Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

 

  By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

 

Not all telemarketing is created equal. I should know; I used to train telemarketers. I’ve also seen my fair share of telemarketing campaigns, and experience has driven home the point that how a telemarketing program is put together can dramatically influence the results.

A recent blog post by Kevin Thornton, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at telemarketing software firm, VanillaSoft, reminded me of this fact. Thornton outlined some keys to successful telemarketing programs that I personally can vouch for as a former telemarketer.

The six basic principles that lead to success include defining the objective, setting goals, forecasting and budgeting, creating scripts, training properly, and monitoring results.

For anything to succeed, telemarketing or otherwise, it is important to know the reason for doing it. So the first step in any good telemarketing program is to determine if the point of the call is to generate leads, qualify prospects, conduct market research, refresh a contacts database, set appointments, or something else. From this flows everything else.

Once you are clear on the reason for the calls, clear goals need to be set. This keeps campaigns focused and agents energized.

Third, it is vital to have an accurate forecast and budget for the campaign.

“Use your objectives and goals to help you set your forecast and budget,” noted Thornton in his blog post. “You need to estimate call volume, and make decisions on in-house versus outsourced agents. If you stay in-house, use telemarketing software that improves productivity and enhance efficiencies to reduce the need for additional headcount.”

Another crucial component of a successful telemarketing operation is having good scripts for agents. While it is important to let agents go off script a bit to stay “real,” it also is important to have scripts in place to keep them moving toward the goal. Make sure these scripts are customer-focused, though, not feature-focused.

Scripts are good, but training is even better. You can’t expect agents to pick up a phone and immediately know what they are doing. So, good telemarketing programs don’t shortchange the training aspect. An agent is only as successful as he or she is aware of the products and the goals. To skimp on training is like sending an auto mechanic under a car without tools.

Finally, good telemarketing operations keep score. Metrics are important. They help define what is working and what is not, and telemarketing definitely is an iterative game where it is important to be constantly adjusting. So monitor results.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson