03/01/2010 by Stephen Law.

Hi, Stephen Law telemarketing expert saying Happy New Year to everyone.  As an award winning telemarketing and sales expert of 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of telemarketing people come and go.  The recession of 2009 appears to have increased the number of freelance telemarketing people out there along with the number of boutique telemarketing agencies.  But is it a good reason to become a professional telemarketer because you were fired from your job?

During 2009 I received numerous calls from would-be telemarketing people trying to find out how I do my job for a living or wanting to join me.  It was as if the recession had driven all the aggressive, nasty and stupid people to take this up for a living.  I even had one chap who started using very rude words when I told him politely that I did not want to tell him all my trade secrets or teach him for free!

The upshot is that you can expect a lot more choice out there in 2010 if you want to find telemarketing people, but more choice doesn’t necessarily mean better service.  This is an important concept to grasp – make sure that you are comparing like-for-like when you seek help with telemarketing.

As always, I’m still offering my inimitable brand of Consultative Telemarketing – highly focused to reach the right objectives.  I’m sorry to say the bar has lowered somewhat in your choice of my competitors for 2010, with a plethora of very basic “scatter-gun” approach individuals and agencies joining the market place.  I’m also offering a new service that I piloted in 2009, that goes beyond the realms of what any other telemarketing professional is offering in the UK.  For the very complex sale I’m employing a new concept that is working well for the guru’s helping the top 100 USA corporations.  Fortunately, I’m not yet charging the same rates for anyone using this enhanced telemarketing strategy - so grab my help here at a hugely discounted rate whilst you can.

My prediction for this year is that you’ll find a lot more choice out there when you’re seeking the best telemarketing in 2010.  I think the markets will pick up this year, but not as rapidly as some people are hoping.  I think we’ll see some of the top telemarketing people (such as me – www.sl-freelance.co.uk 0870 042 1263) losing a bit of ground to the newbie telemarketers at the start of the year.  By the end of 2010, I predict that many of the newbie telemarketers will be running back to 9-5 jobs faster than they can be sued for overpromising and under-delivering.

With the right telemarketing people helping you, a strong offering, and a good sales team, 2010 will bring out the best in telemarketing for you.  Be wary about setting your expectations too high and be ready to “do deals”.  The recession is not over yet – so if you insist on maintaining your prices at the same level and do not offer any incentives, don’t expect buyers to bite your hand off like they might have done in 2008.  If you’re wary of damaging your brand by offering any incentives – that’s a valid stance, but make sure you bear that in mind when setting your objectives. 

The same rules as ever apply out there when looking for the best telemarketing.  Makes sure you know who is making the phone calls for you – it’s all well and good speaking to a brilliant telemarketing manager – but will they be the one making the calls for you?  If you choose freelance telemarketing  (someone like me www.sl-freelance.co.uk )– you’re guaranteed that the person you work with is also making the calls for you.

Finding the best telemarketing people in 2010 still comes down to your judgement of them on the telephone when they talk to you.  If you call a telemarketing person or a telemarketing agency and you are bored or aggravated – the chances are that this is how they will behave towards your prospective clients.  So if you’ve been on the telephone for 15 minutes, the time has flown and you like what you are hearing – let them close you and you know they will close your clients.

Like many people, I want to compare like-for-like.  I get very frustrated in a supermarket if one packet of biscuits is priced per biscuit and another per gram.  So here’s a quick checklist for you to choose the best telemarketing for 2010:

1)      Are they assertive or aggressive?

2)      Did they interest you or bore you?

3)      Did they ask key questions by charming you or being too pushy?

4)      Did they close you on the next call to action or leave you wondering what the next step is?

5)      Did their explanation of how to generate opportunities leave you feeling excited or confused?

6)      Was the conversation all about metrics or objectives?

7)      Were databases, pitches, campaign emails, calls – all inclusive or an additional cost?

      Would you want that person representing your business?

This is not an exhaustive checklist for finding the best telemarketing in 2010, but if anyone you speak to scores 8/8 then shortlist them immediately. 

If possible – DO NOT MEET UP WITH ANYONE until you’ve covered the above checklist by telephone.  Remember that the best telemarketing people are going to help you on the telephone not in the field.  A face2face meeting before conducting this process could seriously provide you with a false impression of their telephone capabilities.

Finally, the best telemarketing people will do their best not to over-promise.  I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve loved me initially on the telephone, gone with someone who over-promised, then returned to me to do a proper job.  Instead – try a pilot (a short trial) on telemarketing of about 4 days work – this will be your final decider on who’s the best telemarketing person for you in 2010.

If you want to short-circuit your learning curve – call me on 0870 042 1263, I’ll give you an honest account of the best people out there and you can compare them yourself.  Bear in mind that I work for the top UK agencies, so I’ll happily recommend them for you.  Better still, come to me direct and you’ll be even happier with my direct rates – www.sl-freelance.co.uk.

Happy New Year and happy hunting.

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Telemarketing | No Comments »

08/10/2009 by Stephen Law.

Let’s face it, unless you ‘win new business’, and keep ‘winning new business’, you won’t have a business.  It recently struck me how many ‘Marketing Strategists’ I know, who are able tell you ‘how to win business’ – but in truth, they come to me to ‘win new business’ for them.  So why aren’t they doing it themselves and why am I ‘winning more new business’ than those who are better qualified than me?

A couple of years ago Christmas was coming up fast.  I had only just started in earnest on SEO marketing of my services.   In the Sales Business (unless you’re selling Christmas trees) it’s the one time of year that I used to get a break.  My wife reminded me about taking an exam for a well-known marketing membership organisation.  I had planned the dissertation that I was going to write in my head, and I was all ready to start writing, when the telephone rang…..

