How Do I Start Telemarketing For My Business?
March 4th, 2010 |
Decide Your Goals
Decide what your goals are for the telemarketing project. The obvious answer is to gain new business, but you need to decide how you are going to do this:
- Contacting old customers to gain new sales
- Calling prospects to get permission to send information by post or email
- Calling prospects to arrange a face to face appointment
- Calling prospects to close a sale over the phone
Decide Your Target
Decide who you are going to be contacting by location, business type, business size, household type or other criteria. If possible, use a list of your current best customers to more build a more accurate profile of the ideal prospect.
It is possible to obtain telemarketing data lists with a wide variety of criteria,
Prepare Your Telemarketing Script
Using your Goals and Targets already decided, write a telemarketing script. The script will help you to accurately introduce yourself, start a conversation and ask for the outcome you are looking for.
Prepare your desk
You need to ensure you have a means to record the notes from your calls. Often the best way to do this is a computer, with even a simple text document allowing you to search for a name. If you are calling a larger number of contacts, you need to look at either a spreadsheet or database system, or consider using a commercial Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program.
Calling is best done from a land line, from a quiet, distraction free environment. If possible, turn off your mobile, twitter feed and even email so that you can concentrate on phone conversations.
Prepare yourself
There will always be an element of rejection in any marketing project - but for telemarketing and telesales it can be more personal. Prepare yourself mentally, get an idea of how many calls you expect to make for each lead or sale and keep positive. Even over the telephone, people can pick up subtle changes in your voice, and projecting a positive attitude will always help you to have more positive conversations.
Depending on how many prospects you have to call, set aside sufficient time to make the calls. With no distractions, you may be able to make 25 calls in an hour, and speak to around 8 people (business to business) - so to speak to 100 prospects will take in the region of 12 hours - nearly 2 full days. If at all possible, get someone else to take any inbound calls, only accepting sales related ones, and avoid looking at your email continuously while calling.
Continuous Improvement
Is the information you have learned from the first set of calls to more accurately select target data, to adjust your script, and possible alter your goals.
Use the valuable feedback from the calls to adjust your product or service offering, pricing, marketing material and other advertising as well.
See Also:
Should I use a Telemarketing Script?
My Telemarketing Toolbox
Yours Sincerely is a Hampshire, UK based company that provides a Telemarketing Toolbox with a telemarketing data file, introductory letter and telemarketing script.
