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The 5 mistakes to avoid when doing telemarketing

Posted on 30 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

When executed correctly, B2B telemarketing can be one of the most effective methods of speaking with your target audience and building your pipeline. As with all business development techniques it is vital to do the right research upfront and put a clear strategy into place before commencing. Telemarketing is also well suited to working alongside the other business development activity that you already have running such as email marketing, direct mail or social media marketing.

We’ve refined our telemarketing strategy over the years but have seen plenty of mistakes in that time also. Here are the 5 mistakes to avoid when conducting your telemarketing campaigns:

Inadequate preparation

You may think that telemarketing is all about being on the phone, making as many calls as possible and crossing your fingers a little. This simply isn’t the right approach to take.

Taking the time to prepare before a call, thoroughly understanding your company, the USP’s of the product/service you are selling, and the decision maker you want to talk to. This preparation may seem like its wasting your time or putting you behind – but this will make your call much more professional and efficient.

Having no freedom from the script

Nobody wants to be in a role where they are just reading from a script like a robot – and no prospect wants to have a conversation with someone who is defined by a script and lacking personality.

A script helps you cover some key aspects, but diallers should have the freedom to move the conversation wherever it requires. Not only will this give more enjoyment to the team making the calls, but it will also allow a much better personalised, intelligent and consultative conversation with the prospect.

Boring them with talk!

We’ve all had these sales calls – where instead of listening to what the caller is saying we are counting how long they’ve been talking without taking a breath, just wondering if they might pass out from exhaustion!

What does this achieve? Absolutely nothing. You cannot sell to someone if you haven’t identified their needs and whether your product/service may satisfy those needs. And how are you going to find out these needs? By asking questions and allowing the prospect to steer the conversation.

Unable to handle objections

Not every prospect is going to need your product/service or want to buy from you. So, when objections to your sales pitch do arise you need to be prepared for them.

This is all about training, ensuring you understand what objections you may receive and how you can best overcome this. The biggest mistakes to avoid are mumbling, changing the subject or continuing your sales piece talking over them.

Failure to close

You have called that prospect for a reason – you want to arrange a telephone appointment, a meeting or a sign up. So as the call is going well, you need to be able to recognise when to ask for the sale and close the deal.

Training and experience will teach you when to close this sale. But failure to identify this means a missed opportunity and time wasted on both sides.

If you’re looking for telemarketing guidance or sales training, Air can help you with this. We often run sales training workshops not only for our internal staff but also for clients and local business owners. Get in touch to find out more.

Where to start with direct marketing?

Posted on 25 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

So, let’s start at the beginning, what is direct marketing?

Direct marketing is the opposite of inbound marketing. You may generate inbound interest and enquiries from having a website or publishing an advert, but you are not necessarily in control of who sees this and then enquires. Whereas direct marketing is exactly that – direct.

Direct marketing is aimed at a list of prospects who you wish to engage with and then you actively reach out to them either by phone, email or post. These prospects may be the business you really wish to work with, a focus on a certain industry sector, or a geographical area.

Why use direct marketing?

Direct marketing is a great method to use when targeting a specific prospect base. Allowing you to completely tailor your message and method of contact to what would suit those prospects. In a world with so much ‘noise’ and messages being shown to you every day, it’s proven that tailored relevant messaging is much more successful for converting than blanket messaging.

Direct marketing can also be a great medium to test campaigns to smaller amounts of recipients, allowing you to test and analyse this before rolling them out business wide.

How does telemarketing fit into direct marketing?

Telemarketing is one of the most personable methods of direct marketing, you really can’t beat picking up the phone and starting a conversation with your prospect. Not only does this open up the opportunity for you to convey your product/service benefits and measure their reaction, this method also allows the prospect to ask any questions there and then meaning you are adding value whilst giving your sales pitch. The other benefit of this method is the ability to spot when the lead is warm enough to convert – allowing you to complete the sales cycle.

Other methods such as email and direct mail certainly have their benefits. Email is a very cost effective method of reaching out to your prospects and warming them to your brand and service/products. Direct mail had become unfavourable as it was seen as ‘junk’ coming through the letterbox. However, this wave is now changing and we now receive more emails than letters, so to stand out direct mail is becoming more popular – it’s now a novelty for something to come through the letterbox at work.

As with most sales and marketing techniques, in order to be effective it’s advisable to come at it from a number of angles. Therefore, use a mixture of methods to reach your prospects. Warming your prospects using intelligent targeted email marketing or direct mail can be followed by picking up the phone to talk in more depth, answer questions and guide the prospect through the funnel.

We help business across the UK and the world with direct marketing techniques to help them reach the prospects they need to help their business grow. To find out more get in touch today.

