What do you do for a well earned break from telemarketing?

Cold Calling is tough so we need regular breaks to reward ourselves for the hard work.  How do you motivate yourself or your team?  So many telemarketers resort to smoking which is a real shame but perhaps the stress of the role contributes?

If I am on my own I have an exercise disc that I sometimes use and someone else said that they like to dance! must try this.  Someone else suggested chocolate, which is ok for an occasional treat but no good on a regular basis.

Some call centres make everyone stand up and they can only sit down when they get a meeting – this is way to harsh and surely encourages the wrong behaviour.  People focused on sitting down and not being the last one standing will push to get a meeting at any cost when the person at the other end of the phone might not be so keen!

Please share your thoughts and ideas on good breaks and motivation.

Telemarketing – In-house or Outsource

It is a difficult decision for a business to make between running their own telemarketing team or outsourcing it to a professional telemarketing company.  There really isn’t an easy solution to this dilemma both options have their advantages and, as always in sales, it is about finding a path that works for you.  Often it really helps to start with a telemarketing company and build a formula that works and then bring in your own team and let them take over.  Then you have a team that can hit the ground running with a tried and tested formula.

One of our contacts recently told us that running their own team made them loose focus on what they were supposed to be doing and just felt like instead they were running the telemarketing company.  What are your experiences of running telemarketing in-house?

What is the most important thing you want from a telemarketing company?

At The Cold Calling Club we would love to know what you think are the most important factors that influence your decision on using a telemarketing company.

What would you love a cold calling company to do, even if it seems impossible?

How many cold calls should a caller maker?

How many calls would you expect someone to make in a day? And how does this differ with different businesses, products and services?

Here are some of the factors impacting the number of calls:
• The complexity of the sale.
• The length of calls.
• Who you want to ideally speak to in an organisation.
• How much time people spend targeting and researching a client before they pick up the phone.
• The value of the products and services.
• To what stage do you want to take the relationship: closing the deal, getting an appointment or a well qualified meeting?
• Is there an irresistible offer, interesting event to attend or something else that will create interest?

I have already had some interesting comments from Twitter, what are your thoughts?

Top Ten Things People Hate About Being ‘Cold Called’

These are some of the things that people tell me they hate:

1. Being interrupted and taking up precious time
2. Pushy sales people
3. Can’t get rid of them
4. Telling lies
5. They are reading from a script
6. Being too ‘chummy’ – trying to be a best friend when they are not
7. Talking too much and not listening or pausing for breath
8. Using questions too soon
9. Asking about things that should already be known
10. Someone trying to outwit you

So what happens when calls are made without doing any of these things? When callers are open and honest and explain why they are calling and how they can help.

• Instead of being pushy good callers are patient and understanding.
• Instead of trying to push products and ‘sell’, good callers talk to people about their business and build up trust.

This is what we call Relationship Calling.

Why it is so hard to cold call

Doesn’t everyone hate being cold called?

That’s what makes it so difficult to pick up the phone and cold call ourselves.

But don’t we all need more customers?  Who doesn’t? Particularly in the current climate people who traditionally found customers came to them through word of mouth are all of a sudden finding this source is drying up fast.  Where people would pass referrals, instead they are hanging on to the customers considering themselves lucky to keep them. They just don’t dare suggest any extra expenditure over and above their invoice.

Any comments or views?



Toxic Selling

Who likes being cold called? Not many people at all.

Why is this?

Generally because they are using techniques and approaches that really annoy us.  We call this TOXIC SELLING.

This sort of selling doesn’t work in developing long term relationships and it can actually repel your customers instead of attracting them.  This is very damaging to your brand and reduces the number of customers you can sell to over time as once annoyed they completely turn away from your products and services.

Please share what annoys you most about cold callers.