Telemarketing Tips – Beating Fear

There are many reasons as to why a marketing campaign feels especially when telemarketing is what's being talked about. A lack of budget could lead to the death of a campaign, a disgruntled employee could make risk pissing of each and every prospect they contact. As said, there are numerous reasons as to why a telemarketing campaign can crumble into pieces.

If you are a telemarketing services provider, you of course want to provide your clients with the best quality of service. But before you can achieve such a level of performance, you first need to make sure that you can overcome the challenges that comes with being a telemarketing company.

One major thing which inhibits the capabilities of any telemarketer is fear. When you are afraid, your mind functions differently and your entire thought process is affected. You start grasping at the right words, tremble all over and even feel a cold sweat all over you. Fear can hamper the progress and success of any telemarketing campaign when those that are tasked with making calls are experiencing it.

Well instead of shivering at your desk and staring at the phone warily like it's going to bite you, here are a few tips to helping you overcome your fear!

Identify the problem.

Before you can start battling that monster that lurks underneath your bed, you first have to find out what it is. After all, a problem can only be solved after we know what it is, just like how we take different kinds of medicine depending on what ails us. What is it that you fear? Identify what each of your staff members is afraid of about doing telemarketing.

Identify the cause of the problem.

Once you know just what it is you fear, you should find out what is causing it. For staff that work in a telemarketing company, one common cause of fear is rejection. Telemarketers that perform tasks such as lead generation appointment setting often expect that the prospects they call will give them a “no” before they even pick up the phone and make the call. This assumption puts them into a mindset in which they truly do believe that a negative reply is coming their way.

Another thing that adds up to this fear is the presence of their duty. They are working for a telemarketing firm thus they know that they must make calls.

Come up with a solution.

Just because an employee has a fear about a certain part of their job does not mean that you should outright fire them. Every staff member is still a valuable part of your lead generation force and once they overcome their fear they should be able to perform their tasks effectively. So after you have found out what the problem is and what is causing it, the time has come to come up with a solution.

One of the best solutions for getting rid of fear is positive reinforcement. If your employees keep thinking that they will fail, then chances are they really will. But you can make a difference through just being positive. When your employees start telling themselves that they're not going to succeed, you tell them the exact opposite! There are other ways to counter fear, however the problem and cause must still be identified before any action can be taken.

Fear really is a common problem in telemarketing. I too have had my share of being afraid to pick up the phone just because I kind of knew what was coming at the end of the conversation. However, once you master how to beat what you are afraid of, you can turn it into strength and succeed in what you do, be it telemarketing!

Telemarketing Firms Still Require Some Details From You

Yes, many telemarketing firms take pride in being able to gather information with as little spoon-feeding as possible. It's why, despite their decline in consumer marketing, they're still a primary source of B2B leads for many industries.

That doesn't mean they're not without limitations. Furthermore, you shouldn't blame them when they've already hit those limits. Now as to what those telemarketing limits may be, below is just one short list:

• 
  Industry – Wait a minute, shouldn't experienced telemarketing services have vast amounts of industry expertise? Yes it they should but no matter how efficient they are in targeting various industries, they won't always know which ones your salespeople and your business would want specifically. It doesn't matter if you yourself cater to a wide range of industries either. There are still other factors to consider. For example, what if you've decided to refrain from marketing one particular industry but not inform your telemarketers? The result is your salespeople coming to you with complaints as well as another set of complaints from people in that industry. This doesn't even mention the possibility of counter-complaints you'll get from the company you outsourced. 

• Bad sales processes – Obviously if your salespeople aren't doing their part, you can't expect a right to complain. Your telemarketers evaluated the interest of your prospects, generated more of it, and even set a time and date for your salespeople to meet. What more can you ask for? Sure, some larger telemarketing services will offer to do sales as well but have you specified that? Was that in the deal you both agreed upon? More importantly, do your salespeople also want to outsource their own jobs? Do they have other things they'd rather do for your business? 

• Not doing it your way – Granted, a telemarketer should be flexible enough to change strategies and adapt new marketing tools in order to improve. However, wouldn't it be better to set down some guidelines first before filing complaints through every step of the process? If you already had a particular strategy in mind, why didn't you share it in the first place? That's the difference between adapting to change and forcing them to adapt in ways that you had the responsibility to specify before the campaign started. In the end, you may have had a good deal of success but think about the time you could've also saved had you at least collaborated more closely with your provider before beginning. 

