Having now looked at the the realities of telemarketers: 99% of telemarketers don’t have the ‘Magic Touch’ and the importance of good briefing: The importance of clear definitions and briefing we arrive at the guts of the matter:

What to expect from your Business to Business telemarketing?

As always, there is no simple answer.

Want a quick fix? Jump straight to my tips

The key factors are:

Your Objectives - How much commitment are you looking for from contacts?

At one end of the scale if you are refreshing and qualifying your database, you may simply be looking for confirmation of information you already have. You should expect 70-80% of contacts to give you this. Even here you will find some people who claim to have a company policy wherby they will not even confirm information you already have!

At the other end of the scale, you may be looking to arrange an initial sales meeting, or even sell something over the phone. In these cases, only 1 or 2 ‘successes’ per day might be the norm – but don’t despair, as discussed below, simply resassessing what you are doing might improve things.

Your Propostion – How strong is your offer?

I have mentioned the importance of a strong offer in earlier posts. There is no question that if you can offer clear and unambiguous benefit to contacts it will make things easier and more productive.

It doesn’t matter how good you think your offer is, it is all about what your target contact thinks.

To say you can reduce a company’s monthly phone bills by 25% may sound good but there is no question that phone call costs have all come down in recent years. If you are talking to a small business who only spends £25 per month on phone calls than the £6.25 reduction may not be worth the time and effort for them to switch. It really is about genuine value.

Your Target Market – How well do you know your target contacts?

It may sound obvious but the better you know your target contacts, the more likely it is that your telemarketer(s) will get a good hearing. As most SME telemarketing involves a majority of cold calling, simply getting people to listen can be a big issue – this is where a good telemarketer will definitely show their stuff.

Remember your briefing

Probably the single most common objective in SME Business to Business telemarketing is to generate leads and for most people, this means appointments. As I say above, this normally means that 1 or 2 ‘successes‘ per day at best. If you see more than this then check your briefing! A telemarketer who says

‘We just want to pop in while we are passing and drop off some literature...’

may manage to justify this in their head as a booked appointment but clearly not what you are looking for!

Don’t forget the longer term

This brief case study will hopefully give you some food for thought….

I was talking to a client who had recently set up as a freelance accountant offering services to SME businesses. They engaged a telemarketer to call local businesses to try to set up appointments.

The accountant started to see a slow trickle af appointments. Not as many as they had hoped but a few.

It turns out the feedback they were getting from the telemarketer was simply the appointment details – name, time, date. They knew nothing of the calls where no appointment was forthcoming.

I suggested that they ask the telemarketer to report back on all contacts and to make sure that even where there was no appointment they asked for an e-mail address and checked it wsa OK to ‘keep in touch’ – most people are happy to agree to this.

This added no cost to the telepmarketing work but signifucantly improved the benefits. As well as the appointments, the accountant was now building a qualified target market database of local businesses as a valuable marketing asset that could be used cost effectively on an ongoing basis.

Could you do something similar?

A few other points

How many contacts a day? Normally depends on the target contact level.

Speaking to senior staff in large companies (with many layers of hierarchy!) can be most difficult and 10 contacts a day can be a good result.

As a guide, 20-25 contacts per day can be used as a benchmark.

If you are simply qualifying an existing database (name, address etc) then 70-80 checked records per day should be achievable.

Don’t assume big numbers=good performance! If you are expecting 20-25 decent conversations in a day and your telemarketer claims 6 in the their first hour, check them – and check your brief is being followed.

All telemarketing projects have a learning curve. It can take a couple of hours or so for a telemarketer to get up to speed. I’d suggest giving them at least half a day to start to perform – but if you are not seeing what you expect after a day, it is time to review.

TIP 1: Make sure you get feedback on all contacts from your
telemarketer(s). Just because there is no appointment today doesn't
mean you can't keep in touch and try again in a month or 2. Also
feedback as to why you don't get an appointment can help you
refine your briefing and approach.

TIP 2: Don't fight with secretaries and other 'gate-keepers'. These
people have the ear of your ultimate target contact so keeping on
the right side of them can really pay dividends.