….“I am just starting a business venture and I need help with a strategy and someone to put it in place for me” said the prospective customer.  Needless to say, that’s the way my Christmas break seems to go these days.  In other words, whilst my colleagues in Marketing Strategy with their membership qualifications and MBA’s are on holiday, I’m forever being asked to help on another project.  When you’re working flat-out on projects, it’s somewhat difficult to find the time to gain those extra letters after your name.  But in truth, would I rather be snowed under with work or have the extra letters after my name?

For me, ‘winning new business’ is a mixture of my own Specialist Lead Generation and Sales Process including Opportunity Creation, Consultative Telemarketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEO plus), Direct Mail and Email Marketing.  It’s funny really, because whilst my colleagues could probably explain these subjects better than me - they talk about ‘winning new business’ for a living but I actually undertake ‘winning new business’ for a living.  So what is the difference between talking about ‘winning new business’ and actually ‘winning new business’?

In short, if you read enough good books, you will in theory understand the process of ‘how to win new business’.  As most people know however, theory ends at the point where practice begins.  If you understand the theory of how to run a Telemarketing Campaign for example, then you know that it begins with determining the demographics of a potential buyer and ends with them signing an order.  Yet what the text books generally fail to explain in detail, regards the personal interaction involved in the process.  There’s an old saying that “People buy from People” – which sounds pretty obvious, but the saying really means “People buy from People that they can communicate with effectively and people they believe they can trust”.

Anyone can pick up a telephone and call someone from whom they wish to ‘win new business’; but few people can actually achieve the objective in a sensible time-frame and on a realistic budget.  Putting aside demographic targeting (the first important part of the process), if one simply called every potential customer on a targeted list – success would be unlikely.  Yet the text book will often tell you that if you make enough calls then you will ‘win new business’ simply by the Laws of Probability.  Again, this is where the theory of ‘how to win new business’ departs from the practice of ‘how to win new business’.  What is said (and more importantly) how it is said – will play a key role in ridiculously poor or amazingly good results.

I will try to give an example which makes a big difference when seeking to ‘win new business’ that is often discussed in Marketing Strategy, but the actual method is generally neglected.  A good marketing strategist will always tell you to “Listen First” as part of the selling process.  That’s all well and good, but if you picked up the telephone and just listened until someone said anything, most people would think you were barking mad! 

Of course, the Marketing Strategist would tell you to use the right pitch and use “open” and “closed” questions, which of course is correct - and to “Listen” to the answers.  But the one thing a Marketing Strategist will often not understand is “how does the other person know you are listening?”  Again, if you followed the text book advice – you would repeat back everything the customer tells you – but that makes you sound like an annoying 8 year old who copies everything you say.  So what is the answer? 

I’ll give you another example.  About 3 months ago, I was approached by a company led by two very intelligent chaps, both very passionate about their company.  The offering was highly complex and whilst growth was being achieved in the business, putting across the message to the right audience was proving difficult.  The company offers a piece of software that solves a major problem and is marketed at an affordable price.  I was hired to make calls to the right people and arrange meetings, but progress was slow.  I’ll explain why there was a problem and how this was overcome.

Sometimes, people forget that I provide Business Development and put me in the box of ‘The telemarketing guy’.  These chaps were wise enough to ask me, “If you could change anything to improve results – what would you do?”  I pointed out that they didn’t really sell software; they sold a ‘Consultative Methodology with a software tool”.  These chaps were even wiser, because they took my advice and suddenly the number of qualified appointments with buyers increased dramatically.

 As an external consultant, who had seen this type of mistake before (experience) I quickly spotted the problem.  So when you want to ‘win new business’, don’t always consult the text book (or someone who’s read it) – because experience will always give a better Return On Investment than theoretical advice.

The simple answer as to “how to win new business” – is to either short-cut your learning by asking for advice from an expert who does this day-in-day-out (such as me), or to simply outsource the project to someone who knows what they’re doing – call Stephen Law on 0870 042 1263 or email me at stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

13/09/2009 by Stephen Law.

People have been selling via telephone for over a century now - whilst over the last decade new routes to market including Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter has hit the headlines.  When selling a complex product or service, will these new forms of marketing really take the place of ‘selling by telephone’? 

If Marketing isn’t your forte, then it’s probably difficult to work out your best route to market. With so many options these days – do you open a shop? Do you write a website?  Do you attend webinars?  Do you join Linkedin?  The list just seems to go on and on and on.

So what is Social Media Marketing and how does it differ from classic Consultative Telemarketing?  The Dotcom boom of the late 1990s and early 21^st Century saw a massive change in the way that individuals and organisations communicated with one another.  This was via the rise of the website as a selling medium and more importantly the emergence of Google.  Google has been so successful that there are literally thousands of people aspiring to write the next big thing on the Internet and make their fortune.  The question here though is “Are people seeking to make your fortune or enticing you to make a fortune for them?”

A supposed ‘Twitter Expert’ recently engaged me in conversation.  He tried to win me over to this new medium in favour of Consultative Telemarketing.  After 15 minutes of smoke and mirrors he told me a story of how everyone was twittering about Stephen Fry stuck in a lift.  At the end of his monologue, I asked the question “Were people interested in finding out about Stephen Fry because they had never heard of his name before and wondered who he was?  Or were people twittering because they already knew his name?”  In other words, my Twitter Expert was struggling to tell me how Twitter could possibly increase awareness for a new product or moreover how on Earth it could increase sales? I have no doubt that if one paid Stephen Fry enough money to promote something that this would increase sales, but isn’t that Stephen Fry being paid to do the work rather than Twitter? Certainly Twitter is an exciting new medium – but does it make sales?

