7 Steps To A Successful Telemarketing Campaign

Post published 1st May, 2014

The beginning of the year is packed with optimism for many small businesses, whether they are just starting up, launching a new product, or simply ready to move forward after a Christmas break.

This is a great time to be pushing forward with marketing campaigns and telemarketing can be a particularly effective way of getting your message out there and crucially of gaining customer commitment to purchase your products or services.

Here are our 7 steps to running a successful telemarketing campaign

Have a clear, specific objective. Know exactly which product or service you want to promote. You may have a full range of products that you could talk about, but to get the most from your telemarketing campaign choose just one. This keeps the call concise, meaning that you get straight to the point and retain the attention of your prospect. You will also find if you are making a number of calls that are all very similar that they will start to flow more naturally, allowing you to concentrate on listening more effectively.
Block out the time to focus completely. Don’t have any other distractions, if necessary go to work from a room by yourself which is quiet. Have all the things around you that you will need such as pen and paper, glass of water, switch your mobile phone off (unless you are using that to call from) – if you are making calls you need to give your full attention to the call.
Use targeted data. One of the biggest factors in determining the success of your telemarketing campaign is the quality of data that you use. Target as specifically as possible. It can be tempting to think that anyone could use your product or service, but try to go for a good quality call list rather than high volume – not only can a long list be daunting to call if you are just setting out, you can have a higher success rate if you refine it. Let’s say that you are a Printer, but you do a lot of work with Estate Agents and know that they have had some good results from the material you have produced for them, then target other Estate Agents and tell them about how your work has benefitted their competitors.
Know what you are going to say. A full on script can sound a bit stilted and unnatural, ideally you want to guide your prospect through a natural sounding conversation where you point out the benefits of using your products or services. Have a list of bullet points of the key components that you must get in to the call, but use your own words to talk very naturally rather than reading. Always promote the benefits to your prospect of using your product or service rather than selling the products or services themselves. Make it come to life for them.
Listen. The most important aspect of sales is listening – it shows your prospect that you care about doing a good job for them. You can also learn lots about their business, which could in turn help you to identify sales opportunities. Never interrupt a prospect when they are speaking, hear them out and then respond appropriately.
Don’t be afraid to talk positively about your business. It’s a fact that although we really believe in the value of what we do many of us will have reservations about picking up the phone and telling other people that, which is often one of the main reasons for businesses outsourcing their telemarketing. This is something that really takes more than one bullet point in an article to overcome, but in a nutshell the best way of overcoming this fear is to actually start making the calls. So long as you target an appropriate person who would genuinely benefit from what you have to offer they are usually quite responsive. Focus on all the reasons why you are great at what you do, take a deep breath and pick up the phone.
Follow up. Telemarketing is highly effective, but still you will be lucky to make a sale the first time you speak to someone. More often than not you will need to make a series of calls to the same person, building up a relationship and a pipeline. This is why we refer to it as a telemarketing campaign. You also need to anticipate that you will not get through to the person you need to speak to on many of the calls. Plan time ahead in your diary to make calls each week. It’s surprising how quickly your pipeline will build.

I’d be interested to hear about your experience with telemarketing campaigns. Are there any challenges you’ve experienced that you’d like to get an opinion on? Comment below.

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