Use Legit Telemarketing To Combat Its Scamming Counterpart

Every now and then you would hear about the latest scams involving telemarketing frauds. Naturally, this is bad press for the industry but worst of all, it has been rapidly misleading people (at least consumers) into the belief that no telemarketer is legit.

Legit Telemarketers VS Anonymous Scammers

First off, perhaps it would be better if the public at large should also tone down on their desire to crack down on these swindlers. Yes, they should be caught. It is only expected that consumers cry out their rights and demand action.

That is not the same as the witch hunts which follow where businesses and telemarketers alike are lambasted for so much as pressing the number on a dial.

To protect your own right as a business, review your reasons for why you dial numbers in the first place: lead generation and customer support.

• Business leads – It is generally not enough to simply exchange emails. You still have to formally sign the deal and even before that, B2B solutions generally entail lengthy discussions on price, project duration, as well as the bottom-line purpose and results of it all. It also helps to keep close in touch with your provider and have them keep an eye on those who make false calls on their behalf. You can even give them the mental incentive by saying somebody shady is sabotaging their work. 

• Customer service – Customer service is not always about just receiving inbound calls day after day. Sometimes a company would like to conduct a small survey and have them contact their customers directly. As with business leads, make sure your business has a way of giving your callers an identity. It might also be best to use additional channels of communication to announce said survey. 

Related Content: How Customer Service Can Be Its Own Lead Generator

Speaking of which, you will notice that the biggest advantage you can give against false association is to make sure your contact center agents have a verifiable means of identifying themselves. Furthermore, that identity also verifies their affiliation with your company, thus showing it to be legit. Make sure your telemarketers take the following measures regardless if they are outsourced or in-house:

• Database is under lock and key – Access to prospect and client information is regulated and breaches are swiftly dealt with. Any outsourced telemarketing company must have the same level of security as a well-guarded, corporate infrastructure. 

• Have trustworthy personnel – Applicants as well as present agents should always be held with a certain level of responsibility over data security. Do necessary background checks and make sure recruiters ask them to file basic clearance requirements. 

• High awareness of possible breaches and responses to scams – There is a difference between being highly aware and completely paranoid. Do not always respond to every telemarketing scam unless it directly involves your business. But in the case that it does, send word to your telemarketers and act immediately! 

Related Content: Why People Are Cautious About Telemarketing Services And What You Can Do About It

As for what actual actions to take, make sure both of you collaborate closely together in your response. Set up a page on your website that can differentiate your telemarketers from that of posers. If you are outsourcing, constantly check in with your provider and make sure they are in the loop on what is happening in case bad news starts floating around. Only use professional telemarketers to combat their shady counterparts!

Inbound Telemarketing – There Shouldn't BE A Voicemail Hell!

In the above video, you will find suggestions for a few websites that can help assist customer service callers bypass what they call 'voicemail hell'. Voicemail hell is apparently their term for the mind-numbing grind they undergo before they actually get in touch with a marketing representative. However, perhaps the biggest tragedy is that these sites exist because of a mistake. That mistake is that your telemarketing service shouldn't be putting customers in that hell in the first place!
If you think this is bad for regular customers, what about busy business owners or even C-level decision makers? These people are busy and their day doesn't leave them much time to put up with this kind of service. Excessive automation is a bad thing in telemarketing and there's no excuse for it. Besides, there are plenty of alternatives to this and they don't necessarily even require you to do away with telemarketing at all:

• Website – If you want your customers to troubleshoot a problem, don't force them to use a phone for it. It's a lot easier for them to go to your website and get their information there. That does away with much of the automation they would otherwise go through in their calls. Any more serious problems should be good enough reason to connect them with a live customer service representative. 

• Email – A contact center doesn't have to be closed off to email. Some customers don't want to discuss the problem in real time but instead would first prefer to collect their thoughts and write it down. If your B2B customers want to write down these problems, use an online ticket system that sends messages to your company inbox. Take note though that your agents should still respond as quickly as possible. 

