Posted using ShareThis

ShareThis

One of the great assets about a career in the telemarketing arena has to be the fact that you test your ability to adapt to a variety of different situations: Different business sectors and sizes, business models, geographies and desired outcomes. It’s like learning a new language on a regular basis.

From personal experience the biggest asset we possess with the passage of time lies in our ability to adapt successfully to a number of these different situations and eventually find a niche area or two… and this ought to be the goal of any telemarketer worth their salt. Being “Jack of all trades” has its down side, and can lead to being recognised as “master of none”. This can have an effect on everything from perception of your you and your brand in the marketplace, to what you can charge for your expertise and ultimately to your long term success.

From the outset, go with what you know you do and like best. If you get to work on different types of project that’s great, but it’s you that misses out if you take on several projects you dislike or have a bad experience with, purely because you were desperate to impress or thought you had to win the business at all costs. Just like the dieter that’s trying to convince herself she fits into a size 12 when she really needs to buy a 14, we have to avoid kidding ourselves (and looking like a dogs dinner in the process!).

A good example is a friend and associate I admire who’s carving a niche for himself as the ‘go to’ person for follow-up calls after certain types of trade show have taken place. He’s doing brilliantly and it’s no surprise. Where will you make your mark?

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009 - Author of PhoneMentor

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn profile

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

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:

Prospects - You’re in the process of working out if you can help another person or organisation.
Referrals - Qualified opportunities to help people or organisations that can use your product or service.
Existing Clients - People and organisations continually buying what you offer.
Customers - One-off or ad-hoc needs, impulse or occasional/seasonal purchases.
Internal - Staff, suppliers, stakeholders. If these people buy nothing, why would anyone else?
Online - Website, email, Google Adwords, social media or online directory generated enquiries.
Unserviceable/Unprofitable - You were unable to meet their requests or even had to ‘fire’ them.
Suspects - You ’suspect’ they’ll be able to use your product/service but have never contacted them. These contacts may be found via direct mail, email or cold calling (or a combination).

Lost - Opportunities lost to the competition or lacking an effective contact schedule & conclusion.
Events - Contacting people post-event, usually to an agreed schedule. Neglect is common here.

Ancient - Nostalgia files of former, dormant or lapsed accounts. Wanna wake some of them up?
Dead - Leads that produced no business between you and a contact. Has the situation changed?
Supporters - People that like you, like what you do, have never used you but still recommend you. These can include referral advocates, resellers and affiliate channels. Offer them a trial.

The above is by no means definitive, some people may argue that you get leads even in the post. It is a start, and one that recognises that just as there may be many types of snow, there are many types of contact according to the type of status or outcome you help to generate with each one.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009 - Author of PhoneMentor

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn profile

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

Often, we’re able to detect stress, doubt, concern, joy, and a range of other emotions with our ears and yet we fail to act on these signals. To some people in a telemarketing role, spitting the “pitch” out to people or thinking about what to say next counts for more than the signals the other person is giving out. Would we be so rude if we were face to face with a prospect?

When you detect something is distracting the person you’re speaking with on the phone, stop the conversation:

“I sense that your concerned about something” “Is the noise around you distracting? Is it better to call later? When…?”

Similarly, if a prospects’ vocal tone and words sound incongruous, for example: “I’d really love to see that working for us” expressed in a negative or sarcastic tone of voice will cause us to doubt whether the prospect genuinely means what they are saying. Again, stop the conversation: “From your expression, Mr Prospect, it sounds as though you believe it could never work for you” and wait for a response.

Taking such action to ensure that the person is ready, willing and able to communicate is not only logical, it is thoughtful and respectful. You’re instantly placing a value on both their time and yours.

To increase the effectiveness of being blind, it’s also helpful to ensure that you’ve no distractions at your end of the line: Instant messengers/email, other people, documents and books on your desk or PC, other phones ringing, all constitute distraction. Eliminate them immediately. If another phone rings, excuse yourself and explain to your conversation partner that you’ll be taking that phone out of action as soon as you’ve asked the other caller to call you back.

In fact the only time that your sight becomes truly useful on a call is for taking notes.

If blind people such as Helen Keller and Stevie Wonder can make enormous successes of their lives without the benefit of reading body language, what’s stopping the rest of us?

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009 - Author of PhoneMentor

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

Quite early in the film, Alec Baldwin’s character, Blake, delivers a speech designed to motivate the salesmen to perform. He’s the hot-shot salesman from head office downtown. It lasts only seven minutes and is littered with verbal abuse toward the salesmen. During the speech, he introduces his mantra: A B C - Always Be Closing. Well, there’s a different attitude here at phoneforbusiness, which is: A B O - Always Be Opening. This is no flippant stunt here, rather a recognition of the truth: How can anybody close anything that is not already open?

