What is a Data Cleanse Campaign?

When businesses collect data for insight on how to proceed with a specific project or business decision, there is initially a lot of information to filter through before thorough analysis can begin. The filtering and removal of invalid data items is called data cleansing. A data cleanse campaign can save data administrators a lot of time, saving your business from overusing valuable resources. 

What is Data Cleansing?

Data cleaning is the process whereby you remove any data points which will, ultimately, corrupt the accuracy of your findings during and after analysis. Examples of data which should be removed before proceeding to the analysis phase of a project include valueless items like blank excel cells or maybe the numeral representation 0 where there should be a value associated to the item. 

To ensure you have consistent and accurate data you need to remove any unwanted data items known as ‘rogue data’. To do this, you need to conduct a data cleanse which will allow you to:

• Remove unwanted observations 
• Unify the data 
• Standardise
• Remove erroneous outliers 
• Fix formatting across data sets 
• Identify where data is missing and resolve this 
• Validate the data you have 

Data cleansing is an essential part of the analytical process. 

Why Data Cleansing is Important

Data cleansing can save your business time and money but also provides several benefits for efficiency and productivity. 

Increases Engagement 

After a data cleanse is performed, the data set submitted for final analysis will represent an audience which is more likely to engage with marketing campaigns, products, and communications from your business. Data cleansing is also essential for keeping existing data sets up to date so that your business stays relevant to your target audience space in the market.

Improves Data Accuracy

Accurate data is essential for making decisions which determine the direction of your business. Conducting a data cleaning exercise will ensure that the information you gain from a specific data set will effectively assist with forecasting and predictions.

Helps Make Informed Business Decisions

No one can predict the future but data is a tool all businesses can use to steer the direction of a business and promote company growth. Data helps businesses understand their customer’s needs as well as where they stand in their relevant markets and industries. When ‘messy’ data is presented, it may cause analysts to be misled. A clean data set will help ensure beneficial decisions surrounding the company’s direction are made.

Makes Analysis More Efficient

Data analysis can take up a lot of time and resources. If data administrators have to spend time cleaning the data before it can be analysed, their workload and time spent increases. Conducting a data cleansing campaign before analysis begins will allow the analysts to work more efficiently without worrying about corrupt data sets.

Better Data Mapping

Organisations use data mapping to easily transport the data between systems and formats. Essentially it is the process of matching data items to their relevant fields so that it can be carried through different applications without errors. An initial data cleanse campaign will prevent potential invalid data items entering into further systems and business operations.

Examples of Data Cleansing Tools

There are several great tools out there to help carry out a data cleansing campaign. These programmes are designed with the user in mind, making them easy tools to use for data alignment, cleaning and data management. 

Operations Hub

Modelled by HubSpot, Operations Hub has three key features which are essential for data cleansing and reaping the benefits of the exercise. The programme focuses on data integrations, data cleansing, and programmable automation. The platform works particularly well if an organisation already uses HubSpots portals and software. However, its enhanced integration systems will allow you to seamlessly deploy data sets across your business applications, after Ops Hub has conducted a data cleanse for you.

Melissa Clean Suite

This tool is particularly helpful to any business that uses Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics for customer or client relationship management (CRM) purposes. Melissa Clean Suit is quite a targeted tool and helps to organise data by creating demographics, segmenting and targeting. The platform is designed to be as user friendly as possible and data analysts and administrators do not need to spend time training themselves how to use it. The tool also keeps analysing existing data and ensures it stays up to date for you, saving your team time. 

Winpure Clean & Match

One of the key features of Winpure Clean & Match is that it gives organisations the option to have the software locally installed, meaning that all data and analytics are safe from breaches unless they are uploaded to the cloud or online storage entity. The programme is designed to operate with several formats and systems including CSV files and spreadsheets, and can integrate these data sets into other operational tools like Salesforce, Oracle and SQL Server. 

The tool dedupes, cleanses, and matches items from different data sets, making it a brilliant tool for applications surrounding customer communications. Any organisation who deals with mailing lists and CRM can gain a lot from using this tool. 

Google Sheets Data Cleaning Tools

Manually cleaning data is perfect for smaller data sets, and takes no time at all if you know how to use Google Sheets data sorting tools. Tools like the filter tool can help to remove items that contain missing data or blank cells. It’s often best to remove these as blank spaces can have a negative impact on data processing. Google Sheets also offers features to remove duplicates from data sets. The process known among data cleaners as “deduping” is one of the first steps to take in a data cleansing campaign. Although these are not advanced systems, they are great for getting the ball rolling on a data cleanup.

When Are You Starting Your Data Cleansing Campaign? 

Think you could benefit from a data cleansing campaign? Novus’ professional team can help you to figure out a system that works for you and the data you need to sort through. Get in touch with our team to start your data analytics improvements.

7 Skills That Make An Effective Telemarketer

Business-to-business telemarketing (B2B telemarketing) is one of the most effective marketing campaigns to generate interest in your business, establish prospects, conduct market research, and actively promote the business to interested parties. However, no strategy is ever going to be effectively executed without the right people for the job. 

For this reason, certain skills are absolutely essential to being an effective telemarketer. These are the skills that Novus Business Connections instill in our trained professional telemarketers, making us the right team to have on your side.

Telemarketing Experience

The art of telephonic conversation is something that is dying in the world of instant messaging and email. An experienced telemarketer will have the right conversational tools to speak with a prospect and effectively communicate the products and services on offer. 

Through experience also comes confidence, which is another essential characteristic of a telemarketer, particularly in the B2B space. Speaking confidently conveys the belief a telemarketer has in the product they are selling, and in turn, gives the prospect confidence in the product too.  

Experience also means a telemarketer will know the difference between confidence and arrogance. Confidence in a product and in a marketer’s telephonic conduct is important, however, understanding the prospect or customer’s position is the only way a valuable business relationship will be formed. These are the soft skills that come with telemarketing experience. 

