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I am regularly asked for my top tip. So instead of me just putting yet another list of top 6 telemarketing tips I set about asking and surveying other telemarketing professionals what their top tip was instead and here’s the answer. Perhaps the combined knowledge of over 100 seasoned telemarketing professionals is better than just me. However, I have chosen my top tip of all time and put it at the bottom.

Telemarketing Tip 1 – Do not get distracted into any other task when you are calling. Protect your time like a lioness with her cubs. Do not let people disturb you, do not take any incoming calls from colleagues and get to your next call as soon as you can. This means you will speak to as many prospects as possible

Telemarketing Tip 2 – Prepare for your calls. Make sure you have everything you are going to need beside you. Scripts (or supporting material), who you are going to call, pens, paper and a drink. Then do not move from that seat for the next 2 hours. Then grab a 15 minute break and repeat.

Telemarketing Tip 3 –  Make sure that you have good data that is “fit for purpose”. Make sure it represents the type of companies you want to do business with and identifies the correct decision makers in each company. If you need to spend some time data cleansing. Remember the meetings you make will be a direct reflection of the data they come from.

Telemarketing Tip 4 – Make sure you make enough calls, so that you have a good chance of speaking to enough people, to give you a chance of making a meeting. Do not be surprised that you have not made a meeting after just 10 calls, you simply have not made enough calls to statistically get one yet.

Telemarketing Tip 5 – Keep a positive attitude for every call you make. If you think that you are not going to get a sales meeting or sale, then it is the mostly likely thing that will happen.

Telemarketing Tip 6 – Do not use any negative phrases or apologise about calling. Be proud of the message that you are carrying and believe it is the most valuable thing the prospect will hear all day.

Telemarketing Tip 7 – Never, never, never give up and then make an excuse not to make the next call.

Telemarketing Tip 8 – Remember that you may need to call a prospect 10 times, 40 times perhaps 100’s of times before you get through. So be persistent and professional with everyone you speak to each time you call.

Telemarketing Tip 9 – Your prospects and gatekeepers respond to the speed that you speak and the tone of your voice. Always speak in a calm steady fashion, preferably slower that the prospect or gatekeeper. You will be amazed at how they mimic and respond to your tone of voice.

Telemarketing Tip 10 – Treat the gatekeepers with respect and kindness, but be clear and ask for the person that you want to speak to by name not “I’m looking to speak with the person responsible for …….”

Telemarketing Tip 11 – Never pitch the PA or Gatekeeper, let them know in 5 – 10 words what the calls concerning. They may need this to professionally introduce your call. However, you are just wasting your time telling more or “pitching” with someone that can only say “NO”. Keep your powder dry and wait till you speak to the prospect.

Telemarketing Tip 12 – Think about the first few sentences you intend to say when you actually speak to a prospect, you only have 20 – 30 seconds to grab their attention. In that time they will decide whether they are fundamentally interested or not. If they are interested, you have a further 2 minutes to provide as many reasons as possible for them to say yes and ask for the meeting. After that the prospects mind is going to start wandering  back to their task when you rang.

Telemarketing Tip 13 – Don’t waste the prospects time on the phone with irrelevant information. Make sure you have plenty of relevant benefits in your pitch and answers to their no objections.

Telemarketing Tip 14 – Remember more prospects will say “NO” than “YES”, so be persistent and keep your moral high.

Telemarketing Tip 15 – Do not stop at the first “NO”, in fact expect to get objections on every call that you make and do not give up on the first. It usually takes 2 or 3 objections before the prospects will agree to the meeting.

Telemarketing Tip 16 – Build relationships with everyone you speak with and DO NOT burn your bridges. Prospects will say “NO”, but that is only a “NO” right now. In the future that may change and you do not want to be remembered for the wrong reasons when you call next time.

David absolutely top telemarketing tip of all time and the best single bit of advice I ever give is …….

Top Telemarketing Tip Ever – Always, Always, always ask for the meeting. Never leave a call without asking for a meeting at least once, preferable several times ….. If you do not ask you will never get one.

Getting the right data is becoming an onerous and time consuming task. Do you have any ideas where I can buy data? What data shall I buy? How do I know this data is right for me?  How do I avoid scammers and bad data?

 Genevra, Ipswich

 David says:

 A list broker not only has the answer to all of these questions but they also do all of the hard work for you. 

 A good list or data broker will have years of experience sourcing all types of marketing data for an array of different clients and different types of campaigns.  They will have built relationships with the credible data suppliers and know the good from the bad and the ugly.

Let’s cut to the chase, why should you us a list broker?  Using a list broker will save you money and gain you more customers from your direct marketing campaigns.  Here’s why:

• List brokers are impartial.  You get unbiased recommendations on the data which will work best for your individual campaign without any sales spin.
• A list broker has access to a vast array of data sets; B2B data, B2C data, email data, sms data, niche lists and foreign data.  If you need it, they will find it.
• Advice on who to target.  They have seen it all before and know what works and what doesn’t.
• A credible list broker will only recommend credible data: Quality Data = Less Wastage = More Customers for Less Money.  Brilliant. 
• Leveraging their supplier relationships, list brokers can negotiate the best rates on your behalf.

