Nine Steps to Building a Telemarketing Plan

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 8/16/2011

In the age of social media, email blasts and mobile messaging, the question of whether or not to market your business through the traditional means of telemarketing is still in vogue. My feeling is that it is, in combination with the newer options. Here are some steps to take to give your telemarketing campaign a better chance of success.

1) Select a day to make calls in a concentrated effort. In other words, if you have a specific product or service announcement to make through the calls, then pick a three hour period and set it aside each week to focus on these calls. Make sure that this time frame is appropriate for the industry you are calling. For example, do not make calls to restaurants from 10:30am to 1:30 pm, for obvious reasons.

2) Develop a list of prospective target companies to call, with phone numbers. You need to plan ahead to make this entire process work. If you have developed a spread sheet with prospects ahead of time, you will also have a place to write notes and other pertinent information.

3)Write a script to fully expose what you want to get across in the conversation. The script should be used as a guideline. There may be three or four key points to get across and as long as you get those points across it may not matter that you go off script.

4) Using Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media of your choice, identify key players at the target companies and learn about their past history. This will take the ‘cold’ out of the calls and make them ‘warm,’ and in some cases ‘very warm’ or even ‘hot.’

5) If you set 9am as the time to start your telemarketing calls, be ready at 8:45 with the list of prospects handy, the script in front of you and maybe a glass of water to keep your throat from getting dry during the calls.

6) Stay on the phones. One of the biggest mistakes is when someone has success on a phone call. They get off the phone and gloat about their success. It is best that you keep going, stay on the phone and use your positive momentum to create more opportunities.

7) Track the person who makes the decision on your product or service. Generally the person is waiting for your call, so more often than not you will need to call them back. Ask questions about who makes the decisions and learn their schedule. For example, if they are only in the office or business Wednesday through Friday, then those are the days you should call back.

8) Keep very specific notes when making the calls. Note taking will allow you to continue your process week after week, and will indicate to you the level of interest by the prospective party, as well as the time frame for follow up.

9) Follow up, follow up and follow up. Until you have followed up twenty two times you have not given yourself ample chances for success. The average person gives up after one call!

What are your challenges when it comes to building your company telemarketing plan? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time …