Excellent Communication Skills

Communication is a two-way conversation and a good telemarketer understands this. When effective communication happens, it leaves very little room for misunderstanding which helps establish trust with a potential business collaborator. 

When you engage in B2B conversations, trust has to be established early on in order for a healthy, mutually beneficial business relationship to be formed. The marketer who is representing your business therefore has to possess excellent communication skills to carry a relationship forward. 

The Ability to Listen and Understand

We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve received a call from an “annoying telemarketer”. Customers typically deem telemarketers as annoying because they simply talk at them to get their pitch across without opening the conversation up to the person on the other end of the phone. 

When a telemarketer listens, they open the door to new opportunities because they gain better insight and understanding of the prospect’s needs. Understanding the requirements of a customer is key to building business relationships and closing a sale because it allows the telemarketer to provide specific solutions based on the given criteria. 

Possess Empathy

A good telemarketer will understand that they are offering clients a service or product to make their lives easier. Genuinely wanting to help a prospect is communicated through effective empathetic mechanisms. 

When telemarketers can place themselves in a prospect’s shoes, they automatically become more relatable to the other party. Good telemarketers not only make the effort to relate to their customers or prospects but also become more relatable themselves. This, of course, builds trust, but also gives the customer the feeling that that marketer genuinely wants to help them. 

Exceptional Resilience

Let’s face it, not all phone calls are going to be a walk in the park. Some are just downright awful. However, a good telemarketer will understand that the right connection is out there, they just need to keep at it. 

The ability to bounce back from a difficult conversation or from a deal that may have fallen through ensures that the campaign to establish effective relationships carries on despite challenges encountered along the way. 

The Ability to Persuade Others

Telemarketers need to have the power of persuasion to convince a prospect why they need whatever is on offer. Through exercising empathy and understanding, telemarketers can then use what they’ve learned about the customer to appeal to their specific needs. 

The persuasive technique lies in the telemarketer’s ability to use information gained to build rapport with their prospects. This is an important skill to have when making sales and closing deals. 

Brilliant Customer Service

Possessing all the right tools for an effective introductory call is only half of the battle won when carrying out a telemarketing campaign. A good telemarketer will understand that their job doesn’t end after they put down the phone. If a customer is interested, that relationship needs to be nurtured through follow-ups and through delivering on agreed terms and meeting deadlines.  

Good customer service is ultimately what is going to lead to customer satisfaction and therefore positive business growth. If a telemarketer can establish and nurture business relationships in their interactions after the initial phone call, they’re onto a winner.

10 Tips for a Successful Telemarketing Campaign

We are heading online more than ever to connect with customers and businesses. Everyone uses social media or looks on Google for companies. But connecting over the phone is a trusted and safe method, and still proves a successful way to do business in the telemarketing industry. A large number of meetings which lead to new customers are still arranged via phone calls. 

However, while telemarketing is still an excellent way to get potential leads, it is difficult to have a strong campaign over the phone. After a lot of cold calls lead to dead ends if it’s not an effective call. Therefore, it’s important for your sales figures to ensure your telemarketing is top quality and highly effective. So with this in mind, here are 10 vital tips to be successful in telemarketing. 

1- Be clear with who you want to target

It’s so important if you want to be successful in telemarketing to make sure that you know who you want to target. If you don’t have a clear target audience in mind, you will waste your time making calls that will not lead to potential meetings and ultimately successful sales. Therefore, you need to clearly define who exactly you want to target with the telemarketing campaign. Research is key to discovering the criteria you need from the person for them to be a successful call. From looking at specific preferences, ages, and genders, you are more likely to have a set target audience in mind. 

When you know who you are targeting, you can alter how you conduct the call. With this essential research behind you, you will have a much greater understanding of who you want to target and it means fewer 

unnecessary calls which end up with failure.

2- Set specific goals for your telemarketing calls

You want to ensure you have clear goals from the calls before you contact anyone on the phone. If you ring and don’t know what you want to achieve, it’s unlikely you will reach your goal. You will be left frustrated and disappointed by the call. Also, some telemarketing campaigns can have unrealistic expectations. 

So before you make any calls, you need to make sure you think clearly about what you want to achieve from your calls. Once you are clear, you can ensure you discuss the campaign with the right person in the right way.

3-Ensure you ring at the right time 

You might not realise that the time you call can impact whether you get a sale or not. After all, if you ring at a poor time, they might not answer the phone call or make excuses and leave the call quickly. The best time to ring is in the morning when they have been at work for at least an hour or so. They have then settled into their morning routine and are now ready for the day ahead. 

Also, ringing halfway through the afternoon around 3 pm is another good time. If you ring at lunchtime or first thing, you are unlikely to get a good response. And later in the day, they are busy winding down so will not respond positively.

4- Ensure the tone is right for the conversation

You also need to make sure you have the right tone for the conversation. There is nothing worse than speaking to a potential customer with the wrong tone. You are aiming for a positive and friendly tone when you talk to customers. You want to draw them in and ensure that they want to work with you moving forward. If you speak with a monotone voice, they will not see the enthusiasm and potential they could have from working with you. 

The tone of voice can impact the success of your call so make sure you sound confident and like you have done your research when making the call.

5- Do listen and let them respond 

Another thing you need to do is ensure that you listen to the caller when they are speaking to you. It’s easy to just speak at them to try to pitch and get your point across. But the more you talk over them and do not listen to what they are saying, the less likely the phone call will continue. After all, listening to them will bring you new points to talk about that can lead to further discussion. 

Also, giving them time to ask you questions in between your conversation will enable them to have a greater understanding of what you do which in turn can lead to a sale. So do let them speak during the call.

6- Do speak to them again in due course

While you might get a no the first time you speak to them, it might be a different story when you contact them again a couple of weeks later. While you don’t want to harass the clients with constant calls, giving them a follow-up call is important to ensure the prospective client does remember you and what your business does. 

