Telemarketing Expert UK

This article has been in the pipeline for years. The main reason is because the issue it focuses on rears its head with ongoing frequency. The issue is this: Are you taking a campaign mentality or a continuity mentality to your telemarketing and cold calling activities?

Whilst it is true that telemarketing can provide a “shot in the arm”, a surge in your sales pipeline, a leap in the number of leads you have, what many people seem to forget is that telemarketing works best when continued, consistent effort is made to engage with both new prospects and existing clients alike by telephone. It is more personal than email, provides greater scope for sharing ideas in the early stages and cements relationships. We can always commit our conversations to email afterward.

Almost all of the posts written here on this site to date have advocated the use of the telephone in a variety of situations. This one breaks the mould in that its purpose is to highlight when using the phone can be more of a hindrance than a help.

For many of us, the default reaction to a variety of situations is to pick up the telephone and call someone. Here are some situations where using the telephone may be considered less than productive:

One of our PhoneMentor clients challenged me about calling around a direct mail and email campaign he was preparing. Whilst still uncertain of the exact form the direct mail piece and email would take, what concerned him more was how he would follow them up. After thinking of how to get maximum response from these forms of marketing, here’s what I shared with him:

Call your contacts before sending mail / email. That way you can establish correct contact, correct contact details, address, email, everything. In addition, the mail / email ceases to be an unsolicited surprise for them.

We’ve all done it: Advertise in event programmes or exhibit at events and then do nothing with the leads and contacts we make there.

A few weeks later we think ‘Oh, should really have done something about that – oops’ and by then it’s too late.

If you’re exhibiting in the next few weeks, here are 5 reasons why you should pick up the phone to call the leads that you get. 

1. Competitors win, you lose: 

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?

You’ve all heard the expression: “How long is a piece of string?” It’s a question for which there is no right answer.
One of the big questions in telemarketing is: How many positive results (leads, appointments, referrals, questions answered, seats or products sold) will you need for telemarketing to warrant a place in your company’s marketing mix?

Granted, this is not an exact science but in business we all have to draw the line somewhere.

If you’ve given yourself 3 months to break even and you spend £1000 per month on telemarketing, then you need to obtain a minimum of £3000 worth of new business in order to justify the investment.