Telemarketing Software Featured Article

The telephone is still a powerful sales tool today, even if inside sales methods and tactics have changed in recent years. Customers are more suspicious than ever before, and put greater value on their time. In essence, customers have lost their “innocence” when it comes to being marketed to, so companies seeking to take advantage of the telephone as a sales tool need to realize this.

Telemarketing gained a reputation in the past as a tool, but often it took the form of a club. Make as many outbound calls as possible demanding that a customer purchase products and services, and eventually you’d make a sale. There often wasn’t a lot of consideration that the tactics were turning off more customers than they were winning.

To truly win at telemarketing today, inside sales teams need to be sure they are serving the customers’ needs as much (if not more) than they are serving their own needs, according to a recent article by R.L. Adams writing for Entrepreneur.

“It's not just about the customer always being right. It's about treating your customers like you'd treat your family,” wrote Adams. “And that doesn't happen by talking down to them or looking for any possible way to extract more money from them. It happens by truly going out of your way for them and adding enormous amounts of value to the equation.”

Engage in selling, but also use outbound calling as a way to do something for your customers. Check in to make sure a product or service is meeting their expectations. (A good telemarketing software solution can help schedule these check-ins and remind inside sales to perform them.) Ask them general, open-ended questions such as, “I just wanted to know if there’s anything we can do for you to help.” Send them personalized, targeted content that you think they might appreciate (not generic spam emails five times a day).

“Today, if you're delivering sincere value to your customers, you're all-but guaranteeing your own success rather than sealing your fate in a coffin of corporate greed and advancement at all costs,” wrote Adams. “In fact, it's the very foundational understanding that a business must deliver value in order to transform the good to the great. That's what creates icons in the world of business. And it all starts by having the consumer's best interest at heart.”

When customers think that a company is sincerely looking out for them – as demonstrated by the “What can we do for you?” attitude – they will turn to your organization when they need something, and this will often lead to sales. Customers have a lot of options today, so you need to set yourself apart from competitors. Avoid creating a cutthroat sales environment, as this will invariably lead to inside sales personnel badgering customers. In the long run, this will harm the sales organization.

“The way we treat our customers is indicative of the way we look at things in life,” wrote Adams. “Are we short-sighted, merely searching for the next pay day, or does our vision give us a deeper understanding of the long-term implications of our actions? Clearly, if you want to make strides today, you really do have to place the customer on a pedestal.”