TIP 3: If a particularly important contact is proving difficult to
get hold of, consider trying to arrange a 'Telephone Appointment'

In my post about the realities of telemarketers: 99% of telemarketers don’t have the ‘Magic Touch’ I stressed the importance of having a clear understanding of what you wish to achieve from your telemarketing activity.

You should be able to deliver a clear and actionable brief to your telemarketer or telemarketing team.

Let’s have a look at these:

Your Objectives

In my experience, telemarketing is MUCH more prevalent in Business to Business marketing than telesales (where the goal is to take an order). How many times have your received a cold call where the opening gambit is “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to sell you anything…”!

In essence, you are always looking to secure some sort of commitment from the people being spoken to but where you pitch your expectation for this commitment can make a big difference on the overall value you get out of the campaign. Take 2 different scenarios:

1. You want an appointment to go to discuss your services
2. You are happy where a person simply agrees to you keeping in touch about your services

Both of these are based on looking for people who are interested in you and your services – albeit at different ends of the scale. But think, there is a question that should go ahead of this:

Are you interested in them?

Naturally you want to make sure your target list focuses on companies that represent potential for you but even the best list will have some irrelevant companies. Even if the companies fits your requirements, don’t assume that the person being spoken to can help further your cause!

An important element of any telemarketing call is to check that the person/company being spoken to is relevant and useful. Getting an appointment with someone who is just about to leave or a company that is about to close down is probably a waste of your time.

Right, back to our scenarios.

Once you have a company that is of interest to you, be careful of getting your telemarketer to focus wholly on making an appointment. While this may be what you want, the person on the receiving end of the call may not be ready to make that level of commitment.

In scenario 1, no appointment means no go so move on to the next call. You have already established that you are interested in them so potentially a lost opportunity.

In scenario 2, it is vital that the telemarketer has an ‘eye for the main chance’ If the meeting opportunity is there they should be able to see this and go for it – this is definitely a skill that differentiates the good telemarketer from the not so good. If the target contact is not willing to commit to an appointment, you have a fallback position – keeping in touch. Clearly this doesn’t benefit in the short term but over time you are building a highly qualified database of YOUR target market – an immensely valuable marketing tool.

Realistically, a good telemarketer working under scenario 2 would secure all the appointments that are available under scenario 1. All the additional marketing data you get under scenario 2 – plus the opportunity to build contact and relationships over time using lower cost communication such as mail and e-mail is effectively a free extra benefit!

The Telemarketer Brief

In a telemarketing call, only 1 thing happens – conversation. By definition, conversations are 2-way so, with the possible exception of highly structured Market Research by Telephone, having a rigid script is not terribly helpful. I know there are companies who will sell you a state of the art telemarketing system which can (allegedly) adapt scripts to match the flow of a conversation, for a typical SME telemarketing project there is nothing to beat a clear speaking telemarketer who is comfortable on the phone. To make he most of this ability they need 3 things which you should include in your briefing:

A good understanding of the product/service they are talking about

You can use product literature, your website and/or a personal introduction. All have been designed to explain your products/services so should work here.

A clear statement of the scope the conversation should cover

What questions do you want answered or what information do you want to gather? Don’t expect the telemarketer to remember all of this – particularly at first. Although I do not advocate a script, a ‘cheat sheet’ listing the core details to be covered is invaluable

Your expectation of what they might achieve

Giving an idea of what you expect can be done in (say) an hour is a useful guide – but be realistic. If you are looking for them to speak to senior people and have a decent conversation where possible, then 2-3 conversations in an hour may be a reasonable objective, maybe less for bigger companies.

On the other hand, if you simply want to check and update your database of e-mail addresses ahead of sending an e-mailing out then confirming/adding 12-15 e-mail addresses in an hour shouldn’t be too challenging.

Only with time and experience will you be able to fine tune what is sustainably achievable in your business.

Monitor and Review

Every hour of telemarketer time costs money and once it has gone, you can’t have it back again. During the first few hours of any telemarketing project, keep a close eye on how things are going. You don’t necessarily want to hover around the telemarketer all the time but make sure you don’t leave them working in isolation for too long. Once I have briefed a project and answered any questions,  I normally leave a telemarketer to get on with it asking them to come and talk to me once they have  3 completed  conversations. If they are back to me in 30 minutes I start asking questions. If I haven’t seen them after 3 hours…well, you get the point.

