Telemarketing tips

[kappa84]

I think traditional marketing is a little left behind and we must not forget that it’s a powerful tool these days too.

I have a 2 years experience in sales ( a bank’s products and a sooper-dooper product from Japan named CALDO ) and I would like to share with you some tips when searching for clients through the phone.


Here it comes (remember, those tips are from my personal experience, will not apply to all kind of sellers, everybody must find out it’s own strategy, but maybe these could help you with your selling strategy) :

• Careful prepare for the call because the first impression must be a good one. Many say that you have about 10-15 seconds to make a good impression.

• Even if you sell by phone, remember it’s still a selling. Be professional, speak clear, make your possible client understand what you say.

• Organize your desk, keep it clean and arranged. Nothing must distract you from your conversation.

• Do not lie! First of all, people will sense your insincerity even if they don’t see you, and second of all let’s have an example: you lie about a price let’s assume, the client will meet you for further discussion and he finds out the real product’s price. You’ll not only loose him, but also it’s acquintaces.

• Try to smile when you’re talking. It seems that keeping a smile on your face could bring a positive feeling to your prospect.

• I’ve heard about those so called “warm-up calls” which means that first you call 2-3 persons and practice your speech on them, usually loosing them as clients. Try to repeat what you have to say with a collegue or a family member, ask him to put you questions to see how you deal in all kind of situations.

• Record your daily activity for seeing if you made progresses. If someone ask you to call later or in other day, note down in a callendar so you don’t forget. If you get postponed this doesn’t mean that the deal is over, you should consider calling again. A lot of my ex-collegues were considering the deal off if they got postponed and they never called again. Big mistake, I sold a lot of products by re-calling.
• Make a weekly “correct or weak strategy” : write down what you consider made the almost closed deal not to become a concrete deal, what you said that made your prospect so enthusiast etc. You’ll become more professional as weeks pass and as you know your weakness and your strong points. My weakness was when I was face-to-face with the client, oh my God, I was blushing and making mistakes like a beginer even after 6 months of solid sales. So I pick up a new strategy: I was calling prospects, establish meetings and sending other collegues that had problems with telemarketing.

• Try to make the calls in the morning and after that make your other activities (planning, research etc.) . People seems to be more receptive before noon.

• Try to get the most out of your speech: prepare it in different ways and try to see which one is getting more favorable responses. Trying these strategy could help you establish a base “what to say on the phone”.

• After you make the speaches remember this: never read from its when you’re on the phone, more than that, you can take notice of what unforeseeable events take place.

• If a client asks you something that you really do not know about what you sell, do not panic: tell him you’ll have the answer after you check for details and you’ll call him later for answering to his questions. Although a lot of people say that this means that you don’t know about your product all the details, I think this is a sign of professionalism, but only if you call back in a reasonate time.

• A tip for opening easy a door: before calling someone, send him by fax or by email a product information paper (make sure it is not consider spam, so you should better send an email or a marketing letter). After you are sure he received it, call him and say that you’re calling him to know what he thinks about the offer, if he likes it etc. It should be easier to start the conversation when you have that little opened door.

• Think quickly if the prospect wants to buy or doesn’t, or he just doesn’t qualify for the product. Before doing that ask him if maybe somebody else is interested by your product, you never now what could come up. But remember this: your time is preciuos, stop chatting and try to sell, this is how you earn your living!

[KingPin]

I don't think there as powerful as they once was. In the UK you can get a phone number to block telesales calls.

There VERY unpopular and probably the lease effective these days

Telesales people are pushy, pray on the vulnerable because they have to meet targets.

Not to mention expensive to set up a campaign.

I put telesales in the same category as email marketing. Only good if you have a substantial list but of course, telesales are notorious for selling data to third parties.

Although email marketing is far more effective because the subscriber can just cancel unlike telesales where they just pass you on to the next person to call a week later.

KP

[kappa84]

From what I saw, in Romania email campaigns are still considered SPAM.
Here telemarketing still working, of course it depends like 99% of 2 criterias: the people that call you and the product they sell.
My opinion is that telemarketing is still a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

[KingPin]

Research suggests otherwise with telemarketing.

And as for email marketing being spam, I guess it's not being done right in order for it to BE spam in the first place.

Then again as pointed out by yourself, Romania is leading the way in phishing attempts
.

Enough said really.

KP

[kappa84]

Researches are not always right you know, experience learns you which research is good and which is not...
Email marketing it's done right, believe it or not, but because lots of people are afraid of phishing and are not very up-to-date with the news they consider it's better to mark as spam a new marketing email rather than "clicking on a link that could steal their money from their accounts"

Each guy consider something else I do not deny that, but from my experience in sales I KNOW for sure that telemarketing works, maybe not like online marketing (for UK for example) but it works and brings new clients to your product.

[KingPin]

Well no lol, if you subscribe to a newsletter its for a purpose, either to receive future product updates or information.

I'm talking about people that sign up under there free will, not email spammers.

I guess each demographic has their own thing that works and what doesn't and research in the UK suggests telemarketing does not work anymore. Plain fact.

In Romania it could work like a charm, but not in the UK.

KP

[kappa84]

Well, from what I see in this comunity there are a lot of users outside the UK, maybe for them those telemarketing tips will work.

Now I understand what you're saying, glad that we came to a "deal" .

[Talks_44]

there are quides for telemarketing..that can teach you what to learn..!!

[inertia]

The suspicion surrounding telemarketing makes it very hard for telemarketers to close deals. A large part of my employers new custom comes from telemarketers but there is a lot of them and they have to work hard to meet the targets.

Telemarketing is all about numbers, the more calls the higher the chance of finding the deal. I HATE telemarketing and after doing it for years i made the decision to get into the technical side of things. I don't have to speak to a single customer or use a telephone at all. Wahooo!!!

[OldWelshGuy]

i love teleselling I really do. then again, our telsales people will call a business, and say, We are calling from xyz, we are currently placed number one on Google for the phrase 'yourservice, your area' and we are looking for a business to be promoted on that page. We only promote one of everyone per area, do you want it or shall I call a competitor?

Not pushy, not lying, not crap, plain hard truth. They either say yes or no. The cost is low (£15 a month, no long term contract) if they say anything other than yes, (like I need to speak to my partner etc), then the telesales person says ok, thanks for your time, unfortunately, I can't hold it for you though, as we are not asking for long term commitment, not asking a lot of money, but ARE offering exclusivity. so I will have to call the next person on my list who is abc services.

Thanks for your time.