Telemarketing Advice

Telemarketing Advice by Karen Goldhill

I was asked to write/give some advice regarding business development telemarketing.  Why me – I am Karen Goldhill and I have spent over ten years doing just that.  I work alongside/partner companies that need help with lead generation and appointment setting.  Why don’t companies do it themselves – a mixture of reasons; time or they simply just don’t like picking up the phone! During my ten + years, I have learnt a thing or two and whilst some of it may be blatantly obvious, I hope it may be useful to you.  

• Have you planned how you are going to introduce yourself and your company?  You don’t have time to give a ten minute monologue – you should be able to capture who you are and what you do in a couple of sentences.  
• Have you thought about how you move from your introduction into the next part of your conversation? You can’t go straight into asking for a meeting; have you established you are talking to the decision maker/budget holder and is there a need? Don’t sound like you are talking from a script, the conversation should flow automatically from one question to another but remember you aren’t playing Twenty Questions!  
• Have you planned time in your diary to follow up on all the emails that you have sent today? I’m not saying that people don’t respond to emails but invariably you need to follow up – leave it too long and the email has drifted down, down, down and out of their inbox.
• Don’t be disheartened or take it personally if the prospect doesn’t want to meet you just yet – maybe it’s a time thing so get an agreement from them to talk later in the year and then make sure you call at that point.  
• When speaking to your prospects, take detailed notes (language, style, colour) – you may remember the conversation tomorrow but you won’t in 3 or 4 months’ time and you will want to be able to refer back to your last conversation with the prospect especially if they have told you something vital.
• Make sure you listen carefully to what the prospect is saying and not talk too much – too many people during the telemarketing process try too hard to get across every benefit of their company when it isn’t necessary. Tell them too much at this stage and you are opening the door for them to say they have heard enough for now and they will contact you when they have a need.
• Don’t be afraid of silence during the calls – this hopefully means the prospect is thinking or considering what you have just said. Nerves or excitement sometimes take hold and there is the tendency to babble away – don’t.
• Finally, don’t be afraid of asking for the meeting – it is the aim of your call after all! Two of my biggest bug bears when on the other end of a telemarketing call is when the caller asks me how I am today – they are not interested and it smacks of a call centre environment and the other thing is when they slam the phone down when the call has ended – it’s rude and it either shows they are annoyed that I have said no to whatever they wanted or they can’t care about me to show consideration so put the phone down quietly.

You have to be patient as telemarketing can take time and perseverance. I am not saying you don’t have days when nearly everybody you speak to wants to meet but you will have many hours of hitting voicemails, nobody in and this is where you mustn’t give up because the very next call might just turn into that dream meeting for you.  

Does the idea of telemarketing fill you with dread?  Is it something that you know you need to do but will do anything apart from picking up the phone to cold prospects. Is there another way of reaching out to prospects –yes, talk to me, Karen Goldhill on 07967 078581. What else can I say- I love picking up the phone on behalf of my clients!