Thursday, September 6, 2012

What Are The 10 Worst Mistakes When Doing Telemarketing Campaigns?

10 Worst Mistakes in Telemarketers Campaigns

1.Letting your new hires or trainees do the cold calling for your company.

This is often the most common mistake committed by both small and large companies. Because they don’t want to deal with gatekeepers or the tedious task of calling for hours, they simply have their trainees do this for them. Of course, with hardly any knowledge about the company and its procedures, you can expect one of two things from this: the trainee quits, or the telemarketing campaign turns into a disaster.  

2.Outsourcing to the cheapest company you can find.

The reason why a lot of businesses are scammed out of their money is because they fail to do enough research before signing a contract. Good telemarketing service providers can be easily identified from the fraudulent ones. A good tip is to always double check on any contact information, contact person, or reference they present.  

3.Not paying attention to the DNC list.

Some business owners think that they can disregard the DNC list and not get caught. The truth is, your business leads are just as eager to report a law-breaking practice as you are, so always make sure that your telemarketing list is updated and cross-referenced regularly with your DNC list.

4.Calling business sales leads during peak work hours.

You know that your business leads are busy people just like you, so don’t expect them to be eager to answer a cold call in the middle of their workday.

5.Calling before 8am and after 9pm.

While you shouldn’t call your business leads during peak work hours, you must never ever call them outside of the standard 8am to 9pm schedule (as mandated by the FTC) either. Unless you have a prior permission to call outside of these hours, you could easily end up with a lawsuit, and your company’s integrity will immediately suffer.

6.Pitching to the gatekeeper.

Sales people who are eager to make the sale might come to think that by getting the gatekeeper sold on their offering, they would immediately get the sale from the decision maker as well. Getting the gatekeeper on your side is important, but that doesn’t mean you have to pitch your sales talk to them.

7.Arguing with the gatekeeper.

Don’t think that arguing with the gatekeeper will get you anywhere, much less getting an appointment with the right decision maker. Gatekeepers are frequently viewed as the enemy of the telemarketer, but they shouldn’t be. If you know how to treat gatekeepers properly, they can be your best asset.

8.Not following up after the initial telemarketing call.

When setting business appointments through telemarketing calls, remember that you’re not the only person that a gatekeeper has to deal with. Even if the company of your business sales lead may have advanced technologies to handle all inbound calls, always make sure that the appointment you agreed on was placed in the decision maker’s calendar by calling one day or a few hours before the appointed meeting.

9.Not leaving a voicemail for unanswered cold calls.

If you unfortunately fail to get to your business leads on time, or the gatekeeper was away from the phone for some reason, leaving a concise message on voicemail will help them anticipate your next call.

10.Calling too many times throughout the day.

Doing this is not necessarily illegal, but no matter how lovely your product or offer may be or even if the office you were calling was a high quality b2b sales lead, no one would want to do business with a company who leaves 15 missed calls on a potential client’s phone just to get an appointment.