Let's talk about the fact
that a lot of companies actually
fail when it comes to telesales
and telemarketing deployments
because they fail to follow some
of the key principles. So let's
talk about what some of those
failures are and how you can
avoid those if you're looking to
employ telesales and
telemarketing functions.
First of all, a lot of companies
assume that if they just bring
people in and stick them on a
phone, give them a list and
stick them in a cubicle that
they'll be able to do fine on
their own. And telesales and
telemarketing is a really,
really hard job and it requires
a very specific skills set, a
lot of unique DNA, which you
won't find in another sales
person, and also a lot of
coaching.
The first thing is probably the
fact that telesales, because
people who work in this kind of
industry face a very, very high
level of rejection, they have to
have an extreme level of ego
resilience and a willingness to
rise above getting the phone
slammed on them all of time and
continue to make calls until
they find the magic approach for
getting through to potential
prospects, warming them up and
engaging them. So, a lot of
companies hire the wrong people
for this without testing and
profiling to make sure that
they've got the necessary DNA
and that they've got high ego
resilience.
Second of all, once they hire
them, they put them into a back
room, give them a list and a
phone and tell them to go to
work and neglect to coach and
manage them.
Third, many times they fail to
develop a rigorous process
related to the planning,
execution, and follow up to each
telesales call. And without a
strong process, you're just not
going to make it in
telemarketing and telesales.
Fourth, many times companies
fail to provide the effective,
day to day and moment to moment
management supervision that's
required in order to effectively
coach telesales and
telemarketing professionals to a
higher standard.
Fifth, a lot of companies assume
that they know how to do
telesales and telemarketing but
unless they actually have
somebody who has this high level
of expertise, which most sales
managers don't, often times they
find out that it's not enough to
set up the function and the real
magic comes from having somebody
who understands the telesales
and telemarketing process and
who can really micromanage the
deployment of that process, the
hiring of the correct people,
their coaching, the continuous
improvement in the call methods
and approach until the results
are being gained.
So if you're thinking about
setting up telesales or
telemarketing or outbound
prospecting and lead generation
for your company, you should
consider whether or not you have
the inside talent in your
company with proven experience
and track record to deploy this
kind of function and really make
it work. A lot of companies
figure oh, this could be easy,
it couldn't be that hard, and
then they fail miserably. We've
seen many clients that have
taken that sort of approach and
spent large amounts of
investment trying to get their
telesales and telemarketing
functions to be productive and
when they couldn't do it ended
up just shutting it down and
saying, oh telesales or
telemarketing doesn't work for
our business.
Well the fact is, it can work
for any business. Whether it be
business-to-business or
business-to-consumer, again, the
best in class companies are
using this sort of approach and
methodology to improve their
lead generation, drive higher
efficiency into their sales
force, reduce their cost and
accelerate their overall revenue
growth.
We have many clients that have
actually produced outstanding
results using this kind of
operation, including a
construction company that hired
us to come in and deploy a
telesales activity so that they
could get into major accounts
where they could do multiple,
ongoing construction projects.
As a result of deploying this
activity in their company, their
sales have more than doubled in
the last two years.
Another company that we recently
did a revamp on their outbound
telemarketing activity for
experienced a 500% increase in
their close ratios as a result
of doing a detailed assessment,
modifying their call approach,
hiring additional telesales
talent, training them to the
process and coaching them to
success. So we've seen lots of
companies that have been able to
greatly increase their telesales
effectiveness by bringing in
consultants.
Another example is a manufacture
of consumer electronic displays
that used Cube Management as a
telesales consulting function in
order to dwindle down the number
of dealers that they were using
for selling their products and
really focus on the ones that
had the best potential. Another
example of a company that we're
working with today is a software
company that develops power
quality systems for the utility
and large manufacturing
industry.
These are all just some examples
of how companies are using
telesales, telemarketing, and
lead generation across a
multitude of industries in order
to rapidly increase their
pipeline, reduce their sales
cycle and improve their overall
sales efficiency.
Source: Andrew Rowe
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