In telemarketing, the purpose of the call is to seek to “open”: Find out if the person on the other end of the phone is “open” to new ideas and ways of doing things, or “open” to answering questions. We”open” the door to opportunity, we “open” a dialogue, “open” a can of worms (complaint or grievance), “open” a new chapter in an existing relationship, “open” (new) lines of communication. Please feel free to add your own example.

Closing is the action of terminating, finalising, finishing. Given that it’s our prospects that make the decision to “open” up to us if they feel comfortable to do so, it is equally true that they make the decision to “close” as well. Closing is not something we do to the prospect by means of charming and disarming them or by imposing our will upon them. It is a decision that they make in response to being open to hear us. And closing can mean getting a “No”, for example to discontinue the conversation with us, as well as getting a “Yes”, for example to agree to move to the next stage in the relationship or to do business with us where money changes hands.

Think for a moment from the prospect’s point of view. When was the last time you felt good about being “closed” by a sales person? Many of us can recall a time when we walked away feeling less than comfortable about something we purchased, how we felt somewhat intimidated into making the purchase, even to the point of feeling we made the wrong decision for us even if it was the right decision for the sales person. Besides, once something is closed you have to go back and re-open it. Perhaps this will seem lazy to some of you, but why create twice the amount of work? If someone is open, generally they remain so. If that person is not open, he or she will be unlikely to buy anything from us, will they?

So there you have it: Always Be Opening. More fun, less pressure, and multiple opportunities. If someone bought something from you once, is it in our interests to ask that person from time to time if they remain open to buying from us again? Of course, and when they buy something else, it reinforces his or her faith in what you offer and increases the likelihood of recommending and referring you to others.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

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.

Smiling before dialing is far from where this post is at, but if it genuinely works wonders for you, keep on doing it. The real test is to smile during the call while establishing and admitting that both you and the prospect are probably:

- unfamiliar / unknown to each other, and therefore likely to be wary and uneasy with the contact, especially at first.

- unlikely to conclude any agreement to do business together on the basis of this one call. You’re expecting too much too soon. The goal of the call is to see if grounds exist for building a relationship based on the problems you’re an ace at solving.

Getting comfort-able enough with each other to continue the conversation is important if trust is going to develop. You probably know some people you don’t particularly like yet you still have respect for them based on their achievements or trust in the value they represent. If we decide we dislike someone, we can still demonstrate respect and foster trust.

By needing to be be liked, people bring far too much pressure to bear on themselves. Moreoever they are focusing far too much on themselves and their own feelings and not enough on the prospect. Think about this for a moment: When you stop and ask a stranger in the street for directions or some information about the locality, do you concern yourself with how much they’ll like you? Of course not. You’re looking for information, not for an invitation to come and dine at their house whenever you please! Shift the focus of your attention from being liked to fostering respect and trust between you and the prospect.

Let’s take a look at another profession: Parking wardens. What thoughts come into your head? Do you share the widely held negative perception of a spoil-sport or a petty law enforcing bureaucrat with nothing better to do than make people’s lives more difficult? Some of you reading this will agree with the description above, others will say “They’re just doing their job”. How many popular parking wardens have you met? Chances are, very few. They are generally unpopular (and even treated to lack of respect, including verbal and physical abuse by many people!). Feeling better yet?

In telemarketing, especially cold calling, you’re upsetting the status quo at the prospect organisation you call and you’ll be upsetting it even more if you dare to suggest to your prospect that your organisation has the audacity to believe it can change certain situations for the better. Change frightens people, especially if there is no trust between parties. No matter how open a person may say they are to change, when we really think about it and the change process is imminent, often that same person who tells you they are an advocate for change can be found looking for ways to avoid it. Human beings like comfort zones, we like to feel safe. By contrast, we like to achieve and we crave variety. In order for us to achieve and experience variety, change is most definitely on the agenda. Who better to help us carry out change than with well qualified people we respect and trust?

So, in conclusion, if being liked is all important to you, either learn to accept that attaining overwhelming popularity as a telemarketer is unlikely, or remove yourself as far from the telephone as possible and make way for someone else to do the telemarketing.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

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.

Permission is one that people have greater control over. They grant you permission to ask them questions related to their situation, goals, etc. Permission to come to their offices and permission to send them email updates periodically for example. Does that feel lighter on your senses already?

So you’re looking for permission to ask questions, and to get to a point with the person you’re speaking with where they feel more comfortable sharing some issues or concerns that you can potentially help them with and they agree to taking a specific step toward further action with you (a “Yes”). Conversely, you’re seeking permission to get to a point where the person you’re speaking with tells you “No” or words to that effect.

People are less inclined to be offended when you ask their permission to do something. After all, unless you can be sure you have their permission, how can you be sure you even have their attention? Without their attention you’re wasting everyone’s time including your own! Here’s a quick example to illustrate how you can break the ice whilst acknowledging the truth of the situation:

“Hello John? John Smith?”

“Yes”

“John, it’s [YOUR NAME] here from XYZ company. Before I say anything else, I’d like to ask your help please: I’m conscious of the fact we’ve never spoken before and feel a little nervous. John, if you feel uncomfortable or the conversation between us gets awkward, can I count on you to say so?

