Old Blogs Archives

Amplify, Diversify, Simplify: How to Up your B2B Content Marketing Game

September 25, 2014/in Old Blogs /by admin

To some, human relationships are strictly utilitarian in that one member is bound to be useful to another. This best describes the B2B marketing arena, where the structure doesn’t follow a give-and-take scheme but adheres to a system of cooperation.

But we shouldn’t always settle with this fact. There exist semblances of animal competition, especially in such endeavors as content marketing.

The relevance of this fact directs us to an important necessity in content marketing, and that is to improve and develop existing strategies to win the battle for audience share and ROI.

With these considerations, we shall now explore a few reminders on intensifying your content campaign and eventually increase lead generation.

Amplify. Considering that human relationships take on competitive and cooperative visages, we may find that the latter has a profound bearing on survival. We aren’t tasked to explore Darwinism further, but such an observation helps in forging content-strong B2B lead generation. It is just a matter of widening your market reach by allying with influencers. Through sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, you will be able to encounter individuals and groups that can benefit from the products and services you offer. In turn, they may create a network of referrals that can serve as an effective origin for additional prospects.

Diversify. The modern marketer is lucky to have multiple platforms at his or her disposal. And it is imperatives that each platform has to be utilized to its fullest potential. Social media is perhaps the most efficient medium through which you can market your products and services to a broader audience. But marketers should go beyond setting social profiles. Blogs and an online video-based campaign are also good at directing attention towards your company.

Simplify. Putting a lot of effort into your campaign can get you a long way. But, adding too much details and singling out the good stuff constitute counter-effective measures that only entail a waste of time and money. While the goal is to amplify your reach through a diverse array of communication channels, it is equally important that you make your campaign stand out by being consistently relevant. What this means is that you need to offer innovations and present them in a way that goads the consumers’ sense of immediacy and necessity.

In B2B content marketing, it pays to have a good sense of knowing how your industry works. But while competition is the main driving force for company growth, it takes a sense of overwhelming determination to drive your resources and strategies towards realizing goals.

The Greatest Marketing Strategy Question: Inbound or Outbound?

September 10, 2014/in Old Blogs /by admin

Marketing strategies are interesting. The fact that drafting an approach is a volatile task allows for a variety of options that B2B telemarketing companies could follow. There is simply no linear formula to follow as there are two vital forms of marketing which you can pursue, inbound and outbound.

For a campaign to earn its success, it is important for a business decision-maker to know which method would prove the best. Would you use the inbound techniques in SEO and social media, or would you put more focus on the outbound methods of traditional advertising, direct mail and phone calls?

The following considerations will guide you in creating a successful marketing plan:

Cost Efficiency. Gauging the success of a campaign should also be reflected in the ROI. And profitability is too dear to lose. Nowadays, companies are making great strides by engaging communities through blogging and social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn for lesser costs compared to using traditional media. And once you have established an online presence, customers may contact you for more information on your offers.

Content Engagement. Once you get your message to your audience, there is no telling how well the message is absorbed. Both inbound and outbound marketing suffer such uncertainties, rendering ROI forecasts difficult if not ambiguous. With this in mind, you would have to churn out quality content. Whether designing an engaging blog or starting a direct mail campaign, one must not neglect that content is relative to sales volume.

Market Diversity. The challenges faced by B2B and B2C marketing lies in the diversity of business prospects. The reality is that there are as many kinds of consumers as there are marketing strategies. And it does a great service to know your targets well. In this respect, businesses must attend to pertinent data on their target demographic. It is easy to assume that tech-savvy individuals who spend a large slice of their daily time blogging and accessing their social media accounts can be easy pickings for quality online content. But then again, one should also consider people who are less exposed to inbound messages. For this, PR activities and trade shows can be employed to reach out to a wider audience.

We can see that inbound and outbound marketing seem to oppose each other. But in many cases, they go hand in hand. Businesses must make use of the advantages of both methods in order to expand their reach.

