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FAQ's

Check below for some of our frequently asked questions:

Telemarketing is an effective medium for lead generation whether this is to promote:

  • New or added value services to current customers.
  • A special offer to encourage lapsed customers to come back.
  • An incentive or trial to good prospects that didn’t convert to business.
  • A package for introducers and partners who could refer business to you.
  • Contact with quality contacts in your CRM that you haven’t spoken to in a while.

It isn’t just about ‘cold calling’. Telemarketing or telesales as it is also known is one of a number of direct marketing routes to market. It is the most direct and personal peer-to-peer approach. It works best when it is integrated into other activities such as LinkedIn outreach (to follow up connections and responses), direct mail, email marketing, events and so on. However, it is also effective when used on its own.

Aside from online ecommerce, most transactions happen face to face. Without qualified sales meetings and new business appointments this cannot happen. Therefore, telemarketing lead generation still has an important role to play in sales campaigns.

Telemarketing is a proactive medium. No waiting for the phone to ring, a response to a mailer or advertisement or hoping someone will walk into your office.

Cold calling sometimes gets a bad name. Some assume that this form of marketing means haranguing people like has happened in the B2C world with double-glazing and, latterly, PPI claims. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth especially when it comes to professional B2B telemarketing. If you are a reputable company promoting appropriate services to a marketplace that uses those services, it is highly unlikely that the phone will be slammed down on you. Telemarketing can provide an effective way to build rapport as part of your new business marketing activities.

The key elements to ensure that cold calling doesn’t fall into the trap of being considered annoying are:

  • A clearly defined target audience. Target marketing is extremely important. Select a market for your goods and services that understands what you offer and could have use for them.
  • Develop a strong reason for your prospects to engage with you. Calls that have no basis or value leave the recipient wondering why you’re wasting their time.
  • Screen your list using the CTPS or TPS opt-out registers. This will prevent you from calling people that have expressly asked not to be contacted. For more information visit the Corporate opt-out register. Also, make sure you screen against your in-house do not call/suppression file.
  • Make sure you have good people making the calls who are mature, confident, assertive and who have an excellent telephone manner.
  • Brief your team well before they call

At GSA, we undertake senior level telemarketing campaigns. We are not a call centre. Our team is made up of senior people used to calling decision-makers.

Our work includes appointment generation for PR and advertising agencies as well as for associations, federations, financial services and many more. Please view examples of our work and view our testimonials.

We work for large, well-known brands through to SMEs that need a boost in their lead generation efforts. 

Our work generally means we make face to face appointments for our clients to meet with decision-makers that can purchase their products or services. Our role is to undertake lead generation so that your time is effective i.e. in front of senior decision-makers rather than on the phone. We have also undertaken campaigns where the objective is to:

  • Generate attendees at seminars
  • Set up Zoom or Teams demos
  • Sell memberships
  • Undertake customer satisfaction research
  • Carry out market research
  • Set up meetings at exhibitions
  • Follow up event leads
  • Organise site audits
  • Generate quotes 
  • Send out samples
  • Resuscitate lapsed customers
  • Make customer care calls to existing customers
  • Engage with resellers or intermediaries

We make appointments with Managing Directors, Finance Directors, Marketing Directors, Compliance directors as well as owners and more. Whoever your decision-maker is, we can help you generate new business.

Our work has included telemarketing appointments with many blue-chip companies including Virgin, Tesco, Body Shop, BP and many others. Visit our testimonials page to see what our clients are saying.

Our team are senior people who have had excellent professional careers. They are used to making sales calls and will represent your business and protect and enhance your reputation.

We make calls globally. Our base is in the UK. However, we have language skills which mean that we can pretty much call into any market where you need to generate interest and new business. 

 

A good sales proposition is all important.

Why would someone want to speak to you if yours is the fifth call received today and your message is the same or inferior to the others? Ask yourself the following questions as if you were the prospect:

  • What’s in it for me?
  • Why should I listen to this person?
  • Why should I see them?
  • Why should I see them now as opposed to some time in the future?

These are important questions and you should try to identify a strong reason to see you, not something that everyone else can also claim.

Yes. GSA can undertake a trial period and most campaigns kick off with some kind of pilot exercise. Most trial periods range from 4-12 weeks. Contact us for more details.

Most work for our clients is done on a campaign, or ongoing fee basis since they find that we work collaboratively with them and this gives them the most stable basis upon which to budget.

Following a trial period, we work either on a continued fixed fee basis or a hybrid (lower daily rate and bonus for appointments) and sometimes on an appointment only basis where we have established a robust benchmark upon which to base the calculation.

GSA offers telesales training for clients’ in-house telemarketers. Ask us about our telemarketing workshops either at your office or online. 

Our training page provides details regarding the courses available. 

We undertake a new business development strategy workshop with all clients before commencement. We also run these and marketing workshops for clients outside of a telemarketing campaign.

The aim is to help you to identify both your core target audiences (location, company size, sector, decision-maker role etc), and a compelling proposition to encourage your prospects to engage with you. 

We also help with list building and/or list validation.

We provide a full reporting suite that is updated on a daily basis. This is shared with our clients so that they are always in full control of their lead generation campaign. 