When you pick up the telephone and engage in a meaningful conversation with someone who may want your complex product or service, the process is very direct if you know what you are doing.  Similarly, anyone writing a website to be found on Google is providing a shop front on the web to sell their services.  If you understand the art of Search Engine Optimization then you can drive potential business to your door, albeit that most people will end up having a telephone conversation with you before they buy.  So for complex sales the website and the telephone work well together or you can use Consultative Telemarketing on its own to succeed.  But will Social Media Marketing bypass the website and telephone call as a means to a sale?

Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of Linkedin was interviewed by Bloomberg last week.  He was asked about Linkedin and his connections with Facebook.  When asked about ‘The next big thing’ it was interesting to see how Mr Hoffman discussed Google as the benchmark for internet success.  More interesting from a sales perspective, was how Mr Hoffman bypassed the question as to why he didn’t see Twitter coming as a source of competition.  Even more interesting was how Mr Hoffman tried to steer clear of the conversation about making sales from Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter.

I think the key point here is that just about every global SEO expert places Google as the benchmark for Internet success or failure and even Hoffman’s Linkedin and Facebook sites still pale in to insignificance when compared with the success of Google.  From a sales perspective, if Google likes you, then you are likely to gain sales lead generation from the Internet. 

Google is so successful because it helps you find what you are looking for, and on the back of that it generates huge sums of money from advertising revenue.  But Google was a flash of inspiration, as to how to give people what they wanted and they made money as a by-product.  What many non-savvy marketing people haven’t realised is that the CEO’s of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are all highly envious of the sales Google are making - and they all want a slice of that pie.  But I do question whether they are really offering you a way to make sales rather than simply building their own bank balance?

Consultative Telemarketing helps you decide who to target, how to target, and finally engages in meaningful conversation with prospective buyers.  Google can lead prospects to your door, although for a complex sale, you’ll probably end up closing a deal via telephone.  Social Media Marketing in terms of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter have more in common with the type of networking you would expect at a pub, restaurant or breakfast club – but will that really win more sales?

As a Business Development expert I’m always on the lookout for new ways to reach prospective customers.  Personally, I’ve never been a great fan of the breakfast club.  After an early start, you find yourself at a hotel eating breakfast, surrounded by an array of accountants, bank managers and solicitors all hunting for business.  But if you are selling a complex offering to a potentially niche market, the likelihood of you meeting a prospective customer is relatively small.  The organisation hosting the venue is making money on selling breakfasts and the organiser (probably a bank) is often making more sales – but are you making more sales?  So let’s take this analogy one stage further and ask the question – if you go to a giant breakfast club on the Internet – who is really making the bucks?

One of my clients said to me this week “Gosh the market is slow at the moment and I wish I could see more prospective customers, but my offering is very complex – should I do more Social Media Marketing?” My client has never picked up any work from a breakfast club.  He has picked up work from his own network of friends but he didn’t need Linkedin or Facebook to do that for him; he simply needed to pick up the telephone and call them.  There is an urban myth going around where everyone has heard of someone, who has made lots of sales by joining Linkedin. Yet when I ask everyone if they made a sale, the answer is always “No, but give it a few months and I bet I will”.  Strangely enough people have been telling me the same story for almost 5 years and I’ve won every bet!

I’m now in my mid-40s and I’ve been in Business Development, Sales and Marketing for about 25 years.  As a young man I tried all the supposed great new ideas in the 80s from MLM (Pyramid Selling) to joining the financial deregulation and selling pensions.  The one thing that all aggressive sales companies teach you straight away is to call all your family and friends.  Funnily enough, as crass as it sounds, it does work.  Facebook and Linkedin are really an extension of this idea and there’s nothing wrong with that – but do you honestly believe that putting your name somewhere on a website full of another 45 million names, that this is better than picking up the phone and calling people yourself?

At the end of the day, there is really no substitute for planning who you want to do business with, picking up the telephone, and calling them.  Facebook, Linkedin and the thousands of other directories out there are all useful sources of information.  One of the first rules of marketing is ‘differentiation’.  In marketing we talk about USP’s (Unique Selling Points or Propositions).  You have to ask yourself who you want to deal with and what you will offer them.  However cleverly Linkedin attempts to dress up the offering, do you really believe that you will manage to differentiate yourself from the other tens of millions of people in their directory?  If you seriously believe that your friends and family are going to be your customers – do you really believe they Facebook will get to them quicker than picking up the phone and calling them?

I’m not knocking Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or whatever comes out next.  As a platform for discussion and building networks they’re great – that’s what they’re made for.  But when the CEO of Linkedin avoids talking about their value as a method of creating new business, then shouldn’t that help you to see that it’s not a platform for making sales?  If you want new business, then pick up the phone and call your prospects.  If you lack the skills – then hire someone to help you.  It may be old school – but Consultative Telemarketing is still the No.1 way to find and win new business.  If you need more help, call me on 0870 042 1263 or email me stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

21/06/2009 by Stephen Law.

This article is written for those of you thinking about using telemarketing to find new customers.  Without sales, no business can survive and prosper; but how do we find potential customers in the first place?  There are many routes to market, but this article discusses the classic use of telemarketing to achieve the objective of lead generation and sales opportunity creation. 

You may be asking yourself at this point “what is the difference between ‘lead generation’ and ‘sales opportunity creation’.  The two terms sound very similar, but the difference starts right at the beginning of the sales process.  Choosing the right approach could make all the difference to succeeding or failing in finding the right customers.  Please note - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - IF THE BEST TELEMARKETING PROVIDES THE BEST RETURN ON INVESTMENT, THEN THE BEST ACTUALLY COSTS LESS.

