January 2004

By Martin Wales, Customer Catcher Institute

In my opinion, all the excitement and fear around do-not-call regulations is stimulating'it's about time everyone got a kick in their lazy marketing butts. If you rely on telemarketing to source your latest prospects, then it's time to create multiple streams of leads and revenue.
The telephone remains the best tool for cost- effective sales and marketing, but why should outbound telemarketing be the heart and soul of a marketing plan? Facing an $11,000 fine per violation is a huge wake-up call. However, like the Western approach to medicine, many are just looking for a new pill to suppress the symptoms instead of wisely concentrating on 'wellness' of the body. You need a healthier marketing lifestyle, my friend.
What intelligent marketers would let any one tactic's limitations or its end mean the death of fresh leads or even their business? Apparently, there are some less savvy marketers out there. The whining, yelling and screams are coming from the dinosaurs with their feet caught in the tar pits.
This is unexpected? Come on! Where have you been? Over the years, especially in the business-to-consumer market, we've all personally experienced the widespread abuse of the average consumer with invasions of the dinner hour and beyond. How can you be mad at a telemarketer selling you windows at supper and then go to work the next day only to ask your agents to use the same interruption technique to phone basically unqualified prospects and sell them financial services?
'Extinction' is coming for the weak marketers at the edge of the herd. The Ice Age for us is the growing and sustained attitude of the anti-e-mail backlash. As a result of continued spam rage and sheer volume, the now daunting e-mail filters stop even legitimate e-mail correspondence. Some estimate that only 30 percent of e-mail gets delivered. Hell, if connecting with clients is a hassle, you're certainly going to need more options and effective means for unearthing new prospects.
Ah, the chaos and the opportunity. There's some worthy, ancient Chinese quote in there somewhere, but let's just skip the warrior quotes and stick with the evolution of your business instead. Your business CAN be one of the strong that survive.

Diversify And Thrive
There are many simple, affordable and easily applicable strategies and tactics that you can use today in your company.
If you want to reduce the risk of breaking any rules, even accidentally, and avoid those horrendous (almost ridiculous) do-not-call fines, then it's probably wise to take a quick look at alternative strategies to increase your inbound calls.
So, what CAN you do to get more people using your inbound call centers or contacting your sales people directly? The answer? A lot.

Alternative Strategies To Increase Your Inbound Traffic
First I should say that as inspirational as this all might be, you should not, of course, consider this information as legal advice. You should seek legal counsel from your personal or corporate attorneys regarding the federal or state do-not-call laws or the upcoming federal Can-Spam Act regulations for your specific situation or requirements.
That said, new breakthroughs are not necessary to avoid telemarketing fines. What is needed is a common-sense approach which, of course, is NOT common. Companies pay lip service to many marketing strategies and execute them miserably. You must multiply your marketing potential in the face of a highly disgruntled and defensive population. The do-not-call situation is today's motivation.
There are two general areas to address. The first is to improve your handling of current inbound calls by utilizing your existing resources to encourage repeated inbound calls. The second involves adding or increasing your efforts in other areas that create or lead to inbound inquiries. It is possible to reach as many prospects as outbound telemarketing with the following alternatives and to reap as much success.

Improve Call Center Marketing
Make it easy for customers and prospects to call you. Use toll-free numbers frequently and feature them prominently on all of your marketing and communications. This means everything, from sales brochures to your Web sites and in your direct mail and public relations material. Encourage your distribution and sales channels to give out your telephone numbers, as appropriate. The biggest failure in this area has been to ensure that they're functional from all geographies and to regularly check on their operating status.

Increase Your Attention To Customer Service
Treat the inbound calls you already get like gold. More training is always a good investment, especially when you maintain call centers. Even if you handle calls via a sales force, or even personally, consider the value and cost of each one. Improving customer service skills leads to more new business and happier clients that refer you to new opportunities.

Use Your Own Industry's Innovations!
Remain committed to decreasing hold times by doing a better job with computer-telephony integration (CTI). Aren't you tired of repeating your account numbers after having just punched in 16 digits plus your birthday, zip code, social security number and mother's maiden name? I am.
Knowledge-based routing is perfect for making sure that your callers get to the person who is most capable of helping them the fastest based on their knowledge and experience with the issue or problem being addressed. Integrate Web-based services and information to support your agents and the callers. Finally, be sure to check out the latest advantages speech technologies have to offer.

