Telemarketing Archives - Page 8 of 11

Our ever-growing expertise

Posted on 12 July 2018 by Doug Roots

Having come into telemarketing from the construction industry I had a lot to learn! I knew it was going to be a steep learning curve in order to make the most out of my opportunity and I was willing to take it on.

After thorough training, guidance, opportunities and of course learnings taken from mistakes – I worked closer to becoming an expert in telemarketing. But during this journey I came to understand that I can never truly be an expert because of the variance of campaigns, clients, industries, and requirements that I will work on in my telemarketing career.

But in truth, this continual learning, adapting and challenging myself is what motivates me to push even further in my career.

My knowledge on the science behind telemarketing is now strong and I am proud of this. But outside of this my knowledge now stretches from finance and HR services, to vehicle leasing, data analysis, energy consumption and much more!

The reason for this expansive knowledge? Is that all agents within Air Marketing Group are trained on 5 different campaigns (or more). The result of this? Is that agents are kept engaged and challenged with the opportunity to call on different campaigns – they could be working on telesales, appointment setting, events, market research for any B2B client offering any product or service.

But the benefits are also seen for our clients. Having a wide range of experience means that agents have a deeper understanding of responding to varied objections, they understand key pain points for different industries, and they can begin to build an understanding of approaches that work within different sectors to help clients with their campaigns.

We see ourselves as an extension of our client’s team, a partner. Because of this, we want to learn from our clients (who are the experts in their field) to ensure the best chance of success for their campaigns. With this in mind, we work closely with our clients when developing the strategy, our clients train our in-house agents and we encourage communication between all campaign members and all key client team members. Absorbing this knowledge from our client gives us the ability to truly represent their business in the best possible way.

It’s an ongoing journey, with ever-growing expertise that will never end – but that’s all part of the fun. Our aim to continue delivering outstanding services to our clients and the more equipped we are to do this the more we’ll succeed.

Opinion Piece by Ashley Heyworth, Senior Account Manager, Air Marketing Group

How well do you know your customers?

Posted on 4 July 201819 September 2024 by Doug Roots

‘Know your customer’ has become quite a cliché in marketing. There has never been a business that didn’t start out fulfilling unmet needs for a very specific group of people.

We suspect you probably know your customer fairly well, but let’s turn this question on its head and instead ask:

How well do you know your prospects?

Air Marketing Group know that a lack of qualified prospects moving through your sales process today, can mean trouble for your business tomorrow. We understand that a strong sales pipeline is critical to attain revenue goals 6 – 12 months from now.

So what steps should you take to build and sustain a healthy sales pipeline?

Start with enough leads

Sales is a numbers game and to develop a strong sales pipeline you must accumulate enough leads to drive through your marketing and sales engine. If you have a good understanding of the pipeline process you’ll know only a proportion of your targeted leads will become qualified, and a fraction will convert and be ready to buy at any given time.

Qualify every lead

Generating a list of qualifying questions to ask every interested lead will allow you to determine if there’s a real business opportunity or not.

Ask: Has your prospect got a realistic need you can fill?

What are their major challenges in this area?
Have they tried to solve these issues? If so, how?
How soon do they want to find a solution?

Ask: Is the prospect an appropriate lead for the value and price point of your offering?

What solutions would they consider?
What is the budget to address this solution?

Be careful of time wasters. If it appears there’s little budget for your solution, put this lead into your low-quality category and concentrate on higher priority prospects.

Use lead quality for targeted marketing

It’s important to use resulting lead quality data to develop more tailored campaigns. At Air Marketing all our campaigns use bespoke lead generation strategies and are tailored to meet individual business requirements. This strategy allows us to provide clients with quality sales leads that meet specified criteria.

Nurture qualified prospects

Not every qualified prospect will be ready to buy today. Once qualified leads have been identified you can leverage the use of content based email marketing, and follow up calls, to continue to nurture leads and identify interested prospects.

Create a next step for every interested lead. Base this on need, interest and timing:

Schedule a demo or follow up call to share additional insights.
Send a follow up email that needs a response within a requested time.
Send an industry-related article every month to stay in touch and keep educating them.

Remaining in front of interested, qualified prospects will mean you are at the front of their mind to assist when the time of their need arises.

CRM systems

A customer relationship management system (CRM) will improve your sales efficiencies, and allow you to track and report on sales opportunities, leads and prospects.

Remember a healthy sales pipeline will have the following attributes:

Many opportunities at every stage of the funnel.
New opportunities coming into the top of the funnel regularly.
New sales being converted at the bottom of the sales funnel regularly .