For example, a business may send direct mails containing links to the enterprise’s blogsite and social media pages. Freebies and discounts can be offered once the recipient agrees to subscribe to a regular newsletter or supply contact information for potential offerings.

Integrating the two will prove to be indispensable in translating marketing leads into actual sales.

Need To Build Online Presence Fast? You Need These 5 Tools Now

April 9, 2014/in Old Blogs /by admin

B2B lead generation is not a passive task where you just produce content and wait for leads to come marching in. Rather, it entails elaborate, sometimes meticulous, processes to sustain online presence. Your target market needs a constant consumption of anything related to your brand in order for them to keep that awareness burning in their memory.

Now, these responsibilities may be too much for a person to handle, especially when the need for monitoring and analysis is building up. In such cases, one needs powerful and efficient tools to help manage the flow of online activities.

For starters, consider these 5 tools proposed by Clément Delangue, chief marketing officer of online social business monitoring app Mention:

1. Buffer to post content. Content sharing is one of the easiest ways to grow and nurture your community. Yet, with more and more social platforms popping up online, content sharing can be time consuming, as each has its own style and messaging. Enter Buffer. This tool is a great way to streamline your posting and schedule on multiple platforms, making sure you’re talking to everyone where it counts.

2. LaunchCrew to launch campaigns. When launch day comes, startups need to get the word out to as many people to have the most impact and increase the probability of being heard in crowded industries. Often this entails getting your current followers to share with their friends, family and connections. LaunchCrew will help you do just that. It lets you cast a much wider net, practically doubling or tripling your impact.

3. Unbounce to create landing pages. Landing pages are now a must-have design choice to boost your online special operations. By customizing these towards a targeted audience, along with specific and relatable calls to action, it makes them way more efficient at achieving higher click-through rates.

4. Click to Tweet to foster sharing. It’s ok to ask people to share. But the simpler it is, the more people you’ll get to do so. By giving out a simple, pre-composed click-to-tweet URL for your audience to tweet in seconds, you’ll find that your potential for virality is drastically increased.

5. Mention to monitor and react.Once people start talking about you, the best way to continue growing is to detect these mentions and to reply to every one of them. By doing so, it fosters a lot of motivation for them to talk and mention even more about you, creating a network of trusted brand advocates. By having alerts based on keywords — like the name of your company, your products or your competitors — mention allows you to stay in the know and react in seconds by connecting your social accounts directly to the app.

Read the full article at 5 Tools For Entrepreneurs to Grow Their Online Presence in No Time

What do prospects like and dislike- A Telemarketer’s Guide

What do prospects like and dislike? The Telemarketers Guide

December 16, 2013/2 Comments/in Old Blogs /by Dara Lin

As a telemarketer, it is important to understand every person you come in contact with everyday. Salesperson or not, it is only through familiarity and insight that telemarketers are able to converse genuinely, probe effectively, discuss business efficiently and generate leads frequently.

B2B telemarketers must make an effort to be “personally acquainted” with what their prospects like in order to become an effective telemarketer. Know what types of marketing approaches pisses them off for you to reevaluate your strategies and make your efforts better.

Rule #1. Don’t Act Like a Telemarketer

What prospects don’t like

I’ll be honest with you. What prospects don’t like most are telemarketers. Every time they answer the phone and hear someone saying,

“Hi Andrew, this is Michael with XYZ Company. I’m calling about your ____. Is now a good time to talk?”

Or

“Hi Andrew, this is Michael with XYZ Company. How are you doing today?”

Or

“Hi Andrew, this is Michael with XYZ Company. I understand you are the best person to speak with and can decide about your _____?”

Your first 30 seconds is enough for prospects to decide whether to listen to you or hang up the phone. These lines allow them to identify you as a telemarketer. They know that telemarketers usually push their prospects to buy something they don’t need. This is basically a waste of time for them.

People who are not familiar with the telemarketing industry have a negative association with the word “telemarketer”. Even if it is in their best interest to hear what they have to say, they don’t want to be contacted by a telemarketer.

What do they like?