Though few people have visited a Call Centre, most people have a fairly good idea what goes on there.  Anywhere between 30 and 250 people are sat at desks, generally being fed calls by a computer queuing system - where they read scripts from screens.  This is the base end of telemarketing lead generation.  The calibre of the staff ranges from low to medium.  So in terms of lead generation, the Call Centre staff are led by those who design the campaign and write the scripts for them.  So let’s first take a look at what most people think of lead generation via a Call Centre.

Because a certain number of people are allotted to a campaign at a Call Centre and the campaign has to book these seats, getting the sales message correct at the start is crucial.  You need to remember that for a Call Centre, it is either the customer or the manager at the Call Centre who will devise and write the scripts for the callers for lead generation.  The first basic difference between lead generation and sales opportunity creation starts here. 

The Call Centre manager may not know who will be making the calls, so a script is devised to aim at the lowest common denominator.  Such a script can rarely take in to account any individual methods and must be a “one size fits all” script.  It’s not surprising that Call Centre lead generation sounds somewhat ‘robotic’.  Therefore, logically the Call Centre approach to lead generation often uses a ‘scatter-gun’ approach, on the basis that if you make enough calls you should find enough interested people.

If you think about all this carefully, you can start to see why Call Centre lead generation works for some companies but fails miserably for others.  If a Call Centre relies on the ‘throw enough mud and some will stick’ approach to lead generation, then logically they will need to buy enough data for your campaign.  If you’re selling something like mobile phones to end users, then you can see why a Call Centre lead generation approach will work in such a saturated market.  On the other hand, if you are selling Consultative Expertise then you can see why your chances of succeeding via Call Centre lead generation suddenly begin to dissipate.  In other words, if you are selling something that requires a dialogue with an intelligent buyer, you need to move away from the standard Call Centre lead generation approach and adopt the approach of sales opportunity creation.

Sales opportunity creation is a form of lead generation that takes a ‘laser-guided sniper’ approach to a campaign rather than the Call Centre ‘scatter-gun’ approach.  I use the ‘laser-guided’ analogy because this form of lead generation begins with very careful targeting.  To use the military analogy further for your sales campaign, you will generally hire a very small number of ‘special forces’ (better known as Consultative Telemarketing people) as opposed to a large number of ‘conscripts’ (Call Centre staff).  Instead of the Call Centre ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to lead generation, the Consultative Telemarketing person will create a ‘pitch’ instead of a ‘script’.  The pitch will be matched to a carefully selected database that the expert will build for you or work with you to produce.  Sales opportunity creation is a business development approach that uses a high-calibre telemarketing person.  This form of lead generation is geared towards medium to high level decision makers with larger budgets.  This approach is far more suited to new markets, new technologies, niche offerings and specialist skills provided.

To summarise, if you have a product in a saturated market place that takes little or no explanation of what your product does, then use Call Centre lead generation.  If your product or service is a complex or specialist offering, then your lead generation requires a sales opportunity creation approach - using a high-calibre consultative telemarketing person.

If you are in any doubt, I offer high-calibre consultative telemarketing for lead generation.   I’m happy to explain the difference if you need further help – call 0870 042 1263.

Posted in Lead Generation, Telemarketing | No Comments »

15/06/2009 by Stephen Law.

Choosing the right people to help you with Telemarketing can be a mission critical decision for your business.  Do you employee a team, outsource to an agency or hire a freelancer?  Without sales no business can survive, so choosing the best Telemarketing people is vitally important.  The problem is how to arrive at that decision.  I will explain how to sort out the wheat from the chaff – who are the best Telemarketing people and who is bluffing you. 

There are those of us in this world who are willing to learn from others and those of us who have to try something ourselves first before we truly understand.  Any adult knows that if you put your fingers in a fire, you will burn your fingers.  Unfortunately, I receive calls from potential customers every week, telling me how they just had their fingers burnt by not hiring the best Telemarketing people.  So for those who’ve had their fingers burnt, or for those of you who don’t need to experience pain before learning – here is how to choose the best Telemarketing.

It’s a sad fact (recognised by all the best Human Resources Directors) that about 90% of people tell lies on their CV and provide references that are not worth the paper they are written on.  In fact, legislation makes it very difficult for a former employer to say anything bad about a former employee.  Likewise, it’s so simple these days to set up a business.  So how difficult is it for a dodgy Telemarketing company to ask their friend to supply a reference from their small business?  So the first hint on finding the best Telemarketing people is to be wary about a CV and to be wary about a reference.  Remember, you’re buying someone’s telephone skills not a piece of paper – so make your judgement when they talk to you on the telephone and not based upon pieces of paper they give you.

Firstly, you need to think clearly about your objectives and what you are trying to achieve by hiring the best Telemarketing people.  Unless you are conducting market research, then surely your objective is to meet up with prospective buyers of your product or service?  This may sound obvious, but let’s see how the bluffers can fool you.

Your objective is not to make the telemarketing people wealthy or help them to employ as many people as possible.  Your objective is to provide you with a good Return on Investment by hiring the best Telemarketing people.  So if a bluffer talks about how many people they have in their team, why would you care?  If the best Telemarketing person can outperform a whole team of juniors, then be wary when someone talks about the size of their telemarketing team.  Quality is the first factor that differentiates the best telemarketing from the rest, not quantity.

