Before entering into discussions with a telemarketing agency about a campaign you need to consider a few issues. This paper has been written to help you to identify the issues that have to be addressed in order to have the right tele-marketing campaign for you. Some, you’ll already know but I hope that some of the others will, in total, help you to reach a decision which is right for you.
1. How much telemarketing do I need?
To answer this you need to know the answers to the following questions:
- What turnover are you looking to achieve by the end of your financial year?
- What is the rough average value of each new contract?
- How many pieces of new business per month do you need to achieve that target?
- What is your conversion rate of appointments to new business?
- How many appointments can you cope with each week/month?
2. What market sectors should we penetrate?
The market sector(s) you are already successful in and similar markets where your product/service could be applicable. This will be one of the points discussed at the briefing meeting with the agency.
3. What size of company should we target?
The size of company will depend on the type of company that uses your products/services but initially you could start with companies with 10+ employees. This will always be a subject of discussion during the briefing stage of any campaign and will be finalized then.
4. Which geographic area should we target?
We always recommend that you start close to home and then work out from there. This way you minimize time and travel costs during the initial stages of the campaign.
5. Where can I get the data from?
A reputable telemarketing company will give you all the advice you need on this. BHT Marketing Ltd, of Northampton, can discuss this with you and then specify and procure the database.
6. Should we use a telemarketing company or should we go in-house?
Before going to the expense of recruiting, training and motivating a new member of staff it’s always best to trial the technique using a reputable tele-marketing company.
7. What should I look for in a tele-marketing Company?
We always recommend that you visit the offices of the company to “get a feel” for the people who work there.
There are several things to look out for:
a) The owners – are they professional and dedicated to their profession and for how long – in other words is there a track record of success?
b) The tele-marketeers –
- Is this their full-time career or just a fill-in position? You need to have dedicated professional telemarketers supporting your company because they will take ownership of the campaign and feel responsible for its success.
- Do they speak properly? They are going to be representing your company and you need to be confident that they will not let you down by their speech or their attitude.
- Are they intelligent enough to understand your business, your proposition and why the market place would want your product/service?
- Do they all work at the company premises? This is important for the security of your data and your company’s proposition.
- Can you brief them face-to-face or does an intermediary have to intervene? You need to feel confident that the person conducting your campaign is confident and capable and can talk to you face-to-face.
c) Feedback – what feedback are you going to get and how often? You need to be told as soon as an appointment is booked and you need to be briefed each week about the development of your pipeline of new opportunities. In short, you need to be kept abreast of progress week by week.
d) Statistical reports – can you expect detailed and comprehensive reporting? You need data to be able to evaluate the campaign and feed the results into your own strategic model. This gives you a steadily improving ability to forecast your turnover and profitability for your financial year.
e) Guarantees of performance – can the tele-marketing company provide you with a copper-bottomed guarantee of telemarketing performance based on solid fact? Without this you cannot build your mathematical sales model with any degree of certainty. BHT Marketing Ltd has developed a unique system which gives our clients this security and is one of the reasons why we have such high levels of repeat business. (See our testimonials)
f) Can you tip-toe into telemarketing with the marketing company – or do they want a lot of money up-front and a guaranteed campaign duration?
8. How many appointments are real and what safeguards do I have?
You need a telemarketing agency which can demonstrate that all of their appointments are genuine and give you the opportunity to ring and confirm them all before you travel. Since 1997 all appointments arranged by BHT have been confirmed genuine by each of our clients.
9. What happens if the appointment doesn’t close to a contract?
Any agency worth their salt will tell you to give it back to them to follow-up at the appropriate time for you and then get you back in. “Once a business opportunity is on the “sales table” – it should be kept there!”
10. How do I maintain momentum?
After an initial period, the agency should sit down with you and discuss how the campaign is going. This helps to focus the attention on the weight and direction of the campaign which is needed in order to fulfil your objectives.
11. Is there anything else I can do to build my client base?
You can consider an integrated marketing campaign so that, for instance, your telemarketing campaign can be part of an e-Newsletter campaign and an integrated web-site campaign. Luckily, BHT Marketing Ltd can provide all of the skill sets needed for integrated campaigns because we have our “Circle of Marketing Excellence” who will come together and build your own bespoke campaign. (For more about the “Circle of Marketing Excellence” see the article dated July1st “The BHT Circle of Marketing Excellence” and look at “What we do in the “About us” section of the web-site.)
12. Should I take references
Very definitely BHT Marketing Ltd’s clients are so confident in BHT Marketing Ltd that they are happy for their Testimonials and references to be published on our website and in our brochures, so please take a look and see what they say about us.
I do hope that this has been of some use to you. If you would like to discuss any of this or talk about a possible telemarketing or integrated marketing campaign just call me on 0808-172-1900
Colin Bonham-Horton
Director: Business Development
To arrange a meeting to discuss your needs and the various options BHT has to offer please click here and fill in the Contact information form or phone 0808-172-1900 and ask for Colin or Christine