It might not have been the right time when you last spoke and they might have better finances when you speak to them again.

7- Avoid closed questions 

Another reason successful calls do not happen is the wrong questions are asked. If you speak to the person and just ask yes or no questions, it doesn’t give them an excellent opportunity to answer. They will respond with yes or no and then will not speak further. With an open-ended question, they will be able to provide you with a lot more detail which can lead to a better discussion and a higher chance of leading to a sale. 

They might give you vital information that could lead you to take a different angle on the call. 

8- Make sure you leave a gap between calls

There’s nothing that will affect your call more than a non-successful call. You will come off the phone disheartened and it can affect your mood and tone. This will then affect your next call and can leave you with no further sales. After all, you will not be as positive or enthusiastic as the call prior. 

Therefore, do leave a gap between calls to ensure you get your thoughts together and prepare for the next call. Consider what you could do differently to ensure you are ready for the next phone call which will then be more successful.

9- Do bring some fun and laughter to the call

While you need to be professional when it comes to telemarketing, you should also bring some humour to the call. At the end of the day, they will remember your call and the energy you brought to the call. 

Therefore, don’t hesitate to joke with the customer if they do say something funny or if there is an opportunity to be lighthearted with the call. It will help you to build a connection which could lead to an opening to discuss a product.

10- Improve the call every time 

After you have spoken to a customer, you should make a list of exactly what you said and how you could improve the call next time. It will show you places where you could have spoken about the product better or where you should have let the customer speak more during the call. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect.

Nobody has the perfect call straight away. If you look at ways you could improve, you will be able to change the call as necessary to ensure it’s a success next time.

What does every telemarketing campaign need to be successful?

Scripts 

While you can’t plan out every call you make, you can have a good script on hand to ensure the phone call runs smoothly. If you just make the call off the top of your head, it’s unlikely the call will be successful. You will find you forget the point you are trying to make and might not talk about the business as thoroughly as possible. Therefore, planning a script which includes different scenarios and key points to cover will help you with the call. If you get stuck, you can look at the script and ensure you know exactly what you need to say. 

Research on the person

You need to have a good background on the person in front of you before making the call. From their position to how long they have worked at a company, you need to know this vital information. It gives you a good starting point when making the call and ensures they do give you a chance to pitch about the business. Therefore, as much research as you can do about the person and what you could do for them is so important.

A good offer

If you are lucky enough to get to talk to the customer about costs, you need to be ready with a good offer. You have given them the hook and to reel them in it has to be an offer they are willing to take. Therefore, work out if there is a discount you could offer them or a potential deal that will help them to go further with you. You don’t want to get to that final hurdle and then lose out with an overpriced cost.

Will telemarketing work in the future?

Use the current climate

As long as calls are adjusted to meet the current climate, there is a chance that telemarketing will work in the future. Whether it’s the ongoing cost of living crisis or even the after-effects of the pandemic, using current events can help to still make telemarketing relevant.

Contact on the social media

There has to be an adjustment to using social media sites such as Linkedin and Twitter to get some more interactions with prospective clients as well as calls for the future. Arranging calls through these can be a good starting point.

Make sure calls are top quality

There is still a lot of argument that calls are future-proof. Certain statistics have shown over half of cold marketing is still successful over the phone. It just needs to be the highest quality possible to be a successful phone call. Therefore, plan and use our tips for telemarketing to give the best call possible.

How should you start out telemarketing as a beginner?

Follow others

You should follow others at the beginning to give you a good insight into how they operate as a telemarketer. Listen to how they deal with callers and what tools they use to continue the conversation and lead to sales. They will have their way of speaking to clients that work for them. Shadowing for a while will help you gain vital skills.

Work on your script

It’s a good idea to work from a script at the beginning. As discussed in our telemarketing tips for success, a script is key to a successful call. And until you get to grips with the calls, it can help you have the confidence to make the call. A good script is important and you can work with others to create this.

Practice makes perfect

While we can give you tips for telemarketing cold calling, the more practice you do the more perfect you will become. Therefore, it’s a good idea to do plenty of calls, in the beginning, to help you find what works for you and to build up your confidence when it comes to telemarketing.

The Benefits Of Using B2B Lead Generation Services

Finding leads is so important for a business as this enables them to grow and to be successful. It gives them new contacts to try to sell their products or services. And this could lead to an exciting new business relationship. But finding leads is a difficult and time-consuming process. One form of finding leads that businesses are turning to is lead generation services. 

These are perfect for those in the B2B industry who want assistance finding the best leads to help them gain new clients. And it’s now very popular with billions being spent on digital lead generation annually. Finding a good B2B lead generation company is important to help find the best leads effectively. However, a lot of people are unclear on the reasons to use B2B lead generation services. They don’t know exactly why it’s useful and whether it’s a cost worth paying. Therefore, with this in mind, here are the benefits of B2B lead generation services. 

The benefits of using lead generation services 

1- It’s brilliant for those new businesses

For those new businesses, lead generation is the perfect way for them to get conversions. As a new business, they will struggle to stand out against major players who will already have clients and a high reputation. Therefore, lead generation will help open the doors to those potential leads which will get you to the right people. Good lead generation services will also ensure you get the leads to the right people. For instance, if you are aiming at the over 40’s, they will ensure that you get conversions from the right market. 

2- It helps to save a businesses time 

Another benefit of lead generation services is that it helps to save businesses time. Finding new leads is a long and tiresome job with often the wrong people contacted which doesn’t end up leading to any sales. It just ends up wasting the company’s time which could be working on developing new products or updating their service. Therefore, getting professional companies in the B2B industry who specialise in lead generating services enables the company to concentrate on other things.

3- Improves marketing 

When you work with B2B lead generating services, it can help you to improve your company’s marketing. After all, you might have some current marketing efforts already implemented such as social media marketing or a live website. But it might not be helping you to generate the leads you require and get the right traffic on your site which converts to purchases.