If they tell you they have spoken to X people but no-one was interested then, if they have been well briefed they should be able to tell you why – which should tell you how to tune the project to start to produce more useful results.

It is the job of the telemarketer to do what is asked of them. It is up to you to make sure they are!

TIP 1: Just because they won't make an appointment doesn't mean they aren't
interested. Some people take a bit of time to come around to your way of
thinking - or maybe the time you called just wasn't the right time for them

TIP 2: If a telemarketer can emphasise things differently, they probably
will! Do you really care that they made 50 calls in an hour if no one was in!
It is not about working hard it is about working effective.

Let’s face it, most people don’t like cold calling yet many have this niggling thought that there are loads of potential customers out there and that if they only find someone with that ‘magic touch’ to make the calls…..

How hard can it be?

With over 20 years experience of Business to Business telemarketing with companies small and large I thought it might be interesting to dispel some of the myths with a series of posts. Over the coming months I will look at various aspects of telemarketing which will hopefully help you if you are considering telemarketing in your business.

First I am looking at the telemarketing engine – The Telemarketer:

99% of telemarketers don’t have the ‘Magic Touch’

Most telemarketers do a tough job professionally and conscientiously but they do not have the personal motivation and silver tongue to sell sand to Arabs or ice to Eskimos (or should that be Inuit). They need to be managed like any member of staff and rely on good briefing and a strong message.

Every now and again I have come across someone really special who ‘has it’. The problem is they have always fallen into one of 2 types:

Type 1

They are young (normally) and talented. Their skills go way beyond being good on the phone. They are good at telemarketing but their sights are set higher. Basically they don’t stick around as telemarketers for very long so if you find one – make the most of them.

Type 2

They are good telemarketers – probably more focussed on telesales with good commission where they can make more money – but can be unreliable individuals. They are great when they are working but keeping them on track can be challenging.

Sometimes you find a so-called telemarketer (possibly with an extensive CV) who is truly useless. Normally they don’t last long!

TIP 1: Don't assume that taking on a telemarketer (or a 3rd party
telemarketing company) will solve all your problems. Properly managed and
with a strong message they can do a good job for you but you (and they)
will work for it!

TIP 2: An average telemarketer working with a strong and well-targeted
message/proposition will always outperform a top-notch telemarketer working
with a weak message and a poorly selected audience.

As it’s the week before Christmas we thought we would put the marketing ideas on hold & offer a little light distraction with a new game we’ve found.

We found it very addictive – once we realised you needed to click to jump the snow-drifts!

Here is the link to the 2011 BSA Christmas Diversion

Tax Returns are just one of those things you have to deal with – a bit like dentists – but unlike your dentist, there are serious penalties for missing your appointment and this year they are more draconian than ever.

Thank you to Peter Hayes from Newland Hayes Accountants for this timely reminder.

Penalties for missing your Tax Return deadline

Note: These penalties relate to filing your Tax Return, NOT paying any tax you may owe. All penalties are CUMULATIVE!

1 Day Late

A fixed penalty of £100. This applies even if you have no tax to pay!

3 Months Late

£10 per day for each day late after the first day up to a 90 day maximum – £900

12 Months Late

£300 or 5% of the tax due whichever is higher. In serious cases you may have to pay up to 100% of the tax due.

All of the above penalties are cumulative.

Here is an example:

Mrs A’s tax return is due on 31st January 2012 but HMRC don’t receive it until 5th August 2012
Mrs A’s return is over 6 months late so she will have to pay the following penalties:
£100 fixed penalty PLUS
£900 penalty – i.e. £10 per day for the 90 days from 1st May 2012 to 29th July 2012 PLUS
£300 or 5% of the tax due whichever is higher

A total of AT LEAST £1300 – and this is even if she had paid her tax on time!

You have been warned!

If you need any help with your Tax Return do get in touch with Peter who will be able to help.

