Phone based marketing is not something most people enjoy. At Blue Donkey, we’ve made the concept of intelligent telemarketing our own for over 23 years now. We do this mainly by building some, then we share them with each other. It’s like anything, the better you get the more you achieve, and the more you achieve the greater the love.
Human contact is a key ingredient to making this love happen. Studies have shown that voice communication will create much stronger bonds than text. A person’s voice reveals qualities of warmth and other emotional experience that you can’t get through text according to Amit Kumar, PhD writing for the Journal of Experimental Psychology. It’s also useful to know that while a global pandemic stops us meeting face to face, what we’re missing out on in terms of the power of human connection is apparently, not as much as you might think. “Being able to see another person does not make people feel any more connected than if they simply talked with them. A person’s voice is really the signal that creates understanding and connection.”
Type less, talk more
Kumar’s research concluded that participants felt more connected to the person they spoke with, even strangers. They added “People tend to undervalue the positive relational consequences of using voice relative to text alone, leading them to favour typing rather than talking. But that’s a potentially unwise preference. The takeaway message here is: Type less, talk more”.
If you’re tempted to email instead of call, remind yourself that it’s hard to make an impact, never mind a positive one, with a cold email. But an email sent as a follow up to your call will serve to reiterate your purpose and business strengths.
Expect good things to happen
One way of learning to like phone based marketing more is to shift your frame of reference. If you expect the task of cold calling to be hostile, chances are it will prove you right. The science of psychology has told us for years now that you get what you focus on. If you focus on getting more positive interactions, you will. And then, like the Blue Donkey team, the more you achieve, the more you’ll associate your phone based marketing work with warm feelings. Then make a point of remembering the good stuff. Surround yourself with reminders of the positive things that have happened and gently allow your focus to drift there as you’re working.
Have a gratitude attitude
People don’t have to speak to us. They have their own priorities and problems. It’s exhausting and frustrating to get blocked in the task of lead generation, market research or any form of phone based marketing. Therein lies the rub. You need to speak to people, people are too busy to speak with you. So what to do?
Understanding that it’s not personal, it’s not unusual, and it’s not permanent is a great way to view the issue. Hence you can’t do much other than improve your technique, but even that doesn’t guarantee everyone will be available or able to speak with you. It can take roughly 15 dials for each decision maker reached on a newish project and 8 on an established one. That’s pretty standard even to expert communicators like those at Blue Donkey. The best thing to do is celebrate the conversations you do have, treat them as special and focus on having them. At Blue Donkey we call this having a Gratitude Attitude. Being grateful when we do get through, rather than frustrated when we don’t. That’s also an excellent mindset when you do reach someone, as you’re already mentally positioned to get the most from the human connections you do make. And so, they get more from you.