Things to avoid doing when conducting a Telemarketing campaign
Telemarketing is a valuable sales tool for many businesses and can be a great way to gain new leads and learn more about existing customers. If your business has a contact database that is out of date or would like to gauge interest in your products or services with local businesses, conversational telemarketing is a fantastic way to increase awareness of your brand and grow your sales pipeline.
It is important to keep in mind that the people you are calling are often busy, with your call coming as an interruption. With this in mind, there are a number of opening gambits, words and phrases that a successful telemarketer aims to avoid when calling prospects.
These include:
Questions that prompt a yes/no answer
While asking a prospect whether ‘now is a convenient time to talk?’ is a polite way to acknowledge their busy schedule, it immediately offers your prospect a way out of the conversation. If the person you’re speaking to is looking for an excuse to cut the call short, this kind of question hands them the opportunity to do so.
Being abrupt or short
It is important to acknowledge that your unsolicited call is an inconvenience. Your prospects will appreciate it if you acknowledge their schedule and immediately reassure them that you will not take up much of their time. You are phoning busy people who were not expecting to take a sales call, no matter how curt their tone is with you, responding in kind is never recommended.
Sounding like you are reading from a script
A busy prospect will not have much time and will not want to listen to a cold caller mechanically-reciting a sales pitch. If you need to use a crib sheet or start off working from a script, try to achieve a warm, conversational tone. This will also make your prospect feel less like a name on a list you are working through.
Being unprepared for questions
In telemarketing, preparation is key. Before you start making calls, it is worth taking some time to think about and jot down the questions your prospects are likely to ask. The more research you can carry out in advance, the less likely a prospect is to catch you out with a question you are unable to answer.
Using words with negative connotations
If the product or service you are promoting is available at low cost, it should never be referred to as ‘cheap’. Rather it should be considered to be ‘cost effective’ or ‘competitively priced’. Vague language should be avoided to ensure you sound professional, confident and competent. If you are polite but direct, your prospects are far more likely to listen to what you have to say and respond positively.
From convincing a prospect to receive additional information, to booking appointments and demonstrations, the aim of telemarketing is to get a commitment from the individual you speak to and turn a prospect into a lead.
If you are struggling to generate interest in your products, services or event over the phone, the dedicated telemarketing service from Say Hello Hello can help you re-qualify an old contact database, establish interest in your business or services and turn warm leads into hot prospects. Contact us today to find out how we can help and Say Hello Hello to an affective telemarketing campaign.