They want someone who only wants to do business with them if there’s an opportunity and not someone who will waste their time by pushing the product or service just to close the deal.

What to do?

Let them know the purpose of your call. Ask questions such as; “When do you plan to evaluate your ERP software?” or “By the time of your evaluation, would you consider looking for new ERP software?”

If there’s an opportunity based on your prospect’s response, then proceed with the call. However, but if there’s no opportunity, thanked the prospect for taking your call, wish them well and end the call.

Rule #2. Focus on your Prospect

What prospects don’t like?

I know you’re as excited as any salesperson to discuss your product or service. However, prospects don’t like telemarketers who talk about their product or service. They don’t need to hear how awesome your business is and how many awards you’ve earned.

What do they like?

They appreciate it more if you can get straight to the point. Give them an impression that you’re interested in helping them by asking questions rather than focusing only on your product or service. Most of the time, prospects are looking for someone who can help them find a solution to solve their problems. Not someone who will push to sell their product or service without knowing if prospects can benefit from it. Be the telemarketer they can trust.

What to do?

According to Mark Hunter of thesaleshunter.com, “Sales is not about selling. It’s about enabling the customer to benefit from what you’re providing.”

Find out about their current setup. What their needs are and if they have any issues or problems within their organization. How?

Ask questions such as;

“What ERP software are you currently using?”

“How long have you been using it?”

“How is it working for you?”

“Do you have any issues or problems with your current ERP solution?”

Then offer your product or service to let them know they can benefit from what you’re providing.

Rule #3. Be Honest

What prospects don’t like?

Prospects hate it whenever telemarketers mislead them to get what they want. For example, a telemarketer saying, “I only need a few minutes of your time to discuss this.” Customers are smarter than that; they know there is more beyond that.

What do they like?

Instead of aiming to sell with every person you come in contact, let them know what you have to say and why you think you can help them solve their problems. Treat them as people, not targets. Yes, you do want to make the sale, but never forget to treat the prospects with the respect they deserve.

What to do?

When they ask questions about your product, be honest if you don’t have anything that can help them. Prospects appreciate sincerity and honesty. Also, if you’re not sure yet, you can tell them;

“Let me check about that and get back with you.”

Then, ask questions such as; “What exactly are the features that you’re looking for?” And assure them that you will look into it and get back with them if you already have the answer to what they’re looking for. How?

Ask;

“May I have your email address so I can send you all the details that you need?” and “When will you be available for me to call you and discuss this again?”

Rule #4. Be a Listener Rather Than a Speaker

What prospects don’t like?

Prospects don’t like it if telemarketers don’t listen.

For example, the prospect is asking about something and telemarketer failed to address the issue and just keeps on asking questions.

Telemarketer: We are a reseller of ERP software in Australia. I would like to know if you have plans of evaluating your ERP software in the next 6-12 months?

Prospect: We are using SAP. What does your software do?”

Telemarketer: How long have you been using SAP? Do you have any issues with it?

What do they like?

Never neglect your prospect! ALWAYS address their questions first. This way, you will be able to learn of your prospect’s situation and be able to offer solutions on how your product or service can help them. They don’t want to buy your product because it’s the best; they want to hear why they need it.

As a telemarketer, you must know that in order for you to close the deal, you must earn your prospects trust by showing how you value them as a person. Let them know that you only mean business and that your goal is to help them. If they are not interested and you can’t see any opportunities, do not mislead them and push them into making a decision to purchase. Prospects are smarter nowadays, they don’t decide right away, So it is better to walk them through it and show them the door.

“We’ve outsourced our B2B telemarketing before –umm, it didn’t work”

October 15, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

This is what you’ve told John, a persistent telemarketer on the phone who’s been trying to convince you to hire them, a B2B lead generation company, to perform telemarketing tasks for your business. The problem is just that you don’t have enough faith left in the process because you’ve already been there, and things didn’t go as planned. You just don’t want to do it again and true enough, nobody can hold it against you (sorry, John).

But at least you’ve got to find out exactly what happened back then, right?

