How to do successful telemarketing | 15 tips to achieve it

Did you know that 70 % of salespeople still connect with prospects and lead meetings over the phone? That is why we must get our act together and apply strategies for successful telemarketing.

However, making a successful call is easier said than done. And you’re not alone if you feel it. Our team of salespeople also break a sweat but in the end we managed to succeed in converting a potential client to a final client.

And this is exactly why I have compiled a list of the best telemarketing tips to help you improve your calling efforts. So I invite you to check the 15 tips you will learn today.

15 tips for successful telemarketing

When used strategically, telemarketing is an extremely effective way to build personal connections with customers , as well as gain the insights necessary for a deeper understanding of their interests, needs, and modes of purchase.

Telemarketing, carried out in a professional, flexible and strategic way, either independently or integrated with other channels, can add the value of human commitment to a wide range of marketing strategies.

1. Define your telemarketing goals

Before you start thinking about anything else, be very specific about  what you want to achieve. . The goal of your telemarketing campaign is to shape the way you reach. For example:

• message tone
• Communication channel (social network messages, phone calls, emails, etc.)
• Target Audience Industry
• Positions of the target audience, among others.

Once that’s been clearly defined, you need to move on to clearly defining the next most important thing : who do you want to communicate with?

2. Conduct research on your customers

Before you start your outreach, you need to clearly know who you want to target . And to do that, you need to conduct in-depth people research.

This would ensure that all your marketing and sales processes are aligned  with the needs and preferences of your target buyer.

Say, for example, if you intend to sell your product/service directly to C-suite executives (considering important positions within a company), you may want to avoid sending messages in a more formal tone. Or maybe they don’t even want to be contacted via emails or LinkedIn!

In fact,  57% of  C-suite executives prefer to be contacted by phone  over email and text. So once you’ve clearly defined your buyer personas, you should gain a much better understanding of where and how to communicate with them .

3. Create different approaches for each client

Now that you’ve categorized leads based on multiple characteristics, it’s time to further refine your categorization .

Leads differ based on how much their leads have been “captured” for your business. For example, potential customers who left data on a form tend to be more familiar with your company as they have interacted with your business in one way or another in the past.

These types of leads tend to be more willing and ready to make a purchase. Therefore, this form of categorization helps to  customize the tone of your approach when conducting your telemarketing campaign .

For example, when a customer subscribes to your blog or fills out a form, it’s best to avoid selling your product/service from the start . Instead, focus more on building the relationship and trust that your business can provide .

4. Create a telemarketing script

You already have the objective of the telemarketing campaign, also your buyer persona clearly defined. Can you start now? The answer is no.

Have you ever heard of the iconic saying “If you don’t plan, you plan to fail” ? When making any kind of contact with your potential customers, it’s best to prepare yourself so you know what to say .

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should think of every possible scenario of how the conversation will go. It is impossible. It also doesn’t mean you need to memorize a script word for word.

This simply means that you must come up with an outline of the things you want to say . In terms of preparing for possible scenarios, you can always ask your agents about some of the most common situations they encounter when running their telemarketing campaigns.

5. Avoid the worst times to call

Here’s another quick telemarketing tip. Don’t call at times when people are least likely to answer . Always put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers and think about when a call from you would make them uncomfortable and when it wouldn’t.

In fact, a comparative analysis of the best times for cold calling that we conducted revealed that the best times are between  10am and 11am , as well as  3pm and 4pm .

Essentially, avoid mornings when people may still be stressed , midday when people are eating lunch, and nights when people are ready to rest.

6. Use the right tone

You could say all the right words, but if your tone of voice doesn’t match, then you’re not going to make the sale.

You also have to sound very confident. If you sound uninteresting, your  prospects can tell  and probably won’t be inclined to buy. After all, if you, the person selling the products, can’t be excited, why should you?

7. Don’t talk all the time

Successful telemarketing calls last an  average of 5 minutes 50 seconds , while unsuccessful calls last 3 minutes 14 seconds. But this doesn’t mean that spending more time on the phone equates to higher rates of sale. It really depends on the things discussed on the call.

