Welcome to the blog!

I have my own small business which only employs a few people, we need to do our telemarketing in house due to our size – do you have any hints or tips for us?

Jeremy, Lincoln

David says:

Starting or running a small business is empowering and exciting, but sometimes people hesitate and prevaricate about telemarketing. Often they give it a quick go, but give up easily claiming they do not have time or that it just does not work.

So let’s get over the biggest obstacle first, telemarketing works. It may not be the newest or a sexy form of marketing like social media, but there is not doubt that telemarketing is the fastest and most direct way to engage with your target audience, where you are in total control of who you do business with.

So here are my top 10 tips for starting telemarketing for yourself for the first time.

1. Understand which companies that you want to do business with and make a list of company names, addresses, phone numbers and if you like, the websites.

2. Research and contact every company and get the name and position of all those people that you would like to speak too. If you can get their email address too great, you can use them later.

3. Enter all of these details into a CRM, (customer relationship management software) that’s a database to most of us. There are plenty to choose from. If I had my choice I would use Salesforce.com.

4. Think about what you want to say to the prospect when you actually get to speak to them. Think about the summing up what you are offering in just one sentence. Think about the 3 or 4 main reasons someone would benefit from buying your product. Use these to create a guideline or script that you will use when you have that first conversation.

5. Make a commitment that you are going to spend at least 2 hours every single day, no excuses.

6. Start calling and do not give up. If it does not work out straight away keep trying. Make small changes to what you are doing and try again.

The biggest challenge that anyone in a small business faces is that there are so many other demands on their time and telemarketing ends up at the bottom of their list of things to do. Everything else always feels more important and more interesting than spending a minimum 10 hours per week telemarketing. As a result it ends up as the thing people would have most like to have done in their day, while also they are most relieved that they did not have to do.

So if you want my top 4 tips it is simple…….

7. Stop thinking about it.

8. Stop making excuses as to why it can’t be done.

9. Stop putting other jobs first.

10. Just get started today and stick with it.

I’ve just started a telemarketing campaign, should I expect immediate results?

Patricia, Eversham

David says:

Patricia, you just need to be patient.

There is no one that can sell snow to the Eskimos. Well except for the self-proclaimed sales experts that get “fired” on the apprentice. So with this in mind its worth acknowledging that telemarketing is no different. If you have not succeeded in telemarketing in the past, regardless of whether you have tried it internally or with a telemarketing agency, it worth thinking about the different things that influence the results you get. Then think about setting realistic expectations for the future.

So think about these 4 factors and how they influence your telemarketing results.

• What is your market’s maturity

• • Is your product brand new and no one has heard of it before? Do you have to educate your audience to why they need it?
  • Is your market aware of your product, but using an inferior alternative at the moment?
  • Is your product in a mature market where the buyers have already purchased a version once already and you are now looking to replace a previous purchase?

Both new and mature markets can have a significant reduction in possible number of meetings that a telemarketing campaign can produce. Consider that new markets will take time to educate before momentum can be built into your campaign. Inversely, mature markets rely on building relationships with buyers, as you need to be placed ready with your audience before they choose to go to market and buy for the 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th time.

• What is the brand awareness of your company

• • Is your company an established brand name in your market and one which your target audience will instinctively be aware of?
  • Is your company / brand relatively unknown, where nobody or few of your audience know your companies existence?

If you have a strong brand that is recognised by your target audience you will speak to more people and they will include this additional credibility at the point that you ask for a meeting. So you are more likely to both speak to your target audience and then to make meetings with them compared to a company that does not have this level of exposure and recognition.

• Do you have quality marketing material that supports the telemarketing campaign
  • Are you able to provide high quality marketing material such as your website, case studies, references and credentials that support your telemarketing campaign and reflect positively upon your company and brand?
  • Do you think that your marketing material could be better and needs work?

Your target audience is likely to look at least 1 other form of marketing than just receiving the telemarketing call before they agree to a meeting. This will influence their decision. Make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance of supporting the good work done by a telemarketing campaign with great material.

• Give the telemarketing campaign the time it needs to mature
  • Are you judging the campaign in the first few days and expecting immediate results and placing pressure on the campaign to succeed instantly?
  • Are you prepared to give the campaign time to mature, for the telemarketers to follow up on their calls?

Creating a culture that supports your team and sets realistic and achievable targets is essential in nurturing a successful telemarketing campaign. Allow the campaign to have time, assess where you think you can make improvements and make them one at a time and assess how the changes have affected the campaign.

In the long run it is indisputable that telemarketing will be successful for everyone that executes a good campaign. However, in the modern business environment with pressures being driven from investors and directors it is difficult to protect your telemarketing campaign and allow it to mature without exposing it to unrealistic expectations that do not take into account any of the points discussed. Think about it and see how you do next time you look at a telemarketing campaign.