Content is King

Anyone who has interest in SEO, will know that Google has the habit of regularly throwing the cat among the pigeons by updating its algorithm to change the way it indexes pages.

Well they have been at it again. Earlier this month with an update nicknamed “Freshness“, and earlier in the year with a second update: “Panda” – which was itself tweaked only last week.

Both of these updates are aimed at ensuring that Google delivers search results that are considered relvant by their users.

Without going into too much technical detail, the main thrust of these updates is as follows:

The Panda Update

Panda changes the way that Google rate the popularity of a web page, and what the user experience is like. Traditionally, they have done this by assessing the number and quality of links coming into the page, and how well the page is designed. They have now enhanced this by bringing in user experience factors like:

• How frequently do people click on a site when it appears  in the search results
• How long do users spend on a site after they find it in a search
• How many people are referencing the page via social networking through Tweets, Facebook ‘likes‘ etc and of course the Google +1′s
• How often do people go straight back to the search results after clicking on the page

So there is a real focus on the quality of inbound links rather than the quantity. Another nail in the coffin of “500 links for $50″ link farms – no bad thing in our view!

I don’t plan to say much more about the SEO technicalities, but if you want to know more about Panda, (including where the name came from – though it isn’t as interesting as it might be!), you might find this video interesting.

I will talk a little more about the implications of Panda from a marketing perspective later, but first a little about “Freshness“, the second and more recent Googlke  update

The Freshness Update

Where the Panda update was all about ensuring that search results are offering the best user experience, Freshness is all about ensuring that search results are up to date. This is particularly relevant if your communications are time sensitive. If your content is about current news & events or celeb culture, then Freshness is going to have a big impact.

But whatever your market, Freshness puts the focus on new content, so keeping your site fresh and up to date is now more important than ever.

Again, if you want to know more from a direct SEO perspective, here is a video on the subject.

Marketing Implications

Enough of the technical stuff, the real question is what does this mean for your marketing, and how do our recommendations change in light of these updates?

The simple answer is they don’t really!

We have always advocated that the best approach to practical SEO is to ensure that your site is relevant, up to date and interesting for your target market.

These latest Google updates reinforce this position.

If your content is relevant and current, people will read it, share it and talk about it. This  will have a positive impact on your performance in search results.

One thing I would add to this is that making your content easy to share by including Like/Tweet/Google +1 buttons on your site is now even more important.

One final thing to bare in mind is that the Panda update seems to take into account behavior of non-search led traffic to your site. If users are activly seeking our your site, visiting it directly (not via a search) and spending time on it, this behaviour can have a positive effect on search performance.

We have always advocated targeted e-mail tied into good fresh website content as a great marketing approach. These updates strengthen this position through direct visits having a positive impact on your website search performance.

Panda & Freshness: Top Tips for your Marketing

Here are a few tips to consider when thinking about your marketing:

• Make sure your site can be easily updated with high quality, fresh content
• Ideally make sure that this content is available via an RSS feed (Following the freshness update Google now seem to be using RSS feeds more extensively in their serach results)
• Use  relevant buttons and links to make sure your content is easy to share on Twitter/Facebook/Google+ etc
• Monitor user behavior on your site. Are people browsing or just taking a quick look and going away never to return. This can be a indication of irrelevant or uninteresting content.
• Look for ways to attract relevant non-search driven users to your site. make sure you promote your site in all your marketing activities (both on and off line)

We have always said that if you have an interesting site, relvant to your target market, that people will be happy to find on Google, then Google will want it to rank high in relevant search results.

Our approach to online marketing has always followed this belief.

If you would like to talk about what we can do for you, please get in touch. We are always happy to talk about marketing, because we love it!

This is a subject we have covered in the past, but a situation that arose this week and this post on the e-consultancy Blog made me think it is a subject worth revisiting!

If you are serious about using the web as part of your marketing then your domain name is key. If you are starting out in business, the availability of a .com or .co.uk domain name (and yes, I would HIGHLY recommend that you go for at least one or prefereably both of these domains) that fits with your company name is vital. The availability of a suitable domain should be a significant factor in naming your business. If neither .co.uk nor .com for your preferred domain are available, I would recommend you seriously consider a different name, or at least a different trading name.