You don’t need to consult a detective to pinpoint the flaws in your previous venture with an external company, because there can only be 3 possible culprits:

The outsourced agency
You
Everything in between

That’s all there is. It could be one, two, or all of them, but for sure, the fault will not go beyond those three. You need to do a little introspection, see beyond the failure, and ask, why did it fail?

The outsourced agency

Just because they’re a lead generation company doesn’t mean they are faultless when it comes to producing results. To start with, there could be a lot of loopholes in their system: incompetent agents, lack of support from leaderships, substandard equipment, lousy IT infrastructures, and so on. It is important, should you decide to give another company a chance, to seek for testimonials from businesses that have gotten their services. Investigate on the things regarding their practices that you may not like. Consult one of your own IT people to assess their systems. Make sure they’re in tip-top shape before they do business with you. If in doubt, don’t.

You

What could I possibly have done to ruin my own campaign, you might ask. Well, you may have set unrealistic expectations and goals. Most B2B telemarketing agencies won’t tell you if your targets are unreasonable (of course, they’re trying to show-off a bit, that’s all). Or perhaps, on the other hand, you may have been very vague about what you wanted to achieve. You can’t just give them assignments and leave them hanging in the air, and then pop back when the deadline’s up. For all you know, the company you’ve hired may be the best out there, but you just didn’t use them the logical way.

Everything in between

Blend it all together, and you’ll understand why it all boils down to the relationship between you and the agency. There’s the issue of trust, of transparency, of feedback, of authority, and the list could go on. Just look back during the days when the campaign was still on-going: how often do you check up on them? How are your conversations with the team leader? How did you overcome difficulties along the way? Were there any conflicts? Would you say, with all honesty, that it was a pleasant, productive relationship?

The Five Ways You Waste Time In B2B Appointment Setting

October 3, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Since we are talking about work, you might find yourself doing things that will not help you at all. Indeed, these might actually cause you to waste precious time. It sure makes sense if you can avoid them, right? So, what are these time-wasters that you should be avoiding?

1. Working too much on the wrong work – you know that there are limits to what you can do in a single day, so we try to work on things that matter the most. The problem here is when we focus our efforts to much on the wrong part of your telemarketing campaign. That would certainly waste a lot of precious time and manpower in our work.

2. Putting off the easy ones – I tell you, the easy tasks that you put off for tomorrow will become the hardest ones on that day. A veteran marketer would take every chance he gets to finish all necessary stuff up on the day it appeared. Letting it linger for later handling would be poor time management, and will cause you to waste time later on.

3. You micromanage your employees – all right, you might want to properly manage and observe your employees, but you will not be going anywhere near your goals if all you do is breath down their necks. You have more important things to do, and your employees will need a little slack while they are working on getting more B2B leads coming in. If you really believe that your employees need guidance all the time, then you probably chose the wrong people for the job.

4. You focus too much on the details – in marketing, you should really look at the details, but focusing too much on them would cause you to miss the big picture. When that happens, well, you might start committing mistake number one or two. Try putting some perspective in your work. That would help.

5. The wheel keeps getting reinvented – if there is anything that you might want to learn about in terms of time wasters, it is that reinventing the sales process rarely gets you the right results. Truly, if you are sensible enough for the job, you will know that some selling styles are best left as is. You just have to know what these are and work on them.

Yes, these are sure-fire sources of wasted time. If you truly want to be productive in your B2B appointment setting campaigns, please try avoiding these common, but erroneous, business and marketing practices.

Businessman touching the tip of a bar chart

10 Ways Sales Benefits From Marketing Automation

September 30, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Sales runs on high-octane fuel that consists of intelligence and time. When you know who to call, when to call them, what to listen for and what to say, you close more deals.

Marketing automation generates such highly qualified leads that you can identify them as ready for sales engagement — right now. Marketing automation tools let marketers track and measure a prospect’s activity, identify when a lead meets known buyer-readiness conditions, and pass that lead to sales as soon as a hot prospect is ready to be contacted. This eliminates the need for cold calling and wasting time on leads that aren’t ready. Additionally, marketing automation makes it feasible to nurture prospects at scale, which speeds up the sales cycle by warming prospects into hot leads — and then qualified sales opportunities.