Here at Air Marketing Group, we pride ourselves on our ability to get under the skin of your business, speaking with your prospects and where possible and relevant warm the lead into a position where they can be converted into an opportunity. In addition to this, we provide a transparent reporting service, and the delivery of each call recording to ensure our clients that any leads we’ve secured will convert.

If knowing your prospect is still an area you would like help with get in touch today to find out how we can help on 03452413038 or get in touch.

Where does your telemarketing campaign fit into the bigger picture?

Posted on 26 June 2018 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.

What makes you think you’re so special?

Posted on 18 June 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

I’m a great admirer of Jeremy Waite’s Ten Words. If you don’t know what this is, it is a book written by Jeremy that pledges to communicate ‘big ideas’ in ‘small words and short sentences’. We cannot escape it, we hear more and more about how people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter – meaning we need to be more concise, clear and sharp if we want to grab someone’s attention.

The reason I start with this, is because I often think about this when I am working with clients on their telemarketing strategies.

We know that attention spans on the telephone during a cold call are even shorter than the average. We’ve all been there, you are right in the middle of something, the phone rings and it’s a cold caller wanting to engage with you. Now they could be calling to offer you a service or a product that is exactly what you are looking for, but your attention span is already short because you know it is a cold call and you have been disrupted.

This is why a strategy for me is the most important part of the process. We have to understand what makes you special? What is your real value to a prospect? How does it solve the pain that the prospect will be feeling? How does it go above and beyond what else is available on the market?

There are so many questions that we cover and so many answers that we discuss – but then it is up to me to create that small magic opening that is going to win your prospect’s attention span and allow me to divulge a little more information than when they first picked up the phone.

I think it’s a great exercise for anyone to try, the idea of 10 words to describe your role? Your business? Your personal goals? Your career goals? What makes you special?

Sure, we may not get it right the very first time, but if we have all the information from the strategy and we test the opening, we are going to be able to sense how this is landing with your prospects giving us opportunities to tweak and sharpen the message as we learn and test.

I’m Richard, I open up your target market to generate you leads. What do you do?

Opinion piece by Richard Street, Account Manager, Air Marketing Group

Sales and Business Tips – How to temperature check your sales prospect

Posted on 4 June 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

Temperature checking your sales prospect will give you an indication of their feelings without asking for the sale. But what is the best method to do this? Take a look at our latest video to find out how:

Let’s start with data

Posted on 31 May 201830 June 2023 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.

We’re thrilled to be named Most Outstanding Business

Posted on 24 May 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

We were absolutely thrilled to have been recognised in the Express and Echo Business Awards, winning one of the three awards that we had been shortlisted for, in the category of Business Growth of the Year (over 25 staff). On top of this, we were then overjoyed to hear that a surprise award for Outstanding Business of the Year, was also awarded to us, ahead of the other amazing category winners on the night.

We have achieved a huge amount since our launch in 2016, growing to a team of 40 people within 2 years and working with clients such as Funding Circle, Crowdcube and GoCardless.

Owen Richards, our Managing Director said, “We put great emphasis on the importance of our people, who play such an important part in everything that we achieve. We’re proud to be recognised within the Exeter business community, and without the whole team effort we simply wouldn’t have grown at the speed and scale we have, with more growth predicted again this year.”

If you are looking for help with telemarketing, telesales, lead generation and appointment setting, and would like to partner with an experienced award-winning company – Air could be just what you have been looking for. To find out more, get in touch 0345 241 3038.

Speaking the same language

Posted on 22 May 20183 July 2023 by Doug Roots

It’s incredible to think that in a world that is inhabited by approximately 7.5 billion people, 1.5 billion speak English, that’s 20% of the Earth’s population (source: Babbel). As a native English speaking company, based here in England we can sometimes take for granted that this amount of people in the world speak our language. But businesses that operate internationally and want to work with foreign territories understand the importance of making individuals comfortable in their own language, especially if they do not speak English or only speak a little as a second language.

Our top 4 reasons why speaking the same language is so important include:

Respect

If you are contacting a prospect in their country, and you are aware that their native language is not English, addressing them in their own language is far more respectful. Imagine it from your own perspective, you receive a phone call from France, and they are speaking to you in French. You may have basic understanding and knowledge that you gained at school, but it is not your native language, so you struggle to interact and eventually become disengaged. It’s no different. Building respect by appreciating their cultural differences, including language, is what will build a relationship giving you a much higher opportunity to convert that individual into a customer.

