Before you can set any goals for your telemarketing team, you need to understand your current situation and performance. This means collecting and analyzing data on your key metrics and indicators, such as call volume, call duration, contact rate, conversion rate, customer satisfaction, and revenue per call. You also need to benchmark your results against your industry standards and competitors, and identify your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you establish a realistic baseline and a clear direction for improvement.
Avoid guesswork and rely on facts and data for accuracy and effectiveness. Determine your conversion rate—the percentage of leads that turn into sales—by analyzing historical or current data. Start with the total number of sales required, and then divide it by your conversion rate. For example, if you need 24 sales and your conversion rate is 50%, you'll require 48 leads to achieve your goal. Consider adding 20% to the calculated number to allow for reschedules and dropouts. By using this formula, you can establish realistic targets that align with your team's capabilities and motivate them to excel. Support your team members with necessary resources, training, and feedback to maximize their success.
To set realistic and achievable goals, I’d start by getting on the phone myself. This hands-on approach allows me to see, based on the data set, how many calls I can realistically make per hour or day, what percentage of those result in speaking with someone in authority, the typical objections encountered, how many calls will require a follow-up email and how many qualified leads I can generate. By doing the calls myself, I not only gather valuable insights but also earn the respect of my team, positioning myself to better support them moving forward. This experience provides a solid foundation to set goals, create a sales playbook, and develop content that supports my team and future new starters.
Once you have a clear picture of your baseline, you can start defining your specific goals for your telemarketing team. A useful framework to keep in mind is the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – which means that your goals should be clearly stated with a specific outcome in mind, quantified with numbers or percentages, achievable based on resources and capabilities, aligned with your business strategy and values, and given a timeline for completion. Setting goals according to these criteria will help you track progress and results, add value to customers and stakeholders, and break down larger goals into smaller milestones and tasks.
SMART objectives are significant because they ensure clarity, understanding, and alignment among all participants. These objectives help avoid disputes over performance evaluations and particularly in the telemarketing context, should be delivered via short-term attainable goals to ensure positive morale and encouragement. The targets should be a healthy mix of quantitative, which is easy to identify in this field and qualitative based on hands-on coaching feedback.
Setting clear call goals is important, but Before that you need to train well your telemarketers : they need to embrace the brand, the product / service they will sell and the purchasing cycle (trend, pain points, answer objections etc.) Not a part to underestimate if you re a company hiring a telemkg agency to generate leads for you or if this team is internal. Regular Coaching and well structured motivating Incentive plan are also key in the process
Setting goals is not enough; you also need to communicate and align them with your telemarketing team and other relevant parties. This means that you should share your goals with your team, explaining why they are important and what is expected from them. Additionally, it's beneficial to solicit feedback and input from your team and involve them in the goal-setting process, as this will increase their engagement and ownership. It's also important to align your goals with the goals of other departments, such as marketing, sales, or customer service, ensuring that they are consistent and complementary. Finally, review and update your goals regularly, reporting on your progress and achievements.
Aligning goals is integral to the way we work, as we deliver telemarketing on behalf of many companies its important to have all of our goals aligned before the first call is made. Appointment criteria, expected results, target data, all play a part and we organise comprehensive briefing sessions before we start so that everyone is on the same page
Setting goals is not enough; you also need to provide support and incentives to your telemarketing team to help them achieve them. This means providing training and coaching to enhance their skills, knowledge, and confidence. You should also equip your team with the right tools and technology to optimize their efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, it is important to recognize and reward your team for their efforts and accomplishments, as well as address any challenges or issues that may arise with constructive feedback and guidance. Celebrating successes is another key factor in motivating your team to reach their goals.
As someone who has worked in telemarketing, I understand the emotional toll it can take if you don't have the right support from management. It's crucial to address the factors that can trigger stress and anxiety in your team. Simply setting incentives isn't always enough to motivate and support them. As leaders, we need to show that we care. If someone on your team is having a tough day with calls, take the time to check in with them. Invite them to take a break and grab a coffee or go for a walk. Sometimes a small gesture can make a big difference and help them come back with a fresh perspective and feeling valued.
Support, incentives and training are all key parts to a happy performing telemarketing team. However, it is also super important to have a clear achievable commission structure in place for your telemarketing team. In my experience what’s worked excellently has been a bonus paid per appointment sat to drive quantity (that meets QA criteria of course) and in some instances it can also benefit to pay a percentage of the sale value if their appointment is converted to a sale by the sales team (this drives quality).
Setting goals is not enough; you also need to evaluate and adjust them according to your performance and feedback. This means that you should measure and analyze your results, identify what worked well and what didn't, learn from your experience, and adjust your goals as needed. Comparing your results with your goals and expectations can help you determine the factors that influenced your outcomes, so that you can apply your insights to improve your processes and strategies. Making changes to your goals can also help you reflect any changes in your situation, priorities, or opportunities.
When you do evaluate the process, ensure you do a whole 360 evaluation. Why? Because in my experience which is built up over the last two decades, in so many instances the reason for lower performance isn’t necessarily the telemarketer, I’ve seen it be down to data issues or in some instances even an issue with the person being passed the leads to close.
I’d also suggest ensuring your check the full 360 of the lead. I’ve seen many, many times telemarketing being criticised because their leads aren’t converting yet when investigating 360, the call quality is excellent and there is a need established however issue has actually been with the sales person following up the lead who is not strong enough to convert leads to new businesses or focusing their time on those easy inbounds as opposed to the harder outbound leads. In this instance it can pay to have a team focused on inbound and a team focused on outbound. It takes a stronger sales person to covert outbound leads.
The one crucial component I don't see on any replies (they all make perfect sense by the way and apologies if I have missed one raising a similar point) is the need to mutually agree the objectives. If you really want buy in from your team, this has to happen. Throwing out objectives, blowing the whistle and expecting them to deliver doesn't cut it. 1. Communicate what it is you are trying to accomplish and why it matters 2. Ask the team to come up with achievable (but stretching) objectives to reach that goal that they believe they can deliver on 3. Agree how you will support them from a learning and development point of view 4. Praise the good work/highlight the wins as you go. That would be my advice ??
In my experience you have to balance quantity vs quality. The number of appointments set or sales made vs their quality. One employee may make more appointments, but few of them generate revenue. Compared to an employee who sets fewer appointments that have a higher conversion rate and exceed the former in generating revenue. Generating revenue must be the metric that matters most.