We live in a world where data is everywhere, it’s more widely available than it ever used to be, and we use it more than we’ve ever done before!
As telemarketer’s, data is invaluable to us. The simple truth is that we are only as effective as the data that we use. It is our job to understand who we are calling and to establish a need, all culminating together to create a lead or opportunity for our client. With the correct and clean data, we are able to do this in an efficient manner, understanding the target market, key message and target for our clients.
But, with bad data we struggle from the outset. Using out of date, irrelevant, or confusing data causes delays to our calling, meaning we call less relevant data and have less worthwhile conversations resulting in a worse return on investment for our clients.
Data changes quickly, especially if you are working with large quantities:
Staff change roles or leave companies
Companies change locations or details
Businesses close
Company mergers happen
And this can all change the data that you hold about that company.
Telemarketing is still proven to be an extremely effective method of business development when used correctly. Here at Air, we focus on the ROI that you receive when working with us, our average return is £18 for every £1 our clients invest. But to work as effectively as possible we rely heavily on working with the right data. For this reason, we have always partnered with high quality compliant data providers who we can rely on to deliver what we require to meet our clients needs.
With GDPR changes on their way in, data has never been so under the spot light. With this in mind, we’ve created our GDPR Readiness Statement, using plain English to explain how we have got ourselves ready, to give you confidence in our operation and to provide guidance for yours.
If you’re considering starting a telemarketing campaign, get in touch for a chat to find out how we can help you with your business development and data needs.
We’ve all heard the famous saying, ‘you have a face for the radio’, which can be taken offensively by some who work in the industry, but there is something to be taken from this saying. People who are successful in the radio industry have such huge personalities that they don’t need to be seen to make an impression.
Telemarketing is not too dissimilar to this. Our conversations are all held over the phone, so we do not have the advantage of meeting people face to face or viewing body language. Instead we focus on demonstrating our personality, giving a strong portrayal of the brand and using our tone and inflection to guide the conversation.
I’ve run campaigns at previous companies that have been scripted using tried and tested techniques. But the same question arises – When someone is saying the same thing on each call, how can their results differ so dramatically from call to call?
As I was paid on their results, I made it my mission to understand why this happened, so I listened to hundreds of call recordings. During that time, I found that if one voice tone was used, then within roughly 30-40 seconds the call would often be over. The tone I identified was when an individual’s voice tone/inflection went ‘up’ at the end of sentences. It was the verbal equivalent of having your fingers crossed. Used when someone doesn’t have confidence in what they’re saying or does not understand the subject well enough and even, at times, when trying to ‘fake’ enthusiasm. It was clear that when inflection went up, credibility in the message went down. And this was the difference between the calls using the same script.
What I learnt from this is that when asking questions and closing it’s very important to use a downward inflection in your voice, it commands authority and instils confidence in the decision maker.
For example – try saying with the tone and inflection going down at the end of the sentence, “So John, if you’re 100% happy with everything we’ve gone through, is it fair to say you’d be happy to meet with one of our consultants?”
Now try it again but this time with an upwards inflection at the end of the sentence. Which one would you rather be at the end of?
In understanding this, you can also learn a lot about your decision maker when they throw you objections, what is there tone and inflection; do they sound confident, does it ‘sound’ like a superficial objection or genuine? In understanding how you use your voice, you’ll learn a lot about how others use theirs.
What I have learnt is that voice inflection and tempo are vital and valuable skills that once mastered will improve your telemarketing ability when speaking with gate keepers and decision makers.
To underline the importance of tone and inflection here is a sentence for you to try, “Ididnotsteal the money”. Depending on which word you put the emphasis on it’ll change the whole meaning of the sentence. Go ahead, try it for yourself!
Opinion piece by Oliver Kernick, Senior Account Manager, Air Marketing Group
An office full of sales people – some people thrive in this environment, others would rather be anywhere else! It is a challenging environment and not for the faint hearted, with some big personalities and lots of diversity. But the biggest challenge and one of the most important factors for success is motivation for the whole team.
No matter what job you hold, you want to feel motivated and engaged. This is not easy to achieve in our industry, nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘Ooh I can’t wait to jump on the phones and do some telemarketing today’. So, instilling motivation, providing the right incentivisation and a great culture means people enjoy their work and look forward to coming in day after day.
How does Air do this differently?
Motivation is key to ensuring sales people hit weekly, monthly and annual targets. We know that our team of Business Development Executives who are calling on client campaigns are our service, without them we simply wouldn’t be successful at what we do – so we have to look after them. From our experience it takes more than just commission to keep a happy workforce.
Of course, commission is important to most sales people. Being motivated by money and the opportunity of earning more means that we have a healthy commission structure in place. But this is based on results and client retention not purely speed of dialling and quantity of appointment made. Giving our whole team more motivation to work hard on retaining client accounts and delivering.