Of course we all need some kind of markers to identify success, when we try to measure the best Telemarketing.  But be wary of the bluffer who starts spouting endless metrics.  If the best Telemarketing person made you one appointment that resulted in a deal worth a significant value, would you trade that for 50 appointments that resulted in no business?  If the best Telemarketing person spent hours researching that one call that was worth a significant value, would you trade that for 1000 calls that brought you no business?  So when the bluffer talks about how many calls they will make instead of discussing your objectives, let this sound an alarm bell in your head.

The final point on How to Choose the Best Telemarketing person has to boil down to charisma and charm at the end of the day.  As an expert in my field, I receive a number of phone calls each week from ‘would-be’ telemarketers seeking help and guidance.  Some are good and I try to steer in them in the right direction.  Recently I received a call from the most boring person I’ve spoken to in years, who whined on about not being able to get work – being depressing on the phone does not win business.  The best telemarketing person is someone who can grab your attention without being aggressive.  You need someone who makes you want to talk more because they’re asking you all the right questions.  To choose the best telemarketing person – always ask yourself, “would I buy from this person”?   There’s an old saying that “People Buy People”.  It doesn’t matter if your selling aircraft parts or accountancy services, people buy from people they like.

Of course if you really want to know How to Choose the Best Telemarketing person, simply call me on 0870 042 1263 – If I’m fully booked, I’ll find you the next best person to help you.

Posted in Telemarketing | 1 Comment »

26/02/2009 by Stephen Law.

Is it best to spend your marketing budget on Telemarketing or Internet Marketing?  This is a question faced by many entrepreneurs and marketing managers.  I will explore the differences between the two routes to market and help you to make that decision.

Ten years ago, a lot of business people became very excited about the Internet.  The Internet was hailed as the new medium for promoting a business and so-called technical gurus were lining up, telling everyone it was the end of other forms of marketing such as Telemarketing and Direct Mail.  Shareholders became so excited, that we ended up with the dot.com (now often referred to as the dot.CON!) boom.  The problem was that people started believing “techie talk” instead of applying “marketing knowledge”.   From a techie’s perspective the Internet provided all the answers, but a true marketer understands terms like “market saturation”and the real gurus of marketing could see that this was just another route to market.

So why didn’t the Internet replace Telemarketing and all other forms of marketing?  The simple answer is that the Internet cannot directly replace certain human interactions and if everyone has a website then a website is no longer something special.  To give an analogy, the Audi TT was one of the most exciting cars of the same decade as the Internet boom.  But would buying a 10 year old Audi TT produce the same thrill in your neighbourhood, as buying one of the orginal models hot off the production line?  Of course it wouldn’t, because there is now a plethora of Audi TT’s and Audi TT look alikes out there.  Professional Telemarketing was bringing in new business 10 years ago and is bringing in new business today.  Yet a good website 10 years ago was a big fish in a small pond.  Today a good website is simply a tiny fish in a giant ocean full of thousands, maybe millions of similar fish!

I’m not suggesting for one moment that a website should not form part of your marketing strategy.  What I’m saying is that the thrill of having the only website selling a particular product or service has gone.  Gone are the days of being able to produce a good website and finding customers flocking to your door.  Yet Telemarketing has been around since the telephone was invented.  The key issue here is that Internet Marketing now requires all the skills and focus required to succeed; all the skills and focus that Telemarketing Professionals have been using for decades.  The problem with Internet Marketing is that no one truly understands what is going on, wheras Telemarketing is a tried and tested method of gaining new business.

I recently spoke to a CEO of a major Association in the UK.  We had a long conversation about Internet Marketing V Telemarketing.  He told me that over the last 12 months, he interviewed the top brains from a number of Internet Marketing agencies and university professors.  The most striking point was that none of them could agree, upon the best way to bring in new business via the Internet.  Some argued that links were the most important aspect.  Others stated that search engine optimisation was the key.  Yet in tests, none of these experts were able to improve his website performance and some even made it worse.  In comparison, the Association still managed to steadily increase business by simply picking up the telephone and talking to people.  So what is the difference between Internet Marketing and Telemarketing?

I still remember the first time I went to a website, where a person popped up on the screen and started talking to me.  It was fun, it was creative and it was exciting.  That was ten years ago, but now it’s just downright annoying!  I quickly close a browser that annoys me, along with millions of other Internet users.  The point here is that website designers are seeking personal interaction, but a video of someone talking is not interaction at all.  This reminds me of those appalling offshore call centres who pretend they have been trained in Telemarketing.  They are like robots asking the same questions and not listening to a word that you say - that’s not interaction.  True Telemarketing works because people interact with one another and have a conversation.  Telemarketing offers the ability to ask questions directly and ineract with the answers provided.  In comparison the Internet is cold and inhuman.  For many people, the Internet is about as stimulating as talking to a telephone system that asks you to dial 1 for Accounts, dial 2 for Human Resources, and on and on and on - until you are bored to sleep.

True Telemarketing is about researching who you want to do business with.  Then you build a database of prospective buyers.  You form a suitable pitch.  You call the prospects and interact with them,. You narrow down those with a need and those who do not have a need.  You ask pertinent questions.  You treat the potential buyer like a human being, throw in a little humour and charm, and you compare personal experiences.  It’s no surprise that appointments and sales pop out the other end of the system.  Show me an Internet site that can communicate in this way, and I’ll admit that the days of Telemarketing are over.  The techonology for Internet Marketing to interact in the same way as a human being simply isn’t there yet and is unlikely to be available for decades.

Internet Marketing should be an essential part of your marketing mix.  A good website is necessary as your shop window and as a means of advertising your offering.  Probably the most important aspect of a good website, is good content and easy navigation.  If your prospective customer is interested and can find their way around a site easily - then you are more likely to do business with them.  Just don’t be fooled in to thinking that a good website is all you need.  If a market leader is spending tens of thousands of pounds a year on Internet Marketing, why do you think your £10k website will be noticed?  The telephone is a universal leveller.  Hiring a Telemarketing Professional can put you on a level playing field with a multinational corporation.