Building bonds in a workplace

Posted on 18 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

It can sometimes feel like we never leave our workplace! A popular saying amongst colleagues is ‘we spend more time together than we spend with our families’ – and when you come to think of it, this is fairly true. Which is why the culture of a workplace and the personalities that you work with make a huge difference to how motivated you are, how much you enjoy going to work and how long you may stay with the company.

According to Gallup people who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and people who simply have good friends in the workplace are more likely to be satisfied.

Your workplace presents a perfect opportunity for you to meet a whole diverse range of individuals who you may have never had the opportunity to meet otherwise. Different genders, ages, ethnic backgrounds, cultural preferences, beliefs – bring us together. Its obvious that you are never going to get along with everyone but creating a workplace of inclusion and team mentality that acts as a support network builds a bond between people.

Creating a good healthy working relationship between colleagues can be achieved through nurturing the right internal culture. This is by no means an easy task but comes with many benefits including the building of bonds between individuals.

Simple things like sharing company lunches together, we have Pizza Friday on the first Friday of the month, or socialising outside of work, we have quarterly work socials – opens an opportunity to informally get to know those you’re working with. Having an interview process that includes different members of the team meeting the new candidate provides an opportunity to see if they are the right candidate for our culture and will they fit in. Understanding the direction of the company and how you are involved gives a great sense of ‘togetherness’, we do team meetings every Friday as a de-brief for the week whilst enjoying a beer!

Connections happen with those you sit near, the people working on your campaigns, the people you go to lunch with or even those you bump into when making tea. #TeamAir prioritise our culture. We welcome like-minded individuals who love our team mentality and we are proud of our diverse workforce who have bonded to become a work family.

Looking to join?

Transparency – the glue between telemarketers and clients

Posted on 3 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

One of the most common barriers to using outsourced telemarketing and business development agencies is a perceived lack of transparency and trust.

In our experience many clients come to us, having tried outsourcing their telemarketing before and feeling let down. Unfortunately, our industry is plagued by this reputation, owing to the fact that it’s a low point of entry to become a telemarketing company. Got yourself a phone and a computer? Hey, well done, you can start a telemarketing company (or so you think).

So why does transparency matter so much?

We like to refer to transparency as the glue between us and our clients. Without it we fall apart and cannot have a solid working relationship.

As a business you work extremely hard in setting up and establishing a reputation for yourself within your industry and within your client base. Once this is established you are likely to want to increase your growth at a faster pace, at this point you may not have the resource or capacity in house. Which is why you look to outsource.

This reputation is extremely precious to you – so it should be, you’ve worked hard for it. And when it comes to outsourcing your business development, you have to be confident that your brand, your reputation and your culture is being represented correctly on the phone. Unless you feel your chosen outsourced partner is consistently being honest and transparent it can be very difficult to allow them to become a representative of your brand.

How do you prove transparency?

It’s all very easy to say ‘We are transparent’ but saying it simply isn’t enough. You have to be able to prove it.

We firmly believe that although we are an outsourced partner to your business, we should understand your business to the same level as your employees to feel confident to really express the brand and represent you. Which is why we collaborate with you at every single stage of the process, so you are confident in the knowledge of what we are doing on your behalf, this includes:

Setup of a strategy, writing telephone scripts and follow-up email copy with your input and approval
We ask all clients to conduct a training session for the team making your calls, so they fully understand your business and are competent in how they are going to approach the task in hand
We have a bespoke client portal for clients to access live time information on calls, conversations and time spent on your campaign
You will be assigned an Account Manager and calling team who will be your regular and consistent contact throughout the entire campaign
All of our calls are recorded, and you can request access to these at any point or we can set up regular sharing of these calls with you

I know that transparency is vital for any relationship especially when we are representing the brand you’ve worked so hard to develop. If you are feeling let down by your current business development partner or you’ve been considering outsourcing but haven’t yet taken the leap, then talk to us about how we could help you. Give us a call on 0345 241 3038, pop us an email to contact@air-marketing.co.uk or visit our website for more information.

Where does telemarketing fit into the sales cycle?

Posted on 21 March 20187 July 2023 by Doug Roots

So, you’ve started considering telemarketing? Or maybe you haven’t yet started to consider it but, you have heard competitors within your market are doing telemarketing and a couple of your business contacts have talked about it too. Perhaps you recognise that there may be some value in looking into this avenue as part of your sales and marketing activity but you’re wondering where it fits in your sales cycle and how you can justify it?