And saving the best until last….

• Their services are free.  List brokers work on commission given to them by the data suppliers, which means you get their advice, experience and service for zip!

Now you can’t say fairer than that, can you?!  For more details and benefits of using a list broker plus handy direct marketing and data tips, please visit the Databroker Blog

TangerineDream Consultancy is an approved partners with Databroker an independent list brokering providing free advice on sourcing B2B data and B2C data.  With over  10 years’ experience and DMA members Databroker are committed to upholding the DMA Direct Marketing Code of Practice and providing clients with expertise and trusted advice.

I want to modernise our telemarketing department. Is it still a matter of just calling or are there telemarketing tips for a smarter way to book meetings in 2011?

 Sharon, York.

 David says:

A well executed business to business telemarketing campaign should still be the centre piece of a marketing mix, Sharon even in 2011. It’s still the only form of marketing that does not rely on the prospects taking action to contact you. It does not matter if you deploy tried and tested marketing such as direct mail, public relations, advertising, events, email marketing, online marketing or social media. They all rely on the prospect having already identified their potential interest / need for your solution and then they make contact. They also all rely on significant budgets and long periods of time to gather critical mass, before your prospect automatically thinks about you, when they feel they need a solution.

Telemarketing is unique in that sense, it allows you to proactively contact your ideal prospects and engage in an intelligent two way conversation immediately. During the conversation you can establish their pains, their challenges, demonstrate your products benefits and reinforce your offering by using past case studies. The critical difference between telemarketing and other forms of marketing is the prospect need not have any knowledge of your company or solution 5 minutes earlier to agree to a sales meeting.

However, telemarketing needs to adapt and move away from the old image of thumbing through any old list and mechanically pitching to as many people as possible. To be successful and cost effective at telemarketing in 2011 you have to adapt and use new tools. Here are my 3 favourite telemarkting tips that we are using at TangerineDream. This means TangerineDream is 75% more effective than traditional telemarketing.

Integrating email marketing and telemarketing

Did you know that integrating email marketing and telemarketing can increase productivity between 25% – 75%? You can access real-time results of prospects opening and clicking through to websites from most email marketing solutions. Then the telemarketer can call a specific prospect while they are still reading the original email and start a conversation on subjects that are relevant to the web pages they have just been visiting.

Integrate your CRM, data acquisition and prospect profiling

It is now possible to save enormous volumes of time in identifying contact details and prospect profiling. A perfect example is the ability to add solutions such as Onesource™ or Hoovers™ to SalesForce.com through the App Store. That’s exactly what we do. These instantly download information direct into your CRM about individuals and the company that would have taken an inordinate amount of time to gather by any other means. This not only increases the time spent actually targeting prospects, but also provides better information to the telemarketer so they can adapt their conversation to the company and individual they are speaking too.

Build social media links then use them to the max

The explosion of social media has enabled us to actually see the networks we live within. Everyone is forging links between one another and with the popularity of sites such as LinkedIn.com we are now able to see who knows who, past employment and what they are currently doing. This insight allows a telemarketer to bring existing relationships into their conversation. This means you can uncover people your network knows, mutual contacts, past and present colleagues etc, which allows you to gain better access to target prospects and improve the effectiveness of your calls to arrange sales meetings. All these relationships can be levered into conversations to great effect. Amazingly, this can all be integrated into your CRM so that you can see it as one view.

Telemarketing in 2011 is completely different from the past. We are using every possible piece of information at our disposal to hold unique conversations with our prospects.

I hope these tips put you on the right path Sharon. It’s all about treating the prospect you are calling as an individual and having unique conversations with them.

At TangerineDream we are constantly looking at how we can innovate and improve our telemarketing productivity. Click here if you would like to learn more about how we help our clients and deliver effective and long term campaigns with great return on investment.

I’ve got a database, but it now seems to be full of contacts that have left and companies that seem to have moved or closed. What can I do about it?

Jane, Sussex

David says:

Jane, it’s an unavoidable fact that your database will decay in front of your very eyes and its costing you money and wasting your marketing budget.

If there is one task which is guaranteed to improve your return on investment from marketing more than anything else, it’s to clean up your marketing database and keep it up to date!

Here’s a few scary facts about how fast data decay can affect your business. Did you know that:

• Your prospect database decays at the rate of 37% every year
• 30% of all managers change jobs each year
• 32% of all B2B emails are sent to redundant or phantom email accounts
• 5.7 million employees and business details change every year
• 67% of B2B mail contains 1 or more errors
• 1148 million pieces of direct mail are sent to business that have moved or ceased trading every year

The best thing to do is to cleanse your data. The most accurate way to do this is to check all of the details you have on your dataset.

I would recommend that you contact every company in your dataset. This tells you if the phone number works and when you make contact you can confirm the address details, confirm contact details and fill in any gaps.

