Telemarketing is an efficient and targeted method in lead generation. Do you need some help with some telemarketing tips on how to do it better?
Telemarketing is highly directional allowing complete control in the sales process and ultimate closure of a deal. You control who you approach and direct the dialogue to the end result you require, be it a meeting, to elicit more information or simple profile raising.
The downside of cold calling is you have to spend some time educating the prospect about who you are, why you’re calling and how your product can help them. It is often here that control of the dialogue can be lost and the call gets closed down. Imagine how much easier that control would be if your prospect already had a smattering of awareness and understanding of your product. You can then concentrate on establishing a rapport and turn them into a warm lead, building your pipeline.
Pre Call Education
Distributing content using direct marketing tactics to prime your audience makes targeted telemarketing campaigns highly effective. Consider having those thought leadership articles you spent hours creating designed up as a stylish PDF. These can then be emailed to your prospects as free valuable advice. Or, how about printing that downloadable guide you created for lead generation and mailing to your prospect list. Print collateral that’s eye-catching and helps your audience deal with a challenge will NOT go straight into the bin, (like most junk mail). You’ll be surprised at how many people keep these items on their desk, ready for the day they need it, or YOU. From a telemarketing point of view, it doesn’t matter what form the content takes. What is crucial is that the target company is made aware of your existence and what value you bring to their organisation.
We’ve had countless accounts from clients who have attended new business meetings, only to find the prospect taking notes on the printed content we sent on our client’s behalf. Direct Mail is still a powerful channel, even in this era of digitisation.
Telemarketing Tips #1. Have a Strategy
However, before distributing any form of content, a strategy is required to ensure that once the content is sent, a telemarketing follow up campaign can be undertaken within five days of the prospect receiving the information, preferably three. The obvious reason for this is that the calling needs to capitalise on the brand awareness raised by sending the content. The crux of the call will be referring the prospect to the information issued. Indeed, it is often highly effective to ask for feedback on the content during the call. This small aspect invites the prospect to participate more fully and shows empathy – which is crucial in any telemarketing activity.
In addition, providing that it has been sufficiently well-written, the content may generate questions from the prospect. Questions such as: ‘who are current customers?’ And ‘what difference has your service made? are a telemarketer’s dream. You can direct the prospect further along the process leading to either a meeting or even a sale. With skill, it can be that simple.
In summary, telemarketing on its own will generate results, but it’s a far easier platform from which to procure sales if it’s run in conjunction with valuable content as back up. It makes life just that little bit easier.
