Ten Telemarketing Tips
Many believe that B2B telemarketing is still one of the most effective ways to build relationships with potential prospects, understand where are in the buying cycle, and progress them along the sales funnel. However, not everyone is good at it, which is exactly why it can sometimes get a bad rep. With this in mind, I’ve compiled my top 10 Telemarketing Tips to help you improve your approach.
1. Be yourself
One of the biggest issues to overcome is the fact that everyone has a different perception of a salesperson. They often think that they need to act differently in order to sell. My take is that anybody can be good at sales if you are yourself; if you try and deceive people then this can be picked up by your prospect and you’ll never succeed.
2. Understand your market
Although you’d think this was obvious, often I get calls from people who know nothing about the company they are calling. If you understand your market, you’ll understand who the decision-makers are, how companies buy, how often they buy, the main drivers for buying, who the competition is, etc. etc. All of this information will help you build relationships and sound knowledgeable during your calls.
3. Good data
Data is key to the success of your telemarketing campaign. You don’t want the first call to be a fact-finding call or to find out the contact or details are wrong. By having good quality data with named relevant decision-makers, you can concentrate on closing deals and building your sales pipeline.
4. Goal setting
Most people only see generating an appointment or a sale as the goal. If this is the case then probably 95% of your calls will result in failure, which isn’t good motivation for anybody. Focusing on the main goal may also mean that you miss many other goals of the call that can include:
- Obtaining their direct dial
- Confirming you have the right contact details
- Understanding when their existing contract expires
- Finding out any information that will progress the sale in the future
- Pipe-lining the prospect for a future call back.
5. Opening statement
Your opening statement should, within no more than 20 seconds, explain who you are, why you are calling, the benefits that your prospect will get from talking to you, and provide a platform for your first question. Ensure that you practice your opening and that it’s flexible enough for you to change it during the call, and don’t be afraid to try new things out! If it’s not working, try a different approach.
6. Understand features & benefits
Many salespeople do basic training on features of a product/service. However, the difficulty is in understanding what the benefits are for an individual. If I don’t perceive it to be a benefit, then it isn’t one no matter how much a trainer says it is.
The key is to ask relevant questions of your prospect so you can understand exactly what is a benefit to them and then sell these.
7. Preparation
The seventh of our telemarketing tips is to remember your next call is going to be a sale. You need to think about this at the start of every call. If I answer my phone quickly I often get telemarketers who are flustered; they don’t have my name in front of them, they haven’t thought of how they are going to open or they are distracted. Instantly this switches me off and it is an almost certainty that the call will not progress.
Before every call, make sure you know who you are calling, why you’re calling, and are sitting up straight and smiling.
8. Silence
Never be afraid of silence during a call. If you ask a question shut up. If you don’t feel a question has been answered fully don’t speak and wait for your prospect to expand. So often I’m on a call and the telemarketer asks a question and immediately gives an easy way out by asking a second question i.e. can we come and see you? or would you like me to send you some collateral first? Most people will take the second option.
Obviously, if the silence is inappropriate you will make your prospect feel uncomfortable, and this is never good.
9. Close
It always amazes me when a caller goes all the way through the sale and at the end says ‘shall I send you some further information and call you back once you’ve read it?’. If you want an appointment and the conversation is going, well then, ask for it. If you’ve gone through the process of understanding that they have a need, budget, you are talking to the decision-maker, etc. then the close should be a natural progression. However, if you close too early without your prospect being convinced, then you stand a real chance of turning them off.
10. Pipeline
After every conversation you have with a decision-maker you should add your notes to their record and set a call back date, even if it’s years in the future. It’s so much easier opening a call explaining that you spoke 6 months ago and the contract would be coming up for renewal now than it is to open the call from scratch. The sooner you can build rapport the better and demonstrating that you know them is one of the best ways of doing this. So it doesn’t matter what the information is, write it down and maybe you can use it in the future to progress the sale.
With these telemarketing tips, you will see a great improvement in your ability on the phone. Check out some of our other blogs and take a look at some of our case studies to find other ways you can get better on the phone! Or give us a call to chat on 0115 882 0116.
