Despite the advent of the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and legislation covering cold-calling, telemarketing, when done properly and often as part of an integrated marketing strategy, can be a powerful way of particularly securing appointments.

1. Accurate data

As with using email marketing, the quality of your data is vital. As previously mentioned, the data you use needs to comply with current legislation including screening your data regularly against the B2C TPS listing and B2B data against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS). Failure to do so could result in an Ofcom fine, but just as important, misuse of telephone data will have a negative impact on your results and possibly ruin your reputation.

2. Follow the rules

The Information Commissioner (ICO) and Ofcom enforce cold calling legislation. If you are using telemarketing for cold-calling rather than on a permission basis with existing customers, you must adhere to rules covering such calls.

In simple terms these include; you must identify yourself when making a telemarketing call. If asked, you must provide a valid business address or Freephone telephone number at which you can be contacted. When using a subcontractor, the subcontractor’s call centre staff must identify the instigator of the call (that is, the organisation on whose behalf they are making the call).

This just touches on the legislation, so for detailed information go to the ICO website:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/privacy_and_electronic_communications/guidance.aspx 

Telemarketing can at its most powerful when used as part of an integrated marketing plan. In general people are not keen on being rung out of the blue, so a ‘softer’ initial approach using direct mail and/or email prior to a call can increase the number of calls that are taken by your target audience.

Even after your initial call, asking to make a follow-up call can smooth the way and build relationships for the next time you contact them.

4. Target the right people

This is pretty obvious, but even so is often overlooked. Who do you want to talk to? The head of the house if B2C, or the sales director, finance director, buyer if B2B? Particularly when making B2B calls you need to make sure the message you want to share is aimed at the right person. When dealing with businesses you are often faced with the PA, secretary or receptionist who can easily block your path to the person you want to speak to. These are often referred to a ‘gatekeepers’ and getting past them is one of the skills of good telemarketing.

5. Stick to your objective

In many cases telemarketing is most effective in securing appointments. If that is your objective, stick to it and don’t get sidetracked into a long-winded sales pitch.  Being clear and concise about what you want to achieve will increase your success rate.

6. Be honest and courteous

Never be rude, you may want to call them back next year! Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and be honest about the nature of your call. When faced with a ‘gatekeeper’ blocking your path it can be very disarming and effective to ask politely them for their help to speak to the right person.

Many years ago when I had my first experience in making cold calls I was reminded that I should ‘smile as you dial’. It sounds daft, but it really works. Smiling changes the shape of your mouth and so the tone of your voice, so that your smile can actually be ‘heard’ over the telephone. Your voice portrays a lot about you to the listener and your own mood and feelings come through your voice. In many ways successful telemarketing is as much about the way you say something that what you say.

Speak clearly and don’t rush. Avoid jargon and use inflection to vary the tone of your voice i.e. don’t use a monotone. With practice you will learn to match the tone and speech pattern of those who answer your call. But to achieve that you need to ...

As the old saying goes, ‘the good Lord gave us two ears and one mouth, and we should use them in the same proportions!’ If you do all the talking you will certainly miss vital information. But it’s important to listen and not just hear. By listening you will understand by the words spoken and the tone used how the person taking your call is responding and you can make adjustments to your message accordingly. In other words be interested rather than just interesting.

8. Follow a script

Now, I’m pretty sure all of us at some time have received a phone call when it’s been painfully obvious the caller is slavishly following a script. It’s sounded ‘wooden’, false and frankly awful.

So, is this what I’m talking about? No, but a script is important to make sure the message you give stays on track and enables you to gather information as well as share the essential information of your call.

A good script will include elements such as; an introduction, a concise explanation of the purpose of the call, qualifying questions, open questions, unsettling questions, an offering, overcoming objections and a close.

To avoid the ‘wooden’ use of a script rehearse, play with the script until it feels right for you without losing the message and allow you personality to come through.

9. Overcoming objections

Frankly, you are highly unlikely to have a successful outcome to your call unless you are faced by at least several objections. Instead of viewing these as negative elements of the call, see them as a positive way you can influence the call bringing it to the conclusion you want to achieve.

Research shows that 63% of people making telemarketing calls give up after the 1^st objection, but that 73% of calls are successful after the 5^th objection has been handled.

So, quite clearly you need to practice as overcoming objections.

How I can help you

Having looked at the above points you may feel you need some help. So here are some of the areas I can assist you with:

• Integrating telemarketing into your marketing plan
• Sourcing accurate data
• Writing a telemarketing script
• Training telemarketers
• Finding a telemarketing individual or team if you don’t want to do the telemarketing yourself

Just ring me now on 0845 47 47 486 to arrange an free, no obligation appointment.