We use a 7 stage approach to our data cleansing (Click here to learn more) . We use a mix of using software to help confirm details and then to contact all the companies directly by phone. If you have a telemarketing or telesales team, constantly improving data should be an integral part of your process. If you do not have access to this sort of resource then it is cost effective to cleanse your data every 1 to 12 month. This will:

• Save money from your marketing budget
• Improve the Return on investment on every marketing campaign
• Improve the effectiveness of your sales team
• Close more new business

I’ve just started working at a firm doing telemarketing. What do I need to think about to be successful at my new job.

Carl, Bristol.

David says:

Well here are my top 6 tips for telemarketing. Follow these and they will serve you well

Know your market, know who to target

It is vital to start by clearly identifying those companies who you wish to do business with and have an incumbent need for your service. This can form a blueprint for your target market which includes verticals, size, and other more specific criteria. Once established this specification can be used to purchase or research all the companies that fit your description. As with every form of marketing, each company that is not present within your target market will be a potential opportunity lost. While those companies that do not fit your target prospect profile will detract from the efficiency of the telemarketing campaign. The difference between a well-defined target market and not, can be as much as a 240% increase in telemarketing results.

Clean your data

Once you have established which companies you wish to target, turn your attention to who you wish to arrange sales meetings with. Call each company and ensure that you have the correct names for the positions / responsibilities of those that you wish to speak with. This can dramatically affect the very first impression you make when you call, while also ensuring that you engage with the right person in the sales process. Our research clearly indicates that by initially not setting the meeting with a key decision maker you can reduce the chances of making a sale to as low as 10% of what it would have been, if the initial meeting was with a director or true decision maker.

Create a data base

Having clearly understood who you are going to target, then store this information in a database or CRM. This allows you to accurately record every call and to report upon your objectives. A well maintained CRM will tell you:

• Who the call was made too
• What was the outcome of the call
• Did you speak to your intended target
• What was discussed
• Where follow up actions were agreed
• What call backs and further actions need to be completed each day

It is not possible to remember every contact, every call and what is needed to be done on what day while telemarketing. A good CRM will do all that for you and ensure that opportunities are not missed. It can also provide invaluable information about the effectiveness of the campaign.

Set yourself realistic targets

Look at setting targets for a campaign that are realistic and attainable. Focusing upon less important KPI’s and setting unrealistic targets is highly demotivating for those at the coalface, especially when these targets are linked to their pay packet. Keep yourself motivated and do not burn out by placing insurmountable  targets or expectations on yourself that are just not possible. I focus is on achieving a realistic number of appointments every month first and foremost. High KPI’s relating to the number of conversations and calls do not necessarily correlate with more appointment.

Communicate the benefits and know your case studies

Ultimately you have to stop preparing and start calling your target prospects. Once connected there is only a limited time to grab your targets attention, communicate your message and arrange the meeting. Each call warrants communicating all the top business benefits that your product has, then back these up with case studies or references to clients you have worked with. It is possible to very quickly start building a compelling case for looking at your product with this technique. It clearly tells the person on the phone the value your product could bring, how it can solve their business pains and also induces curiosity in the prospect.  They want to know how other companies have reduced costs, gained efficiencies and increased sales.

Always close for a meeting

Conversations are great, but do not forget why the call was made in the first place, to make a meeting. Keep a clear vision of the objective and quickly look to close for a meeting. It’s very likely that you will be presented with an objection or two, but handle each objection and then close again. On average you will receive 2 or 3 objections before a prospect agrees to arrange a meeting, so do not give up at the first hurdle, keep going and keep closing. The average length of a call that results in a meeting at  TangerineDream is 2 minutes 40 seconds. Long conversations do not add any value to the objective of booking more sales meetings. Keep the calls focused.

I want to find out the names of different people in some specific companies so that I can call them, sometimes its easy to get the names other times its not. What can I do?

John, Cambridgeshire.

David says:

John this is a real bugbear of mine. The amount of time, including mine, that has been wasted in years gone by trying to get hold of the right contacts details so that you can speak to the right person. Originally, the only way to find out has been through public records, calls with receptionist or networking in the company you want to target. Sometimes this took forever and some companies place block after block in front of you to make it seam impossible.

But thank goodness technology has come to our rescue. Now we have some great online resources that can fill in the blanks. Here are my 2 favourites:

• LinkedIn.com – You will have to think carefully about your profile and who you link too. The more contacts you have the greater chance you will be able to find the contact you are looking for. Think about linking to some of the LION’s (LinkedIn Open Networkers). These guys connect to anyone and everyone and this can rapidly increase the number of people that you can see in your 3^rd tier. LinkedIn is useful and FREE. It doesn’t take long to get a profile up and running and with a little effort you can start linking to past and present colleagues, as well as those LION’s that I spoke about.
• OneSource.com – This gives you access to a powerful worldwide database of limited companies. As well as having in depth information on each company in its database (Approx. 2.5 million in the UK) the resource holds information on many of the key decision maker. OneSource is not free, but for me it is the best additional resource at my disposal.

But John, despite all of these new technologies available to me, I still call the company in the first instance and ask for the names I want. For me it’s still the quickest and most accurate method. It’s only when this fails that I turn to other resources like LinkedIn and Onesource.