For better chances of converting leads into a business, there is a real need for various marketing strategies.
One of the popular marketing strategies includes telemarketing, it is a vital part of any business. It is a sure-shot method of selling goods and services to customers.
Telemarketing allows small to large businesses to accomplish their entire selling process.
Person-to-person communication is known to be a proven way to acquire leads, so here is what telemarketing serves for the business.
In this article, we are providing you with in-depth information about telemarketing.
Telemarketing is not a new concept, it was used decades back by many businesses to generate leads through the phone. Just like earlier times, today also telemarketing comes with ample benefits
It is a simple process of generating leads, selling products or services, or gathering customer information over the phone. The technique can work as a valuable tool for small businesses as it saves money and time as compared to personal selling, and the best part is it offers the same benefits as a business gets from direct contact with leads.
As per experts, it is said that closing a sale through telemarketing saves one-fifth of what it would cost while selling through direct contact. Although it is quite an expensive way than mail, it tends to be more efficient and effective to close the deal and offers great revenue.
Telemarketing is the tried and tested best marketing strategy for small businesses who are looking to sell their goods and services on hard-to-reach locations or even when many contacts are contacted to find the lead. However many businesses are dependent on telemarketing and only trust the method as a complete marketing strategy.
Telemarketing usually comes in two scopes, they are inbound and outbound. Inbound telemarketing is all about receiving calls by leads who are generated through direct mail and other ways. Telemarketers who are working in an inbound field do not require much training as compared to outbound telemarketers.
When we talk about outbound telemarketing, it is a great deal to get in contact with the end consumer. It is aimed directly at a lead. Representatives who are working in this type of telemarketing, require training about product knowledge and upselling techniques to generate more leads.
Major applications of B2B telemarketing consists of various aspects like selling to existing customers, inbound order processing, outbound new lead generation, customer service, and more.
Telemarketing methods usually happen as in house marketing way to generate leads and sells goods or services,
Using telephone professionally is a cost-efficient and flexible medium to reach customers.
Telemarketing is a perfect way to replace face-to-face interaction and selling to existing customers.
Read: Difference between telemarketing and telesales
The advantages of telemarketing can help to lift a business to a new level. Since it is a perfect and efficient method to get more contacts and is known to be an effective marketing tool, it also offers below mentioned benefits. Regardless of type, size, or industry , telemarketing offers the following benefits.
The major work of telemarketing simply works well for every business, regardless of type and size. It creates a vast range of opportunities for a business to target a market. The most effective method of updating existing customers is telemarketing and acquiring new customers.
It is as flexible as it is effective that helps a business to change the strategies as per the need of the business. The method works great for lead generation, promoting products and services, getting feedback, and many more.
It is well integrated with the on-field sales team to get better results. It creates great opportunities to compete with others and provides a unique way to understand customers’ needs.
As we have said above, it is one of the cost-effective methods for a business to generate leads, update customers, get feedback, and many more aspects of business operations. It is somehow cheaper than other marketing ways, especially when it is outsourced.
It does not require many costs as there is no requirement of resources from time to time. All a business needs is a team of telemarketing representatives, telephone, good internet connectivity, and various simple that are required for an effective marketing campaign.
Apart from cost, a business also tends to save time, whereas one can sell products or services to many people in less time.
Telemarketing is all about selling. With the help of this technique, a business can easily boost sales efficiency. One of the popular benefits of telemarketing is it boosts sales, it gives a business the benefit of getting immediate response such as instant sales.
During the call, a telemarketer can immediately close the deal. As every customer is different, sales are dependent on the ability of salespeople. Telemarketing can increase sales as long as the company is doing it the right way and with the help of the right strategies.
It is the job of a representative to convince the customers over the call, this is the reason training is a vital aspect of telemarketing. Training helps a person to get maximum product knowledge about the product or services they are selling.
With the help of telemarketing, a business representative can create an immediate rapport with customers especially, they know you are real humans to trust on. Here humans have direct contact with customers and most people prefer buying products from a person.
The salespeople are into interactive conversations with their customers. They can easily build trust relationships with prospects. The best part of telemarketing is it is available 24×7 that offers great sales services and customer support. With the help of this marketing tool, a business identifies how they are making purchases.