Therefore, with the help of lead generating services which can help you gain leads, you will know exactly which target market you need to be concentrating on and how to ensure you are marketing effectively with this in mind. So lead generating services can improve your marketing efforts.

4- Gives you vital information about the company

When you try to do lead generation as a company yourself, you might only have a name or an email to go from to contact the business. Or you might not even have the name of an individual. Therefore, you might not get to speak to the right person and the lead will turn out for nothing. It can also make the call harder to have a proper conversation with the person if you don’t have much information prior about them and the business.

Therefore, when you work with a professional B2B lead generation company, you will get effective, useful information so that you can handle the call or email much more efficiently. It can ensure that the leads are effective and have a higher chance of succeeding.

5- It can help you to grow effectively 

Lead generation is also a great way to grow your business quickly. When you generate leads as a business yourself, it can take time to find the right target audience and get the right leads. When you work with a B2B lead-generating company, they will work with you to find the right leads which will ultimately lead to sales. You will then grow the business at a much faster rate. It also frees up your time so that you can spend more time building your brand and making more products so that part of your business can grow as you will not have to worry about generating leads yourself.

The type of businesses that need lead generation

Those in the B2B industry who sell products to other businesses will benefit the greatest from lead generation services. Or if they provide a service to other businesses they will also have the best success through this service. 

Some of the types of businesses that will benefit greatly are restaurants. They need leads to ensure people discover their restaurant and work with them. Also, retailers would benefit from lead generation. They need leads to ensure they stay in business and have new products and customers. They might currently use social media marketing or SEO to help find the right people. Lead generation would work well for these types of companies.

What Is The Difference Between Telemarketing And Telesales?

Far too often, people get the two terms ‘telemarketing’ and ‘telesales’ mixed up, with some going as far as to think the two are the same. However, while they both have huge benefits for your business, these two services have distinct differences. If you hire the wrong one, you may be left disappointed. 

But there’s no need to worry about ever making that mistake, as we are here to help you figure out the true differences between telemarketing and telesales. So keep reading to determine which will be the best for your business. 

What is telemarketing?

You know what a telephone is and what marketing is, so when you put the two together, you get telemarketing. Marketing involves promoting a product or service and gathering leads to target, whether it’s over the internet, in print, or in person. Add the word tele to the beginning of it, and you get the same thing, but over the phone. 

A telemarketer will target a person or business who will most likely be interested in their product or service and share all relevant information with them. The whole aim of telemarketing is to make a sale eventually, but it isn’t the act of doing so. That’s where telesales comes into play. 

What is telesales?

Telesales is a direct ‘sale on the phone’ approach, where an agreement or sometimes even deposit is taken during the call. It is the act of directly converting prospects into sales while on the telephone. This is different to the telemarketing service that Novus provide. 

There are two types of telesales which you may be interested in – inbound and outbound. Inbound telesales involves your business receiving calls from clients and making a sale from there. On the other hand, outbound telesales is where you make the call to any prospective or existing clients. 

What are the key differences between telemarketing and telesales?

There are a lot of similarities between telemarketing and telesales, so there is no surprise that the two get confused as being the same. They both involve speaking to prospective or existing clients over the phone with the main goal of receiving a sale. However, there is one fundamental difference between the two.

Telemarketing is the act of generating interest from clients. This involves telling them about the business and developing a relationship with them. Telesales is the act of direct selling, finalising the sale and often taking payment.

The responsibilities of a telemarketer

A telemarketer’s job isn’t simple – and it actually comes with a lot of different responsibilities. If you are considering adding telemarketing to your business sales or marketing plan, this is what you will have to look forward to:

• Calling both prospective and existing customers to educate them about what your business is offering and generating interest around it
• Providing the sales team in your business with quality leads that fit into your target market
• Alert clients of anything new you’re offering in your business to educate them in order to help gain a repeat purchase
• Ask customers for feedback about their experiences with your business to increase sales opportunities
• Research your target market and competition to improve your telemarketing and marketing quality

The responsibilities of a telesales representative

Just like telemarketers, telesales representatives have a lot they need to get done as well. Here are a number of responsibilities you’ll be in charge of if you introduce a telesales sector into your business:

• Communicating with nurtured leads and existing customers over the phone 
• Researching what the leads are interested in so you can understand how to sell to them
• Trying to offer various different promotions to the customers so you can generate even higher sales
• Provide excellent service the entire phone call by asking the customer questions and paying attention to their needs

The benefits of telemarketing for your business

Here are a number of benefits you may experience when you introduce a telemarketing sector into your business:

• Saves you time and helps you find new customers more quickly
• Generates high-quality data to analyse 
• Helps the sales and marketing team create an effective strategy and campaigns
• Provides your brand with a more professional stance
• Contacts and educates prospects who may have never heard of your business
• Increases the number of new business appointments 
• Increases customer satisfaction and the chance of repeat customers

The benefits of telesales for your business

Here are a number of benefits you may experience when you introduce a telesales sector into your business:

• Increases your conversion rates simply over the phone
• Decreases your costs per sale and annual expenses
• Customers receive a more professional impression of your brand
• No need for travel expenses as everything is over the phone

Final thoughts 

While telemarketing vs telesales is often a debate between businesses, the two shouldn’t be pitted against each other. Yes, they are different, and each comes with its own benefits, but they can and do work together.

What Makes A Successful Telemarketing Operation?

Telemarketing is a vital part of any sales business. It’s the act of using a telephone to contact prospective leads and clients to educate them about a solution or product that you have which will improve their job function/company. However, not everyone can be successful at telemarketing, and you need to have a range of knowledge, skills, and tools to help you out. 

If you’re considering adding a telemarketing sector to your own business but are unsure where to start, we’ve put together a list of the seven top things that will provide you with telemarketing success. 