Like anything you do in business, you should always have a plan. You need a plan when you want to attract and qualify sales leads. You still need a plan when you want to outsource that process to a provider (be it a telemarketer or even any type of B2B marketing).

On the other hand, rest assured that this always goes both ways. That's how close collaboration ideally works. From the perspective of any good telemarketer, you have a right to expect a high level of compliance. You can assert your demands to a considerable degree. Simply put, they shouldn't wince at the standards you've set up for them and their entire industry as a whole.

Just don't leave them hanging when they need only a few details before starting.

Avoid Bad PR In Telemarketing And Other Marketing Channels

Don't be fooled when a few naïve individuals assume bad PR is only a B2C disaster. It's very much a real threat in B2B marketing too and can occur as the result of bad practices including telemarketing, social media, as well as email.

Whether a product or service is B2B or B2C, you do not want your marketing tactics to result in a bad public image. In fact, even the act of switching from, for example, telemarketing to social media, will not necessarily cleanse the stigma your business has put upon itself.

If you want to start with a basic example of what bad PR looks like, you can check out this article from Jezebel:

“... it seems that consumers have now taken the mocking of the product into their own hands via Amazon UK, a site where you can now find page after page of brilliant and hilarious fake product reviews from clever users...”

Do you want your own product to be the object of similar humor? If not, then take note of how each marketing tool can result in bad PR, what you should do to prevent these disasters from happening.

Telemarketing Services

There's never a shortage of telemarketing parodies out there. The examples range from call center agents with strange accents to raging arguments between a representative and a customer/prospect. This is, in fact, a real shame because even cold calls can turn out well if they're done professionally. To avoid this, make sure your agents record their calls and allow you to review them on occasion. Be the first to discover something that's worth turning your business into a laughing stock so you can quickly act before it escalates into a disaster.

Social Media

Social media marketing may be new but that's exactly what makes it ripe for easy PR disasters. Pam Moore of socialmediatoday funnily describes one example:

“You are not alone if you feel that your social media program has gotten a bit out of control. Do you wish you had a social media policy? Have no idea what is being published when by your social media team? Have nightmares about a PR crisis or waking up to see a picture of you passed out at your desk on the cover of your Facebook timeline as a joke by your social media team?”

The article gives a lot of its own advice on prevention but the bottom line is, make sure your business doesn't embarrass itself on any social network. Stick to a relevant image and establish focused objectives centered around why you're using social media in the first place.

Email

Here bad PR can occur in a more subtle yet sinister way. One day you think your email blasts are being received and read. All of a sudden you learn that you're being marked as a spammer. It's as if nobody makes fun of you but everyone quickly ignores your message. That's just painful (especially when your lead generation group is now pressed for time). You can't afford this kind of delay so take a good, hard look at your templates and subject lines. Be unique. Be personal. Avoid looking like spam. It's that simple.

If you're outsourcing any of these tools (or even all at once), it's even more important that your provider doesn't embarrass you! It's not a matter of what method they use but how it ultimately results in a good image that can't be mocked. Cheap lead generation means nothing if it results in bad PR!

What Telemarketing Can Cover Outside Of Facebook, Outside Of Social Media

One of the strongest points of telemarketing is the flexibility, speed, and the skill it demonstrates when it comes to both customer and prospect engagement. Today, these particular advantages are needed more than ever as online technology enables the vast and swift gathering of information but the efforts to determine and utilize its value are still way far behind.

Many marketers are saying that social media is at the top when it comes to that information with Facebook still remaining as the lead figurehead of the new medium. The most naïve even go as far as to say that traditional techniques like telemarketing would be completely phased out by purely digital tools.

However, even within the online sphere, professionals are saying that Facebook admits to the limits of its own user information. One of them is Robert Hof, a Forbes contributor:

“Social activity has long been embedded in most online services, from Google search (based on the collective linking choices of website owners) and email to Pinterest, Twitter, and those content sharing services such as ShareThis and AddThis. And now that Facebook has created its own ad exchange, allowing advertisers to use data from elsewhere on the Web to target messages to people while they’re on Facebook, even Facebook itself is acknowledging that there’s useful data to be gleaned from off-Facebook activity.”