• Social Media – Getting real-time feedback via social media is another better idea. Customers can help each other out with the easier problems instead of forcing themselves to call upon customer support all the time. The community-oriented purpose of social media also serves as your eyes and ears to your market so keep them open to spot trends in problems. 

Now asides from the alternatives, there are a few more things you can learn from this video with regards to good customer service:

• 1: People still want live telemarketing agents – The existence of voicemail hell can serve as proof that people still want to talk to live agents instead of anything automated. They want to engage with and talk to a live person. This demand could go beyond only customer service and could also reflect the need for real conversations in marketing activities like B2B lead generation. 

• 2: Excessive dependence is bad - Too much dependence on new technology will eventually bring up its flaws. However, you shouldn't wait for that time to come. Don't be closed to the idea that there are still some things that live agents can do that machines can't. 

• 3: Time is still of the essence – It also serves as a reminder that, whether your customer is B2B or B2C, their time is and always will be valuable. When communicating with customers, don't take up too much of that time by forcing them to spend it in phone traps like voicemail hell.

There aren't just alternatives to the bad practices that result in voicemail hell. Its existence is proof that people still want to talk to live agents whether its in customers support or even in telemarketing. That should give you all the reason you need to retain real people who can give a real conversation.

Professional Telemarketing – Professionalism Goes Both Ways

Many people dread the prospect of professional telemarketing whether they're being the ones called or they themselves have to do the calling. May it be the former or the latter, there are just times when businesses feel that the process has become too stigmatized. The fear of getting (as well as giving) angry responses haunts the minds of marketers everywhere.

However, on that note, maybe this fear isn't so well-founded as you might think. Professional telemarketing is called 'professional' for a good reason. Not only that, the context of B2B telemarketing also means that this professionalism goes both ways. Therefore, if you're still either afraid of getting cussed out or feel tempted to rage at a telemarketer, you might want to read about this research recently cited by Forbes. Just from the title of that article, you can already tell that dirty words reflect badly on character when it comes to business. It denotes a lack of professionalism (as stated directly by the quote below):

“It found that employers tend to think less of an employee who swears at work for a variety of reasons. A majority of hiring managers said they believe that the use of curse words brings the employee’s professionalism into question, while others are concerned with the lack of control and lack of maturity demonstrated by swearing at work. More than half said using dirty words at work makes an employee appear less intelligent.”

If such a majority has a negative view on swearing in the work place, why continue to fear being on the end of it? In the worst case, a raging response will only say more about them than they will about you. And since that a majority of managers and decision makers don't have high regard for such people, you probably wouldn't want to do business with them anyways.

Still, be warned as the same goes for you. If you're going to contact decision makers, then you have to make sure that your telemarketers are also professional enough to maintain proper business decorum. In fact, this call to professionalism isn't just limited to telemarketing. It applies just as equally to any other marketing approach. The statistics in the article above should also indicate how important it is to train your telemarketers to avoid unprofessional behavior. And in the case of an outsourced provider, you need make sure that they also live up to such standards. Ask around for referrals and do some research on the companies that you're considering if you want a telemarketing service.

The standards of professionalism aren't just about indicating if a telemarketer knows what it's doing. It's about knowing if that telemarketer exhibits professional behavior that is only befitting the standards held not just by you but by your prospects.

Ultimately, it goes both ways

But on that note, this should also be good news for those who are still terrified of telemarketing. If you think that telemarketing has been stigmatized, there's a lot more stigma upon the unprofessional behavior that it gets. The statistics above should indicate that you have nothing to fear and that there is still a call to professionalism within the business world.

Outsource A Telemarketing Company When Faced With The Flaws Of The Internet

Suppose that, for a while, online marketing has been your business' only means of getting in touch with prospects. It's not even a core process but you have to do it because you believe it's the most up-to-date way to market yourself (even for B2B). However, this new report from Mashable could mean that it's high time to outsource a classical B2B telemarketing company.

“A study conducted by Harris Interactive highlights just how widespread this lack of trust in information on the Internet is for most Americans.

