10 Point Checklist: How to Brief a Telemarketing Agency

Each and every outsourced campaign brings with it a different client briefing. Some may be efficient and give the telemarketers the tools they need to produce results, and some may see a few implications further down the line from a rushed briefing process.

If you’re looking at briefing a telemarketing agency for an up and coming campaign, there are a few elements that you need to be completing in order to run an effective outbound operation.

So, without further ado, here is our 10 point checklist that can help your business when briefing the telemarketing agency you’re working with.

1. Regular Communication

Ask your telemarketing agency how often you’ll be in touch. Dropping communication can lead to potential opportunities to improve the campaign being missed.

Suggest a guideline, perhaps every couple of days, where you speak to the account manager to stay up to date.

2. Monitor and Review

Regular communication also helps you to monitor and review what’s happening with the campaign.
Ask your agency how they are monitoring what’s happening on the campaign, and what their review process is in order to check changes are being made where necessary.

3. Set and Evaluate Targets

Work with your telemarketing agency to set targets for the timescale of your campaign. And, look deeper in to whether these are realistic based on your industry.

Both KPI and team targets can help you to give the agency you work with an extra push to hit those all important objectives of the campaign.

4. Set Key Messaging

Without discussing the messaging that will be communicated over both verbal and non-verbal channels, you may get different callers with different ideas of what the messaging should be.

Be concise with the messaging, making this clear to your provider. And, take out any unnecessary add-ons or information that will confuse a prospect rather than advise.

5. Outline Product Benefits

You and the agency should on the same page when it comes to what benefits are being promoted during telemarketing calls.

Provide them with any information that might support the benefits of your product and service. For example, a results statistic, testimonial or case studies.

6. Define Audience Pain Points

Continuing on from the benefits, inform the telemarketing agency of what pain points your target audience have and how your product answers these.

Think about the perception of the audience; advise the agency on why your company is the best solution for problems they are experiencing.

7. Set Audience Action

Brief the telemarketing agency on what you want the audience to do. Be part of a meeting? Will this be over the phone? Face to face? What is the booking process?

Tell the agency exactly what the prospect needs to do, in order for a successful sale or meeting to be made.

8. Outline Profiling Questions

You know your perfect buyer, but does your telemarketing provider? Look to set up profiling questions that callers might ask in order to define whether a prospect is the right fit.

The better information both the agency and sales team has on the prospect, the better they can assess the needs and wants of that potential buyer.

9. Seek Relevant Data

Whether you or the telemarketing provider is supplying the data for the campaign, it will need to be accurate and relevant to your target audience in order to justify seeing any results.

10. Set Meeting Quality Guidelines

If the outsourced agency is booking appointments or setting meetings, you need to let them know what an ideal lead looks like.

Quality beats quantity every time, so avoid setting meeting targets without knowing how a quality lead may look.

Outsourcing your telemarketing to an agency may come about for a number of reasons; Lack of skill, lack of time, or simply because you would rather set your sights on other operations within your business.

Whatever the reason, the campaign setup and briefing are crucial to ensure effective results and, of course, a better return on investment for you.

Want to know more? Call us today on 0345 241 3038 or get in touch here.

Sales and Business Tips – Getting Referrals

Referrals are an important channel to help you attract new business. So in the following video, we look at crucial tips to help you get recommendations and referrals for your organisation.

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Sales and Business Tips – Dealing With Objections

In the third part of our sales and business tips series, Owen Richards, Managing Director of Air Marketing Group, discusses how to deal with objections during your sales conversations.

In the video, Owen looks at the ‘diffuse, statement, question’ theory. Watch to find out more:

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What do we mean by lead generation?

Lead generation is a crucial tool for any company looking for new business. But, what do we really mean when we say lead generation? And if it’s important for new business, how do we ensure we’re doing it right?

We answer these questions and more in the following blog.

What is lead generation?

According to Shanaka Thanapathy, in marketing, lead generation is the initiation of consumer interest or enquiry into products or services of a business.

We’ll repeat the important part… the initiation of consumer interest. Ask yourself, what are your company doing to initiate the interest of your ideal target audience?

Lead generation campaigns are run to source and identify new prospects, ideally of high quality to add to your sales pipeline. On top of the core objective of earning further revenue, lead generation will create brand awareness and establish relationships with leads that you source.

What methods are used?

Lead generation can use a mix of both offline and online tools. From telemarketing campaigns to digital methods such as PPC and SEO, the forms in which lead generation can take vary but all have a common goal: to provide you with prospects that could potentially convert.

With digital channels, it comes down to positioning and being in the right place at the right time. Essentially, being where your audience is in an online platform. Offline channels can include various forms of advertising, print and television.

Again, it’s about generating the interest of your target customer whether that’s over a call, an email open, a download or taking another action.

We work with several companies across a variety of industries, running telemarketing or telesales campaigns where we speak to prospects to generate leads directly from the target audience over the phone.

We’re not here to say whether offline or online is right as both are powerful, but the solution which is best is probably mix of them both. Both are proven to yield great results, which can present a platform for multi-channel marketing opportunities.

Lead generation in B2B telemarketing

(Okay, so we’re a telemarketing company… we’re bound to mention the benefits of what we do!)

What B2B telemarketing offers is the human-to-human (H2H) element of prospecting that many channels don’t have. This interaction gives an added personable element that digital marketing lacks, and is a direct conversation with the right people.

Regardless of the marketing channels you are using and for what particular campaign you are using them on, having a conversation with an individual also gives you an answer there and then as to where they sit in the buying cycle.

There’s something in that saying – If in doubt, give them a call.

What can I do help my lead generation tactics?

So we know what it is, and the types of tools you can use to carry out lead generation.

But, how can we make sure we are doing it well?

The following points cover key aspects of lead generation looking at core strategies to ensure you run it effectively.

Data, data, data

…Where it all begins. Without the right data in the first place, you’ll be contacting all the wrong people. Clean it, segment it, and know exactly who you are communicating with.

Know your audience

Who are you targeting? What does that perfect customer look like? Have an understanding of the personas you are looking to target, in order to ensure you campaigns are hitting the right people.

Follow up and nurturing

There isn’t much point in generating a bunch of fantastic leads and not bothering with follow up. Lead generation isn’t just about sourcing the leads; it’s about identifying hot prospects and continuing to

Lead qualification

Qualify your leads. We talk a bit more about how a ‘lead isn’t just a lead’ in our blog here.

Lead generation is effective with the right process. This includes how you manage it, what your strategy is, how you integrate your marketing channels and what actions you take to monitor, maintain and maximise the value of your sales leads.

At Air Marketing Group, we offer lead generation campaigns that aim to develop a healthy pipeline for your company. We make contact with your ideal target audience to generate leads and encourage interest in your products and services.

Get in touch today or call 0345 241 3038.