Marketing and Sales are two foundational pieces of any business. While there are many innovative ways to do it (we're talking Social Selling, website funnels, paid ads, and so on), there's still immense value in tried and tested methods, like telemarketing.
Creating and executing a telemarketing campaign can be challenging, but with an outsourced telemarketing services team, businesses can receive all the value at a fraction of the cost. The key to success is understanding how to connect with and set up an effective, motivated team.
What is telemarketing?
As the name implies, telemarketing is the process of contacting existing or potential customers directly - via phone or video conferencing - for the sake of marketing, lead generation, data collection, or customer surveys.
The telemarketers will have a list of potential or existing clients and will contact them to share or gather information.
Telemarketing is often lumped together with Cold Calling, Tele Sales, Appointment Setting, and other forms of Direct Marketing. These are different techniques with the phone as a medium.
As a result, the process has built up a bad reputation for unsolicited calls, shady practices, and irritating behaviour.
Yes, there are operations and businesses that indulge in unethical practices. However, those who use telemarketing the right way know that it is simply an essential part of a solid overall Marketing and Sales plan.
As one of the multiple touchpoints, telemarketers do the following:
Help recipients with passive interest turn into warm leads.
Rekindle an interest that was lost at some point along the Sales funnel.
Perform pre-sales calls to qualify customers, gauge interest, or help them find the right package for a business.
Fundraising, completing surveys, collecting data for specific campaigns, or follow-up after a sale to ensure the customer has exactly what they need.
They can then pass the client information onto a Sales team to seal the deal.
It also helps raise brand awareness or share critical information, which is then solidified by other methods like blog content, podcasts, calls, and webinars.
According to Invesp, 80% of sales require multiple calls. In addition, businesses must have at least six contacts with most decision-makers before they make a sale. Therefore, companies that do not include telemarketing may miss out on hundreds, if not thousands, of monthly sales.
What is outsourced telemarketing? Why should you do it?
If you're a CEO, CMO, Call Center Director, or Operations Executive thinking about adding telemarketing to your business, you can create your own team. Outsourced telemarketing services use an external group (a Business Process Outsourcing team) to fulfil your telemarketing needs.
By outsourcing your telemarketing services, you can benefit from the expertise of professionals specialising in sales and marketing while freeing up your time and resources to focus on other important aspects of your business.
The benefits of an outsourced telemarketing services team
Access to Expertise and Experience: You can acquire multiple years of experience from an outsourced team upfront rather than finding and building your own. They can help you achieve your sales and marketing goals more quickly and effectively than if you were to do it in-house.
Increased Efficiency and Productivity: Managing an in-house telemarketing team can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. By outsourcing your telemarketing services, you can free up your time and resources to focus on other aspects of your business, such as product development, customer service, and operations.
Cost Savings: Even if you're building a fully remote team, the resources needed for hiring, training, outfitting, and managing employee salaries can add up. If the team needs time to hit targets, you're already starting off at a loss. You save money from the economies of scale of working with a specialized outsourcing partner.
Earn More Topline Revenue: Your outsourced telemarketing services team brings in more customers and higher paying customers. That means more topline revenue for your business every month.
Flexibility and Scalability: Add more telemarketers based on the volume of potential clients or leads. If things slow down, cut your outsourced team back without the human resources implications.
How do you go about building an outsourced telemarketing services team? Follow the steps below for the best results.
Step 1: Determine Your Needs
Before you look for an outsourcing partner, you must be clear on what your needs are in relation to your business. Start by brainstorming around your telemarketing needs.
What are some of the monetary targets you want to achieve?
What are the non-monetary targets? (Customer Experience? Brand building?)
Who is your target customer base?
What's your budget?
Do you need outbound or inbound telemarketing?
Location? Expertise? Size of the team?
Document all the questions and concerns, along with the answers based on current finances and data. This might be helpful if you're making a proposal for hiring the team (e.g. CMO to CEO or CEO to board of directors). You might not think about everything, but you'll be more prepared and make better decisions.
Step 2: Identify the Right Outsourcing Partner
With your list of desirables and deliverables in place, you can start seeking out the right BPO for your outsourced telemarketing services. Some people start on Google with a simple "telemarketing services near me" search. However, most outbound call center solutions will be through referrals, testimonials, or working with past BPOs.
The right outsourced partner has several advantages. Location, cultural similarities, language barriers, and accents may be factors. Depending on your business needs, you may prefer a partner located in a similar time zone or one that is closer in proximity for quick access.
Some BPOs, like CallServ, already have the existing technological infrastructure and processes so that you can start almost immediately.
Clear communication is also critical to the success of any outsourcing relationship. Look for partners who are transparent, responsive, and have a straightforward process for managing projects and reporting progress. You should also notice the cost savings but not at the expense of quality. This comes through the BPO having highly trained management and agents that learn your business products, services, and processes quickly while being capable of communicating with your ideal customers.
Step 3: Cover your bases
Always trust but verify. With the many outsourcing providers available, you want to do your due diligence. This may be a visit to the facilities, asking for references, reviewing testimonials, or assessing past performance with similar contractors. BPOs should be happy to welcome you to do checks and balances, as both parties can benefit from this simple audit.
Step 4: Set Clear Expectations and Goals
Once you've chosen your BPO, you must establish clear expectations and goals that will determine success. These goals will be guided by factors such as the number of leads available monthly, the telemarketing agents hired, and expected revenue. Clearly communicate your expectations for the team and what you hope to achieve with your telemarketing campaign.
Consider using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and identify areas for improvement. This will help you stay focused and adjust as needed to ensure that you are achieving your goals.
Step 5: Recruit the Right Talent
Chances are that the CEO or CMO won't be managing the relationship with the outsourced telemarketing services team. This team should be on autopilot, but there must be a point of contact to review performance, solve customer complaints, and manage the BPO relationship.
If the BPO team feels supported and gets issues resolved quickly, they will work faster and have more confidence interacting with potential customers. Hiring in-house talent with experience in telemarketing (or recruiting an existing employee to handle the task) can save you time while maintaining the performance of the team.
Step 6: Monitor Progress and Provide Feedback
Telemarketing is a results-driven business that depends heavily on the performance of the team. There may be an agreed-upon reporting schedule but create a shared document or reporting tool that both parties can access. The business should see the performance of the outsourced company at a moment's notice. This allows the business to ask questions, provide feedback, and monitor progress.
This data can also help you make changes, such as increasing staff to match longer Average Handle Times, providing more sales training, or increasing incentives.
Keep monitoring and providing feedback, creating a positive upward loop that leads to more success.
Step 7: Foster a Positive Team Culture
Telemarketing teams are encouraged by a strong working culture and community. This is often left to the BPO, but the client can still get involved!
Encouraging the BPO staff and management team can help build trust and strengthen relationships, leading to more effective teamwork and better outcomes for your telemarketing campaign.
Provide whatever resources you can to help foster team culture. Treat the team as your own, and they will respond with improved performance and a better long-term relationship.
Build Your Dream Team Today
Outsourcing your telemarketing services can provide numerous benefits for your business. By outsourcing, you can save time and resources while accessing expert talent and technology.
When building an outsourced telemarketing team, it's important to assess your needs, identify the right outsourcing partner, set clear expectations, and provide ongoing feedback and support.
At CallServ, we offer comprehensive inbound and outbound telemarketing services, along with an array of innovative alternative solutions, to help your business achieve its sales and marketing goals. With our experienced and dedicated team, cutting-edge technology, and commitment to excellence, we can help you build a successful telemarketing campaign that drives results.
So, why not outsource your telemarketing services to CallServ today? Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business succeed.
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