Come in from the cold – are you still ‘cold’ calling?
People often tell me cold calling doesn’t work. And I have to admit, in some ways, they’re right.
That’s why it’s important to provide any telemarketer with an array of supporting activity to their outbound calling. When an account manager knows the prospects they are targeting are not freezing cold, they’re more confident of a positive outcome and motivated to achieve great results.
So, what should we include in a telemarketers toolkit of essentials?
It goes without saying they should have ongoing access to relevant and up to date training. Our team find that even one 90 minute ‘Power Session’ a month is hugely beneficial to them. Just an opportunity to discuss ideas with their peers can be enough to help freshen up a pitch that’s in danger of becoming tired.
With a telemarketer who’s fired up and ready to go hunting for new, don’t waste their time giving them bad data. If you know there’s value in your database but you need their help cleaning it – make sure they know that data cleansing is part of the project. That way they can feel like they’re achieving something as they slog their way through it!
Ready for the warm up?
Sending regular, relevant content to your database every month helps keep it up to date, will generate some hot incoming leads and means that you are warming that data up ready for your telemarketer to hit it. Even just a glimmer of recognition of your company name can help get them ‘through the gatekeeper’ and improve contact rate by up to 40%.
Hello Again…
Another great way of giving your team a real lift in morale (as well as their numbers) is to ask them to retarget previously unconverted appointments and get your sales team back in to see prospects that for whatever reason didn’t sell in at the time. If it was just previously a question of bad timing or stalling on the prospect’s side – you need to make sure you get your sales team back in there, and although Sales should be managing their old pipelines, it makes sense for Marketing to be focusing on older leads – giving Sales the time to focus on new opportunities.
Finally – a great tool to give to your best telemarketers is a software like Lead Forensicswww.leadforensics.com. With statistics showing only 2% of web visitors actually convert to an enquiry – Lead Forensics allows provides you with company names, locations and search terms who are interested in your products or service. Tasking your outbound telemarketers with going after these otherwise missed opportunities means you’re getting the most from their time as well as maximising your ROI from your online marketing. Our sales team’s conversion from appointments to sale from these leads second only to referral leads.
What tools do you provide to your telemarketers to ensure your Lead Generation and Appointment Setting activity is getting the best ROI possible? Ask them what they need from you today.
Tags: Blogs, Cold Calling, Lead Forensics, Telemarketers, Telemarketing