“Well yes” / “Depends what it’s about”/ “What’s this about?” / “What do you do?”

“We work with business owners /directors that [Insert three or four statements about Problems, Issues, Concerns, Situations you resolve]”

or

“John, I was wondering whether you’d be open to looking at some new ways to tackle/overcome/deal with/review [Insert three or four statements about Problems, Issues, Concerns, Situations you resolve or that you know they have]”

When you’re on the telephone, the language we use as well as the way we phrase our words have a bigger impact. There are no visual cues from our prospect to take into account. Too much enthusiasm can kill a call stone dead as much as none at all. To go back to the subject of this post, people tend to prefer that we get to the point and be matter-of-fact. Time is, after all, something we cannot buy back.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

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.

Which would you rather have? A flurry of high-intensity telemarketing activity in one quarter of the year, and then nothing for the remaining 9 months (campaign), or a lower-intensity, consistent level of calling to both your new prospects and existing client base (continuity)? The latter is much easier to manage than the former for several reasons. Let’s look at the key differences between the two approaches:

With the campaign approach, when a high-level activity agenda is established, often it sets high-level expectations, parameters and pressure for all parties concerned, including the prospects that receive your calls: They have a sixth-sense for sales pressure. It may be that for some organisations many of their other marketing initiatives have under-performed, and now a telemarketing campaign is the “last roll of the dice”: An unhealthy and all too common occurrence. It may be that they have left it for too long to do the all-important continuity work (e.g. in response to an event, or after-sales care) and now they’re scrambling to salvage any possibility of building relationships long after the initial conversations took place. We refer to this as “calling for yesterday” and whilst it can and often does produce positive results, it is very much a re-active rather than a pro-active approach to telemarketing.

With the continuity approach, you set an agenda for your calling activity over a longer period, typically across the year with quarterly reviews. It is pro-active and we refer to this as “calling for tomorrow”. Based on consistent levels of activity it is so much easier to manage, monitor and adjust. You have much greater control and can make changes in approach based on results generated with much greater ease simply because your vision is longer term. In short, you’re not in such a rush, have planned with greater clarity and have less pressure. You can guarantee activity, even if you cannot guarantee results. Experience has shown us that, in most cases, results from pro-active, continuous “calling for tomorrow” outperform re-active campaign based “calling for yesterday”. In summary:

CAMPAIGN: Re-active, higher pressure, less control, “calling for yesterday”. CONTINUITY: Pro-active, lower pressure, greater control, “calling for tomorrow”.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

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:

- In response to an interesting post or comment on a blog. The blog has been posted to encourage and stimulate conversation online. Why not join that conversation where several people can view and comment on your contribution too?

- Calling on professional people without stating any purpose or agenda for the call. If you cannot quickly articulate purpose and value for both parties when making a call, it’s better to avoid making the call.

- In response to online profiles or advertisements (e.g. online networks or job postings) where it has been clearly expressed that no calls should be made to the person posting the profile or advertisement. It tends to upset people to the extent that they think of you in an exclusively negative light. Where possible, why not send an email explaining why you believe there will be great value for both of you to speak rather than communicating purely by written means? You may also ask some questions relating to what they are trying to achieve in their role.

- Whilst this is rare, it has been known to happen: Insisting that people contact you exclusively by telephone. The late Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and it’s important to observe that for other people, some of whom you’d like to do business with, their preferred method of communication is by means other than the telephone. If you have too many people competing for telephone time with you, you may run the risk of being unable to respond adequately to everyone and being overwhelmed yourself. Some people will feel left out when they’re repeatedly treated to your voicemail greeting and may just give up trying to contact you altogether.

Some of you reading this may have other situations to add to this list. We’d be grateful if you’d share. It’s always a privilege to hear from you so feel free to add your pet peeves about what you deem to be inappropriate use use of the telephone.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis

The only advice I could offer her was: Calling a stranger on the telephone is like asking a stranger for directions during a journey when you’re unsure of how to reach your destination.

Having sent that message out on Twitter, a handful of people replied or sent me a direct message saying that they liked the analogy and could relate to it.

If you are struggling to pick up the telephone and make those important calls, remember all you’re doing is looking for some facts. You’re on a mission to gather some information. How much information you’re able to gather will be in direct relation to the rapport that you create with the people on the other end of the phone.

To overcome the fear of making cold calls, one highly recommended and effective way is to call some people you haven’t spoken with in six months or more. These people could be friends, family or former colleagues. Better still, they could be suppliers, clients (past or present), or contacts you’ve met or spoken with before but been unwilling or unable to follow up effectively.

Whatever your situation I hope you find these tips helpful and easy to apply. Often what holds us back is not the thing we need to do, but what we think of it. To quote Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”.

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702

Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be kept up to date with future articles from phoneforbusiness, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Thank You!

ShareThis