The Do’s And Don’ts Of Running A Telemarketing Campaign

Telemarketing is said to be one of the most challenging careers a person can pursue. Prospecting for new business over the phone, regardless of your career, may be nerve-wracking and monotonous. Adhering to a few best practices, on the other hand, can help level the playing field and ultimately make more challenging calls simpler to handle.

Telemarketing is essential to an organization’s success. How might your business-to-business telemarketing be more effective? That’s self-evident. Nonetheless, numerous organizations continue to make the same mistakes over again. The following are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to business-to-business telemarketing practices. 

What You Should Do While Doing Telemarketing

If done right, telemarketing can be a very useful and effective marketing tool a business owner can have to grow and explore more business opportunities with prospective leads. Here are some of the things you should do when creating a telemarketing campaign.

1. Develop a strategy.

Before you begin telemarketing, it’s critical to understand why you’re doing so. If you’re collecting email addresses for small and medium-sized enterprises, you’re likely to gain them through the first point of contact. You can use different tools to help you launch your campaign. Get an auto dialer, purchase equipment, and do training if needed. To speak with a decision-maker, you must convince the initial point of contact to invite you in.

2. Keep in mind the different time zones.

Nobody wants to be approached in the middle of the night or early the following day by telemarketers. Bear in mind that not everyone will adhere to your schedule, so plan accordingly. Additionally, consumers dislike interruptions during supper, but it may be necessary, particularly if you’re phoning individuals who are not at home during the day.

3. Maintain a professional demeanor at all times.

Begin with a polite greeting and keep in mind that you’re representing a business and its product or service. Ascertain that you’re not to blame if they’re unpleasant or don’t respond to your calls. You don’t influence the acts, words, or tone of others. Additionally, keep in mind that you may occasionally be compelled to be excessively courteous as a recorded message rather than a living person.

4. Create a script that seems natural to you.

To avoid boredom and to entice callers to stay on the line, you must be succinct. Prepare persuasive sales arguments and counter-arguments to their reservations or inquiries.

5. Practice your script before making calls.

By practicing with friends, family, and coworkers, you can guarantee that you’re entirely comfortable and that the script goes well. You don’t want a prospective buyer to see your mistakes first.

6. Slowly pronounce your words and speak clearly.

When you first begin cold calling, it’s natural to be apprehensive; unfortunately, this nervousness typically leads to you blurting out your script rather than communicating it to the person on the other end of the line.

Lowering your arms to your sides as you pass through may assist you in slowing down by putting pressure on the diaphragm. You’ll appear more sincere if you speak at a more natural pace. In business, honesty is said to be advantageous. Additionally, it has a beautiful tactile quality.

Following a script is very acceptable. It keeps you focused on the call’s objective. However, avoid over-rehearsing to the point that delivery seems robotic.

7. Make yourself available to communicate with someone.

The individual on the other end of the telephone may inquire. It’d help if you were prepared to handle any concerns or queries they may have. If telemarketing were as straightforward as ‘call, get an answer, hang up,’ it’d be a far more efficient form of marketing than it is now and we would not need to write nearly as much about it.

8. Expect to be told ‘No’ or ‘Thank you, but no.’

To be entirely truthful, there are times when an unfavorable reaction is warranted. Allow yourself to be completely unaware of anything. If you’re confident, you can attempt to soften your argument, but a ‘no’ is not always a ‘no.’ Consider the other shoe—you don’t always respond ‘yes.’ Allow the situation to pass, express gratitude for the individual’s time, and try another day again. Effective telemarketing takes a high amount of perseverance.

9. Remain composed and focused.

You have less than ten seconds to persuade consumers not to hang up when they answer your sales call. Do you believe you’re under considerable stress? Withhold the sales presentation until you’ve devised a technique for capturing the customer’s attention through humor. 

Inquire open-endedly, maintain a consistent energy level, and speak in a pleasant tone to create a sense of uniqueness in the buyer. You should be fine as long as you approach them as friends and not as business partners.

10. Be warm to people. 

After you’ve gotten comfortable with your writing, the following step is to deliver it appropriately. Experiment with friends, keep a journal of pertinent questions and responses, and so on. When speaking on the phone, some people found that smiling helps them retain a cheerful and confident disposition. Customers can tell when a caller is enthusiastic and friendly, as opposed to bored or uninterested.

If you’re prepared to deal with every type of consumer, you’ll know what to say and when to say it. Consider the last time you introduced a friend or family member to a fantastic new product. When you believe in what you’re offering, persuading someone to purchase becomes significantly easier.

11. Accept suggestions and do follow-ups.

Despite its seeming simplicity, the majority of callers are said to commit this error. Make touch with anyone you were unable to contact from your contact list. Personalize your emails, SMS messages, and phone conversations to customers to increase the likelihood of a sale. Consider the steps below:

• Jot down the customer’s information.
• Send an email or text message detailing your objectives before and following the call.
• Make a clear call to action.

This can’t be emphasized enough. It’s vital to follow up on a lead to keep the customer informed. Following the initial, or even second contact, not every buyer will be interested in purchasing. Maintaining touch enables you to elicit new information and excite their curiosity at the same time. You can also use tools like ringless voicemail software and the like to follow up if you happen to miss any calls. 

12. Make it a point to cultivate values.

Many telemarketers nowadays are sales-oriented and they regularly seek to promote and offer values. It’s self-evident that when call marketing specialists work to acquire consumers’ trust by focusing conversations on the matter, positive outcomes are said to be a foregone conclusion. If you actively seek out your clients’ perspectives, you’re adding value. Finally, this will help you generate qualified leads and rapidly pique the interest of potential clients.