Still, why focus on just the limits of Facebook? Why openly admit the flaws of online information and remain closed to the possibility of better information obtained outside the internet? It'd be much better to recognize both as equals that can form together to cover the gaps.

Now here are two of the several flaws of social media information and how telemarketing helps cover for these flaws:

• Anonymity – Facebook and other social media sites are still in the midst of cracking down on anonymous users. Still, that's the problem with digital technology. It's still relatively easy to fabricate multiple social media accounts, multiple online personas, and multiple pieces of contact data. More than half of these might not even be for ulterior purposes but are simply different branches of your prospect's business presence online. On the other hand, you might end up finding two of these branches but can only qualify their business as a whole. Sadly, this is something more easily avoided with just a call to the phone number instead of just instant qualification via social media.

• Online Security – Given the never-ending tide of hacker attacks and major online leaks, it's no surprise that business are still quite hesitant to put all business information online. And take note, much of that information is critical to qualifying them for sales leads. You may be able to glean the size of their business from social media but good luck trying to convince them to share financial information like their budget.

Social media is but only a percentage of total information you can find online. Though because of that, it shares its flaws. There is still too much anonymity and online communication remains to have many security. It's always more prudent to not depend on it entirely and use offline tools like telemarketing services to cover for its limitations.

Appointment Setting - Don't Depend Too Much On Individual Influence

There are times during an appointment setting campaign that certain individuals start to influence your market more effectively than the rest. This happens whether it's in the marketing or sales stages of the process.

In marketing, this happens when you rely on a key influencer to refer their friends and followers to your business. For sales, it can happen when a particular salesperson has gained a sort of celebrity status by making success out of even the least qualified sales leads.

At first, it sounds a lot like the celebrity endorsements of B2C. And for the most part, there are similarities. The only difference in B2B appointment setting, in fact, just lie within the products and services involved. In either case however, an excessive dependence on individual influence is risky. These same risks could affect the success of appointment setting for three reasons:

• #1: They won't be around forever. - Look at Steve Jobs. Despite how many mourned his passing, many more still became uncertain of his company's future. The success of Apple seemed very hard-wired into Jobs' image. Though touching on the subject of death is a bit drastic, it should teach one thing: nothing lasts forever; even clients gained from quality b2b appointment setting services. The decision maker you've often had close contact with may not always be in that position or even work in the same company. They have goals of their own too and it might take them places where you can't do much business anymore. The same goes for a celebrity salesperson. He or she won't always be there. They may even have their own dreams that would take them outside your company. How are you going to fill the large gap in sales that they'll leave behind?

• #2: They won't always influence the market - This isn't as hard to believe as some might think. Remember, nothing lasts forever. It not only goes for an individual influencer but also for their own influence. It could be the result of something as terrible as a loss in credibility or relevance. It could also be something as simple as a decision to not influence for personal reasons. It's the same thing with salespeople. Some might feel overconfident and start toeing the lines of professional behavior. Others might start feeling the pressure and this would affect their original capacity for making a successful sale.

• #3: Laziness – This doesn't mean laziness of the influencer. Rather, it's the laziness of you and the rest of your company! Do you seriously think it's a good idea to rely on an influencer to refer their followers for appointment setting while you're being lax with your own marketing and sales? Given the above two reasons, the role of key influence can be a lot more limited than you think. On the other hand, overestimating it can lull your marketing into a false sense of security while placing the burden of sales on a single salesperson all because of popularity.

Both reasons center on the mortality of both the key influencer as well as the influence they exert on your market. Therefore, your dependence on them shouldn't strain that mortality. It's an extreme word but again: nothing lasts forever. It's also more proof of why it's unsafe to mostly depend on outside factors to influence your market using b2b appointment setting.

Instead, your marketing strategies shouldn't depend on a single individual while leaving out the rest. Just because popular fiction puts the fate of the world on the shoulders of a single hero doesn't mean you should do the same in real life, with your real company! Follow good appointment setting practices and all the beneficial things will follow through.