But on top of commission, we understand that internal culture makes a huge difference to motivation in a sales environment. Internal incentives tailored to help individuals meet client KPI’s and individual targets prove very effective for us. Team socials, rewards, identifying when people do the right things and the freedom of not micromanaging, all make our sales environment stand out from the crowd.
Our Aim – Motivation
As Head of Performance (Account Director), my role is to identify and understand an individual’s motivators, what is it that makes them tick? This can be a whole range of things, some people are purely financially motivated, whereas others are looking to progress their career by gaining more responsibility and further opportunity to do this – and of course those that are in between.
Working alongside colleagues in the leadership team we nurture a very special culture here at Air, where the team are performing at an optimum level and maintaining momentum, clients and crucially motivation to deliver and succeed.
Our workforce understands how important they are to Air and we respect their importance – so together we work to grow the company, our client base and team members careers by keeping people motivated and excited to be part of #TeamAir every day. Can’t believe it, why not come and see it for yourself!
Opinion piece by Marco Alfano-Rogers, Head of Performance (Account Director), Air Marketing Group
One of the most common barriers to using outsourced telemarketing and business development agencies is a perceived lack of transparency and trust.
In our experience many clients come to us, having tried outsourcing their telemarketing before and feeling let down. Unfortunately, our industry is plagued by this reputation, owing to the fact that it’s a low point of entry to become a telemarketing company. Got yourself a phone and a computer? Hey, well done, you can start a telemarketing company (or so you think).
So why does transparency matter so much?
We like to refer to transparency as the glue between us and our clients. Without it we fall apart and cannot have a solid working relationship.
As a business you work extremely hard in setting up and establishing a reputation for yourself within your industry and within your client base. Once this is established you are likely to want to increase your growth at a faster pace, at this point you may not have the resource or capacity in house. Which is why you look to outsource.
This reputation is extremely precious to you – so it should be, you’ve worked hard for it. And when it comes to outsourcing your business development, you have to be confident that your brand, your reputation and your culture is being represented correctly on the phone. Unless you feel your chosen outsourced partner is consistently being honest and transparent it can be very difficult to allow them to become a representative of your brand.
How do you prove transparency?
It’s all very easy to say ‘We are transparent’ but saying it simply isn’t enough. You have to be able to prove it.
We firmly believe that although we are an outsourced partner to your business, we should understand your business to the same level as your employees to feel confident to really express the brand and represent you. Which is why we collaborate with you at every single stage of the process, so you are confident in the knowledge of what we are doing on your behalf, this includes:
Setup of a strategy, writing telephone scripts and follow-up email copy with your input and approval
We ask all clients to conduct a training session for the team making your calls, so they fully understand your business and are competent in how they are going to approach the task in hand
We have a bespoke client portal for clients to access live time information on calls, conversations and time spent on your campaign
You will be assigned an Account Manager and calling team who will be your regular and consistent contact throughout the entire campaign
All of our calls are recorded, and you can request access to these at any point or we can set up regular sharing of these calls with you
I know that transparency is vital for any relationship especially when we are representing the brand you’ve worked so hard to develop. If you are feeling let down by your current business development partner or you’ve been considering outsourcing but haven’t yet taken the leap, then talk to us about how we could help you. Give us a call on 0345 241 3038, pop us an email to contact@air-marketing.co.uk or visit our website for more information.
Outsourcing has become commonplace in businesses. If you do not have the capacity or resource in-house, then you are likely to look outside of your business for a solution. Whether that is to help you with your finances, your recruitment, you may need consultancy to help change management or operational changes or you’re looking to grow and need help with business development – which is where we help!
The term outsourcing is often used for any external business that you choose to engage with. But there is a very big difference between an outsourced vendor and an outsourced partner.
An outsourced vendor provides a service for an agreed fee. For that fee it is agreed what will be delivered and the vendor will ensure that it is delivered within the agreed timescale, to the agreed spec, for the agreed price. Whereas on the other hand, an outsourced partner will provide a service for an agreed fee, but this will go beyond simple briefing, fulfilment and delivery.
An outsourced partner works with you and has an interest in the company as a whole. A partner is interested in your business goals, objectives, the reasons behind why you are outsourcing and what can really be done to help you fulfil your requirements. You may approach a partner with a requirement and an idea of ‘how you feel it should be fulfilled’. However, a partner is likely to be the expert in what is required (hence why you are approaching them) and by partnering with them they will share their expertise and intelligence to guide your thinking. The right partner will not be motivated by the money they can make from your partnership, instead they will be focused on what they can do to help you grow your business as one team together.
It is very easy to work with an outsourced vendor on a one-off project to fulfil a requirement. However, a partnership is likely to be much more long term. Business culture, values and outlook become more important when establishing a long-term partnership. Working as one team with a like-minded partner will make the whole experience smoother and much more effective.