Understand your target market

All customers are different, and they purchase different things for different needs. You can’t focus your telemarketing script or tactics on everyone because it won’t succeed. Instead, you need to understand the wants and needs of your individual target market and alter your sales techniques to intrigue them. It will guarantee more sales and fewer hang-ups. 

An individualised strategy

Just like your customers, your business is unique as well. You don’t want to have the same telemarketing strategy as every other company in your industry because it won’t put you ahead of the competition. Instead, you need to figure out what’s best for your business in terms of who is taking your calls, the script you are using, and what leads you’re prioritising. If you’re different from others, demonstrate knowledge of ‘what keeps them up at night’, your prospects and customers will pick up on this and put you first. 

Advanced real-time reporting and analytics

Without any form of data, you won’t know whether your telemarketing campaign is a success. That’s why it’s vital to have some form of software that will help you identify what is working and what isn’t in real time. You can quickly adapt your strategy if you come across any challenges and drive more sales in the long run. 

Build strong relationships with prospects

No matter what business you’re in and whether you use telemarketing or not, you need to have strong relationships with your prospects and clients to succeed. People want to feel like they are being cared for, so you should do all you can to put them first. Be attentive to their needs and try to find a solution that works for both of you when speaking over the phone.

Invest in your telemarketers

Without a great team, you won’t see great results. That’s why you need telemarketers with experience and knowledge that will put your business on top. We are bias, but working with a professional, credible and established outsourced telemarketing agency ensures a well trained, experienced and professional team. This means that they will have all the skills and tools needed for a bespoke strategy. 

Be flexible

Telemarketing isn’t confined to a 9-5 day because it involves much more than just making a phone call. Instead, you need to be flexible in your schedule and find time to go over your analytics, training, and strategy, so you have the best practices in place. Try to put together a schedule each week, so you have enough time to do everything. 

Constant optimisation 

There is always room for improvement in any telemarketing strategy, and you should always look at what you can do to be better. Alongside analysing your data, you can constantly update your training methods, improve your script, and look for the best telemarketing software to get ahead of your competition. 

7 Reasons You Should Outsource Your Telemarketing

Telemarketing is a big part of any business, and it involves marketing your products or services through the use of telephone calls. Sometimes a company will ask internal colleagues to handle these operations, but many organisations are actually starting to outsource these services to make the most out of the benefits of telemarketing. 

How do you outsource telemarketing?

There are several ways you can outsource people to handle your telemarketing operations. The most common method is hiring a company that specifically provides you with experienced telemarketing professionals. 

However, sometimes, depending on the scale of your telemarketing, you can hire individual freelancers to take over these operations from their homes. 

The benefits of outsourcing telemarketing

There are several advantages to hiring external professionals to take over your telemarketing operations. Here are seven outsourcing telemarketing benefits your own business can experience: 

Saves time

It always feels like there isn’t enough time in the day to get all your business tasks done. And when you start allocating internal members of staff to handle your telemarketing, the work will only start to pile up higher. Outsourcing these services allows you to save a ton of time that you can spend on other areas of your company. 

Cuts costs

Believe it or not, hiring specialists to take over your telemarketing can actually help you save more money in the long run. It doesn’t cost as much as hiring more internal staff members, and your outsourced employees will already have all the software and tools you don’t have to purchase yourself. 

Consistent brand representation

Professional telemarketers know the right ways to strategise so your brand is properly represented towards your target customers and the industry. They will ensure they are portraying your values in the best way so you can grow as a business and bring in as many sales as possible. 

Skilled workforce

Just because someone can pick up a phone and make a call doesn’t mean they’ll be good at telemarketing and bringing in more sales. By hiring a company that focuses specifically on telemarketing, you can rest assured that they will use the best and most persuasive tactics to bring results and meet your goals. 

Flexibility

Many believe that a telemarketer’s only job is to call leads and make sales. However, the job is so much more than that. They have to ensure they are calling potential buyers who are interested in what you’re offering and within a schedule that means they will answer. Therefore, they have to be flexible between management and making calls, and not only sticking to a 9-5 schedule. 

Return on investment (ROI)

The whole aim of telemarketing is to bring in more sales, therefore you want to make sure that the people you are hiring to do so are making you more money than they cost. Outsourced telemarketers have been proven to be a great investment and help with your business’s growth from the moment they start. 

Transparency and measurable results

When you outsource telemarketing, you don’t only relieve your internal team of sitting on the phones and trying to make sales, but you also don’t have to measure the results yourself. Most outsourced telemarketing companies provide you with measurable results and data that you can analyse together.

How Important Are Scripts In Telemarketing?

When it comes to telemarketing, it can be difficult to make successful B2B calls. You want the call to lead to a potential new contract or sale yet it’s hard to get the person of interest to stay on the phone call. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure the call lasts as long as possible and is of the highest quality. As well as being polite, engaging and professional, there is something you can do to ensure the call is a success and that is a script. There has been a lot of debate in the industry about whether scripts are a negative or benefit when it comes to B2B telemarketing. But a good quality script can be very important and a great way to hook a caller. Here is our guide on how important are scripts in telemarketing and how to make them the best they can be.

Why are scripts important?

There are several reasons why scripts are important when it comes to B2B telemarketing.

They allow you to share your intended message

You have a reason why you are making the call and you want to ensure this gets passed on to the intended audience. Therefore, when you have a script when it comes to telemarketing, you can ensure that your intended message is shared with the person. You will have the marketing message you want to share on the script and when you follow this, this information will then definitely get out on the calls. Without a script, you might go into small chat and by the time you get to talk through your marketing message, the call could be ended. So with a good quality script, you can ensure the ethos of your business is understood by the caller.