Naturally, when sales and marketing activity is executed together as an integrated process you are likely to see an increase in leads, especially the highly relevant leads which are easier to convert. There are now opportunities to integrate telemarketing within the whole sales funnel; starting from the awareness stage, right through to the evaluation stage.

But where does it fit?

The awareness stage

At the very start of a sales cycle we need to scope out the market, starting with data and market research so you and your target market can become aware of each other. Telemarketing can play an important role in data cleansing; checking your data lists are accurate, up to date and receptive to your offering. This process is extremely helpful in helping you shape your offering, your marketing campaigns and your approach to these leads. Without getting this process right, your lead generation can be far more time consuming and far less successful.

Adding value stage

During the sales cycle telemarketing compliments the nurturing marketing activity as a very effective touch point. It can be argued that telemarketing is one of the fastest lead generation tactics to identify and close leads. Having that human conversation to understand where someone is in the buying cycle, how you can help them and being able to easily answer their questions is something that will set you apart. As all these conversations are likely to be recorded (we record all of our calls), this is all extra data that can be documented to profile your customers, helping both your marketing and sales teams.

Follow-up stage

Follow up calls are a final important aspect of your sales cycle, that for many businesses are not conducted because they are delighted to have won the business and they are now running off to chase the next win. But if we truly complete the cycle, our new customer is perfectly placed to give us feedback on the process they have just experienced. This helps us not only shape this experience for future customers, but it also adds further value to your customers experience as they have a platform to discuss any concerns, or issues they may have.

So, if you’re considering if telemarketing could help your sales cycle in some way, the likely answer is yes. It can help in so many different aspects of the sales cycle, we’d be surprised if it didn’t compliment your current sales or marketing activity.

Reaching customers is easy – but delivering the right message is getting harder

Posted on 19 February 20187 July 2023 by Doug Roots

The digital space is full of noise – tv adverts, Google adverts, social media adverts, emails all trying to target you using the cookies collected from your online browsing. Many of these online efforts with general messages end up as nothing more than an annoyance to consumers because it’s almost impossible for them to address specific issues or problems facing a customer.

For years, we have been bombarded with generic sales messages and brand information which has accumulated to make noise. The digital space now offers more affordable marketing than the traditional tv, radio and magazine advertising – so more companies jump on the bandwagon and before we know it, we are drowning in noise with no clear message.

We have more tools than ever at our disposal to create specific targeted messages but for some, marketing still seems to be a bit of a hit and miss affair. The saying “If you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick” rings true here.

Buyers can now find all the information they need online, so the methods that sales people use for presenting their value proposition must change.

This is easier said than done, and the inability to communicate value messages is one of the biggest inhibitors to attracting new customers and achieving sales success.

Modern day buyers are only interested in how a product can benefit them.

The features of a product might be interesting, but if it’s not going to provide a direct benefit and help them achieve their desired outcomes, then they’re simply not interested. In a world where consumers have all the information they need at their fingertips, selling has become harder than ever.

Value messaging needs to change to keep up with this evolution of the buyer. Selling a product is no longer about the product. It’s all about the buyer.

Making a purchase is now a journey that involves emotions, feelings, goals and solutions. And a salesperson can only facilitate this journey if they know their customer well. They need to have conversations and truly get to the heart of their problems.

Sales message dynamics

Value messages need to follow a process that changes and meanders with the customer’s buying journey. There is a definite beginning, middle and end in the sales process, and salespeople need to help customers understand their own challenges (because often they don’t) and provide a solution that will achieve a desired result. A proper conversation with a customer opens the lines of communication and can address a problem the customer wasn’t even aware they had.

Creating new business

The inability to communicate value messages effectively not only inhibits sales success, but also impedes the ability to attract new leads and clients and expand existing ones into more valuable clients. This makes sales messaging even more important when it comes to successful business.

Customer-centric messaging

It’s imperative that sales people know how to plan, construct and present their messages effectively. We need to focus more on the customers’ pain points and explain the value they will get from the product. This is where personalised, one-on-one sales techniques make a difference.

What’s the best way to begin the process of communicating value messages that will ensure that the right people sit up and listen? Attract, train and retain exceptional salespeople.

Great salespeople engage prospects and build trust. While many lead generation methods and sales processes involve online communication methods, salespeople provide what digital marketing can’t – a human connection and an ongoing relationship.

Are you looking to reap the benefits that outsourced business development assistance can provide? Outsourcing your telemarketing to Air allows boosted revenue through successful campaigns, with our average return being £18 for every £1 our clients invest. To find out more about how we could help you open the conversation with your customers and deliver the right message get in touch on 0345 241 3038.

Is there still a place for telemarketing within your digital focused marketing mix?

