10 Smart Techniques To Improve Telemarketing Effectiveness!!

I get asked quite a lot if there any secrets to telemarketing success?

Possibly not. However, understanding the key telemarketing techniques and telemarketing skills will inevitably make a difference. So I hope you enjoy my 10 Smart Techniques To Improve Telemarketing Effectiveness.

Telemarketing Planning is everything

It’s an old cliché but you need to do your research. There’s no point banging out lots of calls without preparation.

So prepare the following before getting on the phone:

• Decide which sector or market you will target, do you have customers in a certain sector, case studies or experience in working within a market sector? - Use this to underpin your approach to this sector.

• Why is that a good sector to aim at? Is there limited competition? Do you have a competitive advantage or differentiator? Is there a need for your service? Is time an issue? Have you got industry-leading knowledge or technology?

• What’s happening in the target market? Is there new legislation? Is source of supply an issue? Are there new market entrants?

• Have a look what’s going on via LinkedIn groups or Twitter. Maybe, use LinkedInfor research and to build targeted lists at the outset.

• What are the hooks or triggers, what will buyers respond to most?

• Plan your call structure including an attention grabbing intro, good open questions, a powerful hook and practise!

Target Market Definition

Don't start by firing in the wrong direction, you won’t hit your target.

• What sectors are you focusing on?

• What is the job role of your buyer? MD, FD, Sales Director, Marketing Director?

• Who are your influencers, the champions of your products, services or solutions? Who has the pain, who is the person on the ground with the day to day issues problems and pains that can help raise your products, services or solutions to the buyer?

• Do you want Head office or do branches make decisions? What size? 50 employees + or ￡100m turnover and above?

The tighter you define your target market, the more likely you are to reach the decision maker in the shortest possible time. It also means you can define a clear message and hook for a defined decision maker role!

Understand the target marketplace

As we discussed earlier, find out what’s going on in the marketplace.

• What’s keeping the buyers up at night?

• What are the gaps in service that current suppliers struggle to close? What changes are going on?

• What are the hot topics and buzz words?

The more you can understand what is going on, the quicker you can engage with prospects and build rapport and the more relevant any telemarketing conversation will be. And you will sound less like a cold caller!!

Work out what the buyer’s pains are

If you have a headache you will go to the doctors. If you have backache, you go to an osteopath. But if it’s a twinge, maybe you might wait and see if it passes. It’s the same in business. If a current supplier is doing an okay job, maybe the desire to change may be low. But if you use good open questioning techniques around issues in the marketplace or known differentiators in your service offering (that your competitors don’t have) you can help magnify or create a perceived pain and encourage buyers to get off the fence.

So, find out what keeps your buyers up at night and focus your calling around that.

Gatekeeper techniques

Let’s face it, gatekeepers are a pain so far as cold calling blocks are concerned. They have a job to do and that’s to protect the decision-maker. So you have to learn to deal with gatekeepers and use gatekeeper techniques to get round or go through them to achieve your goal.

There are a few key things to consider.

• Sound authoritative.
• Keep control of the conversation.
• Don’t give any information unless you absolutely have to.
• Only engage if you sense the other techniques have failed or you know the decision maker is constantly out of the office.
• Recognise that the gatekeeper has the power to block you but not to hire you.

They also don’t know that their boss is about to go out to tender in the next few weeks for your service if the boss hasn’t yet told him or her. So, play your cards close to your chest and work out the best telemarketing techniques to overcome gatekeeper blocks.

Building Rapport with decision-makers

Building Rapport with decision makers is part confidence, part communication and part training. An innate ability to engage with people helps but that’s not the whole story. Understand what issues face the decision-maker. Know your marketplace and make sure the start of the call isn’t nervy, stiff and stilted and sounds like a typical cold caller. Those factors are crucial. But there are a few telemarketing tips that you can use to enhance the likelihood of good rapport.

• Ask good questions

• Mirror tone (try to sound like the decision-maker). Listen carefully to how they speak and adapt your tone to suit

• Mirror the pace to be more akin to theirs

• Mirror language (using the words that they use without being like a parrot is a good thing)

• Don’t be boring. There’s nothing worse. Try to be upbeat but interesting and engaging rather than over-excited and pushy

Good questioning techniques

Good questioning techniques are one of the most fundamental factors in enhanced cold calling success. Once you’ve established initial rapport, start asking good open questions for more info and closed questions for qualification is key to telemarketing success.

Build questions around market issues, supply issues, market trends and so on. This helps the conversation flow and stimulates discussion.

• Plan your questions in advance but also probe with good ‘curiosity’ (out of interest John, how do you handle…..) questions during the call.

• Don't over talk you proposition, once you have made an introduction ask a question and pause, wait for a reply and ask another question. Answer their questions in a clear concise manner with quick answers, nobody likes a long drawn out reply to an answer.

   

Objection handling techniques

Ultimately, most prospects already use a similar service, have limited funds or just want to do what you do themselves. These are typical cold calling objections. You need to learn to deal with them and others confidently.

The key is not to jump in too quickly and answer every objection. Use good questioning to probe. People still buy people and if you build rapport at this point, you stand a good chance. Relax and accept that not every objection is a block or a negative. It is a request for clarification that, if you answer satisfactorily, could lead to an opportunity.

Good objection handling techniques and questions will help you on your road to telemarketing success. There are different types of technique that you can use that suits the call, your personality and type of objection. Unfortunately, there are far too many to detail here. Look out for further blogs on this subject or contact us to discuss some objection handling training.

Follow up

Sound obvious doesn’t it? But the best telemarketing results come from following up. It’s great when our first call results in a sale or appointment but that is generally not the case. Stats show that it may take 5, 6 or more calls to reach a conclusion. So, make sure you diarise call-backs ideally using a good CRM system.

• Make sure any info goes out on time if requested.

• Ensure that meeting confirmations are timely too.

• Keep the prospect posted on stuff you’re doing (if relevant and without spamming) in the interim.

• Hook up on LinkedIn if appropriate.

• But, above all, make sure you call back when you say you will whether that be one week or six months.

   

Telemarketer training and performance monitoring

As mentioned earlier, some telemarketers have innate confidence and are natural on the phone. But that isn’t always the case. And it isn’t always about the gift of the gab. It’s also about listening, good questioning and so on. Therefore, investing in training is a wise move. Combined with good information on performance through a CRM system, the results will flow. Good techniques and continuous improvement through monitoring KPI’s will make a difference. Make sure you track call rates and other stats like calls per hour, calls and hours per appointment, decision maker ratios voicemail and so on.

Whatever your metrics, make sure you monitor them frequently. For example, if you see a high number of gatekeeper conversations and very few decision-makers, maybe your caller needs gatekeeper technique training. If you have lots of decision-maker conversations but no appointments, maybe it’s objection handling techniques that are needed or a rethink of the pitch. Hence, combining performance evaluation with training will enhance your chances of telemarketing success.