making the most of telemarketing

 

You can use the telephone systematically for any of the following, and more:

 

 

You will need to check out any telemarketing agency thoroughly.

• Aim to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
• Ask what they’ve done before that’s similar to your requirements.
• Speak to their existing clients.
• Make sure you understand their charging policy and rates and make sure you negotiate a favourable deal, for example a payment by results system where part of their fee becomes a bonus payable to them only on achievement of set targets.

You can do your own telemarketing. Many people do, for cost reasons, or because they don’t think an external agency could understand the product, market and customer needs the way they do.

 

a low-cost action plan for your telemarketing

• Determine which activities (from the above list) you could handle with telemarketing. Is this a permanent, or temporary requirement?
• Which of these activities can you handle yourself? If you don’t have in-house sales skills, you may be better using specialists to handle your lead generation and appointment setting. Similarly, you should seriously consider handing high volumes of enquiries and orders to people who do it all the time. The image you communicate to your customers and prospects on the telephone is very important.
• If you want to look at agencies, get a short-list from your local Direct Marketing Association. Try the local Yellow Pages or Business Pages, but be smart. Some of these companies may be very small, some may have limited areas of expertise (otherwise known as being specialists). The size and specialism of the agency may influence pricing and you may find that if your requirements are small, the bigger outfits’ pricing may be prohibitive.
• Speak to your short-list on the 'phone. How do they sound to you as an enquirer? Get a feel for their prices. Cut the list down to two or three to visit and take a look at in more detail.
• Draw up a “brief” for the agency giving as much detail as possible about your company, your market, the products or services to be telemarketed, your definitions of a lead, what you expect in terms of reporting, the level of involvement you want to see between your company and the agency, the budget and timescales and the results you are expecting.
• Select your agency, meet and train the staff who will be calling on your behalf and closely monitor their performance.

If you go for the DIY approach, make sure you brief your people accordingly. Consider using a freelance telemarketer for occasional or one-off projects.