If, as is more common, you already have a business and own the domain name, then make sure that you hang on to it. Domains need to be renewed on a regular basis, and if they are not websites & email will go off line and the domain will become available to other web users & once taken, it is virtually impossible get it back without their consent. Some domains can be renewed for up to 10 years and there is a view that a domain registerd for a longer time can perform better in search rankings.

We take the issue of domain retention seriously. We ALWAYS set clients domains to autorenew so by default domains will renew until we are requested to cancel them. This can occasionally mean we end up with a domain that a client no longer wants. Even so, we are happy to stand the cost of this to ensure that domains are NEVER lost by mistake.

It may seem obvious but think of where your domain is the primary route by which people can contact you:

• Letterheads
• Websites
• Business cards
• Advertising
• Leaflets & Fliers
• Sign written vehicles

And the effort you may have taken in developing a presence for the domain across the web:

• Registration with web directories
• email addresses
• Search engine listings
• Your website

Lose your domain name and you will need to start from scratch and potentially someone else can pick up the benefit of all your hard work.

Here are key points to make sure your domain is safe:

1. Make sure you own the domain – A simple Whois search using the free tool on www.dnsstuff.com will tell you the name of the registered owner. If this is not you then you need to get it changed. We and any good Internet company should be happy to register the domain in your name. Then  if the worst happens & you fall out or loose contact with the company hosting the domain, you can always retrieve it via the registrar. This will be nominet for .co.uk domains. A Whois search on www.dnsstuff.com will tell you the registrar for .com domains
2. Make sure that your key domains are set to auto renew – Again any good Internet company should be happy to do this, and even if it means you have to pay for an extra year should you no longer need the domain, the cost of this is insignificant compared to the cost of losing your primary domain name.

Follow those 2 simple steps & you should never be in the position where you lose control of your domain.

If you are concerned about the security of your domain, give us a call and we would be happy to talk things through.

We are always trying to bring you good ideas and tips to support your marketing efforts, but I thought it would be interesting to take a different tack and present some bad ideas (or marketing ideas that you may be encouraged to take up!) that we would recommend avoiding.

The inspiration for this came from a post on a US site www.goodmarketingideas.com highlighting the top BAD marketing ideas both on and off line. If you want to reat the full article, you will find a link to it here.

When it comes to On-line Marketing, here are my Top 5 Bad Marketing ideas:

1. Chase The Next Big Thing

If there is one thing that web marketing thrives on it is “The Next Big Thing (TNBT)”. Invariably, the next big thing is sold as the answer to all your marketing desires.

Whether it is:

a. Get to the top of Google
b. Win with Social Media
c. Beat your competition with Marketing

or whatever…

However useful TNBT may be as part of your marketing toolkit, you can be sure that it will not be as big as the hype.

I use the 3 examples above for a reason. All can very valuable when used as part of a sustainable marketing plan, but none will individually solve your marketing problems overnight.

Be vary wary of anyone claiming to be able to solve your problems overnight….for a modest fee!

2. Ignore Offline Marketing

We spend a lot of time promoting on-line marketing, because it offers may sustainable marketing opportunities to SME Marketers. But this does’t mean we have dismissed offline marketing. On the contrary, in its place it too can be very effective, especially when mixed with online campaigns.

Take a look at a couple of recent posts on our blog, and hopefully, you will get the idea:

• QR Codes, a great way to link your online and offline marketing!
• Leverage your networking with e-mail marketing
• Networking for people who don’t like networking!

3. Focus On You

Sure, you need to make sure that your customers know what you have to offer, and what your strengths are, but make sure you do this from their perspective, and from the context of how your product or service can benefit them, rather than how great it is!.

An example:

You are writing a marketing piece to tell your contacts about the fact that you have just invested in a new piece of equipment. Here are two ways you could write this:

• “We are delighted to announce that we have just invested £gazillions in the latest state of the art equipment that has so many bells and whistles, that we could hardly get it through the door of our office”

OR

• “As part of our commitment to giving you the best service, we have recently invested in a new machine that will allow us to deliver higher quality results, more quickly, and at a lower cost to you than was previously possible”

Which do you think will work better?