Create And Keep Stronger Relationships
When you get a call, start building a relationship immediately. It only takes seconds with the right tools and scripts. The argument of shorter versus longer call times favoring cost instead of quality should be over. Give out direct phone numbers or extensions. It's comforting to a customer when he or she is given direct access and names to call back. This is shocking, I know. When a customer gets the same person on the line twice, he or she is more likely to perceive that the company is really in business for the long haul. Dealing with the same contact, over time, builds prospect and customer confidence.

Stay In Touch
Another tactic is to schedule more follow-up calls; e.g., 'I'll plan to call you next week, just to make sure everything's okay.' A bank did this with me after I signed up for a new premium credit card. I was impressed (after picking myself up off the floor).

Upsell And Cross-Sell
Aside from Time-Life and other larger direct marketing companies, most fail miserably at introducing additional products and services to existing clients. When a client calls in about one issue, upsell and cross-sell that person! Even if it's a complaint call, you can appease the cranky customer with a free sample of another product, in addition to correcting the problem.

Make CRM Number One
Without writing a book on customer relationship management (CRM), you must apply it throughout your organization. You don't need expensive software or long-winded consulting on it. The bottom line comes down to the combination of the golden rule of 'treat others as you wish to be treated' and make the customer the center of all activity and policies.
A CRM strategy and policy should be implemented at all levels and in all departments. General suggestions include increasing your frequency of customer contact and collecting more data, a bit at a time. Analyze and segment your prospects and customers and then apply this acquired knowledge for trends, patterns and desires. If you're already doing CRM, then review your CRM system design and application for improvements. A good CRM program will also help you defend yourself against do-not-call complaints to verify permissions obtained and a 'paper trail' of your existing relationship.

Change Your Marketing Philosophy
Attraction marketing has been presented for several years now as a friendlier and less invasive form of prospect communication, yet it has neither been embraced nor done well. 'We do White Papers' is the first meager defense. Yes, attract people with helpful information, but then get their permission to stay in touch and keep providing them with value before they ever pay you a penny. You should find and devour Seth Godin's book, Permission Marketing, if you're unfamiliar with this philosophy.

Revitalize Your Sales Channel And Field Force
If you have an existing sales channel and people on the road, then they should be a well-used and well-loved force. Over the past decade, manufacturers have mistreated and even dismantled their own sales channels. Re-evaluate your strategy. Support your channel and give VARs the respect they deserve. They can only pass it along to the people who pay all of us ' the end users.

Make It Personal
Business has become so 'professional' and e-mail-based that it has lost much of its personal touch. Get yourself and others out from behind computers and start smiling and shaking hands again. Exchange business cards at networking events, conferences and trade shows. Encourage executive-level participation more frequently. You stand out today if you're simply warm, friendly and approachable over the phone because prospects and customers want emotional connections. The human desire is a strong sales catalyst.

All Hands On Deck!
Develop a strategy encompassing ALL departments. Even if you're small, integrate all your processes. Every department is a marketing department. Customer service, technical support, shipping and receiving and accounting should all have sales-oriented and relationship building goals. Introduce new products with your invoices. Train every employee to give out your contact information and their business cards. Technicians and accountants should be running out of business cards as often as salespeople ' because they ARE salespeople, too.

Use Allied Forces
Use the existing relationships of others to have them introduce you to their client bases for new business. Acquire more allies in new channel partners, VARs, distributors, suppliers and partnerships, even through mergers and acquisitions. Find out more about co-marketing and joint ventures. These similar but different tactics are incredibly powerful yet remain inadequately used or applied.
Leverage Industry Trade Shows And Conferences
Yes, the retail-type trade shows, like Comdex, are diminishing. They grew during fat, rich times when we could all be stupid. Smaller, highly focused events are excellent venues when you are selective, attend with a plan and have some pre-arranged appointments. The repeated fault of those with booth displays is their complete reliance on the show's management to promote the show. Take responsibility and pre-market yourself before the conference, not just at the conference.