You can be consistent

Another reason why scripts are important is that they ensure you are consistent when it comes to the calls. You want to ensure you go through the same points with all your calls and with the script in front of you, you can ensure you offer accurate and familiar information. You don’t want any comeback if you share different information with potential customers. All the information should be accurate and the same. So with a script, you can be consistent with the conversation which will ensure you make those important key points during the call.

They help you to sound professional

Scripts are also important in telemarketing as they ensure that you sound professional during the call. You want to be taken seriously and want to engage in a good conversation with the audience. But if you don’t have a script, you might across as too informal. Therefore, following a specific script will ensure that you come across as professional during the call. With a good introduction, the opportunity to say your name and company and then a specific marketing message, they will take you seriously and are more likely to listen to the conversation.

You can engage in a confident conversation

With a script for telemarketing, it will help you to get your point across in your call without the possibility of you forgetting what you are saying or getting overwhelmed during the call. A script gives you a confidence boost as you know exactly what you are going to say. This will help you to feel rest assured you know what to say when you make the call. After all, telemarketing can be overwhelming, especially when you are not sure what response you will receive from the other end. Therefore, with a script in front of you, it will give you new found confidence when making the call.

How to make them successful?

While scripts are a vital tool when it comes to B2B marketing, they need to be of the highest quality to ensure the call is a success. After all, if the script doesn’t work, the call will go flat and will not allow you to share your marketing message.

You need a proper structure

You need to ensure that your script is properly structured so you know exactly what you are saying from start to finish. You need to first introduce yourself with your official credentials at the start of the call. It’s important to mention the business and a brief introduction to what you do. You should then talk about how you can problem solve for the intended audience. You need them to know you understand the problem and how your company can fix it, whether that is via a product or a service. You should have a closing paragraph that reinforces your marketing message and addresses some clear points. A proper structure will go a long way in helping you to potentially take the next step with the customer.

Talk clearly and simply

You also need to make sure the script uses clear language that is easy to understand. You don’t want to use jargon in the script; it should be polite and professional. But don’t use terms they will not understand. You want them to clearly understand what your company is offering so make sure you state it simply to the customer. The language you use is highly important as you do not want to come across as patronising. You want to stay polite and friendly while still being professional and persuasive. Just make sure it doesn’t sound like you are reading from a script.

Address it to the right audience

Another important thing you should do to make sure scripts work well is to address them to the right audience. You know what the potential client is looking for and how your company can help. So ensure your script makes the proposition clear and also adds value. For instance, discuss the percentage of companies or individuals you have helped. Or use a fact about a current issue in the industry and how your service or product can solve this. Ensure you have some familiarity with the intended audience too. Do some background research before you make the call so you know exactly how your company can help.

The Power of the Telephone

Everyone loves a good conversation. Real marketers know this; hence, they leverage the telephone to its fullest capacity. According to a recent study, 60% of marketers in Fortune 500 businesses consider B2B telemarketing to be a very effective method for lead generation and conversion.

Here, we’ll discuss how powerful the telephone is and why it remains a better option for marketing than email.

Why Telephone is More Powerful than Email in Marketing

1. More Personal

Few methods of communication are more intimate than a phone call. If you ask any salesperson, they would tell you that people are less likely to sell to strangers. Hence, you need to cross that gap between stranger and acquaintance. What better way to do that than with a phone call?

The telephone allows a lead to hear your voice and tone. It also affords the telemarketer an opportunity to display their personality. All these work together to get the lead to feel more comfortable talking with you, and eventually buying from you.

2. More Efficient

If you’re trying to sell a product or service that needs a lot of explanation to convince leads to buy, then you’ll need a telephone. Email marketing simply doesn’t offer marketers the room to provide detailed explanations unless you want to send dozens of emails in a short while.

The telephone also provides an avenue for leads to ask questions and get answers in real-time. All these can be achieved within a few minutes.

3. Less Liable to Misinterpretation

There’s an unspoken risk you take the moment you write an email copy and hit send. What you just did is leave your written words open to misinterpretation. Not everyone would understand the entirety of your email, and when a lead doesn’t, you may have lost a sale.

Using a phone allows you to clarify the details of your pitch. Not only would the prospect ask questions, but verbal communication would also help you to convey your messages more clearly.

4. Allows for Two-Way Conversations

An ideal conversation or discussion is never one-sided. You can hardly build a proper rapport using email. But with the telephone, you have the key tool necessary to hold stimulating conversations.

Many expert telemarketers have used the telephone to build trusting relationships with customers and leads. If you follow the right steps, you’ll get the prospect more interested as they ask questions, make comments, and provide their opinions.

5. Covers a Wider Demographic

Not many people use emails (especially the elderly). However, almost everyone on the planet can use a telephone. This set of people value simplicity more than anything else.

Automatically, using a telephone for marketing opens you up to a whole new set of potential customers. You’re no longer confined by the tech-savvy requirements of email marketing. Even without knowing how emails work, they would easily receive your calls and hold conversations. 

6. Perfect for Discussing Sensitive Topics

If you sell a product or service related to a topic that people are generally uncomfortable talking about, sending an email may not be your best option. Niches such as health, sexual performance, or adult products are usually considered sensitive. An email is easy to intercept, and not many people would be comfortable receiving messages like those in their mailbox.

With a telephone, you can easily confirm who’s on the other end before tactfully proceeding with the topic of discussion. Also, emails regarding sensitive topics may never get responses. So, it’s best to call those leads and use your authoritative voice to give them the confidence to discuss sensitive topics.

7. Makes Complex Discussions Simple

It’s never easy explaining how a new-to-market product works to the average person. Some people don’t have the attention span necessary to read long paragraphs of texts. Others just don’t care enough to pay close attention.

Thankfully, a telephone in the hands of a capable telemarketer would instantly solve this problem. You can explain to the prospect how the complex product or service works using simple everyday vocabulary with examples and case studies.

Even if you manage to get all that in an email sequence, the likelihood of the reader going through it is closer to zero.