We track every call made and provide reports, and call recordings, so that clients can see details of every call.

What’s more, we recommend weekly reviews with your account manager and caller so that your exercise remains on track. 

This no problem as GSA regularly conducts list sourcing for clients. We can identify a target market and secure a good list. We also build lists for clients using the web, phone and other measures.

If you have your own data, that’s fine. However, it’s vital that data is accurate, and up-to-date. Otherwise, you will find that there will be increased wastage with wrong numbers, no-name polices and so on. This slows down success and costs more. Therefore, we regularly work with clients to enhance their CRM data trough data validation and cleaning, in advance of campaign kick-off. 

We also screen the data for opt-outs every 28 days to comply with GDPR rules. 

We use FIVE CRM which is tailored for telemarketing productivity. It also allows us to provide excellent reporting for our clients. 

However, we have used client CRM systems such as Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive, and others. We can certainly work on your system, but be aware that this slows call rates down since it is rarely configured for fast and accurate calling. Most CRM systems are more broadly configured to suit a range of marketing disciplines such as email outreach and so on. 

In many organisations, new business is everyone’s responsibility and no one takes responsibility. Managing in-house staff is often costly and time-consuming. Regularly, companies fail to provide the tools, the data, the systems, the briefing and the environment to make telemarketing work.

Training isn’t provided and sales staff can be transient thereby incurring companies extra recruitment cost on top of the salary, pension costs, and NI.

By using an outsourced telemarketing agency, you are passing the responsibility to a company whose job it is to do telemarketing day in and day out. You reduce risks and often enhance success. If you don’t believe us, take a look at our testimonials and give us a call.

Visit our articles page and blog for tips and our business development white papers.

Telemarketing offers several benefits to businesses, including the ability to directly reach high-value potential customers that don’t respond to other marketing, increase brand awareness, generate leads for the sales pipeline, and, ultimately, to increase sales revenue. Telemarketing, can also be used to follow-up events, email broadcasts, LinkedIn campaigns and other marketing efforts. Equally, it can help businesses build relationships with customers and gather valuable feedback through research and customer care calling.

Telemarketing can benefit businesses in various industries, including technology, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, finance, and healthcare amongst many other sectors. It is particularly effective for businesses that offer high-value products or services or have a niche target audience.

Thankfully, people still buy from people, especially where the value of sale is higher, and the specification and/or requirements more complex. Telemarketing can improve customer engagement by providing a personalised experience that allows businesses to directly communicate with potential customers. It allows them to address customer concerns and questions in real-time, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Like other channels, the success rate of telemarketing campaigns varies depending on the industry, target audience, and other factors. According to a study by DMA, telemarketing has a response rate of 5.3%, which is higher than other marketing channels such as direct mail (2.9%) and email (0.6%), and paid search (0.5%). Another study by the DMA found that telemarketing has an ROI of $10.1 for every $1 spent.

Common objections that telemarketers face include lack of interest, insufficient budget, and not the right timing. To handle these objections, telemarketers benefit most from having a strong call to action or trigger. Ideally, this is pain-based since, typically, customers that are in pain are more likely to be open to change. Not everyone is in the market for your services, so, sometimes, it pays to make a follow-up call at a more convenient time.

There is no right time to make a call. Perhaps, certain times of year may be weaker for some businesses, but this may provide opportunities for others, e.g. Christmas, summer months. The best time to make telemarketing calls depends on the target audience and the type of product or service being promoted. Generally, it is best to make calls during business hours and avoid calling during lunchtime or early in the morning.

Telemarketing can help increase sales revenue in lots of ways. Peer-to-peer selling usually produces higher value, and better quality sales. Following up an enquiry, or an event with a phone call magnifies the likelihood of doing business compared to a more passive approach. Making a call allows businesses to offer personalised solutions and address customer concerns, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, and a stronger customer lifetime value.

The success of telemarketing campaigns can be measured using metrics such as number of dials, calls and contacts per hour, decision-maker conversations, response rates, leads generated, size of the pipeline, conversion rates, and, ultimately, revenue generated. Businesses can also gather customer feedback to determine the effectiveness of their telemarketing efforts, and the likely interest in the product or service being promoted.

Telemarketing is a highly targeted marketing strategy that offers the ability to directly communicate with potential customers. It is often more effective than other marketing channels such as email or direct mail, as it allows for personalised communication and immediate feedback.It typically suits sales where the value of the purchase is on the higher side.

Inbound telemarketing involves receiving calls from interested parties, or enquiries from a landing page contact form that need to be followed through. Whilst outbound telemarketing also regularly involves making cold calls to prospective customers, it can also include lapsed customer calls, calls to existing customers for new product launches, cross-sell and upsell, and to invite customers to events. It pays to have a blend of both approaches. 

Whilst telemarketing can deliver immediate results, through unearthing hidden opportunities, it’s important to look at this form of lead generation as a long-term approach. The effectiveness and timeline of telemarketing can vary depending on several factors, such as the quality of the data, appropriateness of the target audience, size of target company, seniority of the target decision-makers, strength of the message and call-to-action, and the value of sale. It can also vary significantly by the industry, the product or service being marketed, and the sector.

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