Telemarketing Success = Having More Conversations
If you’re using telemarketing as part of your lead generation mix, you know what powerful medium it can be – IF done properly. Many of our clients are increasing their telemarketing efforts to not only generate leads – but also to capture new profile information, update company/contact information, build their database, add email addresses, gain permission to follow-up, etc. But regardless of your plan for telemarketing – the bottom line is that in order for your telemarketing to be successful you have to have conversations with your prospects. Here are five tips we’ve put together to help increase your conversation rates.
First - earn the right to have a conversation
We’ve all heard the stories about how quickly a telemarketer has to make an impression on the prospect and how long the prospect will pay attention to what they are saying. In order to capture the opportunity and attention of a prospect it really comes down to a simple issue: why are you calling and what value do you have for the prospect?
If your prospect gets that message quickly, then you have taken the first step in earning the right to have a conversation. Don’t lose sight of the fact that the prospect on the other end of the phone owes you absolutely nothing – especially not time out of their busy day. Quickly establishing why you are calling and what value you have to offer is the best way to earn the right to continue the conversation.
Call structures – not scripts
The word “script” is dirty word in our office and it should be in yours as well. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, will kill an attempt to have a conversation quicker that someone calling (or reading) from a script. Scripts may work for B2C efforts - although I would argue there is no place for them regardless of your product, service or industry.
Instead of a call script, you should attempt to build a call structure that allows the prospect to give you the information you want at their pace – not yours. Building a call structure, rather than a call script, takes more time and training – but if done properly you’ll see a dramatic increase in the amount of conversations.
Listen more, talk less
A telemarketer is supposed to talk. Right? But you can’t have a conversation if you’re doing all the talking. Every phone/head set has a place to talk into and a place to listen with…don’t forget the listening part. This is one of the biggest mistakes many telemarketing groups make. Even though it sounds contrary to what many people think a telemarketer should do - your telemarketers should have the mindset that they are professional “listeners” not professional “talkers”.
One of the quickest ways to establish a conversation is to ask relevant questions to the prospect. And, a significant piece of your call structure should be question based. These questions can be “open” or “closed” depending on direction you want to guide the conversation.
However, asking the right questions can be a tricky proposition. Your questions have to be carefully considered to help build a comfort level with the prospect that you really do understand their business/pain and there is value in continuing the conversation. You can’t afford to ask questions that probe too deep before the prospect is ready and comfortable. Start slow…and allow the prospect to continue at their pace. And, as you carefully create the questions as you’ll ask as part of your call structure; remember the old adage – “never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.”
In the worst case scenario that you didn’t get to have a conversation – the prospect will still have a much better impression of you and you’ll have a better chance the next time.
Confidence
We mentioned that your telemarketer needs to quickly establish the reason and value of their call. The other impression that they immediately need to make is that they sound like an expert. I’m not talking about dropping jargon on the prospect – most telemarketers have so many adjectives and so much hype in their script you don’t really understand what they are trying to say. A good phone person will only sound like an expert when they develop the intangible quality of confidence.
Your telemarketer doesn’t have to be a product expert (in fact, they shouldn’t be as eventually they’ll do more harm than good). But they have to truly understand the industry, the pain points of the prospect and the benefits of your solution.
There’s not much of a substitute for building confidence other than through experience. Proper training, a solid call structure and possibly a vertical market or niche focus will all help build confidence….but in most cases, there’s simply no substitute for experience.
Curiosity call-backs
When calling into C-level and IT prospects, your phone efforts are inevitably going to result in getting voice-mail frequently. One of the best ways to turn the voice-mail into a returned call is to leave a “curiosity” message. A curiosity message is one that doesn’t give a long, detailed reason for your initial call. Remember, we’re trying to get that conversation, not leave it on voice-mail. Leaving a detailed voice-mail with the reason for your call is not a replacement for a conversation.
A curiosity message may be as simple as, “Mr. Jones, this is Heather with XYZ company, I’m sorry I missed you. I know you are busy but could you please return my call at 555-123-4567”. One objection we get to the curiosity message is that some people feel as if it’s some type of “trickery.” My answer to that is if you have a targeted prospect list, a compelling reason for your call, a strong offer and real value in having a conversation, your telemarketing should not feel the least bit hesitant to leave that type of a message.