Another proven benefit of telemarketing is it helps in expanding the business. It gives you an opportunity to reach our customers who are even located at a long distance. When a business is selling goods and services from far distances, it gives a benefit of expanding business reach. It increases the sales territory and allows a business to reach more prospects.
It offers a significant advantage for a business to get more business opportunities. When there is an expansion of business reach through telemarketing, it not only focuses on new customers instead it also deals with existing customers. A business can easily sell to both new and existing customers wherever they are located.
A business can always follow up with existing customers and keep them updated about new offers or services, regardless of their location. In this way, telemarketing is effective no matter where your customer is located.
Telemarketing works best in measuring whether your customer is interested in the product or services you offer. It is an effective and great way to gather information or feedback about the product or services you offer. It allows you to discover in a better way about the experience of the client with your brand.
Along with this, a business can easily get feedback or ask for comments through a simple call which helps in building a strong relationship, this way customers can feel you care about their feelings.
Asking for suggestions and comments helps a business to start working on the improvement areas of your products or services based on the feedback from customers. Direct contact with customers gives the benefit of getting instant responses from existing customers. It further helps in moving ahead of competitors.
Telemarketing allows a business to have an effective database. It is a great advantage of telemarketing, the strategy helps in determining the demographic of customers and also you need to ask relevant questions that make an effective database. This gives you details about common problems of customers.
Further, the tool helps in identifying some patterns for business that reduces the operational cost and save time. With the help of an effective database, a business can easily boost sales.
A sales representative needs to gather the right information about customers and competitors.
This is a part of B2B telemarketing, it helps in connecting with decision-makers especially with businesses. There are high chances when the boss is busy or not around, in that case, telemarketing allows a representative to connect with the second right person before they make any decision on their own.
Telemarketing helps in speeding up the process of making decisions or going straight to the top. All a business needs are the right person to contact.
By this, a business can save time and money and even help in closing the deal quickly by convincing the decision-makers about why our services are beneficial for customers.
Always remember if a customer is ready to hear you on call, they are even ready for face-to-face meetings. Telemarketing helps in setting personal meetings.
This is important as it allows a business to show the demo of their products or services, rather than waiting for your customer to be proactive, it is always better to set an appointment on call.
Face to face meeting is important for closing the deal, by this customer builds trust on the business.
When we talk about the results of telemarketing, it is highly measurable. A business can get a detailed report of the marketing strategies by analyzing every step of the process. It helps in knowing which methods are efficient and which are not. Also, if a business is keeping a track of sales, it further helps in the growth of the business.
Track report helps in knowing when and where your products or services are in demand. Also, one can know which region, sector, or other demographic points are more potential. The data helps in increasing the business strategies.
Now when we have read everything about telemarketing, it is ok to understand that there are some drawbacks too. Let us understand the disadvantages of telemarketing in the below points:
- Training telemarketing representatives increases the operational costs and is time-consuming.
- It has a negative impact on the on-field sales team, which gives a negative feeling to employees.
- Customer data or lists can be costly which further increases the cost of the business.
- B2B telemarketing comes with a high risk of losing control of the sales process especially when an outsider service provider has opted.
What is the importance of telemarketing in lead generation?
You must be wondering why telemarketing is used? The main importance of telemarketing lies in lead generation.
Let us discuss why it is important? As we know there are four types of telemarketing, so before you get into it, make sure you know its importance.
Also read — Types of telemarketing
We all know that telemarketing helps in creating databases.
Businesses are working on databases, it contains the number of customers to call along with their information like their buying pattern, pain point, and more.
The database is well used by representatives to generate leads. It is important to increase the number of leads or existing subscribers. Also with this, there can be multiple uses of the database. Along with storing information for telemarketers, it allows a representative to work on the right track.
Telemarketing helps a business to expand its name all around. Building customer relations can help in spreading good words about the business.
This creates awareness about the products and services the business is selling. Word of mouth is still the best way of brand awareness, so when your existing customer gets great quality from your side, they surely spread the word and it increases sales.
This tool plays a vital role in selling goods and services that a business provides, it also markets the business.