To help decide whether your sales team can benefit from marketing automation, here are 10 points to consider. These are key ways marketing automation serves as a sales enabler to help you identify, nurture, approach and close new sales.

1. Eliminate cold calling. With marketing automation, the team has tools to nurture leads until they’re ready for sales or to be dismissed. This process generates well-qualified leads that have displayed buying intent — meaning you spend your time in front of prospects who are ready to buy instead of cold calling.

2. Remove the blindfold. Know who you’re calling and what to say. Customer intelligence dashboards show you what each lead cares about, what content they’ve viewed, and what actions they’ve taken, so you can talk to them about their specific needs.

3. Know when to call. Along with high-scoring leads getting passed to you as they become sales-qualified, web site visitor tracking alerts you whenever a particular person or company visits your web site. You know when they’re thinking about your company and solutions. You can even set alerts to be notified when someone is browsing a particular page on your web site. For example, you can get an alert that a buyer you’re working with is studying a page with in-depth information about a product other than the one you’ve been discussing. That could lead to a whole new sales opportunity.

4. Shorten the sales cycle. Research shows nurtured leads close faster and generate larger deals. Your marketing team feeds prospects content and information they need, guiding them through the buying cycle. When a lead exhibits strong buying signals, it gets passed to sales. Marketing automation gives marketing teams the muscle they need to more effectively nurture leads, drawing them through the funnel more quickly and delivering more highly qualified leads to sales. According to CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota.

5. Make the most of email. Sales reps can use marketing automation systems to automatically personalize messages, send them at the optimal times for prospects and format them appropriately for a particular customer. Trigger emails can be customized to inbound actions so buyers receive personalized communications. CRM integration ensures that all email communications — automated or otherwise — are captured in your activity history for each lead.

6. Help marketing qualify leads in a way that is most helpful to the sales team. Marketing automation provides a framework for your potential customers’ progress as they traverse the buyer’s journey, and makes it easy for marketers to manage leads. You define characteristics, such as title or industry, and behaviors, such as attending a webinar, that indicate when a prospect will likely become a buyer. Buyers that meet your pre-defined conditions are assigned to lead groups, such as “Marketing Qualified,” “Sales Accepted,” or “Sales Qualified,” taking the guesswork out of a lead’s status. Leads advance through classifications automatically as they engage in progressive buying behaviors, until ready for sales engagement.

7. Use scoring to prioritize your time and attention. By assigning a score to lead behaviors and demographic characteristics, marketing automation tracks a lead’s progress through the lead funnel with pre-defined scores. For example, if you know that looking at your pricing page is a buying signal, you assign that action a high score. Scores accumulate. When a buyer-ready lead score threshold is passed, a notification to the correct sales rep is triggered, letting them respond to that hot lead quickly. Some systems generate Hot Prospect list notification automatically, helping sales reps focus on the best leads and reach them at the right time.

8. Maximize customer lifetime value through cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Marketing automation reports and dashboards enable analysis of customer data, such as purchase history and company size, which helps identify targets for cross-selling and up-selling. Behavior history profiles indicate likely follow-up sale products based on each lead’s pre-purchase and post-purchase content interactions.

9. Benefit from marketing automation without leaving your CRM. Many marketing automation systems integrate with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, and SalesLogix, and work with other systems as well. It’s particularly convenient when salespeople can view and access powerful lead insights and opportunities right in their own CRM dashboard, saving time and effort.

10. Align sales and marketing. According to an Aberdeen study, 91% of top-performing companies marketing had a strong understanding of sales goals, as opposed to 63% of laggards. Successful companies align marketing and sales goals and collaborate on activities like developing buyer personas. This leverages sales’ insider knowledge of customers and buying stages to create content, programs, and campaigns that are better targeted and more effective for closing sales.