Perhaps the call lasted too long because the sales representative was attractive and had interesting topics to discuss. Perhaps the call lasted longer because the sales rep used more case studies. There are many factors!

During that short call, a great telemarketing tip is  to also allow the prospect to talk  and learn more about their business needs. Ideally, the talk-to-listen ratio for a successful cold call is  55%:45%.

Remember that your prospect is an individual, not just another number in a long line of potential customers.

8. Speak openly

You know how much your tone matters, but what you say is almost as important. In particular, the way you ask questions can sometimes be the factor that determines whether or not the prospect provides you with useful information.

Therefore, it is desirable to focus on asking questions in an  open manner . Asking yes/no questions only provides you with, well, “yes” and “no”. While they’re not completely useless,  they can’t give  you detailed information about your prospects’ needs.

Try asking some open-ended questions the next time you talk to a prospect . Even if you don’t get the sale, you’ll be impressed with the amount of information you get.

9. Keep track of your calls

High call rejection rates can make it exhausting for sales reps when they repeatedly fail to close a deal. It’s not hard to understand why  44% of salespeople  give up after a follow-up call is unsuccessful.

That said, giving up right after a call is  too soon . We do not advise you to harass a prospect with constant calls, but to follow up a few more times.

Telemarketing quick tip. Persistence helps increase investment rates by up to 70 % !

You must be in contact with the prospect before they disappear from the sales funnel. Don’t wait for them to contact you . The onus is on you to call them back. After all, you are the one trying to sell to them, not the other way around.

10. Record your calls and learn from them

A great telemarketing tip here is to record your calls. And many cloud call center platforms  allow you to do just that.

For example, Score allows you to customize your phone campaign settings so that you can record your calls. This allows you to listen back to the entire conversation and identify any areas of improvement you can make for subsequent telemarketing campaigns.

11. Practice makes perfect

What if you’ve tried all this calling stuff and there’s just no results? Keep practicing. You know the saying that practice makes perfect , and it’s true in this case. The more you talk to people on the phone, the faster your nerves will dissipate.

As time goes by, you will naturally become less nervous about calling prospects .

It’s important to note that even the most successful salespeople have faced many rejections from prospects throughout their careers. Countless , if I dare say.

Instead of taking rejection personally, make every rejection an opportunity to introspect . Take some time to think about the reasons for their rejection and work to improve your sales pitch.

12. Take notes during calls

Don’t just talk during calls. It’s also important to write down the important things your prospects are saying . Not only will this help you remember these points better, but it will also help you save time when you replay the call recordings later.

You won’t need to listen to entire conversations just to pick out a few key points because you would have already written them down.

13. Give yourself some time between calls

Here’s a telemarketing tip you’ll want to keep in mind.

When running your telemarketing campaign, give yourself enough time between calls. This allows you to consolidate the notes from the previous call before the next one. It also gives you time to mentally prepare for the next call.

14. Measure, track, improve

You need to see what is working for your company and what is not.

This way you know whether or not you should duplicate something or try something different. Many programs like Score  come with data analysis features.

The data collected can provide insights into which sales strategies are working well and which are not. Sales teams can use this information to adapt their sales processes to improve results.

You can keep track of various metrics like average call duration, call volume per agent, conversion rate, and first call close.

15. Motivate your agents

When you make so many calls, the task can become stale and boring.

The energy is contagious . If you walk into a call sounding unhappy, you’re not going to do a good enough job of getting the person on the other end excited.

Although it’s not always easy, treat each call as an individual experience . Furthermore, have fun with it! Talk a little about lighthearted topics, maybe even make a joke if it’s appropriate.

This can help lift the mood and make your potential customers more willing to listen to you.

Conclusions

Very well! You already have 15 important tips so you can close more prospects. The entire Securitec team wishes you the best of success on your next calls. All that if you applied what you learned.

As you can see, when you call a customer, it doesn’t just have to be to tell them about your product. First listen to him to know what information to use in your favor . Remember that the customer is looking for solutions and not functions of a product or service.

Finally, don’t forget to complement your efforts with technology. Without it, you will not be able to create automations to improve contact , you will not be able to monitor the calls of your agents or know what metrics you are going to follow in your next calls.