According to the survey of 1,900 Americans, 98% distrust information found on the Internet, with 94% saying 'bad things can happen as a result of acting on inaccurate information online.'”

Take note, this isn't really to say that a telemarketing company is superior to online marketers. In fact, a quick read through the comments on the article will actually point to an irony: despite how 'unreliable' online information is deemed, the article itself is a form of online information. Therefore, why should anyone trust it? Doesn't that look like a typical case of shooting one's own foot?

Setting that irony aside though, both the comments and the article itself do prove a simple truth: the internet isn't always reliable. Therefore, relying on it all the time can be counterproductive. Here are just two ways that the flaws of the internet can affect the success of your overall B2B marketing campaign:

• Reliability On Information Found – Lead generation is a staple for B2B marketing and leads are more or less packages of information. More specifically, it's information you can find that can direct you to a potential client. Still, even contact numbers and email addresses found on the net aren't entirely accurate or up to date.
• Reliability On Information Presented – This can also reflect the way people view the information you've put on your own website. They might not entirely trust it and if it's just too insufficient, they'll seek out another company. A business that is just too limited to the internet also limits the means with which prospects can contact it, inquire about it, and verify what is being presented.

An outsourced telemarketer is simply a cost-efficient way to expand your overall marketing capacity when a single channel proves insufficient. If you're relying on the internet for contact information, search for contact numbers and have the telemarketer acquire more information through the phone. That way, anything you've learned from a prospect via their website (or even a lengthy email exchange) can be confirmed. Using telemarketers can also give you new ways to gather information from both your target market and from among your current customers. On the other hand, having an outsourced call center will also allow your prospects to verify the information you've put out on your website.

The truth is dependence on a single medium isn't always the best idea. Before, people distrusted telemarketers for the pretty much the same reasons that people now distrust the internet (at least, the same reasons cited in the article). Expanding your marketing efforts is simply a way to paint a clearer picture of your businesses when one medium proves insufficient.

Defrost Your Cold Calling Approach

One of the reasons why people dislike getting random phone calls is that it's just that: purely random. And when you look at the worst examples, you have to admit that the whole thing sounds a lot like a numbers game. You get a list and start calling. That's it. You don't do research. You don't try and see why these particular companes might make a good business leads. You just dial in, fling your pitch, and expect a Yes or No (chances are, you'll get a No more often).

Why do you think it's called 'cold' calling in the first place? You need to defrost your approach and improve your chances with each call. And as implied above, the key is to do a bit more research. Is it really too much to first look up the company? Maybe it would have been a few decades ago when telemarketers were still scanning phone books.

Today, with internet and social media, you have more opportunities to learn more about who you're calling. This isn't even comparable to B2C telemarketing because unlike consumers, businesses can be quite eager to talk about themselves. It's how they impress their own markets. More and more companies are setting up websites and establishing presence in social networking sites. These places are excellent sources of information that can help you make yourself more relevant to the needs of their decision makers. Another advantage you have with information is that you also know a few things that would make for a good conversation.

Furthermore, information isn't just the only way to boost your chances. Throwing in a bit of email marketing can help too. Try contacting prospects that way and get those who respond into receiving your call. If you're going to insist that you don't have the time to look up a company, then you a list of addresses instead of numbers. At the very least, your emails are going to be less disruptive.

Of course, there are limits to what you can find on the internet. And yes, companies are also taking measures to make sure that the online channels of communication don't get clogged with marketing efforts in the same way that the phone now has.

That's still no excuse to do things far too randomly. B2B leads are defined by the information they have on the prospect. Information is supposed to help improve the accuracy of your marketing efforts. It's supposed to reduce the uncertain factors which lead to randomness. An appointment setter who shows sincere interest in finding out problems and offering solutions has a higher chance of getting people to meet them than those who just try and set the date without showing that same consideration.

Ask yourself, would you rather burn through a whole list by just rapidly calling the numbers on them or would you rather improve your chances with each, single one of them by knowing more about who they are? Defrost your impersonal telemarketing approach and remember that getting information is what you're supposed to do, even from the very start!