This article was written by Chris Hardeman, Act-On’s VP of Sales, and appeared on DemandGenReport.com.

graphic illustration of telemarketing team

Secrets In Better Telemarketing Team Retentions

September 14, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Here is the deal with B2B telemarketing: you simple lose too many employees in the course of many campaigns. Turn-over rates and work dissatisfaction can be high, which explains why only a handful of people would actually stay and keep looking for sales leads. This is a real headache for many managers, since getting employees to stay is also an important job. So, how does one ensure that employee retention is good? There are several ways to do just that. And really, if you think about it, this is no secret at all. It is just that only a handful of people actually know that this would work.

So where will you start?

Let us deal with skills improvements first. Despite what you see, money is not the real motivator for your B2B appointment setting team. It is with regards to improving and expanding their repertoire of business skills. This is something that no money can take place. And this is precisely what will compel your employees to stay with you. With the world of business in a constant state of change, you have to prepare your people for the challenges that they will face.

Another thing that you have to remember is that you have to keep open channels of communication with your employees. You may have given them specific instructions on what to do, but a lot of things can change in short notice. In order for you and your team to adapt quickly, you need to maintain open channels of communication with them.

Third, try to ensure that everyone can advance in the company. In one way or another, tell your B2B lead generation team that they can go higher with you. It may not have to be outright promotions, but you can always employ other tools, like bigger salaries, more responsibilities, and the like. These are very powerful tools for promotion that you should not take lightly. It can even be better than the usual perks or vacation offers for the best employees.

Next, maybe you should take a closer look at your own management style. It may not have to be that dashing or something, but it should be a style that plays on the strengths of your business and yourself. You need to know how to best lead your people, and not just pulling them around and telling them what to do in generating sales leads. That would have been really unproductive.

Lastly, you should help your employees reach a work-life balance. You know that it will be difficult for your employees to leave their problems at home and concentrate on their B2B lead generation task. Help them adjust to work as well as the needs of their homes. Your employees will appreciate that and will make them less likely to leave you.

Of course, if lead generation skills are what you or your marketing team lacks, then maybe leaving the job to outsourced marketing agencies would be a good business strategy for you to take.

Increase Your Sales Leads With Effective Telemarketing Management

September 10, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

If there is anything that you might complain about B2B telemarketing campaigns, it is that the rate of success can be pretty low. But really, that would only happen if you do not manage your team well. You see, this medium of B2B lead generation is a constantly evolving and adapting form of marketing.

Managing this requires leadership and business skills that not many have. It might take some years to master them, but you can learn them. You just need to be willing. And as for those who currently have telemarketing management problems, perhaps the following pointers would be a big help for you:

More sales training – yes, your people may have undergone a lot of product trainings and the like, but it never hurts to have another day of training. A little polishing of skills can go a long way in your marketing efforts.
Assign more sales people – sales is a science and art, one that requires specific skills that only a few would be able to pull off. You have to make the effort to select people who have a deeper orientation to sales. This is for the good of your marketing campaign today and tomorrow.
Do your recruitment right – you want to make sure that you have the best people for your B2B lead generation campaign, right? Then make sure that you are sourcing them from a pool of really talented people.
Be a little more patient – with the way B2B appointment setting processes turn out, patience is a real, albeit rare, virtue. But really, a little patience can mean a lot in keeping control even in the worst situations.
Experiment with your pilot team – there will be events when you just have to use a new strategy or technique in marketing. In that case, you should work with a small group of marketers who will check its soundness, as well as iron out any wrinkles that might turn up.
Prepare cross-selling – there will be times (which would be useful for larger firms) when a sales leads prospect requests something beyond the responding marketer’s ability. You should train them on proper transfer processes.
Use transfer calls better – why let go of a call if you can just transfer it to someone else who has the time to handle it? You see, prospects lose interest in you if the call ends without anything meaningful done. By transferring calls, you also avoid the hassle of callbacks and still keep your connection with the business prospect
Draw the line firmly between sales and marketing – sometimes, the bickering between these two departments (due to vague job descriptions and work assignments) can be very bad, that your business loses more B2B leads that you generate. By designating which department does this and that, you avoid the trouble between the two.

