Telemarketing is often used with other marketing strategies to close deals or to conduct market research.
Creating an efficient telemarketing strategy that works for your business doesn’t need to be complicated.
It is all about learning to establish a genuine connection with your clients and potential clients.
Define telemarketing
Telemarketing is the process of reaching out to prospective buyers over the phone or the internet to directly advertise a product or service.
It is also done for market research or collecting accurate information about the leads to employ other marketing strategies such as email marketing.
Most of the time, telemarketing involves an initial call to assess a client’s level of interest, and then a follow-up call to pursue a sale.
How do you make a successful telemarketing service?
Telemarketing can be a way to learn how to do cold calling. The key is gaining confidence and practicing well to close deals successfully.
Here are some tips to help your team succeed in telemarketing.
Plan
Before you start your telemarketing service, make sure that your team knows your main objective.
Carefully examine your purpose for making outbound telemarketing calls as this will help you create a solid outline for your scripts.
Telemarketing cannot start without a clear goal because your overall marketing plan will hugely rely on it.
Prepare a script
A script is a guide on how you will conduct a call. Your team doesn’t have to memorize it and follow it well. It is just there as a reminder of what you need to say.
Remember that there is nothing wrong with creating a script. It helps keep you focused and provides you with words if you feel stuck while talking to a client.
Speak slowly and clearly
Being nervous while making a call is normal. Unfortunately, the more nervous you are, the more chances there are for you to not articulate well what you wanted to say to a client.
Try to calm yourself down. The best way for this is to drop your arms to the sides to create pressure on your diaphragm and help you slow down.
Talking at a natural speed will help you sound approachable and sincere. And clients will feel comfortable talking to you more.
Be prepared for a conversation and rejection
Everyone has a bad day and sometimes you can catch your customer on such days. Don’t let it upset you.
If you feel confident enough, you can politely argue your case with a lead – but sometimes, no means no. If rejection happens, let it go and thank the person for taking the time. You can try again on other days.
Patience and persistence are the two most important values that a telemarketer should have to produce great results.
Handling the gatekeeper
Receptionists are often told to avoid putting calls through to managers or directors and to refuse giving out information over the phone.
Handling a gatekeeper is not easy, but you need to try hard to get around them. Here are the best ways how:
- Try to call before the company’s opening time or 30 minutes before it closes. Some receptionists only keep the official working hours of the company, but managers and staff work earlier and later than these hours.
- Ask for somebody who’s lower down in the corporate food chain, like someone on the helpdesk. Helpdesk staff aren’t trained to keep gates closed, and it is in their job to assist anyone who is calling them.
Always end calls politely
Always says thank you to the person in the other line, whether you closed a deal or not.
Telemarketing usually consists of several calls for you to succeed. Most often than not, the leads will remember how you acted and sound like on the call.
Stay polite. Don’t be tempted to be rude no matter how awful a customer’s character is. Remember to always preserve your company’s image.
Take action on your calls
If you say you’re going to send some marketing material then send it immediately. Never take a long time before doing an action that you promised to someone on a call.
If you waste somebody’s time or leave them waiting, they would lose their interest in buying your product or service. They could also tell others about you.
Practice
Don’t give up if you did not succeed at the first call. Getting comfortable with telemarketing takes a long while.
Do not stay anxious and just keep practicing.
After dealing with a lot of calls, you will notice yourself adjusting naturally to the concept of cold calling.
Check the local laws
Before you start telemarketing, check with your legal representative if the country you live in has laws governing telemarketing to businesses.
You need to be particularly careful if your clients are small home-based businesses as telemarketing to consumers can be governed by strict rules in many parts of the world.