B2B Lead Generation – New Sales Skills Need Complimentary Marketing Support

B2B lead generation is a tool that offers sales not only opportunities but also insight on their prospect. That insight is critical given the rise of new sales techniques that are allegedly doing away with the old.

At least, that's what Lynette Ryals and Javier Marcos are saying on the HBR Blog Network. To summarize, they're echoing the beliefs of many other sales professionals that the old modes of traditional selling are making way for the type of selling that emphasizes on relationships prior to the sale. These in turn would require new skills from sales people and thus, marketing should be able to come up with complimentary support to help them meet these new demands:

“Commercial skills and capabilities are about financial insight, business acumen and customer insight — specifically, insight beyond what the customer has articulated.”

This only raises the amount and grade of information that marketing services should acquire. The methods also need to be more subtle. Techniques like taking surveys need to ask questions that are formulated based on knowledge and analysis that's beyond the capability of prospects.

“Relational skills and capabilities include the ability to manage multi-level, multifunctional relationships, to understand relational dynamics and to inspire trust.”

Establishing trust is one of the initial tasks in any marketing approach. You don't attempt the sale when you're first contacting a prospect. They have to be qualified first and more interest needs to be established. That interest however can be affected by the amount of trust that you gained. Acquiring said trust means you're helping sales to develop a connection and gain more and more permission to stay connected.

“Managerial skills and capabilities needed by people in sales roles include people management skills (because so much business-to-business selling is now done in teams and cross-functionally); high ethical standards and integrity (growing customer demands in relation to corporate social responsibility and ethics are changing selling behaviors); openness to change and adaptability; and influencing skills.”

Now just because high managerial skills are necessary doesn't mean you can't make your marketing efforts easier to manage. If sales is willing to lay out clear-cut requirements, then the marketing approach must be ready to meet those requirements. The same goes for their ethical standards (make sure your practices are legitimate and acceptable). An openness to change also extends to marketing given that different forms of marketing are often the result of changes in market behavior.

“Cognitive skills and capabilities include innovative problem solving; the ability to identify opportunities; ”

Seeing as how generating leads is all about indicating opportunities, any additional information from marketing should ultimately serve to assist in identifying problems. This is where it's most critical for sales to lay out specifications while at the same time, marketing strategies should end up delivering leads that meet these specifications. Some sales teams won't demand anything too complicated but others might. In the end, it's all about how one party coordinates with the other.

The new skills described in this article can apply to B2B sales in any industry. Thus, it's not surprising that you can demand complimentary marketing support for it from any type marketer out there. You can have these requirements for online marketers as well as professional telemarketers. A change in sales will always demand complimentary marketing support.

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

Even B2B telemarketers themselves will admit that more than a handful of people either don't like what they do or just have a negative understanding of it. There are good reasons for that though and they're either the result of bad telemarketing practices or just a lack of transparency. In both cases, it's the duty of those in telemarketing services to avoid such practices and be crystal clear about what they do when engaging with businesses.

So first off, what are some of the things that turn people off from telemarketing?

• Pushiness – B2C telemarketing isn't the only form of the practice that was stigmatized by the pushy attitude of both marketers and salespeople. Such hardheaded characters don't give decision makers any peace of mind because of their constant marketing calls. Gatekeepers can easily sniff out a persistent caller and take necessary security measures to block their calls completely.
• Contact Data – While decision makers are more or less used to the idea of publicizing their contact data, telemarketers still have an obligation to use that information responsibly. And once they know it's listed on your customer database, they expect you to keep it secure. A breach in that security will result in a severe breach of their trust.
• Impersonality – Impersonal marketing approaches are just that: impersonal. They're bland. They're repetitive. They're also a terrible waste of time. It's no wonder that not even company gatekeepers are impressed with a message that they've heard over and over again.

Now, what can be done about this? This might be surprising but those of you who were just considering outsourced telemarketing still have good reason to, despite the above flaws. Why? It's because many telemarketers have long taken the hint. The mark of a good company is one that is aware of these mistakes and has taken measures to avoid them. And if you're using your own in-house telemarketing team, you might be able to employ some the following yourself!