It is all about proper marketing management. That is the secret to successful telemarketing campaign. This is how your get things done well.

3 people using gadgets with feedback concept

The Power Of Effective Telemarketing Surveys

August 21, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

When you consider how to gauge the latest buying behavior of your target market, and how this can affect your generation of qualified sales leads, there is always some way for you to do that. And it need not have to be that expensive or complicated at all. Sure, you will hear people scoffing at the idea, but conducting a telemarketing survey would be a really smart move on your part. The only question here is whether you are capable of organizing one. We all know just how costly it can be, so many are turning to cheaper methods in ascertaining the real beat of the market.

This is just so sad, since they are missing out on something good.

You see, when it comes to understanding what really runs in the mind of your customers, you really have to ask them directly. Now, you cannot just wait for them to stop by your office before you start your interview. There has to be some other way for you to get information without waiting things out. And there is a way for that: a telemarketing survey. If you think about this carefully, then you would agree that this is a very viable way to study your market, as well as identify factors that can help you generate more B2B leads. But why should you, as a marketer, consider this option?

First of all, you need to put a human touch on your interactions. True, you need information, but you just cannot pull this out of every randomly chosen customer. You need to have an interview, which is not that hard at all. As long as you have competent telemarketers on the job, then it would be easy.

Second, you need to cut through the data noise. Big data may be all the rage of the marketing game, but, sometimes, you just have to go through things with simplicity. By conducting interviews, and by crafting the right questionnaire, you can go straight at the heart of the matter and get the answers you want. You just have to be patient and inquisitive in that regard.

Third, there is the cost of acquiring the information. Depending on the tools you use, it could be a really expensive or time-consuming affair. Just remember that your business is supposed to be benefiting from your actions, so you should avail of tools or mediums that can get you results fast. The success of your appointment setting campaign may depend on it.

Lastly, there is the skill set involved. Are you the type of person who could handle the analysis of the data your surveys have collected? Do you have the means to interpret the data? Do you have employees who can do that instead? These are just some of the questions that you ought to answer first.

For the final word, there is nothing really wrong if you employ a telemarketing survey to check on your market. Just make sure you organize and manage one properly.

The Psychology of Outbound Telemarketing: Assessing Prospects’ Personalities

May 23, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Talking to another person is part of human’s basic natures. It’s not supposed to be a complex system or an art to be perfected. However, in instances where the manner of conversation would determine how a certain goal is reached, it is very important to know various types of personalities. In the commerce of b2b outbound telemarketing and lead generation, talk is money. And conversations run the business.

Sales leads are generated prospective clients are contacted by professional telemarketers and attempt to engage them into a meaningful, information-oriented discussion of a potential business partnership. But because each person is so dynamic – and sometimes erratic – there should be a structure of profiling and assessment for telemarketers to craft the best approach towards each personality type.

There are four established social styles that customers may employ:

The Driver
Drivers are talkers. They like to run the show. They don’t want to be dictated on what they need to do, and they don’t want to be told what they already know. They want telemarketers to get to the point in the least amount of time, and then they throw a lot of unrelated questions simultaneously. Some of those questions need not be answered, and the challenge is to have them listen – which could be a difficult task especially if they’re not interested by default. It is very uncommon for Drivers to admit that they are interested with the product, but once they do, it’s genuine. The rule is to never interrupt them in their streak of monologues.Wait for that rare, miniscule window of opportunity.

The Analytic
The term itself can be intimidating, and indeed, this social style is a no non-sense type. Analytic ones dwell on the most specific of specifics, and unlike Drivers, they only throw questions which are relevant. They actually like to be drawn into a thorough discussion of the goods or services, and they don’t mind if the telemarketer does all the talking. Are they interested? One can never tell. They just like to gather as many information as they could and analyze them in a discreet, swift manner. These are common in software and IT products and services companies where most decision-makers are experts in their field and are usually subtly technical in the way they converse.