Is Search Engine Optimisation important - yes!  Will pay-per-click help your marketing - yes!  All aspects of Internet Marketing, done correctly, should bring you the right results.  The problem is that those organisations with the greatest buying power are able to influence the Internet, in just the same way that other forms of advertising generally win with a bigger budget.  If you are the market leader and you have an enormous budget, then I’m not surprised that you are dominating the Internet.  If you are not the market leader, then don’t have a head-on battle with a whole regiment of giants - you’ll just get squashed!  Think smart and use a strategy that levels the playing field.  Professional Telemarketing can put you on that level playing field.

On a final note, let’s explore one darned good piece of logic, as to why Telemarketing is often more effective than Internet Marketing, when seeking new business.  Of all the calls I receive each week, 30% of interest in Professional Telemarketing comes from Internet Marketing companies.  I’m always happy to help a good Internet Marketing company with an interesting offering.  But it does tend to beg the question, if Internet Marketing is the best way to win new business, why are Internet Marketing companies asking for me to conduct Telemarketing for them?

If you are looking for new business - why not call me today on 0870 042 1263.

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19/02/2009 by Stephen Law.

In part 2, I will explain how I helped to achieve sales via telemarketing during the recession of the 1980s.  Alternatively call me on 0870 042 1263 or email me stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk.

Until the summer of 2008 many companies had been continuously expanding.  Continual growth led to a requirement for expanding work in all areas.  Purchasing departments were falling over themselves to buy in the services and products they needed as fast as possible to maintain the momentum.  The situation was pretty darned similar in the early 1980s with the rise of the Yuppy.  Likewise the party abruptly came to an end.  But it would be a mistake to think that every company ceased traing at the end of the 1980s.  So why did some fail and others succeed?  What lessons of telemarketing success can we learn from the companies who succeeded during previous economic downturns?

Everyone whipped themselves up in to a frenzy over the value of their property until 2008.  It was a question of perception taking over from reality.  The bricks and mortar simply didn’t add up to a house being worth so much.  Likewise, when everyone started to lose confidence in the banks, the perception of the market went in the opposite direction.  The key point to bear in mind, is to differentiate between what is real and what is simply rumour.  Whilst knee-jerk reactions are common place in stock trading, the perception of doom and gloom right now in the market does not necessarily reflect the ability to find new business via telemarketing.

Let’s start with some basics.  Mankind’s basic instinct is for a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, drink to quench our thirst and for warmth when its cold.  The stock market has no bearing whatsoever on mankind’s instincts.   So are we all going to stop eating because there is a recession? Of course we won’t stop eating, but we may cut back on some of the non-essentials in life.  That’s the key point - that a lot of marketing people are failing to understand right now.  The buyers have not stopped buying, they are simply being more cautious about what they buy and when they buy it.  So what form of telemarketing approach should be applied to a cautious buyer?

Going back to my time in the 1980’s, the question of cautious buyers was on every salesman’s lips.  So how did I instigate a telemarketing campaign that worked during a recession?  The first point is to completely ignore all those around you who are gripped by panic.  Any NLP practicioner worth their salt will tell you, that you can program your brain for failure or program your brain for success.  Clear your mind of all the nonsense and you will see that buyers are still buying in virtually every market.  Stop knee-jerk reacting and looking for a quick fix, and try to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer.  Telemarketing for success involves finding what your buyers want and meeting that requirement.

So what does a cautious buyer want?  Well firstly, they want someone to buy from  who understands their caution.  Marketing logic tells us that you will never sell to everyone immediately, so you apply the same rules today that you used yesterday.  It’s all about looking for low-hanging fruit (those looking to buy shortly who have a budget) and building a pipeline (a list of those who may buy later).  More than ever, consultative telemarketing will help you to find and win new business.  In this economic climate, a cautious buyer does not want to be pressurised, they want to know that you understand their timetables.  Don’t waste your time trying to push someone too hard if they are very cautious. Gently build that relationship and diarise your callbacks and swiftly move on to the next prospect.

For telemarketing success in a recession you need to tidy up and expand your prospect database.  Don’t thrash the same people over and over again like a Mumbai Call Centre, you will simply alienate your prospects.  Add more prospects to your database and build, build, build your pipeline.  Work hard in telemarketing to find out what people want and when they want it . Be very methodical about tracking progress and follow through at the right times.

More than anything, you should take a Business Development approach to your telemarketing.   Remember to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer.  In a recession, buyers are thinking about saving money rather than spending money.  You need to examine your offering, examine your pitch and see if this needs to change.  Think carefully whether you are giving the right sales message to a cost conscious and cautious buyer?  The right telemarketing pitch will work in a recession.

I’ll go back to the 1980s again and give you an example.  The telecoms company I was working for had been selling their systems on the enhanced features.  Until the recession, buyers wanted more for their money and the additional features were very attractive.  In a recession, the buyers did not want to spend one penny unless they had to.  So I came up with a telemarketing pitch that was aimed at a cautious buyer.  After looking at the market, I noticed that the competitors were also selling on lease or rental.  I did a few sums and realised that it was possible for a prospect to buy our telecom systems in the same way but be spending far less.  The telemarketing pitch changed from selling the features first to talking about the savings first.  Within six months, the company I was working for went from the brink of bankruptcy to a roaring success.  Happy customers were swapping their old telecom systems for new ones and improving their bottom line! Telemarketing was the key to this success during a recession.

