Telemarketing Expert UK

Hello again! Today’s entry is simply a fun post designed to serve as an aide-memoire.

It has been said that the resourceful Inuit and Yupik peoples have more than a dozen words for snow, depending on such criteria as the consistency, characteristics and use they might make of the snow.

The phoneforbusiness lexicon for contacts is equally rich. Using the acronym PRECIOUS LEADS, below is a list of categories and sources of leads, representing most stages of the contact cycle in your pipeline. Feel free to add your own if there are glaring omissions:

Telemarketing has never been a popularity contest. If much of the public opinion we read on the subject is true, it’s already unpopular with a lot of people.

What this post deals with is the notion that, for many people making the telemarketing calls, success is dependent upon being liked, popular, or accepted in a positive way. In a reversal of roles for a moment, if you’re a telemarketer yourself and you receive a call whilst in the middle of something important, how do you feel about the noisy interruption? Chances are, if you’re a telemarketer yourself, you’ll likely give the person calling you a tougher time than most other people will.

Picture the scene: Someone is asking you if you’ve got “Time”: Time to answer or fill out a survey, time to look at this latest report or website, time to attend a particular meeting or event… How are you feeling now? Chances are, a little more overwhelmed and somewhat resigned to the fact that more people seem to want more of that precious commodity we seem to have so little of: Time. Draining, isn’t it?

This issue relates very well to telemarketing. It has to do with the image that we help to create in people’s minds, an image of being a time thief, a situation less favourable to them, more favourable to you. It’s far from being ‘win/win’ in their eyes, so you can hardly blame them for thinking and feeling this way.

Yes, it’s one of those titles where two words look identical but are so different in their meaning.

The prompt for this came from celebrated Time Management Coach, Clare Evans. Having received multiple calls from the same company, it was obvious that for Clare, their telemarketing staff weren’t interested in the former (conversation), and largely as a result of that, wouldn’t realise the latter (conversion) in any case.

A great deal of mis-conception and mis-information exists when dealing with outcomes by telephone.

If you’re calling for a purpose (to set an appointment, follow up a contact made at an event, marketing an event, obtain information, etc) then you’ll inevitably come into contact with people who are quizzical, sceptical, suspicious, and even hostile. They want to know who you are and why you’re asking the questions you’re asking.

All their reactions can be analysed to death at the alter of psychology, however at the root, fear of dealing with the unknown is in the driving seat here.

So why is getting a “No“ a good thing?

It’s a fact: The majority of people don’t like using the telephone in business. This can apply equally to those receiving calls (decision makers, high ranking officers, heads of department), or those tasked with making calls. So why do some people make the situation more difficult than it has to be?

There’s no magic bullet of course. The point is not to make your call sound like a sales call. Easier said than done, I hear you say. Perhaps, but here are nine nasty “No-No’s” to avoid at all costs that will give you away as the slimy salesperson people love to hate and that’ll significantly hamper your chances of holding court with decision makers:

Reliable statistics for cold calling and telemarketing activity aren’t easy to come by, especially when relating to effectiveness in generating certain outcomes.

That is why this weblog entry on the ecademy.com website by Paul Clegg had my attention for three reasons:

1. Reliability of the figures cited

2. The feeling that this number of calls could be shortened (excepting consistent absence or ignorance of course)

3. The reaction of some of the site members to both the figures and the suggestion that a telemarketing company could perform the follow up function.

Some of you may recognise “Starter for Ten” as a line from the quiz master on the long-running television quiz show, University Challenge. The context here, however, is very different.

So what do we mean by starter for ten, exactly? Ten what?

For many people, sounds something like this:

I can’t call, I won’t call, I don’t have the time,
I’m scared of rejection, I’m sure it’s a crime
To interrupt someone when they are at work,
And ask them a question, they’ll just go berserk!

Where will all the new clients come from I wonder,
If I use the phone I just know that I’ll blunder
My way through the call, make a poor first impression
But if no-one does, will we beat the recession?

Opening a call is not easy to get right. It’s a question of knowing exactly what you want from the person you’re talking to. It’s also a question of attitude and approach.

Many telemarketers just want to get past the “gatekeeper” or person at the company you’re calling who screens calls. There are plenty of reasons why they want to do this, the biggest one being to reach the person they believe is the decision maker in a given area of the business you’re calling.