Lead Generation Archives - Page 5 of 6

Where does your telemarketing campaign fit into the bigger picture?

Posted on 26 June 20183 June 2025 by Doug Roots

We are often contacted by companies who reach out to us because they have (rightly) heard that direct telemarketing delivers very tangible ROI or they see us advertising that our average client receives £18 for every £1 invested.

But often telemarketing is viewed in isolation, companies engage with the pilot campaign to test the water and see how it delivers without taking into account the opportunity that lies in the bigger picture.

We know that telemarketing is an extremely effective channel for many companies, but we also know that combining telemarketing activity with other forms of marketing or looking at the campaign as a longer-term investment such as a 6 month or year long tactic to support other business objectives, can deliver even better results.

The set up of a telemarketing campaign can bring up a lot of questions such as:

Have you researched your product/service? Do you know how well it will be received by the market? Do you know your competitors? Will it deliver what we say it will?
How are we supporting this telemarketing campaign? Do we have a branded email that can be sent afterwards? Do you have a website that echoes the message we are giving? Have you created anything such as a brochure or flyers we can share with prospects?
Have you considered your own sales pitch? Is your sales pitch and our telemarketing pitch aligned? Are we both on brand? Will your sales pitch see conversions?
Is your data right for use? Do you need to purchase new data? What else can that data be used for?

As a Business Development Partner, it is not our ethos to deliver merely a ‘project’ within constraints that are agreed. Instead, we want to help you look at the bigger picture, understand what the strategy for your telemarketing or marketing in general is, consider all the angles that could be taken to best engage with your target market and really help you generate the right leads for your business.

The visibility and involvement that is available when working with Air, allows you to ensure that telemarketing is firmly set in the bigger picture. Feedback on data allows you to update your CRM systems and instigate actions if needed. Being able to come in and train the team allows you to shape what the tone of voice for your business, the sales techniques and known objections. And being able to monitor calls in live time means you are always on top of what is happening, planning for appointments, understanding objections and client feedback etc.

So, if you’re looking for a partner to work alongside you, guide you and deliver for you, speak to the team here at Air for more information on how we can help improve your business development. Call us on 0345 241 3038 or email us at contact@air-marketing.co.uk.

Let’s start with data

Posted on 31 May 20183 June 2025 by Doug Roots

We live in a world where data is everywhere, it’s more widely available than it ever used to be, and we use it more than we’ve ever done before!

As telemarketer’s, data is invaluable to us. The simple truth is that we are only as effective as the data that we use. It is our job to understand who we are calling and to establish a need, all culminating together to create a lead or opportunity for our client. With the correct and clean data, we are able to do this in an efficient manner, understanding the target market, key message and target for our clients.

But, with bad data we struggle from the outset. Using out of date, irrelevant, or confusing data causes delays to our calling, meaning we call less relevant data and have less worthwhile conversations resulting in a worse return on investment for our clients.

Data changes quickly, especially if you are working with large quantities:

Staff change roles or leave companies
Companies change locations or details
Businesses close
Company mergers happen

And this can all change the data that you hold about that company.

Telemarketing is still proven to be an extremely effective method of business development when used correctly. Here at Air, we focus on the ROI that you receive when working with us, our average return is £18 for every £1 our clients invest. But to work as effectively as possible we rely heavily on working with the right data. For this reason, we have always partnered with high quality compliant data providers who we can rely on to deliver what we require to meet our clients needs.

With GDPR changes on their way in, data has never been so under the spot light. With this in mind, we’ve created our GDPR Readiness Statement, using plain English to explain how we have got ourselves ready, to give you confidence in our operation and to provide guidance for yours.

If you’re considering starting a telemarketing campaign, get in touch for a chat to find out how we can help you with your business development and data needs.

Sales and Business Tips – How Best to Question During the Conversation

Posted on 4 May 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

Asking open questions develops a conversation with a prospect but when asking questions it is important to ensure they are natural and you dig deep on certain points raised to make the most of the conversation to move into the close. Take a look at our latest video to find out more on this tip:

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.

Celebrating success in financial year 2017!

Posted on 24 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

After a very successful financial year here at Air, we chose to treat our team to a well-deserved lunch and the afternoon off on Friday, which was made even better by the sun shining!

We achieved 357% growth in revenue in our 2^nd year of trading, and we are looking to keep this level of momentum going to propel growth even further this year.

During the team lunch we celebrated 3 people who Team Air felt went above and beyond in the last quarter of financial year 2017. Voted by Team Air, we were pleased to celebrate Hannah Shearman, Richard Street and Ashley Heyworth, each receiving £100 in John Lewis/Waitrose gift cards as a thank you for their contributions.

A big thank you to Team Air for your continued commitment, results and drive. We simply couldn’t have done this without you. And a big thank you to all our clients and partners for working with us and trusting us with your brands.