To recap, the products didn’t change, it was the mindset and the approach that changed.  Telemarketing sold in to sectors such as Fnance and Legal practices that were supposedly the hardest hit by the recession.  Please don’t think it was easy - it was darned hard work.  I’m not offering any solutions here for lazy people who bumbled through the good times.  Successful telemarketing is not easy, it’s hard work - but positive results can be achieve in good times and bad times. Look at the examples I have given and interpret this to fit your business model.

If you wish to gain more business in the recession, but don’t know where to start, then why not give me a call on 0870 042 1263?

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01/10/2008 by Stephen Law.

So how do businesses continue to be profitable during an economic downturn?  Call it a credit crunch or a credit crisis, it’s about to adversely affect all businesses very shortly.  I’ve been around the block a few times, and I remember well the problems faced by a young salesman (me) back in the late 1980s / early 1990s.  During that time I helped to dramatically improve sales as a Telemarketing Manager and went on to become top field salesman for global communications company.  So when many companies were going to the wall, how did I buck this trend?  Read on and find out.

I don’t suffer fools gladly.  I am a very hard worker and I have little respect for the lazy people in this world who expect something for nothing.  Seeking to break in to Telemarketing, I joined a local telecoms company back in the late 1980s, who were struggling to find new business.  They had recently appointed a new sales director who was probably one of the best salesmen I’ve ever met.  All this chap needed was fully qualified appointments.  He’d taken on a handful of low-paid telemarketing people in a back office to thrash away at telephone directories.  Despite this chap bringing in his own business, he was running out of leads fast.  Then a young chap (me) turned up at his door in response to an advert in the local paper - things were about to change.

I was offered a part-time job a few hours a day to see how I could do.  In the first day, I was making appointments and an immediate sale was made.  Within 48 hours I was out performing the amateurs by almost 10:1 and my appointments were already being converted in to sales.  By the third day, the Sales Director took me in to his office and said “If I made you Telemarketing Manager, what would you want?”  I asked for a free hand to hire and fire my own team and a much bigger pay packet.  This period in my life was to form the future basis for freelance telemarketing

Call me ruthless, but my job is to do the best for whoever I work for.  I fired his entire telemarketing team immediately! It was one month and an endless queue of useless telemarketing people that applied and were rejected.  Finally, one lady walked through the door grinning from ear to ear like a cheshire cat.  With blue chip training from one of the best telemarketing operations in the UK, this lady and I became the telemarketing team.  Whilst the Sales Director sharpened up the 3 sales reps, my mini telemarketing team booked all four reps solid until they were overflowing with quality appointments.  Within 6 months, the company had moved from potential bankruptcy to having one of the most favourable balance sheets in their industry.  Blending my success as a former retail consultant with the knowledge and experience of my sales director - we created a consultative telemarketing approach.

So why were 5 telemarketing people, an advertising campaign and 4 reasonable to excellent sales reps not finding new business?  It’s difficult to blame the salesmen as they were never really trained to be telemarketing experts.  It’s easy to assume that a good field sales person is just as good on the telephone, but this is rarely true.  Although the skills appear to be the same, in practice they are very different.  A field sales person works very much on personal contact including important factors like body language.  A telemarketing expert has to achieve all this from the voice at the other end of a telephone.  A field sales pitch can last anywhere between 5 minutes to several hours before they close.  A telemarketing person generally has anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes to close an appointment.  So if the field sales team were not to blame for a lack of new business, what about the telemarketing people?

If you were in the unfortunate position of having to appear in court, would you choose the least experienced and cheapest solicitor to represent you?  If the matter was insignificant then maybe you would - but what if your livlihood depended upon the outcome?  Without sales, any for-profit organisation will end up bankrupt.  All businesses require a steady stream of potential new business and this must be created somehow.  The fastest method of achieving new business with other businesses is undoubtedly via telemarketing.  Yet too many businesses assume that an inexperienced person on a low wage will provide the results they require.  It is about as likely to expect a cheap junior solicitor to win in court for you, as it is for a low-paid inexperienced telemarketing person to win you new business!

I think you’ve guessed by now that the weakest link in the chain was the poor standard of telemarketing.  Don’t get me wrong, if you’re selling on a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ scenario to Jo Public, then thrashing the numbers on a telephone is your best bet.  When you’re selling a more complex offering to other businesses it takes a little more savvy to gain the results - it requires consultative telemarketing.  It still boils down to making those calls, but the sales message that you use and how this is presented will undoubtedly make all the difference.

I will shortly be publishing part2 of this story, with a more in-depth look at how freelance telemarketing can beat the credit crisis.  If you can’t wait for the next installment - call me on 0870 042 1263 or email me - stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk

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24/08/2008 by Stephen Law.

I will explain how ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ differs from the service you might expect from a Call Centre. If you do not have a business development background, you are probably wondering what the difference is, so let me explain.

Business Development covers a very broad spectrum of techniques. The art of business is often compared to the art of war and the terms used - like ‘campaign’ or ‘guerrilla marketing’, etc display the similar theoretical approaches used. Whilst some people claim to be business development experts - I sometimes wonder if they really understand the term.

A true business development expert has a very rounded business career, spanning across the full areas of any enterprise and including - Administration, Finance, Legal, Marketing and Operational roles. Business Development takes an ‘eagle-eye ‘view’ of the business and is often akin to a CEO, MD, General Manager or Operations Director. The main difference is that the Business Development Director generally comes from a strong sales background.

In truth, the number of real Business Development experts (like yours truly) are small in number. Most so-called business development people have either very little knowledge of all the facets of running a business, or they are really sales people giving themselves a grand title.