So, when you are next considering outsourcing a project or business requirement, stop and think. Are you looking for an outsourced partner to deliver more? Sourcing this partner could potentially make a far more positive impact to your business that you may expect.
Opinion piece by Shaun Weston, Account Director, Air Marketing Group.
Business development strategies are crucial for helping businesses to grow, expand, and reach the next level.
Effective business development is one of the fastest ways to grow your business but it can also be one of the most time consuming as it often requires focus, planning, stamina, and resources. However, when done right, your business development processes can have a huge impact on your growth, your revenue, and your company’s future.
Here are 5 ways to improve your business development process:
Effective market research
Market research plays a vital part in any business development process, helping you to understand your current market position and determine where it is going.
Carry out research into your industry, your geographical area, and the market segment you are targeting. Telemarketing is a great tool for this.
Research contracts, bids, and opportunities for co-operation with other companies – this can help you to increase your revenue channels.
Subscribe to industry-related databases, forums, and blogs. These can be hugely valuable, providing detailed information about projects within your sector. This can save you time when collecting information and reduce your market intelligence efforts.
Focus on your client’s needs
Rather than focusing your business development process on what you’re offering, focus instead on what your client needs, listen carefully to the client’s individual requirements and preferences. If you listen carefully you should then be able to modify your own pitch to match their requirements. This, in turn, should increase client satisfaction rates.
Prioritise client satisfaction
A dissatisfied client could damage your company’s reputation as a whole.
With this in mind, client satisfaction is key for effective business development and should always be your priority. If a problem or issue arises, you need to fix it as quickly and effectively as possible.
Don’t let relationships go cold
As well as providing a good service to your clients, it’s also important to maintain relationships. After all, studies have shown that retained clients spend, on average, 67% more than new customers.
Make it part of your business development process to engage with your clients periodically. Set up Google Alerts for your clients so you know what’s happening in their world or share useful content with them when you come across it. You could even send notes on special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.
Ensure to connect with your clients on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Innovate
Innovation is key when it comes to beating your competition. After all, if you offer your clients something unique, there’s a high probability that they will do business with you.
What more can you do with your services? Is there a part of what you offer that needs something extra in order to increase sales? Perhaps you need to integrate services into packages?
Continue to innovate and improve your business development process to benefit your clients and consequently your sales pipeline.
If you’d like to understand how we can help with your business development process, contact us on 0345 241 3038 or get in touch today.
At the start of the New Year, many of us take the opportunity to re-evaluate our business processes and sales strategies.
When you’re putting together your sales strategy for 2018, telemarketing is definitely something you should consider. With so many new technologies and tools available, it’s easy to overlook the traditional telemarketing approach, but taking this route can play a significant role in your sales strategy. In fact, it’s one of the fastest growing forms of direct marketing today.
Here are 8 reasons why telemarketing should be part of your 2018 strategy:
It’s cost-effective
Telemarketing can be a cost-effective method of selling your business, particularly in comparison to other sales methods. Although there is a common theory that it’s expensive and that costs within telemarketing aren’t easy to control, it actually provides a seriously powerful return on investment. After all, what more should you expect from a marketing channel that connects with individual prospects one on one?
We speak more about the cost of hiring in-house versus outsourcing here.
It’s convenient
Telemarketing is a convenient sales tool, for both you and your customers. This allows you to bring your product or service directly to them, without having to travel and take on the expenses involved.
Unlike other sales strategies, such as email and direct marketing, your customers will be able to ask questions directly and have an immediate conversation, rather than waiting around for replies.
It’s versatile
Telemarketing can be used within a whole host of sales applications. Ranging from appointment setting, lead generation, and follow up, right through to event promotions, re-activation, and market research – telemarketing is incredibly versatile.
Immediate contact
Unlike other methods of contact, the telephone is immediate and attention-grabbing. With technology today your potential customers are available almost 24/7.
High conversion rates
When implemented correctly, telemarketing is known to deliver high conversion rates, particularly of course where there is a focus on quality rather than quantity.
On-going engagement
As well as reaching out to new leads, telemarketing is also a great way to engage with existing customers. Staying in contact with your customers gives you an opportunity to find out more about their needs and build a better, on-going relationship with them, whilst also allowing you to upsell other products and services that they might benefit from.
Expand your business
A further advantage of telemarketing is that it allows you to expand your business by selling to customers in other areas, both locally and nationally. Opportunities to expand are therefore endless, giving you a chance to hone in on your target audience, whatever the area.
Immediate feedback
Telemarketing allows you to obtain instant feedback from your customers about your product or service. This, in turn, allows you to immediately start working on ways to improve your business.
As well as being a great sales tool, telemarketing is also an ideal way to ask your customers if there is anything else that you can be doing for them.
So, there you have it, 8 valuable reasons why telemarketing should be part of your sales strategy in 2018.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch, or call us on 0345 241 3038.
