What are the essential parts of training telemarketers as lead generators?
I am putting together a training package for telemarketers for my company. I know what I think is important to cover, but I hate when I get tunnel-vision. Any suggestions on what you think are the most important topics to cover with potential telemarketers would be appreciated. Keep in mind that I am trying to come up with a system that can be useful to someone who has never worked a phone before, but interesting enough to hold the attention of people with experience.
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Jan 17, 2014
They must be flexible (we have them read a script with three different emotions to test this) and be able to accept rejection and deal with conflict. Most important then are the scripts you use. There can be major differences in scripts just by changing a few words and the way that words, are put together.
Jan 12, 2014
1. Role play
2. Create scripts
3. Video tape practice sessions
4. Ask a non-affiliated individual to role play as a prospect.
5. Evaluate performance and start over with #1
Jan 3, 2014
Most important thing is do not pitch to your potential customer but have a dialoge / conversation with him/her. Try to understand their need or problem and propose a solution.
A few things are very common like
1. have a smile on your face while talking on phone, it reflects
2. Let the other person speak.
3. Most important ask the person whether it is good time to talk as they get irritated easily but one have to find different ways for doing the same.
4. If telemarketer is new ask him to talk while he is standing. I dont know why but it works self experience.
Dec 31, 2013
Hi,
I can help you based on my 10+ years experience in this area, even starting such businesses from scratch.
Dec 30, 2013
My company is based in the healthcare arena selling software as a service. We do demonstrations via WebEx. Our company cold calls into specific departments hopefully to arrange demonstrations as the initial step in the sales process. We have found that we only have a few moments to speak with a potential customer. We have found success by: targeting the Department Head, speaking directly to the customers point of existing of pain and how our service relives that pain. We found it very useful to record actual customer calls in the training process, then have the trainee do joint calls with an experienced person. They get up to speed fairly rapidly.
Dec 30, 2013
For a telemarketer to succeed they need to be trained in the following.
Company knowledge and what makes the company unique and desirable
Product knowledge
Benefit statement
Objective handling
Clear and attainable objectives.
Their customer approach should be conversational and not canned.
Dec 30, 2013
This might be the most complete answer to what I was asking (probably due to the question). Thanks, Todd.
Dec 29, 2013
From my experience in sales telemarketing, the following things were important:
1. A pitch or script for new persons.
They need to learn it and use it consistently. At first, it will sound scripted, but eventually it will be in their own style. THE KEY, and this is important, is that as they become comfortable with the pitch or script that they DO NOT LOOSE THE KEY ELEMENTS OR PRINCIPLES of what your selling or your service.
2. Create teams and make it competitive but fun. Have incentives for individual performance and team performance.
3. Do rallies and one on one's. Rallies to keep everyone excited and motivated daily. Do rallies daily in the mornings. Do one on one's weekly to help new persons, to also congratulate , and to assist and help. To also touch base with your experienced persons. They can also be player coaches to new persons.
4. Train them with an experienced person for a few days. Your best. Choose different top performers for the new person to listen to, not just one. They can learn differences and consistencies.
5. Topics:a) Phone etiquette. b)Handling rejection-don't let no's bother you. c)Sticking to the pitch. d)Make several calls-its a numbers game. e) be a consummate learner.
I hope something from my experience helps.
Dec 30, 2013
Great ideas in there. I particularly like the ones relating to feedback and reward. Also agree on not loosing the keys when making conversational. 5 is a great example of what I was looking for. Thank you.
Dec 28, 2013
just a quick point. Whenever a telemarketer calls, he/ she tends to talk about his/ her product almost immediately after simple greeting and identifying me and him/her.
I always ask he/ she a question ... "before you go further, why you never try to understand my needs your kind of product or service first?"...
The point I like to put across is, I think the very fundamental of a telemarketer is to understand customer first before start selling. Hope this is useful.
Dec 30, 2013
Excellent point. Understand how our product fits the customer and illuminating that for them is a key.
Dec 28, 2013
That's a really great question. I have been doing high-level lead generation (hate the term telemarketing) for years with great success. From my perspective, it's really important that people who call on other people understand that it's human beings who answer the phone.
First off, you need to find people who are comfortable on the phone. If they are not, it will come through in their voice
Secondly, they need to be quick on their feet and able to use a script/guideline without sounding scripted.
Thirdly, they should never assume that they are a priority. We usually interrupt people's days and it's important to back off when needed. A certain sensitivity is important.
That's probably not helping you with developing a system, because it's all about the soft areas, but they are important. Would love to talk to you some more if you are interested.....
Dec 30, 2013
Monika, all good points. You should do this for a living. ;) This will help with the Basics section immensely. Thanks for your input.
Dec 27, 2013
Hi Adam. I get annoyed every time a telemarketer is calling when they start speaking from their script without giving me a chance of saying something. I would target them to do step one in the sales process; Position. That means that they explain who you are, how you operate, the sales process and generally the agenda. If the customer is interested then the target is to book a meeting.
Other steps in this RSS process are: discover, build, present and secure.
Usually the telemarketers start with the presenting phase without knowing what the customers' needs are.
I have used this approach successfully for starting up my small company selling air-filters to facility management companies.
Dec 30, 2013
Thanks, Peter. I like that model. I may end up cherry-picking some from those ideas.
Dec 26, 2013
If the point of the telemarketing is to generate leads, don't get the reps that you are changing focused on the product or service that the company offers. Make them more focused on setting appointments with a specialist. Sometimes with new reps it is less stressful to just focus on getting buy in for a conversation with an authority in a specific subject matter that setting up a conversation about buying something.
If the reps are trained/encouraged to say that they are contacting clients to give them the opportunity to speak to a subject matter expert as opposed to a pushy cold calling sales person, it can sometimes break through the challenge of push back because people don't like to be caught off guard in a sales situation.
Dec 27, 2013
This is one issue we are having. The dividing line between too much and too little. Good point on KISS for these people. I guess we really need to decide if we want to retrain them if they show aptitude for sales.
Dec 26, 2013
Speak well and be sincere. First tip I would give telemarketers . Just get to the point w what your trying to offer.
Dec 26, 2013
It takes a lot to become a good telemarketer and its much like how people cold call. Its not difficult situations that need to be addressed the most. Most people can handle the simple situations.
Grant Cardone is a very energetic person who is good with communication with people, even though its in a different area I think his mindset on things may help you out a lot. he is very interesting and I think you would need to have a brand new system for it to be successful with the existing basics in telemarketing and communication.
Dec 26, 2013
Put a mirror in their cubby - if they can see their smile - they will have better success - the person on the other end of the line can tell if they are smiling! It is easier to get "prospects" to engage with happy tele-sales people.
Dec 30, 2013
I've heard this suggestion more than once in the past couple of weeks. Great way to help them keep a "smile in their voice."
We will definitely be using recorded calls/staged calls and the buddy system after formal classroom training as we arrived at a similar conclusion.