10 Tips To Help Make Your Telemarketing Really Payoff

Back in 2013 I published a blog entitled “A Security Agency Lead Generation Program How-To“.  Since then, I have received dozens of questions from companies looking to develop lead generation programs using 3rd party telemarketing agencies.  As a result of those conversations, I thought that it might be a good idea to publish a follow-up blog to elaborate on the topic.
If you don’t have the resources to develop a lead generation program internally, using an outside telemarketing agency is a good option.  Working with an outside agency to generate leads can be a great experience if you: 1) Select the right telemarketing firm; 2) Establish reasonable goals and objectives for their representatives and; 3) Develop internal processes that allow you to capitalize on the leads that you receive.  The first blog covered points 1 and 2, so in this blog I will provide some tips on point 3, ‘developing internal processes’.

10 Telemarketing Tips for your Security Guard Company

I have learned some very valuable lessons working with telemarketers over the years.  If I were to list the most important lessons that I learned from those experiences they would be:
  1. Your telemarketing agency should not be tasked with selling any of your services.  They should strictly be used to gather information from potential buyers.  That information at a minimum should include: A) The name of the person who is responsible for the contract; B) That person’s email address; C) The appropriate time to contact them and; D) Permission to follow-up as appropriate.
  2. Designate one person, preferably a supervisor or manager, to be responsible for managing the program.  Amongst other things, this designee should ensure that the information that your telemarketing agency generates is input into your CRM and followed up on as appropriate.  Which leads to Tip #3…
  3. Invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to collect and organize the leads that your telemarketing agency provides.  The information that they supply to you will need to be evaluated and followed up on.  The only way to effectively manage that stream of leads is to use a CRM platform like a SalesForce.com, or SugarCRM. Investing in a CRM will also help you, or whomever is responsible for managing the program, track your sales team’s activity.
  4. Ensure that you have both sales and non-sales related content that you can share with your potential buyers after they have given you permission to follow-up.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of “Content” as it pertains to your marketing and sales efforts, please read this article on content marketing.
  5. Distributing your content doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be an arduous task. To make this process easy, invest in an email marketing platform like MailChimp or ConstantContact.  These email marketing platforms allow users, like yourself, to easily automate the distribution of content via email.
  6. Once you have started your lead generation campaign you must continuously feed the machine.  Ensure that you have enough leads to generate a sufficient number of viable prospects for your sales team to continuously follow-up on.
  7. Prior to starting the orientation process for your telemarketing vendor, make sure that you understand what inquiries your customers will and will not respond to.  Although the telemarketers may be doing the dialing, you have to set them up for success by understanding what information your prospects will be willing to share.
  8. Be patient and trust in the process that you have developed.
  9. Remember that the purpose of finding these leads is to have your sales team setting appointments to meet with them.   If your sales team is trying to close deals over the phone they are wasting your time and money.
  10. Most importantly, set realistic objectives for your telemarketing campaign.  It is very likely that you may have to tweak your campaign as you learn what does and does not work. So please don’t expect overnight success, as the saying goes “Rome was not built in a day.”
All in all, working with a telemarketing agency can be a great investment if you take time to select the right firm, set reasonable goals, and have processes in place to ensure follow through. Have you worked with a telemarketing firm to generate leads?  If so, what was your experience like?  If not, what stops your from trying?  Please feel free to leave your comments below. By Courtney Sparkman
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