How To Make Your Telemarketing Even More Powerful

Here’re some telemarketing tips you can try today that will instantly improve your conversion rate.

Slow Down Your Speech

Many amateur telemarketers believe speaking quickly on a sales call makes them sound more authoritative and hence, increases their chances of closing a sale. This method is not only wrong but outdated.

If you don’t want to fit into the stereotype of the sleazy salesman, it’s best to speak slowly but clearly. Don’t run through your sales script, but take a deep breath and read it as a normal person would when talking to a friend.

Create a Vast FAQ

You need to prepare yourself for possible questions the prospect might have. Nearly every telemarketer knows to prepare to counter objections, but few are ready to accept difficult questions the lead might have about the professional or service.

Prepare to Outsmart the Gatekeeper

Do you find yourself constantly stuck in the unyielding grip of gatekeepers? There’s a way out. If the receptionist won’t let you speak to the director or manager of the firm, you can still get the information you need using either of these two strategies:

1. Call before office-opening hours. You might be lucky enough to find the decision-maker on the other end, as they tend to resume work earlier.
2. Ask for the helpdesk staff. They don’t usually have the resilience required of gatekeepers and are more likely to let you in.

Bottom Line

It’s not uncommon to find people claiming that telemarketing is an outdated strategy. With new marketing inventions and automation coming up every year, one can understand their scepticism. However, the decision to buy still depends heavily on the establishment of a connection with the seller, and no marketing method has as much power as the telephone when it comes to human intimacy.

How to Create a Buyer Persona for Your Telemarketing

In any business, it is crucial to identify your primary audience, which also applies to telemarketing. As discussed in our recent post, creating a personalised pitch is one of the 3 aspects of successful B2B telemarketing. 

Apart from just knowing who your audience is, you have to go further than that and find out if you can fully understand them. You need to know their motivations, how they are similar or different, and many other details.

A buyer persona can help you achieve this. Check out our guide below on how to create an effective one for your telemarketing.

Step-by-Step Guide To Creating a Buyer Persona for Telemarketing

Here is a guide to help you create the ideal buyer persona for B2B telemarketing

1. Start With Your Internal Team

It would be best if you started building your buyer persona from the information you already have. The first point of contact for that is your employees. It would help if you had everyone on the same page, including customer service, marketing, and sales. Before going out, you must consult your team members about goals, pain points, and common behaviours noticed in customers.

Hold discussions with personnel in customer service, marketing, and sales to get their ideas on the type of customers that buy your products. The sales team is essential because they interact with customers every day, and they will have information about some of the factors that make prospects make a purchase or not. Ask the sales team the following questions:

• What are the most popular objections from prospects?
• What types of customers do you usually meet?
• What are some of the reasons why customers select your business over competitors?
• Why do different types of customers usually make a purchase?

Ask your marketing team the following questions:

• Describe the marketing campaigns that showed the most success.
• What questions do customers ask frequently?
• What methods do you currently use for marketing?
• Describe the failed marketing campaigns.
• What pages on the website/blogs get the most impressions?

Ask your customer service team the following questions:

• What are customers saying about the product?
• What are the most common questions from prospects?
• What skills do customers need to have before using our product?
• What are current customers saying?

2. Check Your Existing Customer Data

As we said previously about building personas from the information you have access to, your present customers are those you can contact directly after your employees. This usually means the people that are already engaging with your brand. Many of these people have already bought into your brand and are already part of your target personas. You should take information from people on both sides – those who love the product/service and those unhappy with it.

A great way to find these people include:

• Website visitors
• Insights from employees
• Social media followers
• Competitor’s customers
• Email subscribers

Analytics tools can help you get some information, such as social media followers and website visitors. Another excellent reason for starting with existing customers is the best bet is that you do not typically need to offer incentives for information. Many customers like people hearing their point of view, so interviewing them is a win on both sides – you can get information for your buyer persona and keep them happy.

You should also include former customers in this information gathering using the criteria: industry, region, product, customer lifetime value, number of employees. You can constantly tinker with this criterion based on the kind of product/service you are offering. This will help you identify the customer most profitable to you, their likes, and how you’re not meeting their needs.

3. Making The Call

After obtaining a baseline of those that engage with your brand, you can further your research by calling them since we’re talking about telemarketing. At every call stage, stay attentive to the prospects’ issues and make them feel heard. Inform them that you are looking for feedback, and this should prompt them to be more open to sharing information, especially with existing customers.

4. Analyse and Categorise Customers

You should get a lot of information where some will match, and others will be vastly different. You need to narrow down the group of people purchasing your product and their reasons from the information you have gathered.

5. Put The Information on a Template

We’ve talked a lot about where to get information for your buyer persona. However, the data to collect can be a bit challenging. It is crucial to have a buyer persona template, as we will give one below so you’ll know which information to collect.

You should collect this information under four main headings, which include:

• Identity
• Purchase Behaviour
• Challenges and Pain points
• Goals

Identity

As expected, this will have all the basic personal details to form a compelling buyer persona. The identity information should generally include: 

• Name
• Location
• Job Title
• Phone Number
• Work Phone Number

Challenges and Pain Points

This section should include some of the concerns your ideal customer may have. You can get this by answering questions like:

• What keeps your customer awake at night 
• Why do new customers use you – what headache of theirs do you solve? 

Objectives

You should also try and get a little bit of understanding of the objectives you want. Typical questions that you will ask include:

• What does success look like for you? 
• What would that success do for your team / company? 
• What do you want to achieve with our service?

Depending on the type of product or service you sell, other relevant aspects that can help you build your buyer persona include:

• Familiarity with Product
• Frequency of product use
• Motivation for choosing the product
• Personality tendencies and traits

Conclusion 

Throughout the process, never underestimate the need to keep all team members aware of your procedures for approaching customers and the right questions to ask. The experience from speaking with one member of your team should be similar when communicating with another.

