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Telemarketing isn’t straightforward. The higher you go up the corporate totem pole, the harder it gets to achieve results. So, anything you can do to enhance performance is worthwhile. And there are a few simple things you can do to significantly improve your effectiveness. Below are 5 Clever Ways to Improve Your Telemarketing Results.

  1. Embed Commands with Gatekeepers

Too often, telemarketers act in a subservient manner to the gatekeepers whose job it is to block. One way of improving the likelihood of getting through is to use embedded commands. This works as follows:

You: John Smith Please

Reply: Who is calling?

You: Yes. Would you tell him it’s Adam Robbins on the phone. Thank You.

The point is that the ‘Would you’ is not a question. It should be said as a command. And the ‘Thank You’ signifies to the gatekeeper that you’re done talking to them so ‘put me through’.

It won’t work every time but remember that telemarketing is partly a numbers game and you just might get through to the prospect that becomes your biggest client

  1. Make your Voice Count

This is a pretty good article if you want to train your voice. In many cases though, it’s about understanding how you sound. So, use your mobile and record your voice. Listen back to the recording. Do you sound high-pitched and whiney? Or do you have the dulcet tones of the chap that announces the contestants on X Factor or other shows? You won’t get through the gatekeeper and most certainly won’t build any rapport with the Marketing Director of Shell if you sound tinny and squeaky when delivering your elevator pitch.

  1. Handle Objections the Right Way

If your role involves telemarketing, you need to work out how to handle objections. They’re a fact of telemarketing life so get over it. If you don’t get enough No’s you’re not making enough calls. And it’s inevitable that you’ll be thrown curve-balls and objections. So, get used to them and work out your approach. Many telemarketers adopt the ‘answer the objection’ approach and that’s not my preferred modus operandi. I find that the best results come from taking a more inquisitive approach. Ask good open questions and get them to ‘help you understand’…. Good questions sometimes flush out the real reason behind objections and allow you to build trust. So, don’t jump in to try to over-persuade when confronted with the objection. Try to gentle tease out more info before dealing with the root cause.

  1. Stop Pitching and Start Asking

It is highly unlikely you’ll achieve the results you want if your opening gambit is a sales pitch. Whilst they need to know who you are and the reason for your call, if you continue jabbering away about you and your products or services without pause for the first two minutes of the call, chances are the call won’t last much beyond those two minutes. Less talking and more listening will pay dividends. But make sure you use a blend of open and closed questions. Try to ensure that the mix of talking and listening is at least 50:50 and ideally you should ask such good questions that the prospect feels obliged to answer and provide the info you want.

  1. Sell Yourself First

We wrote a recent article called 5 Tips to Selling Yourself in Addition to your Services. The point is that, in most cases, your prospects won’t buy your products or services until they buy you. That is absolutely imperative the higher the value of sale. So, you need be become adept at building relationships and rapport first and the rest will come. It is something that takes practice. You need to be able to relax on the phone, ask good questions but, above all, be capable of going off piste. By that, I mean engaging on a personal level. That doesn’t mean asking about their family if you don’t know them. But it does mean finding elements within the conversation that ensure that you don’t come across as a typical sales person. This is quite a nice blog on the principle called ‘pattern Interrupt. It’s a little americanised for us Brits but it’s spot on in terms of the logic behind the approach even if the dating examples are a bit cheesy.

Practice definitely makes perfect when it comes to telemarketing. However, there’s no point perfecting the wrong things. So, first work on yourself and the results will come.

If you’d like to know how GSA Business Development can help generate growth for your business through telemarketing, telemarketing training or social media lead generation or you’d like to book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or use the form on this site.

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