subject: The Best Guide To Making A Telemarketing Campaign A Success [print this page] Know Your Target Market - To start you telemarketing campaign, you would need a good and qualified targeted list. You'll also need to define your target market if you want to build up your database. If you're not sure, then let your telemarketing service provider know. They'll help you identify your area of strength. There are three primary factors to consider, namely:
Industry
Company Size
Geographic Area
Build Your List - Building a list takes a considerable amount of time. If your firm is moving into new market sectors, internal lists may not provide the information needed thus there may be a need to assemble lists from external sources to find targets that match your desired customer profile. You may opt to buy lists from reputable list providers that can provide comprehensive business, consumer, residential and other specialty lists. You should supply each agent with 1000 - 3000 targets per month to maximize their voice contact time between scheduled follow-up calls. Ensure your lists have the following basic business information:
Phone Number
Company Name
Contact Name & Title
Company Address
Email Address
Fax Number
Identify Your Decision Maker - The decision maker (DM) is usually the person who signs the check, but not always. Other individuals may also play a vital role in the buying process, and they may be the ones that need the most convincing it helps to hone in on the key players involved in your target's buying decisions - specifiers, influencers and final DM's - to pursue the right contact persons rather than waste time with wrong ones.
Set Your Goals - Set tangible goals and realistic targets. Is your aim to set appointments or generate leads? Are calling to offer new services and products to existing customers? Invite them to join a company event? When you have the goals of your campaign clearly laid out, you can then effectively craft a compelling market message. Well-defined goals and measurable targets are also a way for you to evaluate the outcome of a campaign and a means to make adjustments if necessary.
Define A Viable Lead - Setting your lead criteria before starting the telemarketing campaign keeps the agent on point in objectively discerning between highly viable sales opportunities and chatty but unworkable calls. A viable opportunity may be defined differently by different companies, though generally, you should prepare questions to determine if a lead is worth pursuing:
Do they have a considerable NEED for your product or service?
Is the person you contacted AUTHORIZED to make or recommend a purchase?
Have they set a TIMEFRAME for making the decision to buy?
Do they have the BUDGET defined?
Get A Good Script Prepared - Keep it simple and tailored to your target audience. Generally, prospects respond better if the caller is offering something they need - not just trying to pressure them to buy. It should be fine-tuned in the early stage of the campaign based on the feedback received from the prospects. Also, come up with a list of possible objections that may be encountered and prepare rebuttals for them. Likewise, preparing campaign FAQ's regarding the company and services enable agents to answer questions quickly and accurately.
Take Time To Train Your Agent - It is essential for the agent to have ample knowledge about your company's product and services. A short presentation about your company's capabilities prior to the start of the campaign will familiarize the agent with your target market. Constant training and coaching are the best ways to ensure that the agent gives the right answers at the right times to potential clients. It would also be helpful to provide websites, brochures, whitepapers, demonstrations, and any other background information to increase the agent's familiarity with your product and company.
Be Involved and Prepared To Make Adjustments - Once the campaign is launched, continue your active participation. Review the campaign results and collaborate with your telemarketing team to check if there's a need to modify your lead criteria or target market. Schedule a weekly meeting with your telemarketing team to make sure that the campaign is progressing as planned.
Keep Your Appointments - Keeping appointments is vital. Needlessly disrupting your potential client's schedule will compromise a sale as well as your company's reputation. Remember that these leads have been pre-qualified for you and are likely to yield positive results so don't waste the sales opportunity by failing to turn up at their door or forgetting to call when expected.
Stay On Course - It's important that telemarketing campaigns are given enough time to build up momentum. As with building a sales pipeline, building a lead pipeline requires constant follow-up of previously called targets until they can be definitely disqualified or converted into strong, well-qualified sales appointments. Depending on the type of sales campaign, it is often recommended to run a program for a minimum of 3 months. Anything shorter than that would leave a majority of leads unconverted into qualified appointments.