If you don’t want to give up on existing customers, telemarketing allows follow-up. Following up with customers keeps them updated about the changes or new offers. And it is important to close the last call on a happy note so that it is perfectly fine to call the customer for the next follow-up.
Here we are discussing five effective ways that a business can incorporate to do well in telemarketing:
Combine telemarketing with social selling
When a business is working on a holistic approach and combines all inbound and outbound marketing strategies, it leaves a great impact on the business to reach the target audience. The best way to do telemarketing well is by combining the strategy with social media.
Using social media platforms to reach prospects is the best way to get their attention, social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, direct mail, and more.
This makes it easier to connect with customers at intervals. Also when a customer is aware of your business, they are always ready to talk to you on call. Having a perfect pitch on social media channels and on-call makes it easier to close the deal.
Usually, many businesses think the rule of thumb is not to leave a voicemail, but practically this should not be overlooked. It is important to leave a voicemail.
Leaving a voicemail informs the customer about why you called and convinces them to call back to know about the product or services or updates. Also, leaving a voicemail will help your prospect to be clear about what they want from you and what they want to speak to you.
Both ways that are stated above, help in turning the call into a cold one. Any conversation that you have with a customer is not out of the blue so it helps in better interaction. People are well connected, it makes the conversation relaxed and informal that allows you to speak to prospects at ease.
Also, it is important to stay confident on the first call, don’t rush things, and convince the prospects to believe you. Having confidence and patience will help you to go smoothly.
So as per studies, it is important to have a call to action at the end of every content. But this is not only true in the case of writing, it has to be implied on calls also. Being a telemarketer, one must know what has to be the desired outcome and must convey the same to the prospect at the end of the call.
Here call to action has to be the next step, whether it is a sales demo, a follow-up time, meeting schedule time or anything that outlines the next step.
Whenever possible, it is always effective to leave a personalized email after a conversation. You can follow up with a thank-you email or recap of the point you discussed on the call or whatsoever. Following up with a personalized email leaves a professional impact on the business.
Sending an email helps in clearing the misunderstandings, solidifying the exchange, and more. Personalized messages are a perfect way to go with telemarketing. It strengthens the relationship with customers.
Being good at telemarketing states that you are a sales professional, but to improve the strategy, it is never a bad idea to incorporate the above-stated methods.
If you are looking for a telemarketing job, check out the best platforms to find the right job. Before you get into a job, read out the following skills that you must have to do the job effectively.
Related — Why telemarketing is important and how you can you do it well
It is important for an effective telemarketer to have a positive and friendly attitude on the call so that customers feel comfortable and open up in conversation. This creates a positive impact on the business as well as on customers. Personable nature and good listening skills are a must for a telemarketer to rock the job and close the deal quickly.
It is important to avoid rushy conversation as it risks losing potential customers. A kind approach with an understanding attitude establishes trust between a business and a customer.
Many telemarketing companies focus on hiring employees who have good communication skills, so it is important to be fluent in the language. Strong communication skills are vital for the success of a telemarketer. A telemarketer must be able to read, speak and listen to a particular person fluently. It helps in responding in a positive manner to customer queries.
Regardless of what type of product or service you are selling, it is important to have product knowledge. All telemarketing companies are willing to employ people who are ready to get and understand products quickly and effectively so that they can offer the same knowledge to their customers.
A perfect telemarketer has to be perfect and well versed about product lines and trained well to answer all customer queries. A telemarketer who does not answer quickly to customers’ questions quickly, tends to lose leads. So product knowledge is an important skill to be a successful telemarketer.
Being a successful telemarketer, one must have the ability to persuade potential customers about the need for products or services they are selling.
There comes a call of persuasive attitude and ability to demonstrate the product or service virtually on call. A telemarketer must keep himself in the same shoes and overcome objections to close the deal effectively.
Also read: Industries which benefit from telemarketing
Telemarketing can either break or make a deal. If it is done in the right way it grows the business but on the other hand, it can lead to loss of potential customers.
Ensure that you only use the best telemarketing strategy for your business with the best telemarketing platform. NeoDove gives you the flexibility to implement good telemarketing strategies all in one platform.
Give your business the much-needed sales boost with NeoDove.
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Originally published at https://neodove.com on February 27, 2022.
