Sadly, dealing with rejection in B2B telemarketing is a reality of everyday life, and though we try to embrace a positive outlook, we accept that we’ll come across decision makers who don’t have time to talk, aren’t interested in the services or products we want to discuss, or simply don’t want the hassle of switching a particular supplier.
To help our team cope with these knockbacks, and to ensure rejection doesn’t impact on the productivity of our workforce, we’ve created a range of strategies to help ensure success.
Mindset
Any sales professional will be only too aware of the power of positive thinking. In fact, we believe a positive mindset can make or break a sales call. As well as helping our telemarketers approach each call in an optimistic and confident way, a positive mindset helps to convey the benefits and the appeal of the products and services we’re promoting, more compellingly and with more verve.
One of the techniques we practice to put our team in a positive frame of mind is to encourage them to recall the last time they had a really good conversation, or generated a B2B telemarking lead that they are truly proud of. For example, those rewarding, mutually beneficial exchanges, where the recipient is engaged and interested, and which result in the telemarketer feeling on a high, long after the dialogue has ended. These calls are brought to the front of the telemarketer’s mind, and reflected on regularly, whenever they pick up the phone. This helps fuel enthusiasm, reflect success, and gives each contact a stronger likelihood of achieving its objectives.
Creating the best chance of success
Often, an unsuccessful sales call comes down to bad targeting or a poor quality list. If a telemarketer makes a call and the recipient isn’t receptive to the sales message, they need to take a look at the type of companies they’re calling. If the product, service or sales message is unlikely to be of interest to the companies on the list, the telemarketer has a limited chance of success, no matter how enthusiastic they are. However, if the list is well targeted, and appropriate, it may be the positivity of the message or the timing of the call that need to be adjusted.
Even if the product or service isn’t right for the recipient at this moment in time, if the telemarketer can stay positive, engage the person they’re speaking to and have a meaningful discussion, there’s a good chance the telemarketer will be able to revisit the company in the future. As well as helping to line up potential customers, this will help to ensure the next time the telemarketer contacts the company, the call is warmly received, because the brand has been presented well in the past and was therefore memorable for all the right reasons.
Nothing personal
Often we feel rejected when we perceive that the person on the other end of the phone is dismissing us. In these instances, it’s important to remember that rejection, in a business sense, isn’t personal. Instead of feeling despondent, we encourage our telemarketers to put themselves in the buyer’s headspace and think about how their language or their explanation can be improved to better get their message across. Failing to win buyers on every call is not rejection, its life.
In business, no one can be successful 100% of the time. Instead of focusing on the negatives of rejection, it’s important to think about how you can create positives from the situation. As well as helping to improve your mindset and make the working day even better, this positive attitude will be reflected in your success rate and could help you achieve more than you ever thought possible.
To find out how Blue Donkey can help you achieve positive outcomes from your B2B telemarketing efforts, contact us on 01353 724880.