We’ve been shortlisted for the Express and Echo Business Awards 2018

Posted on 19 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

We are delighted to be shortlisted for three categories of the Express and Echo Business Awards.

Featuring in the categories of:

Best New Start-up Business
Business Growth of the Year 26+ employees
Owen Richards, our MD, is up for Entrepreneur of the Year

2017 has been a fantastic year for us, having achieved a 357% growth in revenue compared to the first year of trading and increasing the staff base from 11 team members to now nearly 40. This simply couldn’t be achieved without the hard work of the whole team and the vision of Owen, our Managing Director, leading the business.

Winning an award to recognise this hard work, would mean the world to Team Air – so everyone’s keeping their fingers firmly crossed.

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?

Motivation in a sales environment

Posted on 12 April 20183 June 2025 by Doug Roots

An office full of sales people – some people thrive in this environment, others would rather be anywhere else! It is a challenging environment and not for the faint hearted, with some big personalities and lots of diversity. But the biggest challenge and one of the most important factors for success is motivation for the whole team.

No matter what job you hold, you want to feel motivated and engaged. This is not easy to achieve in our industry, nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘Ooh I can’t wait to jump on the phones and do some telemarketing today’. So, instilling motivation, providing the right incentivisation and a great culture means people enjoy their work and look forward to coming in day after day.

How does Air do this differently?

Motivation is key to ensuring sales people hit weekly, monthly and annual targets. We know that our team of Business Development Executives who are calling on client campaigns are our service, without them we simply wouldn’t be successful at what we do – so we have to look after them. From our experience it takes more than just commission to keep a happy workforce.

Of course, commission is important to most sales people. Being motivated by money and the opportunity of earning more means that we have a healthy commission structure in place. But this is based on results and client retention not purely speed of dialling and quantity of appointment made. Giving our whole team more motivation to work hard on retaining client accounts and delivering.

But on top of commission, we understand that internal culture makes a huge difference to motivation in a sales environment. Internal incentives tailored to help individuals meet client KPI’s and individual targets prove very effective for us. Team socials, rewards, identifying when people do the right things and the freedom of not micromanaging, all make our sales environment stand out from the crowd.

Our Aim – Motivation

As Head of Performance (Account Director), my role is to identify and understand an individual’s motivators, what is it that makes them tick? This can be a whole range of things, some people are purely financially motivated, whereas others are looking to progress their career by gaining more responsibility and further opportunity to do this – and of course those that are in between.

Working alongside colleagues in the leadership team we nurture a very special culture here at Air, where the team are performing at an optimum level and maintaining momentum, clients and crucially motivation to deliver and succeed.

Our workforce understands how important they are to Air and we respect their importance – so together we work to grow the company, our client base and team members careers by keeping people motivated and excited to be part of #TeamAir every day. Can’t believe it, why not come and see it for yourself!

Opinion piece by Marco Alfano-Rogers, Head of Performance (Account Director), Air Marketing Group

Lessons from Rugby by Chris Bentley

Posted on 10 April 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

True north

Culture is a massively used term in rugby union. The top teams love to refer to theirs and the losing teams aspire to get it. There are many ways to define the culture of a winning team but the best way from my time was simply the team closest to finding their True North.

Different from magnetic north and grid north, True North is the direction along the earth’s surface to the north pole. We used to substitute our team goals for true north and then explore the behaviours that would get us there.

If everyone can identify the target and agree on the behaviours that will get there and those that won’t it suddenly becomes very clear. However, this list can often be quite broad, by coining a cover all phrase like true north we were able to have a reference point to consider actions and behaviours… ‘is that true north’ we could often ask one another when perhaps behaviours suggested otherwise.

Having worked as a team to agree on the direction we could then self-police one another and create a peer led culture rather than one with direction from above. This made it easier to adhere to (after all, we’d designed it) and created an arena where the critical mass stayed on task.

Stab in the belly

‘Et tu brute’ – the immortal last words from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as his close ally joined the assassination party. It was at this moment that his will to fight back erodes and he bowed to the Machiavellian plot. Being stabbed in the back is a term that still exists today and can cause a huge amount of problems with trust eroded, reputations tarnished, and teams damaged.

In sport as in business things go wrong and people make mistakes. This isn’t a problem but dealing with things going wrong often is. Its human nature to deflect and try to play down problems, nobody likes to be told off or have mistakes highlighted but this can be turned to a positive if you are on the same wavelength and willing to face issues head on.

During my time in rugby the culture was always to ‘stab in the belly’ and highlight problems you can foresee as early as possible. This wasn’t a freedom to cause consternation or have arguments but a strength of character to give and receive criticism, appreciate that it’s for the good of the team and move on.

This maxim only works if the team has the trust to accept, as well as give, honesty. Quite often the challenge is to be robust enough to take a criticism on the chin, appreciate its aimed at a ‘true north’ goal and move on positively.

Opinion piece by Chris Bentley, Client Relationship Director, Air Marketing Group.

Tag: Lead Generation