How to Do B2B Telemarketing

Business-to-business telemarketing is a low-cost technique that involves cold-calling other businesses. 95% of businesses that attempt telemarketing aren’t making sure they use these three aspects within their telemarketing campaigns. In this article, we will go through these three aspects one after the other so you can get ahead of your competitors.

1. Data

To ensure the success of your B2B telemarketing campaigns, you need to gather as much data and information on prospects as possible. Proper research will ensure you’re targeting the right person in the company. It will also help you tailor a more personalised pitch.

How to Determine Who to Call in a Company

1. Use a data product or service to your advantage

There are several great third-party options for busy people who don’t want to hunt for numbers. You may either pay a firm to provide you with a list of prospects’ phone numbers or invest in a reliable solution that will extract them for you.

2. Make use Of out-of-office replies

This proper cold calling technique is a bit tricky, but it can obtain anyone’s number. It’s as simple as mailing them when you know they’ll be off work. Most responsible workers have an out-of-office email template ready to react to unexpected communications on weekends and holidays.

3. Use Google to find information

When attempting to reach a higher-up, Google is an apparent but frequently neglected option. Sales representatives may quickly get contact information since everyone’s digital identities are spread online. Your prospect’s phone number may be concealed if they have a higher or more significant position in his business.

4. Use LinkedIn or Facebook

Checking out your prospect’s social media accounts is another helpful resource for locating their contact information. While nearly all social media sites will provide you with some information about the person, Facebook and LinkedIn, in particular, may assist you in obtaining phone numbers.

5. Inquire directly with your prospects 

Rather than beating around the bush, ask for your prospects’ phone digits immediately. The first time you meet them, make your product or service evident to them. Request their phone number to continue the discussion.

2. Hook

Adopting the ideal sales hook is a skill. One size does not fit everyone. To do so, you must comprehend your prospect’s worries and wants, as well as the data you’ve gathered about them. A sales hook may take many forms. Let us help you get started by compiling some of the finest and noting when to utilise them:

1. Keep track of customer contact point

Keep in mind the consumer contact points as you craft the ideal sales hook for your calls and emails. Who are your clients? What social media do they use? Do your sales hook a buyer benefit? Know which media to use to tell your tale. Solves a customer’s issue, saves money, and reassures them that purchasing your product is the correct option.

2. Make a memorable hook

Advertising guru Al Ries wrote in Ad Age about five ways to make advertising slogans memorable. These methods work for cold phoning and email hooks:

• Rhyme
• Alliteration
• Repetition
• Reversal
• Double-entendre

These techniques may help you write content that sparkles. Have fun with your sales hook to grab your prospects’ attention. 

3. Ask many questions

Using questions as a sales hook immediately initiates a discussion. Consider asking questions that address their concerns, like:

• Saving money
• Increasing their profit
• Finding new customers
• Keeping customer

These questions must be customised to your industry/solution. It comes naturally when you know your market well. Then go deeper to discover the emotional triggers. A tagline that may evoke emotion is significant.

4. Storytelling

To connect with your prospects, you need to tell them a story. Business storyteller Bedros Keuilian shared his marketing tips on Entrepreneur.com. He utilised the technique “Point, Story, Metaphor” while speaking to people about saving their businesses. A sales hook may evoke many emotions and concepts.

5. Make a Promise

You will hook your prospect if you develop an emotional sales hook that offers rewards and is motivating. Use a pleasant and straightforward message. It will attract attention since it is unique.

3. The Right Person (Caller)

Choosing the right person to speak to a lead is essential. Here are some qualities that make an excellent telemarketer:

1. Listening Techniques

Listening skills are as essential as speaking abilities for telemarketers. Instead of interrupting, a telemarketer may learn the client’s actual needs by listening to their problems. This enables them to handle more problems and generate more leads.

2. Asking the Right Questions

A good B2B telemarketer will ask open-ended questions that generate detailed responses and helpful information. They can’t establish a conversation or develop trust with questions that can be answered yes or no, reducing campaign effectiveness.

3. Honesty

You don’t want B2B telemarketers that stretch the facts to make your business sound more appealing. A telemarketer’s honesty is critical, and contacts want an honest response when they ask inquiries. If the telemarketer is sparing with the facts, it will lead to further issues.

4. Knowledgeable

Knowing your company and what you want to achieve from the campaign should be the first step. Good telemarketers can give more comprehensive responses and create more good leads by knowing about your organisation.

5. Controllability

A competent B2B telemarketing firm’s telemarketer will always be in charge. The goal-setter will know what they want to accomplish from the discussion and guide it without being overbearing. This will benefit both the contact and your business.

6. Organisation 

Knowing your way around the CRM and admin systems may save you a lot of time. The time saved may then be spent selling to customers. More time means more possibilities, which means more sales or appointments.

7. Always learning 

Great telemarketers and telesales people are constantly eager to learn. Prepare to learn from your peers, your boss and to study up on the topic. 

8. They must be driven by enthusiasm

Marketing requires passionate individuals. It requires workers willing to take chances and go the additional mile to persuade them to purchase your products. A salesperson who loves their work will not be crushed by rejection. They will have a goal in mind and will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

9. Establishes Targets

To keep individuals and the team on track, influential leaders establish additional goals than quotas. They may establish daily call objectives and periodic CRM record checks. The ability to utilise targets to highlight essential tasks, promote desirable behaviours, and overcome weaknesses sets exceptional leaders distinct

10. Tracks Results

True leaders use data, not just gut feeling. They utilise metrics to monitor individual and team performance. They track everything from lead conversion rates and sales cycle duration to quarterly revenues and client retention rates. So they can immediately detect possible issues and help a salesperson or a sales team.

Telemarketing is a powerful tool that is often overlooked in B2B marketing strategies. It’s all about execution, so manage your team and allocate the resources you’ll need to succeed. Following the tips above will ensure you get more success by boosting your lead generation and conversion.