If you’re involved in telemarketing or sales, you’ll almost certainly have encountered the ‘gatekeeper’.
Tasked with preventing people from accessing the key decision maker, the Gatekeeper is usually a personal assistant, secretary, receptionist, or switchboard operator who will ensure that only a select few callers will make it through.
With this in mind, the first challenge of any successful call or pitch is to get past the gatekeeper, allowing you to reach the all-important decision maker. Of course, that’s easier said than done!
Here are our top 5 ways to get past the gatekeeper:
Treat them with respect
Although they might not be decision makers, Gatekeepers are typically respected individuals within their firm. With this in mind, it is important that you treat them with the respect they deserve and express your gratitude for the help or information they provide you. This will also keep you in their good books so you will stand more chance of getting through to the decision maker next time you call.
It’s understandable that you might become frustrated if they are trying to stop you getting through to the person you really want to speak to, but don’t take this frustration out on them – they’re only doing their job and the last thing you want is to end up on a blacklist!
Build a rapport
As well as respecting the Gatekeeper, you should also try to build a rapport. Rather than trying to push past them as though they’re nothing more than an automated system, focus on building a positive relationship with them.
For example, as soon as you learn their name, be sure to write it down and start addressing them by that name every time you call.
Sound senior
Within any business, those in management roles can be treated differently by other employees. If someone believes you are important or high up within an organisation, they may think twice about putting the phone down.
So speak slowly and articulately, keep calm and relaxed, and never divulge more details than necessary. If the Gatekeeper senses that you have a senior position, they won’t risk offending or insulting you by probing into your reasons for calling too deeply.
Don’t sell
The Gatekeeper has no power to make a decision regarding the products or services you’re trying to sell. And, to be honest, they’re probably not interested in your sales pitch. So don’t waste your time, or theirs, trying to deliver your sales pitch.
Instead, when they ask what the call is regarding, provide an answer that doesn’t sound too ‘salesy’. Perhaps mention previous correspondence you’ve had with the decision maker.
Call before or after hours
One way to avoid the Gatekeeper is to call when they’re not there! Executives and decision makers often arrive before and leave after normal working hours. If you call during these out-of-office hours, you might well find that their Gatekeeper isn’t around and they are answering their phone themselves.
To find out more about how we can help you optimise your telemarketing results, give us a call on 0345 241 3038 or get in touch.
At Air Marketing Group, our Business Development Executives are a busy bunch of people who are crucial to the running of our campaigns.
We caught up with some of them, to find out exactly what it is that they get up to on a daily basis. So, if you’re looking to start a new role with us and you’d like to know more, or you wondered what goes on behind the scenes of campaigns – look no further.
Core Tasks
The following are the core tasks that the BDEs at Team Air carry out:
• Checking emails in the morning
• Staying up to date with clients/customers/products – each BDE ensures that they are in the know with the products and services that are being talked about on the phone
• Building a pipeline – building and monitoring a pipeline for each client is important, to understand what works and what doesn’t for the campaigns we run
• Following up qualified leads – Each lead that is contacted, whether by email or by phone, is qualified and we ensure that they are followed up
• Generating sales – telesales campaigns are a large part of what we do, so of course generating sales is high on the agenda as well as generating leads that are likely to convert in to sales
• Consulting campaign managers – this can be for a variety of reasons; updates on campaigns, new hot prospects, feedback on calls and more. This ensures we are all on the same page as well as encouraging constant improvement to campaigns
• Participating in general meetings (internal and client training/campaign setup meetings)
• Supporting other BDEs – this could be with campaign work or with feedback on calls
• Answering the phone to multiple campaigns simultaneously
• Reporting previous day’s issues to the campaign manager
We also asked one of our Senior Business Development Executives, Beth, what a typical day for her looked like.
‘On a Monday morning we are all in for 8:30. We have a team meeting with Owen where we can catch up on budget and targets for the week for clients and the business. We discuss campaigns, their success or where we need to improve. We often cover training aspects as well. Then it’s onto the phones!
Most of our days are spent speaking over the phone; generating sales, leads or appointments for our clients. Our campaigns are varied covering a range of businesses; each tailored both the industry and the prospect we are speaking with.
The office is a self- autonomous environment where we chose our own lunch breaks so we can work around the best calling times for client campaigns. So, after a sandwich and 45 minutes, it’s back to the phones!
There’s always time set aside when you learn a new campaign and the Campaign Manager will keep you up-to-date with the campaigns you’re on. Account Managers keep you up-to-date with your statistics throughout the week. The day then finishes around 5pm.’
Air Marketing Group
We hope that gives you a good insight in to what our Business Development Executives get up to during their day.
If you have any questions or would like to know more, do give us a call on or get in touch here. You can also find a bit more about each individual who works at #TeamAir on our team page.
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.
