TELEMARKETING – WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK.

When you hear the word TELEMARKETING, do you sort of cringe?

I do.

Even though this is the business we are in.

The word telemarketing gets a bad rap, because often companies don’t know how to do it effectively.

Yesterday I got a call and it went like this:

“Hi this is ______ calling from _____ “( the name was said so fast I didn’t catch it).

I’m calling to talk to you about your health plan. Blah blah blah blah, cost savings blah blah blah blah blah , better service , blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,

“can we book an appointment?”

“No”, I said.

”OK”, she said and hung up.

I got off the phone thinking of all the ways in which this was just so wrong.

1. I am not the decision maker for this service.
2. The script was sooooooo long and was clearly being read. It felt like it went on forever.
3. There was no engagement in conversation, no profiling or learning a bit about Idea Factor, and our current supplier and/or needs.
4. What was said, was said so fast that I have no idea who the company was that called.

How could this have been handled better?

This is the PROCESS that will make a telemarketing call a WIN for you, a WIN for your target audience and a WIN for the Agent making the call.

1. Be sure to have obtained the correct decision maker name and title at the company you are targeting.
2. Send that person ‘lumpy’ mail that is personalized in a bubble envelope so that it makes it past reception and onto the desk of your target audience.
3. Ensure that the mail itself is fun and delivers your message in 3 seconds or less in a positive fashion.
4. When you call to follow up, state your name, the company name, and reference the mail that was sent.
5. Ask a few good quality questions that will help you to identify whether or not your product or service would be a good fit for the person you are calling.
6. If so, go ahead and ask for the meeting.

The reason this is WIN WIN WIN?

PROSPECT – an interesting and informative conversation that could result in a meeting and/or awareness of your offering

AGENT – a fun way to have a pleasant interaction with an unknown person.

THE SELLER – this will give you the best response rate for your marketing effort while making the touchpoints worthwhile and informative.

Don’t be afraid of telemarketing, just be sure to do it right.

Happy selling!

ABOUT IDEA FACTOR

Idea Factor provides a full suite of marketing services including B2B lead generation (gathering qualified sales leads), surveys, data mapping, event tele-boosting, trade show follow up, in-bound and out-bound omni-channel call center services, data cleansing, list cleaning, customer retention and loyalty programs.

Our commitment to excellence in customer service has awarded us repeat business for more than 25 years, from both our global and community clients. To find out more go to https://idea-factor.com or look at our Services here.