Improve Advertising Effectiveness
Like CRM, it takes a book to discuss this issue, but within the context of a check list, you must revisit the effectiveness of your current advertising and your agency, if you use one. It is not hard to find ads that are bad based on their poor messaging, lack of motivation for a prospect to call or their assumption that we know who the company or product is or even if we care.

Try the Direct Approach
Direct response marketing is a phenomenal way to know if your marketing is working and if you're selling, while encouraging those inbound calls. Choose and test various methods from direct mail and e-mail to display or insert advertising. Even if television or radio is appropriate, make sure you build in a direct response mechanism that allows you to MEASURE their pull and that can be worked into your CRM system.

Learn How To Promote
Here's a piece of wisdom for you'many advertise, but few promote. The ad industry is a graphic decorator's paradise and fool's gold for marketers. What little promotion that is done is usually based on 'price' to goose sales at the end of a quarter. This just trains everyone to abuse you and negotiate you out of your profit until you're a brow-beaten commodity. To solve this problem, all I can recommend is for you to grab hold of and read P.T. Barnum's biography. Promote in other ways that present high-perceived value and service that really cost little to provide. You should also use co-promotion with your new allies.
Speak UP
Networking is NOT just attending an event. Attend more events and participate! Do what you have to, whether it's as the host, sponsor or speaker (do them all) and use your most dynamic, outspoken people, not just your boring, professional ' although presentable ' executives or managers. For marketing purposes, not all great leaders are the speakers for motivating prospects to take action.

Relate To The Public
Public relations remains the most misunderstood and under-utilized, yet most potent, marketing weapon ever. Become more strategic in your use of public relations. Use it to build credibility and confidence with your prospects and customers rather than an item on your to-do list when someone gets a promotion or you release a new product version'yawn! Dedicate your company to a consistent effort so you're continually presented in the media as a business leader, community participant in your industry or city, innovator and a specialist with answers related to current events and problems. The biggest problem here is putting out media releases that are NOT news or newsworthy.

Publish
Publishing today has never been easier. Put your expertise out there in all forms possible. Educational information that is content-rich and provides some step-by-step directions to get started on a project are valued and can even be sold. You can start with an 'e-zine,' a Web log (called a 'blog'), forums or a user's group through your Web presence. Publish articles to your VAR and dealers' association and become a resource center for your clients with various forms including a mini-portal site, or 'vortal,' and free articles on your sites. Check out how you can trade content with complementary product or service providers and suppliers and, if you're confident in your material, post it to a syndicate for distribution. The latest and easiest form of publishing is using Audio Marketing (www.audiomarketingcoach.com) and Internet radio (www.wsradio.com). Large organizations, like eBay, are expanding their use of audio marketing this year. Also look for news from industry trade publishers.
Convert Online Visits Into Offline Relationships
The Internet is fabulous for increasing communication and attracting new leads and inbound calls. But the majority gets a failing grade for using the Internet to build and sustain relationships. Do you use the mantra of monotony from moneyless organizations? 'Download our White Paper and someone will call you,' and no one ever does. Or, when they do call, it's a hard sell? No thanks.
Become more educated about Internet marketing and use it more strategically. Do generate leads and traffic with a combination of pay-per clicks, search engine optimization, URL selection, opt-in co-registration services, banners, links, etc. Close the loop, though, by inviting your Web visitors to call you and get personal attention from a warm-blooded, friendly human. Avoid hiding behind e-mail, Web pages and self-service downloads.

Learning To Make Fire
Simply put, the best method to avoid calling the wrong number is to have your clients, customers and prospects call YOU. The current do-not-call and anti-e-mail environment can be a blessing for your company's evolution in the long term, if you're willing to be flexible and work on strengthening all your marketing muscles. Your competitors may not be able to adjust to the Ice Age, which leaves you to become the profitable winner at the top of the food chain.

Martin Wales (www.customercatcher.com) is a business development expert, technology marketing specialist and a marketing columnist for TMCnet.com. You can profit without pain! For free tips on attracting more customers and spending less to do it, visit www.customercatchertips.com.

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