13. Take note of any emotional symptoms and respond appropriately.

Humans can employ every known sales and marketing tactic and yet lose a large deal due to the prospect’s emotions. If you overhear a prospect laughing, congratulate them; if you overhear them sighing, acknowledge their discontent and inquire about the source. Rather than disregarding human emotions during a conversation, capitalize on them to establish rapport with your prospect.

14. If you have difficulty hearing or require some additional time, repeat and describe what you believe you heard.

Salespeople and telemarketers who are most effective are also excellent listeners. They’re constantly on the lookout for revenue-generating opportunities. This is maybe the most critical of our telemarketing tips if you’re having difficulty listening well. 

Reiterate what you heard from the prospect and verify that the information is accurate. It’ll not only assist you in validating the concept and capturing relevant information, but it’ll also allow you to collect your thoughts and stall if you become disoriented.

What You Ought Not To Do When Doing Telemarketing

Now that you know what you should do when doing telemarketing, you should also learn about the don’ts of telemarketing campaigns. Listed below are just some of the mistakes that you must avoid at all costs when running a telemarketing campaign for your business. 

1. Don’t attempt to multitask while on the phone.

It’s the most frequently committed error by telemarketers today. They must work tirelessly to maintain a professional approach if they hope to achieve extraordinary results. When talking with consumers, your primary objective should be to provide value and to establish productive relationships. 

It’d help if you were not concerned about modifications to your CRM or customer relationship management data. It should be done after, not during, the presentation. This is a vital outbound calling strategy that can produce the necessary results.

2. Don’t pressure customers.

If you’re pressuring your prospect to seal the transaction on the first call, you act pretty unprofessionally. In an ideal world, a telemarketing professional would await the customer’s reaction during the initial call. In this circumstance, you must use prudence and refrain from pressing the buyer to purchase what you’re selling. Allowing them time to consider their options would be prudent in this circumstance.

3. Don’t forget to clean your database. 

Cleaning telemarketing lists is crucial, all the more so if your business uses an autodialer. Unless you purge your data regularly, you may contact business-to-business leads who have requested to be added to your Do Not Call list. Even if you notified your business prospects that this was an accident, they would suspect you of lying and attempting to sell every number on your list.

As a result of your error, you may suffer legal consequences. Unscrubbed telemarketing lists are frequently the product of laziness. To avoid this, use a telemarketing company that maintains active telemarketing lists or invest in automated telemarketing software.

4. Don’t forget to identify with the customer.

Many telemarketing marketers make the error of instantly moving into the sales presentation following the introduction. While this strategy may help them get the attention of their business-to-business sales leads immediately, it leaves out a vital step: validating the identity of the person who answered the phone. Business-to-business marketers must present the pitch directly to the critical decision-maker to close the purchase. 

Unlike the business-to-consumer market, decision-makers in the business-to-business market are typically hidden behind knowledgeable gatekeepers. Suppose the telemarketer doesn’t attempt to identify the individual she is dealing with. In that case, she risks pitching to someone who has been conditioned to avoid marketing calls, wasting their time and effort.

5. Don’t forget to do research.

Market research is the first step in telemarketing. It takes rigorous effort and undivided concentration to perform exhaustive research on every minute detail associated with a lead or with telemarketing in general. Preliminary market research could get you in hot water throughout the subsequent phases, which are incredibly essential for telemarketing.

6. Don’t do an excessively aggressive sales pitch.

Your tone is crucial in telemarketing. You elevate your style temporarily before stumbling through the conversation and blowing the lead. Inexperienced novice telemarketers may be unaware of the components of a successful pitch while attempting to complete a sale. They may succeed if they adopt an overly aggressive tone, but this would tarnish its reputation and erode its previously favorable market image.

7. Don’t start without an introduction.

Before engaging in a discussion with a new person, it is vital to introduce yourself. This conversation can occur over the phone or in-person, depending on the circumstances, but the introduction is crucial. If you begin giving your service without first providing a suitable introduction, the customer on the other end will be unaware.

8. Don’t ignore the counter-argument.

As a knowledgeable and efficient telemarketer, you should listen to the client on the other end of the call and sell your products. They may become irritated if they are always listening to you, which will result in the call abruptly getting terminated. As a result, you should pay attention to what they have to say while also improving.

9. Don’t create an unpleasant resemblance between the phone call and a sales presentation.

This is a significant point and one of the top telemarketing mistakes. Your purpose during a conversation should be to create leads and book appointments with prospects, not to promote your products constantly.

10. Don’t forget to follow up.

If the list you’re working with has valid data, make a point of contacting individuals who you were unable to reach the first time. You probably called on a day when they were not at home or engaged in another activity.

11. Don’t be oblivious.

Nothing aggravates a prospective consumer more than the impression that the person on the other end of the line is unaware. If you’re not paying attention, you run the danger of losing out on critical information, which is also disrespectful.

12. Don’t make closed-end inquiries.

Throughout the call, you want to build momentum that will compel your prospect to open up. Consider beginning your inquiry with the words how, why, or when rather than yes or no.

Takeaway

Telemarketing’s objective is to gain a thorough understanding of the target audience, identify decision-makers who can influence purchasing behavior, and then turn their purchase intent into actual sales smartly. 

Successful telemarketing requires identifying the innate desires of the target population and meeting those demands with your client’s products/services. Telephone salespeople routinely make similar errors. Consider the following do’s and don’ts mentioned above while organizing your next telemarketing campaign and you may see favorable results.