Small Business Profits 6 Ways of Employing Telemarketing as Part of Your Business Marketing Plans
Discuss telemarketing to many business owners and managers and you are likely to see concern, doubt and panic. Many owners confuse telemarketing with telesales. The latter is tainted by the cold-calling, pressure tactics used by some companies to sell anything from timeshare holidays to carpets and valentine gifts.
The only similarity between telemarketing and telesales is that they both use the telephone to make contact with a prospect.
Here's 6 powerful ways you can use telemarketing in your business growth plans.
1. Appointment finding - the prime role of marketing is to create opportunities for your sales team. The best opportunities stem from face to face meetings. Telemarketing is proven to deliver high quality appointments with specifically targeted decision makers.
In finding your meetings a prime telemarketer will have had a number of contacts with a prospects' decision makers. They will have built up a rapport and set expectations so that your appointments are geared for maximum results before you get to meet the client.
2. Lead generation - telemarketing for lead generation require less effort from the telemarketer than appointment making. The goal is normally to contact a prospect, gauge potential level of interest and to provide you with a profiled database of leads. Following up on these leads is your responsibility.
3. Database building and cleansing - many companies have built large prospect databases. Current data protection legislation means that you must keep this data up to date or delete it. Telemarketing is an excellent way of reviewing, updating and building your contact database. The odds are you will gain a few leads and appointments along the way.
4. Follow up - following up on every lead is vital. In the normal course of business every one of your staff will make contacts and maybe receive enquiries about your company. Every such contact is manna from heaven. Following up every contact has been shown to improve sales in company after company. Telemarketing is a cost-effective route to effective follow-up.
5. Customer Information - most small business owners that think of telemarketing tend to think of it as a tool for accessing new customers. However, just about any marketing book you read will tell you it is 6 to 12 times more profitable to market to existing customers than it is to win a new customer. Telemarketing to people who already buy and like your products is an excellent way to educate them of all your offerings.
6. Customer reactivation - do you know why old customers have stopped buying from you? You should. Often it is simply because they have not had any contact with you for some extended period. Sometimes it is because they didn't know that you supplied the particular service they needed. So they look elsewhere.
And eventually stop buying from you altogether.
Telemarketing is a quick tool to make contact with customers as soon as they stop being customers. Sometimes that is all that is required to bring them back into the fold. Give it a try.
Six ways you can use telemarketing to boost your marketing. And don't let anyone persuade you it is expensive. Telemarketing is the ultimate small business opportunity. All you need is some training, the right attitude and a telephone.
Your real challenge is to find a telemarketet that matches your business needs.
Marketing is the biggest differentiator between doing OK and doing Great. Telemarketing is only one part of any business marketing planning Visit Breakthrough Business Growth
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