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.

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

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