Written by Of course we don’t think Telemarketing sucks – we wouldn’t do it if that’s what we really believed. But there are plenty of people who do think that way, so let’s get stuck in to some of the objections to having a telemarketing team in your business – and why they’re not the case any more.
They never deviate from the script [except that’s not true]
Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, sometimes scripts are incredibly useful. And they’re a great starting point for any conversation. But a good telemarketer will be able to adapt and react to what the person they’re speaking to is saying.
One of our clients was targeting a specific service – when we spoke to a prospect, they weren’t interested but mentioned something else in passing. That something else turned into a hot Sales Qualified Lead for another service, because our approach was not simply to stick to the script and never dig deeper.
They pressure people [except that’s not how it goes any more]
Perhaps this one depends on the quality of the telemarketing provider you use. Ultimately, we’ve all been on the receiving end of a pushy telemarketer, trying to sell us double glazing or insurance, or something else, interrupting our dinner and trying the hard sell.
That’s not what B2B Lead Generation is all about – what you want is leads, and you won’t get quality leads through pushy tactics and pressure. Those days are long gone – our prospects are savvier now, and our approaches have improved. Let’s face it, you get the best leads when your outreach connects with them and demonstrates the value of what you offer.
No one bothers with cold calling any more [you’d be surprised]
Some of the biggest companies in the world still hit the phones. Cold calling isn’t dead, it’s alive and well, and may even be helping your competitors get the edge. Integrating your marketing across inbound and outbound tactics is more effective than sticking to one thing.
After all, the digital landscape is busy and cluttered. Making traction through inbound methods takes time. If you want leads now, you need to go out and get them. That’s what successful companies do.
People hate being sold to [except they love being helped]
No one likes to be sold to, right? For the most part, that’s pretty much the case. But that doesn’t mean selling to them is inherently bad, or that we all have to wait for them to come along and ask for our products or services.
People, especially business people, want to win. They want success. And if you can deliver success to them, why wouldn’t they be interested? The trick is to not think of a sales process as a conquest – we’re not ‘winning’ at the expense of a prospect or customer. It’s a win-win scenario. If we can genuinely help that prospect achieve something they want to achieve, and they can see the value in that, everyone gets something out of a sale.
The key is to make sure your telemarketers are trained and understand the value of what you do. That way, they’re not “selling” to the people they speak to, they’re looking for opportunities to provide that value.
Telemarketers are robotic [except for the right ones]
Poorly trained telemarketers who read a script and don’t have any interest or enthusiasm might well fall into the category of being robotic. The trick is not to hire them.
You see, we started Lead Retriever through wanting to make outsourced telemarketing a bit more fun and a lot more effective. And being effective is closely linked to being human, not robotic. It all comes down to training, development, understanding, and (cliched as it may be) passion.
It won’t work for us [except it might]
We can’t say for sure, we don’t know you yet. But it’s easy to dismiss telemarketing as something that only works for simple sales, or certain industries, and assume it’s no good for more complex businesses.
The thing is, you can create the right sort of campaign to work for almost any business. It might be that you don’t close a sale on the call – that’s pretty expected these days, most sales take multiple touchpoints. But you could make an introduction (first touchpoint), share something useful, set an appointment, qualify opportunities, or simply build out your database for other forms of marketing.
Telemarketing works for many, many more businesses than you might expect.