Posted on 5 February 20187 July 2023 by Doug Roots

For those sales and marketing teams who have focused their effort and budget solely on digital channels, it may seem like telemarketing is an old forgotten art no longer needed. But this isn’t the case. Telemarketing proves to be a very effective tool when used as part of your integrated marketing mix – assisting you to close more B2B sales than you might think.

Assisting not replacing marketing activity

Integrating marketing activity is where you will see results. In the past, telemarketing was used to speak to as many prospects as possible, generating as many leads as possible, in many cases no matter the quality. Today this simply doesn’t work.

Combining marketing activity across different user touchpoints has proved to be more effective in converting leads and closing deals compared to using just a single channel. With the increasing use of email campaigns, junk mail is common – how can you guarantee your email will be read or even opened. If your email is read, can you be sure if the user understood it, found it relevant or even slightly considered your product/service – can you guarantee that they would get in touch with you to talk more?

This is where telemarketing can have an impact. Following up on emails, nurturing a customer through the journey provides a very real touchpoint with your customer. Understanding their views on the product/service, apprehensions, questions, or reasons why it wouldn’t be suitable. This very personal interaction opens up the conversation, provides you insight into your market and nurtures relationships which may not convert immediately but will build the pipeline for the future.

Where to start?

Data and your message is going to be the most important place to start. Refined data gets you to the right person quicker, saving time and, therefore, money which will see you make more of your investment. Once you reach that person its all about the message. But making sure that the message is joined up across your marketing mix is vital. Your email campaign should have the same message as you are intending to discuss on the call with them, this repetition of a core message will resonate with prospects giving more brand clarity.

Feel like you need some help? Air Marketing Group is an outsourced B2B telemarketing agency providing a full range of lead generation, appointment setting, telemarketing, call centre and customer service solutions to companies around the UK. Outsourcing your telemarketing to Air allows boosted revenue through successful campaigns. Effective B2B telemarketing is all about ROI: Our average return is £18 for every £1 our clients invest.

Our clients have benefited from our experience and the Air process, take a look at some of our case studies here to see for yourself.

To find out more about how we can help with your business development process, contact us on 0345 241 3038.

5 ways to improve your business development process

Posted on 22 January 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

Business development strategies are crucial for helping businesses to grow, expand, and reach the next level.

Effective business development is one of the fastest ways to grow your business but it can also be one of the most time consuming as it often requires focus, planning, stamina, and resources. However, when done right, your business development processes can have a huge impact on your growth, your revenue, and your company’s future.

Here are 5 ways to improve your business development process:

Effective market research

Market research plays a vital part in any business development process, helping you to understand your current market position and determine where it is going.

Carry out research into your industry, your geographical area, and the market segment you are targeting. Telemarketing is a great tool for this.

Research contracts, bids, and opportunities for co-operation with other companies – this can help you to increase your revenue channels.

Subscribe to industry-related databases, forums, and blogs. These can be hugely valuable, providing detailed information about projects within your sector. This can save you time when collecting information and reduce your market intelligence efforts.

Focus on your client’s needs

Rather than focusing your business development process on what you’re offering, focus instead on what your client needs, listen carefully to the client’s individual requirements and preferences. If you listen carefully you should then be able to modify your own pitch to match their requirements. This, in turn, should increase client satisfaction rates.

Prioritise client satisfaction

A dissatisfied client could damage your company’s reputation as a whole.

With this in mind, client satisfaction is key for effective business development and should always be your priority. If a problem or issue arises, you need to fix it as quickly and effectively as possible.

Don’t let relationships go cold

As well as providing a good service to your clients, it’s also important to maintain relationships. After all, studies have shown that retained clients spend, on average, 67% more than new customers.

Make it part of your business development process to engage with your clients periodically. Set up Google Alerts for your clients so you know what’s happening in their world or share useful content with them when you come across it. You could even send notes on special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

Ensure to connect with your clients on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

Innovate

Innovation is key when it comes to beating your competition. After all, if you offer your clients something unique, there’s a high probability that they will do business with you.

What more can you do with your services? Is there a part of what you offer that needs something extra in order to increase sales? Perhaps you need to integrate services into packages?

Continue to innovate and improve your business development process to benefit your clients and consequently your sales pipeline.

If you’d like to understand how we can help with your business development process, contact us on 0345 241 3038 or get in touch today.

Why telemarketing should be part of your 2018 sales strategy

Posted on 12 January 20187 July 2023 by Doug Roots

At the start of the New Year, many of us take the opportunity to re-evaluate our business processes and sales strategies.

