Core Telemarketing Principles

An expert opinion on the core building blocks of effective Telemarketing – Helen Barlow Key Account Director GCL Direct 2014

Where do you start? What do you want to achieve? Building a telemarketing campaign from scratch comes with an array of challenges and variables from defining your proposition, building or acquiring a database, developing calls to action and most importantly…Closing the loop!

With 150 years of Telemarketing, Lead Generation and Dialogue solutions we’re pleased to share with you our best practice guide to Core Telemarketing campaigns.

Start with the end Goal

What do you really want to achieve? It’s a question we always work on with our clients and it never fails to get teams excited and motivated about what they really want to produce with their activity. If it’s a revenue number, great! Use the number and plan backwards around the volume of Opportunities, Appointments, Leads or Enquiries you need to convert into your revenue number.

If you’re in the dark about what how your revenue numbers are impacted by Lead Generation check out our quick guide to ROI calculations below:

Average Order Value x % Average Close ratio / Cost of opportunity generated.

This simple calculation will help you and your team really decide how relevant and practical Telemarketing can be as tool for you, for example:

Average Order Value x % Average Close ratio / Cost of opportunity generated.

£100,000 x 30% / £250 = 120 x Return! Must have telemarketing!

Average Order Value x % Average Close ratio / Cost of opportunity generated.

£5,000 x 10% / £300 = 1.6 x Return! Think very carefully about using TM in your strategy!

Define Your Proposition

Why should prospects care? Sounds brutal we know, but with so much noise and intense completion in the B2B world getting your message to cut through the volume is crucial to the success of any campaign.

Take the time to define audience and really brainstorm where their problems lie – canvas opinion from existing clients or delve into Market Research to really understand what keeps prospects awake at night.

Aligning prospect challenges with your business and how you can solve problems for them will raise your proposition head and shoulders above the competition and “me too marketers”

Clear Calls to Action

Think carefully about how you really engage with your clients and the benefits to both you and them around the engagement model. What call to action do you really need and what works best for your potential customer?

For transactional businesses arranging a face to meeting from a telemarketing call, though a definable action is unlikely to speed up your sales cycle or generate an improved ROI, similarly considered, business critical purchases need face to face appointment setting and personal nurturing to close that multi million pound sale. Being clear on your call to action and how it ultimately fits with your sales cycle, prospect base and revenue goals will help drive success from your core telemarketing.

Track, Track, Track!

If we could give all of our clients one piece of advice it would be to… TRACK! Tracking and reporting is one of the most crucial elements in Telemarketing and shouldn’t just focus on the short term opportunities either.

By creating trackable outcomes for your database, conversion rates, pipeline, short, long, lost and won opportunities you’re creating a visible, valuable pipeline and asset for the future.

If the message didn’t work and you know why, great – realign the message and go again

If the prospect was lost and you know why, great – learn for next time

If the sales number was too small and you know why, great – you get the idea!

Core telemarketing as a field represents huge opportunities for revenue growth, sales success and business development but it’s a tricky minefield for many and the support of an experienced agency can be invaluable.