• Exercise proper follow-ups – Instead of being pushy, make sure your telemarketers find ways to get around instead of constantly hammering the decision maker. If they're not willing to talk just yet, then call at another time. They can also learn to use other channels of communication in order get permission (e.g. emailing them first or attracting their interest with a website).
• Treat data responsibly – Secure that data as much as possible. In the case of current customers, you should also make sure they're aware that you're using their data and know how you're using it. If you're contacting businesses to qualify completely new B2B leads, then you have tell them where you got their contact information when they ask.
• Diversify your marketing approach – Use other forms of marketing like blogging or social media to show that you're not just limited to telemarketing. You can also improve the telemarketing approach itself by turning it into an opportunity to engage with prospects so you'll know more about how your business can help theirs.

Ultimately, it's all about improving the quality of the telemarketing service and not really about doing away with it entirely. Even if it does prove a hassle for yourself, the continued existence of experienced B2B telemarketers is living proof that it can be done right.

And when it's done right, fewer people will be cautious about it.

B2B Telemarketing - Driving Social Engagement Beyond Social Media

There seems to be no end to social media marketing and last week, cNet published an article reporting that the Global Fortune 100 are have only just begun maximizing this new channel. The article also mentions five findings as the result of the study but here is one that's most notable:

“3. Engagement is becoming second nature to companies. Seventy-nine percent of corporate accounts on Twitter attempt to engage with other users by retweeting and using @mentions.”

Indeed, engagement is the critical factor in social media marketing. It's what both makes it an effective medium and at the same time, it's what proving to be the challenge for these companies. However, is such engagement necessarily limited to social media? You see, when you make that the goal, the medium might hardly matter.

In this case, telemarketing services can also be used to drive engagement and achieve similar results:

• Interest – It checks for a prospect's interest and responds appropriately. If there is clearly no interest, then simply move on. If there is more interest but not enough to warrant a lengthier conversation, they're tagged for follow-ups. The more interest there is, the more a telemarketer can engage with them and send them further into the sales process.
• Needs – A potential client won't have interest if they don't have any needs for the products and services offered. On the other hand, you can only learn to serve better if you knew the finer details of these needs.
• Time – Engaging a prospect through telemarketing does not necessarily consume as much time. You just need to make sure that follow-ups are done right and measures are placed to take the conversation elsewhere if the phone is proving to be too time-constraining.

Then again, perhaps what really puts social media over telemarketing is that it has enabled customers to organize themselves and given them a greater voice. This blog from the Harvard Business Review already demonstrates how this is so for B2C companies:

“In other words, social media improves service by making the market for peer-to-peer opinion more efficient. This is good news for good service and bad news for bad service. End of not-so-complicated story.”

Still, does this apply to B2B? As far as organizing peer-to-peer opinions, it actually does! While businesses would rather be treated on an individual basis, things like referrals and reviews can improve your image and in turn attract more prospects towards your business. On the other hand, negative feedback can also call you to fix things up and improve services.

That doesn't mean that other forms of communication cannot compliment that though. For example, once you've received your feedback, you can try outsourcing call center services to gather more data. Since businesses would still prefer to be treated on an individual basis, using both the collective feedback from social media and the individual feedback from one-on-one phone surveys can help paint a clearer picture of what you've done right and what you can do better. It also shows that you're not just engaging them as an entire audience but also as separate entities with separate needs. Don't just limit social engagement to social media. Go beyond it!

Can Your B2B Sales Afford Your Lead Generator?

Many of those working to generate sales leads get so caught up with impressing their superiors about the benefits and advantages of their campaigns. They end up forgetting that it doesn't even matter sometimes! Some CEOs don't care too much about the complications or why one method works better than the other.

Sometimes, they just want one thing: results.

No matter how many statistics you cite or how many experts you consult, you're just wasting your breath if it just doesn't show in the final results. Therefore, whenever you encounter someone whose sole focus is on the results, why don't you try seeing things from their perspective?

Now just what is it in the results that they're so concerned with? Well in a nutshell, it's all about how much it costs to generate leads versus how much is being made off of them. You don't need to lecture them about how leads represent sales opportunities. They probably know that already. What they want to know is if the sales being made can afford the entire process and then some. In order to answer that question, you should figure out where these costs are coming from:

• Time – As the saying goes, time is money. Unless you can find a way to reduce the costs being spent over time, maybe you should check to see if there's anything in terms of time management that's raising the price of lead generation.
  