Avoid misunderstandings

When engaging with a new prospect, no matter where in the world, ensuring your initial message is clear and well understood is essential. This initial conversation is what the prospect is going to remember about you and the brand therefore it needs to be conveyed correctly. If you are speaking to someone in English but they do not fully understand, it can potentially distort this initial conversation, your message and could destroy any relationship before it is ever created. Reinforcing the importance of speaking to them in their native language to ensure they fully understand the message, giving them the best opportunity to engage.

Be competitive in the market place

Looking to expand your business to foreign territories opens up huge opportunities for you. However, you are also entering a new market space, with different cultures, languages and competition. You must be ready for this. If you enter the market replicating your business model from England, without any consideration of culture and language, you could come unstuck. To give yourself the best chance to be competitive, you must first understand the culture of the country you are expanding into; talk to them in their language, understand the cultural nuances that prospects would appreciate.

Reach those you want to reach

In an increasingly noisy digital world, being relevant has become more important than ever. We see this all the time; is this brand relevant, is their service/product relevant, is this message relevant, are we contacting the right person etc. With this in mind, we only rarely have to consider whether the language is relevant, but for international business this is a key consideration. Imagine being sat at work in the UK and receiving a marketing email in Japanese, would you try translating it or would you just delete it as it is irrelevant – for many it would be the latter.

Multilingual telemarketing is a fantastic way to start conversations with your target market in foreign territories as part of your expansion plan. Conversations play a vital part in understanding customer needs, true customer objections and the market place. Supplementing telemarketing alongside other marketing activity provides a rounded approach to entering a new and different market.

Here at Air, we’ve run both B2B and B2C campaigns using native languages which include (but are not limited to) Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian.

For more information about our multilingual telemarketing service take a look at our website or get in touch on 0345 241 3038 to see how we could help you.

Have you discovered the full potential of your voice?

Posted on 14 May 201830 June 2023 by Doug Roots

We’ve all heard the famous saying, ‘you have a face for the radio’, which can be taken offensively by some who work in the industry, but there is something to be taken from this saying. People who are successful in the radio industry have such huge personalities that they don’t need to be seen to make an impression.

Telemarketing is not too dissimilar to this. Our conversations are all held over the phone, so we do not have the advantage of meeting people face to face or viewing body language. Instead we focus on demonstrating our personality, giving a strong portrayal of the brand and using our tone and inflection to guide the conversation.

I’ve run campaigns at previous companies that have been scripted using tried and tested techniques. But the same question arises – When someone is saying the same thing on each call, how can their results differ so dramatically from call to call?

As I was paid on their results, I made it my mission to understand why this happened, so I listened to hundreds of call recordings. During that time, I found that if one voice tone was used, then within roughly 30-40 seconds the call would often be over. The tone I identified was when an individual’s voice tone/inflection went ‘up’ at the end of sentences. It was the verbal equivalent of having your fingers crossed. Used when someone doesn’t have confidence in what they’re saying or does not understand the subject well enough and even, at times, when trying to ‘fake’ enthusiasm. It was clear that when inflection went up, credibility in the message went down. And this was the difference between the calls using the same script.

What I learnt from this is that when asking questions and closing it’s very important to use a downward inflection in your voice, it commands authority and instils confidence in the decision maker.

For example – try saying with the tone and inflection going down at the end of the sentence, “So John, if you’re 100% happy with everything we’ve gone through, is it fair to say you’d be happy to meet with one of our consultants?”

Now try it again but this time with an upwards inflection at the end of the sentence. Which one would you rather be at the end of?

In understanding this, you can also learn a lot about your decision maker when they throw you objections, what is there tone and inflection; do they sound confident, does it ‘sound’ like a superficial objection or genuine? In understanding how you use your voice, you’ll learn a lot about how others use theirs.

What I have learnt is that voice inflection and tempo are vital and valuable skills that once mastered will improve your telemarketing ability when speaking with gate keepers and decision makers.

To underline the importance of tone and inflection here is a sentence for you to try, “I did not steal the money”. Depending on which word you put the emphasis on it’ll change the whole meaning of the sentence. Go ahead, try it for yourself!

Opinion piece by Oliver Kernick, Senior Account Manager, Air Marketing Group

Tag: Telemarketing

Our ever-growing expertise

How well do you know your customers?

Where does your telemarketing campaign fit into the bigger picture?

What makes you think you’re so special?

Sales and Business Tips – How to temperature check your sales prospect

Let’s start with data

We’re thrilled to be named Most Outstanding Business

Speaking the same language

Have you discovered the full potential of your voice?

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Navigation

Resources

Useful Links