When you’re putting together your sales strategy for 2018, telemarketing is definitely something you should consider. With so many new technologies and tools available, it’s easy to overlook the traditional telemarketing approach, but taking this route can play a significant role in your sales strategy. In fact, it’s one of the fastest growing forms of direct marketing today.

Here are 8 reasons why telemarketing should be part of your 2018 strategy:

It’s cost-effective

Telemarketing can be a cost-effective method of selling your business, particularly in comparison to other sales methods. Although there is a common theory that it’s expensive and that costs within telemarketing aren’t easy to control, it actually provides a seriously powerful return on investment. After all, what more should you expect from a marketing channel that connects with individual prospects one on one?

We speak more about the cost of hiring in-house versus outsourcing here.

It’s convenient

Telemarketing is a convenient sales tool, for both you and your customers. This allows you to bring your product or service directly to them, without having to travel and take on the expenses involved.

Unlike other sales strategies, such as email and direct marketing, your customers will be able to ask questions directly and have an immediate conversation, rather than waiting around for replies.

It’s versatile

Telemarketing can be used within a whole host of sales applications. Ranging from appointment setting, lead generation, and follow up, right through to event promotions, re-activation, and market research – telemarketing is incredibly versatile.

Immediate contact

Unlike other methods of contact, the telephone is immediate and attention-grabbing. With technology today your potential customers are available almost 24/7.

High conversion rates

When implemented correctly, telemarketing is known to deliver high conversion rates, particularly of course where there is a focus on quality rather than quantity.

On-going engagement

As well as reaching out to new leads, telemarketing is also a great way to engage with existing customers. Staying in contact with your customers gives you an opportunity to find out more about their needs and build a better, on-going relationship with them, whilst also allowing you to upsell other products and services that they might benefit from.

Expand your business

A further advantage of telemarketing is that it allows you to expand your business by selling to customers in other areas, both locally and nationally. Opportunities to expand are therefore endless, giving you a chance to hone in on your target audience, whatever the area.
Immediate feedback

Telemarketing allows you to obtain instant feedback from your customers about your product or service. This, in turn, allows you to immediately start working on ways to improve your business.

As well as being a great sales tool, telemarketing is also an ideal way to ask your customers if there is anything else that you can be doing for them.

So, there you have it, 8 valuable reasons why telemarketing should be part of your sales strategy in 2018.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch, or call us on 0345 241 3038.

Tips for B2B cold calling

Posted on 20 December 20175 July 2023 by Doug Roots

In today’s increasingly digital world, businesses are finding themselves with ever more outbound marketing and sales tools at their disposal.

However, when it comes to generating new leads and converting those leads to paying customers, it’s important not to overlook the classic cold calling technique.

Check out our top tips for B2B cold calling:

Target

First things first, if you want to optimise the success of your cold calling campaign, you need to ensure that you’re speaking to the right people.

Although it can be tempting to Google your target companies and start dialling, this approach is unlikely to be effective. Instead, seek out the right contacts at the right level, ideally the direct line of someone who has the power to make decisions on what you have to offer.

The more you find out about your potential customers, the better understanding you’ll have of their wants and needs.

Preparation is key

When it comes to B2B cold calling, preparation is key. Before you even think about picking up the phone, make sure that you have all of the information you need to hand and that you’re well versed on the subject you’re going to discuss.

You should also prepare for objections. By putting yourself in your prospect’s shoes and anticipating their potential concerns, you’ll be able to reframe the conversation in order to put them at ease and present a solution to their hesitations before they even have a chance to vocalise them.

First impressions count

The first 15 seconds of a cold call is the most important. This is your one and only opportunity to make a good first impression and to engage with the person on the other end of the phone.

So, prepare a strong opening statement that will appeal to your prospect and won’t give them a reason to end your call before you’ve even had the chance to make your pitch.

Tone of voice

When you’re calling potential B2B customers, it’s not just about what you say – your tone of voice can make or break the call.

Think about it, what busy decision maker is going to want to spend their time speaking to someone who isn’t sure of what they’re talking about, or someone that sounds off? No matter how unsure and self-conscious you are about making the call, make sure your voice sounds cool, calm, and collected, without verging into arrogant.

The ideal tone for cold calling is one that is warm yet business-like and curious yet straight to the point.

Focus

No matter how many potential customers you speak to in a day, it’s important that you give each and every one of them your undivided attention. Although it’s easy to get distracted when you’ve already had the same conversation multiple times that day, never lose focus and never try to multi-task.

Don’t give up!

No matter how much of a cold calling pro you are, it’s unlikely that every call will successfully result in a sale and those calls that do generate a lead can take months to close.

To find out more about how we can help you optimise your B2B cold calling results, give us a call on 0345 241 3038 or get in touch.

Category: Blog