4. Buy bulk email lists

I am not saying that it is never a good idea to buy email lists, but I am saying that is my default position, unless some-one can give me a very good reason why I should do it. The less you can target your list, the more likely it is to be a bad idea.

There are some very big, very cheap e-mail lists for sale out there. You work it out!

In our experience, the results that are achieved from sending emails to a list of customers and contacts that you have built up yourself in the course of your business are orders of magnitude better than those achieved with bought lists.

If you are thinking that you don’t have any lists of your own, or don’t see the benefit of emailing people you already know, you might find these posts interesting:

• Getting started with targeted e-mail marketing – ‘but I don’t have a list…’
• Keeping in touch with clients delivers regular enquiries and business

5. Give Up Too Easily

This is something that many, if not most, small business marketers (myself included) are guilty of. It is very easy to have what seems like a great marketing idea, implement it, and then give up in disgust when your sales haven’t doubled in a week.

The fact is is that whatever anyone might tell you, there are no quick fixes in marketing and most really successful SME marketing initiatives that deliver sustained and sustainable success take time to develop. This is why it is important to develop strategies that you are happy to sustain over time so that become part of your day to day business activities. By all means, monitor, measure, review and evolve these activities on a regular basis and adjust and tweak things as appropriate.

Ask yourself objectively, ‘Is my business position progressing and improving?‘ If the answer is “yes”, then don’t give up!

Overheard conversation between 2 people negotiating a contract:

Customer: "What's your best deal for delivering on the contract?"

Supplier: CHEAP - SPEEDY - QUALITY - pick the two you want!

Simple but oh so true!

Networking is a great way of building business contacts but, I have to admit, I never liked networking. I tried it quite a few times over the years but there always seemed to be the same issues:

• Everyone appears to know everyone else
• It’s difficult to strike up conversations and even more difficult to try to turn conversation to business
• Even when you do talk to people, it’s all about is there something in it for them?
• There is pressure to deliver ‘leads’ to fellow networkers (how many new brochures can your ‘best friend’ with her new start-up business really need? Never mind afford!)
• It never seems to be about just mixing with like-minded people, having a relaxed chat and (shock-horror!) enjoying yourself.

And yet networking can be a great way of getting out from behind your desk and getting to know people from your local business community – and building contact with people who might be able to offer you some real benefit either as a customer or a supplier….

…. surely there must be some other way? Now, I think I might have found it!

4-Networking is the brain child of Brad Burton, ex-advertising man, pizza delivery boy and ardent tweeter.

4-N rethinks the whole approach to networking and delivers a refreshing alternative to the normal networking pressure cooker.

The ethos is real mix of business and pleasure and during each fortnightly meeting (based around breakfast – normally 8am to 10am) you get to sit down for 10 minutes with each of 3 fellow networkers to have a chat. Through this you quickly build ‘proper’ contacts.

There are over 300 4-N groups all over the UK and members are encouraged to attend any meeting they like. Normally people focus on 3 or 4 groups that are local to them and it becomes are real pleasure to enter a room where you see new faces and old friends. But if you find yourself away from home on business (or holiday if you are really keen!) there is almost certain to be a local meeting where you can join in safe in the knowledge that you know the form and are assured of a warm welcome

If you expect to march in and start signing up customers, don’t bother. The approach is encompassed in four words:

Meet – Like – Know – Trust

4-N is not about a quick-fix. It is about building sustainable business relationships – and friendships.

I went to my first 4-N meeting just over a year ago – and I’m still going – and enjoying it.

My main focus has always been wanting to meet decent business people and get to know them. Through this process I am developing business relationships both as a client and as a supplier but I am convinced that the key is to not be fixated on ‘must do business now!”

If you don’t like networking but want to get out and meet people, check out 4networking.biz and pop along to your local meeting – you will be welcomed to attend first time as a visitor.

If you are based in the Glossop/High Peak area and want to give 4-N a try, I attend several local meetings and I’d be happy to take you along as a guest – it’ll cost you £10 for your breakfast! Just let me know