The Amiable
Talking to Amiable ones is a walk in the park, but usually unproductive. These are people who have absolutely no problem with spending precious time on the phone with telemarketers who may or may not present benefits to them or their company. They are not necessarily talkative; they just enjoy the “act” of talking to people. They would answer any reasonable questions, agree to appointments if they have the time, and even respond to surveys, emails and follow-ups. The quality of their interest can be dodgy and tentative,therefore, this level or receptiveness doesn’t automatically equate to sales leads.

The Expressive
Expressive ones have all four social styles rolled into one. They like to talk, analyze and make friends. While Drivers may bombard telemarketers with all the questions and objections, Expressive ones would blab about how their business is going, what’s happening with their current provider, or how they indeed require such external services, etc. They’re the type who knows what’s going on with their business; they are open to ideas and services and would consider every one of them as much as they can. They can be very accurate on describing their business needs, and with the right questions, they may turn into solid sales leads.

Every unique individual deserves a distinctive approach to telemarketing, and it all comes down to having the right knowledge and skills to “assess” common behavior. The last thing a telemarketer wants is to employ a style that would “clash” with the prospective client’s personality, thus reducing chances of a potential business opportunity.

graphic illustration of a callcenter agent

FCR vs. AHT: What Should You Measure?

February 15, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

This is a guest post from Kate Webster

Call center metrics can be a valuable tool for monitoring the effectiveness of your calling team. Both first call resolution (FCR) and average handle time (AHT) can provide your business with information about you call agents performance and the effectiveness of your calling methods.

While both metrics are important to know, you’ll want to consider which will be most important, depending on your type of business and the function of your call center; consider which will give you the most insight.

First Call Resolution

FCR metrics monitor the effectiveness of your first call or first contact with a customer. It is considered to be one of the most valuable metrics available, though it is sometimes difficult to define and measure.

Usually, FCR refers to the percentage of customers who achieved call resolution, or found answers to their concerns completely, in a single call. FCR is determined in a number of ways, most of which involve some sort of resolution survey.

External methods for measuring FCR include: post-call phone, web, or IVR survey, an end-of-call script, or a voice menu. All of these options rely on the customer to determine whether or not the call was effective.
Internal methods for measuring FCR include: QA call monitoring where QA evaluators determine if the call was resolved, call-back monitoring so see if the customer calls back within 2-5 business days, or CRM where software is used to determine if the call was resolved.
An 80% FCR means that on average customers require 1.2 contacts to resolve a question or issue.

Businesses that have a large customer focus usually find it straight forward to improve FCR percentages. FCR can be improved with committed management, awareness, accountability, coaching and training.

Average Handle Time

AHT also attempts to measure the overall effectiveness of your calling system. AHT refers to the total average time that an agent spends with a contact. For example, an AHT for a mobile communication company might be 2 minutes.

Usually, a lower AHT implies that call center agents are being efficient and quickly handling customer concerns. However, just because a call is shorter does not necessarily mean it is more effective.

Measuring AHT can be beneficial because the less time spent per call, the lower amount of operating expenses are required for the amount of calling agents.
Lower AHT means that the call center contact methods are as streamlined as possible, which can also result in more positive customer experience (less wait time, more effective answers).
AHT metrics usually benefit from using templates or scripts that focus on frequently asked questions or requests.
Sometimes, even though the average handle time has been reduced in a call, the customer is not given complete information, and is forced to call back another time to resolve their issue.

When determining staffing size or proper time-usage, AHT might be a preferred metric to follow. However, if you are looking to monitor the thoroughness and quality of your customer service team, first call resolution metrics may be more valuable. Both metrics are important for monitoring the effectiveness of your call center, and depending on where your businesses focus lies, one might be a better fit than the other.

Kate Webster writes for lead generation resource, ResourceNation.com. She focuses on a variety of topics including call center metrics. Follow Resource Nation on Facebook and Twitter, too!