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Smiling and dialing
A well-planned, coordinated telemarketing effort can be a cost-effective way to keep in touch with busy customers.
by Richard Vurva
Studies show that busy customers don’t have time to see outside salespeople. But that doesn’t mean distributors can’t maintain regular contact with those customers. A coordinated telemarketing program can be an effective and inexpensive way to keep in touch with current customers and introduce your services to prospective customers.
Although it’s difficult to turn customer service representatives (CSRs) into salespeople, distributors can effectively use existing inside salespeople for outbound calling if they follow some simple tips from professional telemarketers.
Tip No. 1: Set the stage
Customer service representatives sometimes feel uncomfortable doing sales activities. They’ll relax if you point out that the objective of every telemarketing call doesn’t have to be a sale. The goal might be to verify the names and contact information in order to update your database. Another goal might be to introduce existing customers to a new service or product they didn’t know your company offered or to conduct a brief survey to help determine demand for current or potential services your company offers. Many companies have inbound sales staff place calls to gauge interest in having an outside salesperson give a presentation or before mailing a catalog or information packet.
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The ultimate telephone sales quiz
You sell widgets. A caller phones you and says, “Hi, I need two widgets, can you tell me the cost?”
1) What is most important about the prospect’s statement? A) The buyer is probably a price shopper. B) It’s a buying statement that indicates at least a potential readiness or ability to buy. C) The buyer has qualified himself as a good prospect.
2) What should your immediate response be? A) Ask the prospect for critical information about their needs. B) Tell the prospect you have good pricing. C) Tell the prospect you have the best widgets in the world. D) Trial close by asking the prospect for the shipping address for the order.
3) If you decided not to respond directly to the buying statement, what would your immediate goal in this call be? A) Gain control of the call using questions. B) Find out what price the prospect is looking for. C) Tell the prospect the requested pricing. D) Develop a relationship with the prospect.
4) What is the primary goal in this or any call that, when accomplished, will lead to the best possibility of a sale?
A) Knowing the prospect’s needs.
B) Quickly developing a good relationship. C) Negotiating a good price with the prospect. D) Making sure you destroy any competition.
Answers:
1) B. Yes, the prospect could be a buyer, but you really don’t know yet. You shouldn’t assume at this point that you have a price-shopper either, or you may create a situation where price is the critical issue in the sale.
2) D. Whenever you are given a “buying” statement, a trial close is very useful to understand the status of the buyer’s intention. Telling the prospect how good your products are could lose the order should you say the wrong thing or bring up an item that puts the prospect in decision mode. Talking about pricing could also be dangerous without first understanding needs and creating value.
3) A. This allows you to learn about the customer. This is true on any call, but especially on an inbound telephone call. If you just answer the prospect’s questions, you may end up in service mode rather than in selling mode. When the prospect is done with their questions, they often eject.
4) B. It is too early to discuss price, discover needs or try to destroy the competition. You must first develop value, which requires a relationship with the prospect that will allow you to tell your story.
Source: Penoyer Communications, www.penoyer.com.
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If CSRs start by phoning the people they deal with on a regular basis, they’ll build confidence over time and have greater success when they transition to making cold calls. By keeping the conversation positive and ending with an action item, callers learn the effort can be rewarding.
“The hardest part of telemarketing is getting the right person on the phone,” says Rich Madzel of Custom Telemarketing Services. The best way is simply to say, “I hope you can help me. I’m trying to reach the person responsible for . . .”
Another common fear CSRs have is not knowing all the right answers. The best response: “That’s a good question, but I’m not able to answer it. Let me have so-and-so get back to you.”
Tip No. 2:
Provide training
Training callers in proper phone etiquette and how to ask probing questions without sounding pushy can go a long way toward making your staff feel more comfortable.
“Have callers spend a half-hour or more doing role-playing before they place their first call,” says Dave Fitton of Marketing Partners Inc., a business-to-business marketing and telemarketing company.
Have them sit back-to-back or in separate rooms so they don’t make eye contact. Encourage them to pay attention to the inflection in their voice and the voice of the person to whom they’re speaking.
“I’ve even recommended to supervisors to purposely make mistakes on the first five or 10 practice calls. They’ll never be afraid to make a mistake after that,” says Fitton.
Tip No 3: Stay on track
Fitton recommends using a script as a guide, not an actual speech. It should contain all of the relevant talking points in a logical order to bring the caller and the listener to a positive conclusion or action. He cautions against following the script so closely that it sounds stilted. Be flexible enough in the presentation to sound natural and attentive to the listener.
“A script also helps you stay focused when objections arise, and provides you a logical point to re-enter your presentation,” Fitton adds.
Madzel uses a “guided discussion” approach to calls.
“We don’t follow rigid scripts. Our callers know the program objectives, and are tasked with achieving it by holding a conversation. Script reading is boring for the callers, and offensive to the person called,” he says.
Whether scripts or loose guidelines, remain flexible to suit the purpose of the call. The purpose of one script might be simply to obtain the fax number of the correct contact person and ask if they’re available. Another might ask if the company does a certain type of work that would make it a viable customer. The first approach would require a soft close such as, “Can we send you some information?” The second requires a hard close such as, “Do you have anything we can bid on right now?”
Tip No. 4: Make it fun
Every week or two, run a contest for your telemarketers. Keep it simple to score and make it fun, says Fitton.
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Spruce up your image
Effective telemarketing isn’t limited to outbound calls only. Companies should also pay close attention to how they handle incoming customer calls.
When a customer calls your company, do they get a menu of options? If so, listen to it carefully. See if it makes sense and quickly routes the caller to the correct person or department.
Before putting someone on hold, ask permission first and try to get back to them every 30 to 45 seconds, says Rich Madzel of Custom Telemarketing Services. Don’t use a local radio station for background music when placing callers on hold. Instead, use a professionally prepared message about your business.
Dave Fitton of Marketing Partners Inc. suggests turning your voice mail into a sales tool by changing your greeting into a 10 or 20-second commercial describing a new product or service or a weekly special your business offers.
Use your voice mail to dispense a tip or information that would be useful to your customers and prospects. Make sure you keep your message fresh. If your message is not a daily tip, at the very least, change it weekly. That way, you’re giving your callers new information on a regular basis.
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Contests should reward telemarketers for achieving company goals, such as reorders from past customers, new customer appointments or sales to new market segments.
“Build in a nice reward system, using dinner for two, movie tickets or other small incentives,” Fitton says. On-the-spot bonuses of candy, cash, soda, dinner coupons or other small gifts can be effective to reward someone for a job well done.
Urge callers to take a 10-minute break after the first hour of calls and additional 10-minute breaks every 90 minutes. Fitton says structuring breaks into the day provides a psychological boost.
“Your mind and your voice can use the rest, and you’ll find yourself compartmentalizing your work schedule into three or four goal-oriented phone sessions a day, rather than view it as one long, exhausting day,” he says. Fitton adds that callers should spend no more than four hours on the phone a day. Any longer than that makes the experience frustrating.
“Break up the day by letting callers do inbound calls for several hours,” Madzel says. “Don’t expect them to sit there and make the same call hour after hour.”
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2003 issue of Progressive Distributor magazine. Copyright 2003.
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