• Tools – What exactly is your approach? Do you stick to just one method you know best (e.g. telemarketing) or do you go the multi-channel route? Are any of these asking more money? What kind of equipment do you use? Here's a surprise: It doesn't really matter how cheap or expensive it is. If it's cheap but the poor quality is killing your efforts, then that's where you've been flushing down your company's cash. Likewise, it's the same thing if the tools are expensive but aren't used to the fullest.
  
• Personnel – How much do you invest in training the people who are actively responsible for making the calls, sending the emails, or maintaining your online properties? Did you hire the right professionals? Were they taught the right skills? Did you yourself teach them the wrong set of techniques or strategies?

Oddly enough, this can apply whether you were investing in an in-house lead generator or outsourcing lead generation services. You can judge either party using the same criteria above. And surprise, surprise, so can your superiors. Like them, you should be focused on how the results are reflected in the effort. The only difference is that it's your job to go further down into the details and discover the leaks.

You can really learn a lesson from their seemingly narrow-minded perspective. It's about realizing when and where the details matter. They don't matter if the result is your lead generator costing more than what sales can make. They matter when you're trying to find the problems and discover ways to make the lead generation process more affordable.

Appointment Setting – There's More Than One Way To Communicate!

First off, communication is important for generating business leads. It's the process that obtains valuable information about possible clients. Here are just some of the important kinds of information that play a key role in successful sales.

• Time – You obviously need to know when they can be available for a business meeting.
• Needs – This is another vital piece. It will help you long after the sale is made and when you're well on your way to providing the product or service.
• Budget – You'll also need to know if they can afford to give you your sale.
• You – A bit strange? You see, while you're gathering information on the prospect, that prospect is also gathering information on you. You also have to give information they want if you want to convince them to meet up.

However, one common mistake among lead generators is that they stick too close to just one form of communication. They would even go so far as to persist despite the obvious signs of ineffectiveness. This doesn't just apply to older methods like telemarketing and direct mail. The same also goes for social media, email, and other new forms of online marketing that are trending in the business world today.

An unhealthy dependence on one form of communication never bodes well in any process that requires you to be considerate of the prospect. Different people prefer different ways to communicate. When one person scoffs and says, “Who uses the phone these days?”, another person will say, “I don't need Facebook. Just give me a call.”

You never know what kind of medium your target decision makers and business owners would like to use. Maybe you can look up research studies and start coming up with generalizations but that's not enough. There are already differences just between industries with regards to how people would like to be contacted. You might also encounter exceptions.

Communication must be flexible in order to meet the desires of a diverse selection of prospects. A lead generation campaign is only a success when it ultimately delivers quality information on potential clients. The kind of communication you used won't matter as much.

It also implies versatility. When one method fails to reach them, use something else. For example, if you can't get through to them on the phone, try to look up their business on the internet. If they don't want to talk much via social media or email, then convince them to have the conversation on the phone. These are just some of the ways you can combine several forms of communication in order to establish a connection and take you closer to a set appointment.

Now if you're worrying about costs. That's not a problem either. Try outsourcing some of the other forms if you can't afford more than one. You want email? Try outsourcing email marketing companies. You want telemarketers? Outsource telemarketing services. What's important will always be making that connection, engaging in a conversation, and coming out with beneficial information. There's more than one way to communicate and set an appointment!

Use B2B Telemarketing If You Need To Make Things Quick

Rushing is never a good idea when trying to generate sales leads. However, that doesn't mean you can take your sweet time either. Speed is just as equally important as control. There are times that while you can't rush the prospect, the prospect will rush you!


And of course, there are plenty of good (and obvious) reasons as to why.

• They may have scheduled a lot of meetings throughout their day so they can't talk for long in between.
• Paperwork and management duties will always take top priority so obviously you need to have a good reason as to why you just interrupted them in the middle of their work.
• You also have the possibility of calling them when they're analyzing data and making important future plans. It may not be a good idea to interrupt their train of thought.

