Telemarketing Software Featured Article

U.K.-based MarketMakers is thriving in its tenth year in business, and it is pulling rank as one the top B2B telemarketing firms. In a day and age where telemarketing conjures up ideas of intrusion and generally considered to be a bad thing, how does a company offering services manage to be anything but?

Simple. The company connects firms that have something to sell with customers who need to buy.

The secret? Investing in the right staff.

“What we do is a really niche skill and something we have to work very hard at to get right. We’re a people business, and we focus on training, development, and the motivation of the guys here. In March we got an award for having the best staff development in the U.K. In a service business like ours, if our staff are happy our customers are happy,” said Henry Braithwaite, MarketMakers operations director, according to a report from The News out of Portsmouth.

This highlights an important notion in telemarketing. It’s about appropriate training, management and staff.

Not all contact center agents are suitable for telemarketing. Tone of voice is very important. Callers must always sound upbeat and positive and must be utterly resilient to negativity or hostility. Ensure that your systems prevent these customers being called back and that agents record this correctly. A finely devised script is important, but it is more important for the telemarketer to know how to relate to consumers "off script." This is achieved through experience and excellent training. Agents need to be able to project their voice, even after a long shift. The basics may seem obvious but they often go unrecognized.

Telemarketing is one of the most effective marketing tools. The response rate is higher than that of direct mail, door-to-door fliers, advertising, and email marketing.

Telemarketing affords a business the chance to communicate directly with the customers, which is extremely valuable. You can assess exactly what the customers find pleasing about your products or services and what can be improved upon.