Ian Titchener, Director of Telemarketing Matters, writes:
How many calls can you make in one day?
and
How many meetings do you think you can get for us?
Although these two questions would appear to be related, it isn’t always necessarily the case, and in fact in most cases it is totally the opposite. To the uneducated eye, it would appear that the more calls a telemarketer makes the more sales or leads they will generate, but unfortunately this just isn’t true
When you look at the telemarketing process it’s fairly easy to break it down into two sections, being input and output. Input is the number of dials that a telemarketer will make, and output is the end result (i.e. number of conversations had, number of leads generated and the number of meetings)
Let’s go back the first question ‘How many calls’ many telemarketing companies will answer with a number that is way into three digits. Whilst at first appearance this might be good, in fact it is totally the opposite! If you are making more than 100 calls a day, how on earth can you be having any conversation or quality interaction with prospects? Telemarketing is all about listening to the prospect and delivering value! You absolutely cannot do any of these things if you are focussed on the number of calls you are making. It is in effect ‘ticking boxes’
By focussing instead on having meaningful conversations with people you give yourself a much greater chance of striking up a rapport with a prospect, building a relationship and ultimately doing business.
My team focus on quality not quantity. The end result is that they need to make far fewer calls to actually generate the lead or meeting anyway (an average of 30 dials across the company, for those of you who like numbers!) Our average daily dial rate is 60-70 calls a day (about 10 dials an hour) by focussing on quality and not quantity we deliver a far higher service level to our customers and far higher quality of resultant meetings.
By the way, you remember the second question “How many” right? If any telemarketing company claims to be able to guarantee a number of meetings or gives you a specific quantity prior to conducting a telemarketing pilot, then head for the hills! Unless they can see into the future how can they foretell the results!
So In conclusion, if you are carrying out your own telemarketing campaign, stop breaking your back to hit numbers and tick boxes. Focus on quality of conversation and show value in your pitch. Listen to prospects and respond like a real (and unhurried) person. The results when then be self-evident.
For those of you who are using a telemarketing company that constantly talks about how many calls they make and doesn’t deliver you any results……call 0844 776 0143
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