At this point, you might wonder why telemarketing? Why not just send them an email or even a real marketing letter? The problem with that is that it's going to the complete opposite extreme. You're avoiding all means of directly contacting the decision maker but at the cost of being completely ignored too. Did you send an email? It might never be opened. Sent a real letter? It's the same thing. The worst case scenario is you'll get labeled as a spammer or a junk mailer and now your messages won't be read at all.

The key here is balance. You need to balance getting their attention while not taking too much of their time doing it. B2B telemarketing can accomplish this (or at least, it can play a significant role in the overall technique). Unlike email or direct mail, a ringing phone is harder to ignore. Once the prospect has answered, you only have a window of a few minutes in order to accomplish what you set out to do and that is get their interest. Take note, there's a difference between getting their interest and trying to make a sale right out of the bat. Getting their interest means trying to get to know them first. It might even help to do some research before making the call. Try to ask questions that will help determine needs and make it as objective as possible. Once that's done, evaluate the response and politely end the exchange as soon as possible.

Another technique involves mixing both email or direct mail with telemarketing. Again, it's similar to the first technique. You make a call, make it quick, and then just say you'll send the rest in an email. Think of it as a new way of dropping off a letter. It also tells you beforehand if the prospect would really appreciate the message and won't just toss it in the trash. After that, wait for some responses and don't be afraid to follow-up.

As you can see, you're not rushing the prospect here. But at the same time, taking only a few minutes with a call at convenient intervals shows that you don't want to take up too much of their time. It may not even be an issue if you can't afford to invest in telemarketing yourself. There are plenty of telemarketing services who use similar (if not the exact, same) techniques so can outsource to them instead. It will still always be important to make things quick when contacting busy decision makers.

A Quick Contrast Between What Scammers Do And What Professional Telemarketers Do

Anyone with even average experience in the telemarketing industry would eventually learn about telemarketing scams. And painful as it is, it's usually when they're hearing someone hold them up as a reason why the industry is dead.

However, if B2B businesses have any say about it, it's still pretty much alive. You see there's a fine difference between what real telemarketers do and what scammers posing as them would do.

Today, telemarketing continues to stay alive because there is still a need for it to contact and engage potential B2B clients. All kinds of decision makers, from managers to all the way up to the CEOs, take a lot of means just to contact. The phone just happens to be one of them.

In the following, you will find just some areas where scammers and telemarketers differ greatly.

Targets

Scammers – Scammers typically target the most gullible. These would include people who have no easy access to confirming the things they say over the phone. They would go for areas that they think have low awareness with regards to telemarketing scams.

Professionals – B2B telemarketers target only businesses, and more specifically, certain people in charge of certain areas all in order to generate sales leads. The businesses themselves aren't very easy to navigate because you have gatekeepers and other safeguards to prevent people from wasting the decision maker's time. The businesses must also fit a certain criteria determined by industry, size, and factors that would indicate a need for whatever product or service they're offering.

Goals and information

Scammers – Scammers are basically thieves. The things they steal? Information. Personal information. These could be credit card numbers, bank account PINs, and other sensitive data that would allow access to people's money. And if they can't get that, there's always the classic case of duping people into directly sending them money by making up the same false promises (e.g. tax reduction).

Professionals – Real telemarketers are also after information but this information is only for the purpose of convincing either themselves or whoever is outsourcing them for it. Convince them of what exactly? A need. B2B transactions have their best value when there is a definite need for something and the money spent on the relationship or the project is worth every penny. You're talking about big business here and specific needs have to be confirmed. It's the only way they can get the qualified leads they need to determine who and who is not open to do business. The telemarketers themselves aren't attempting to sell and in fact, the closest thing to that would be when they do additional appointment setting. The sale itself still needs to be made by whoever needed to get the necessary information to act upon.

Technology

Scammers – Scammers are cheap or otherwise they wouldn't be so desperate to steal instead of pursuing more honest efforts. This is reflected in their use of low quality communications technology, fellow criminals who obviously never trained to communicate like a pro, and even those who use websites generally don't put effort to make it look convincing enough. That takes money and perhaps more money than what they rip off of people.

Professionals – These people use only the best and more. They're not just limited to the phone. They have a large database that they've built over the years so they don't have to start compiling numbers from scratch. Their equipment is selected to ensure clear, quality communication. Finally, they wouldn't be professionals if there wasn't some time invested in their training.