your chances with the prospect for good. Encourage your team to see communication as the goal. If your telemarketers can create a good first impression, find out more about the company’s needs and arrange a time for a future meeting, it will help to produce long term results.

Find out more about improving your telemarketing technique by exploring our site today.

How to create a strong first impression over the phone

Posted on 12 September 2017 by bluedonkey

Knowing how to make a strong first impression is one of the most important skills in telemarketing. Not only will it help you to start your calls off positively, it will also allow you to begin to build rapport with a prospect and lay the foundations for your future business relationship.

Speak with a smile

One of the simplest and most effective ways to come across well on the phone is to speak with a smile. The prospect you’re talking to will be able to hear the smile in your voice and this will help to get your call off on the right foot.

Sit up straight

Do your research

When making telemarketing calls, it’s important to ensure you have a good understanding of the needs and requirements of the company you’re contacting. No one wants to speak to a telemarketer who doesn’t understand their business. Doing even a small amount of research before picking up the phone will allow you to answer any questions with authority and composure. This kind of response goes a long way to assuring a potential client that you’re capable of fulfilling their needs.

Be positive

Listen

Listening is one of the most important parts of a telemarketing call. If you lecture a prospect, they’ll soon get tired and could well begin to view you negatively. Failing to listen can also cause a call to come across as too ‘salesy’, another pitfall that will cause clients to switch off.

Instead of launching into some ill-considered “pitch” and talking relentlessly, try to listen. This will help you to have a real two-way conversation with your prospect, build rapport and engage them in a productive call. This isn’t a mass-marketing ploy, but a chance to talk to a decision-maker at a company. Make it count by using your ears.

Put their needs first

Putting the prospect at the heart of the call is a good way to ensure you make a good first impression. Make it all about them by discussing their needs, their requirements and their company structure. You can then use this information and demonstrate to the prospect how your product or service can make their life easier.

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

The impact of the first impression in sales

Posted on 7 March 2017 by bluedonkey

No matter what your role and what sector of industry you’re involved with – first impressions matter. Though it may be a cliché, it’s true that you only have one opportunity to make that all important initial encounter a good one. As well as getting your sales pitch off to a good start, a positive first impression will lay the foundation for a positive business relationship. This is something that can then be built upon to create an ongoing partnership, giving you and your business a client you can work with for years to come.

First impressions

Making a good first impression

Recovering from a bad first impression can be difficult at the best of times, when you’re trying to make a sales pitch over the phone, it can be all but impossible. This means it’s essential for salespeople to make a good first impression if they want to hit their goals.

Though there are no hard and fast rules for making a good first impression, there are lots of techniques you and your team can use to make sure they start their calls off on the right foot. As we’ve said before, it’s important to smile as you dial, this gives your voice a more engaging tone and puts you in a more positive frame of mind.

Another of the techniques we use is positive visualisation: we ask our team to think about the person they’re calling, visualise their face and focus on the positive outcome of the call. This will help the telemarketer to engage with the contact on a more human level and give them a better chance of a successful outcome. We also encourage our telemarketers to get excited about the product or service they’re promoting by helping them focus on its competitive benefits before they pick up the phone. This enthusiasm will come across in the call, helping to create a great first impression.

Improving your technique

By continually working to improve the quality of the first impressions you and your team make, you can help your sales department to achieve its goals and create positive relationships with the companies you contact. If you need help developing your telemarketing techniques, or if you think there’s more your team could learn from us, get in touch with Blue Donkey today.

How can salespeople get their prospects talking?

Posted on 26 January 2017 by bluedonkey

One of the biggest challenges in sales is getting a prospect talking. Once you’ve started a conversation, it’s easy to make your pitch, get your message across and begin to develop a relationship. However, if the prospect won’t engage with you, your chances of a successful call will be all but gone. Though this is an important part of sales, a lot of people are still baffled by how to get prospects talking. While some people may be held back by fear or nerves, others may simply lack the communication skills needed to break down barriers and make meaningful connections.

One of the most important moments of any call, is the second between getting past the gatekeeper and waiting for the decision maker to pick up the phone. In this moment, when you’re taking a deep breath and are poised to make your pitch, the success or failure of your call is often determined. If the next few seconds go well, you’ll be able to glide effortlessly into your call and connect with the prospect you’re speaking to. If you make a mistake however, you could end up fluffing your pitch, making the call awkward or even crashing out altogether.

To ensure disasters like this don’t happen, we’ve developed a range of techniques to guarantee a great first impression every time. Keep reading to find out more.

Quick and basic opening

Make your opening introduction as quick and as straightforward as possible. Introduce yourself, say which company you’re calling from and the reason for your call. The sooner you can get this bit over and done with, the sooner you can ask your opening questions and get the prospect engaged with the call.

Ask an open question

An open question is a question that can’t be answered with either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Try to make the question relevant to your call, so you can glean an insight from the answer. Avoid generic questions, like ‘how are you?’, as these are not relevant and won’t further your call.

Be interested and be interesting

If you want to get a prospect talking, you have to show that you’re really interested in what they’re saying. Listen to their answers, probe relevant details, and show how your product, or service, aligns with their needs. Rather than listing off the benefits of your products and services all at once, prioritise the information you give according to your prospect’s particular requirements, preferences or business.

Have fun

Though your call should always be professional and on point, as a skilled telemarketer you should also be able to inject an element of fun into the conversation. If you’re confident and a good communicator, then this sense of fun will automatically enter your call as most people get a lot of enjoyment from doing a job they’re good at. The more success you have, the more you will enjoy yourself, and the more your enthusiasm will be communicated to the person you’re talking to.

At Blue Donkey, we’re always looking for ways to improve our techniques and our success rate to ensure our telemarketers are as happy, confident, and successful as possible. To find out more, or to learn how we can help boost the success of your telemarketing team, get in touch with us today.