So what do we mean by ‘Business Development Telemarketing’? Well, firstly and foremost this applies to someone who understands the pressures and responsibilities of a senior manager or business director - because they have held that role personally. Secondly, this applies to someone who has a broad business background of responsibilities. Thirdly, it applies to someone with great sales acumen. Finally, (and please don’t just assume that all sales people are good telemarketing people) that they are darned good at telemarketing.

When we talk about telemarketing, we are referring to the high-end of telemarketing, not one of those unfortunates stuck in an offshore call centre. High-end ‘business development telemarketing’ utilises the brain and many years of sales experience as opposed to reading some form of inane script from a computer screen. It utilises a ‘pitch’ rather than a ’script’ - a pitch is a ‘constructed answer’ depending on the conversation, whilst a ’script’ is always the same.

The unfortunate call centre person is often bugging Jo Public at inconvenient times to purchase something - calling an individual is known as Business2Consumer or B2C. Nine times out of ten, ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is about businesses communicating with other businesses - Business2Business or B2B.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ generally uses a style known as ‘Consultative Telemarketing‘. In simple terms, this means being able to communicate with intelligent and articulate people at their level. ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ allows your enterprise to reach senior managers and directors - via generating that all-important first meeting, gaining an invite to tender and building a business relationship.

Call Centres provide both ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ telemarketing, whilst ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is all outbound work. ‘Inbound’ refers to someone sat waiting for a call, whilst ‘outbound’ refers to pro-actively hunting for new business. For someone to be sat in a call centre waiting for calls, to describe themselves as a telemarketing expert, is a bit like a 12-year-old kid telling you he’s a footballer the same as David Beckham. They both play football, but that’s about where the similarity ends. And it would seem, just like the 12 year old footballer, most people in the telemarketing industry haven’t got a clue what it means to be a ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ person.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is all about quality not quantity. Over the last week, I have been plagued by a lady from a call centre evidently bashing away through the numbers; though despite informing her I’m not the Decision Maker for what’s she’s selling I get the same old script every week.

Unfortunately, many of my clients are also confused by ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, at first believing that 1000s of companies need to be on a list to do business with. Fortunately, I’m generally blessed with intelligent customers and they can see that it is better to be meeting up with a handful of buyers who are serious about spending their budget, than creating some ridiculously long list of contacts that goes nowhere.

It is unlikely that you would ask the man at the fish and chip shop to represent you in court. He probably cooks a mean piece of battered cod, but I don’t think you’d feel confident of him talking to a judge or cross-examining any witnesses. Likewise, when you choose ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, you will be represented in a first-class professional manner rather than by a script-reading tele-monkey from a call centre.

So ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ is not about crunching the numbers - it’s all about a positive reflection of your organisation’s values. Focus is always the mark of ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, to provide you with consistently high-calibre results.

‘Business Development Telemarketing’ begins with an in-depth brief and agreement on strategy, tactics and marketing collateral. Based on the agreed approach, a campaign begins - but here’s another key difference between ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ and a Call Centre approach. Once up and running, a call centre has written a script for people to follow (for which you were probably charged an arm and a leg). In ‘Business Development Telemarketing’, feedback and analysis are ongoing. Whilst one would be likely to begin with an excellent pitch, this is then adapted as the campaign progresses to reach maximum efficiency.

So if you require to new business, and your prospective customers are senior management or directors - choose ‘Business Development Telemarketing’ as your weapon of choice. Contact SL-Freelance - for the best ‘Business Development Telemarketing’.

Posted in Business Development, Telemarketing | No Comments »

10/08/2008 by Stephen Law.

When you hire freelance telemarketing experts like SL-Freelance, what do they mean by ‘Consultative Telemarketing‘? I’ll try and explain the nuts and bolts of the approach.

The first element of a Consultative Telemarketing approach is to determine whether this approach has a good chance of providing you with a decent Return On Investment (ROI). The second element is to gain an understanding of your business, to find all the key points that will lead to success. The final part of the approach is in applying proven techniques to implement the process.

So let’s start with ROI. ROI is always the name of the game. If there is no chance of you gaining a return on your investment in Consultative Telemarketing, then you should be looking at alternative routes to market. Hence the first and most important aspect is whether Consultative Telemarketing is right for your business model. ROI in its simplest form is a mathematical equation of - ‘Benefit of Telemarketing minus Cost of Telemarketing‘. If this equation provides a positive outcome, then you are on the right lines.

Let’s give a simple example here - You decide to spend a budget of £2k to try Consultative Telemarketing. During the campaign, 10 appointments are made for you which you attend. Let’s say that you are not the best sales person in the World, so during the campaign you close 2 sales, the value of which is 2 x £10k = £20k. Your profit margin on the sales is 40%, so you make £20k x 40% = £8k. You deduct your travel expenses of £2k and you deduct the cost of Consultative Telemarketing of £2k - that’s £8k - £2k - £2k = £4k.

Now of course, everyone’s business model is different. We don’t all sell products for £10k a sale. Neither do we all close 1/5 sales. The reality is more complex, but this should give you a good idea of Return On Investment. Simply replace the figures above with your model to gain an idea of what is feasible. To put it in simple terms - if you are selling a product or service that has a medium/high sale value, with a reasonable profit margin, then you are on to a winner. If you are selling a low value product or service - then there is little point racing round the country trying to sell it and paying for telemarketing on top.

If at this point, you have realised that your product sale value is very low, then you should be considering alternative routes to market. If your sale value is middle to high, then read on. The next step is for the Consultative Telemarketing person to look deeply in to your business offering.

We’ve already agreed that your sale price justifies paying for Consultative Telemarketing, but let’s just clarify here why you should be choosing Consultative Telemarketing over bog standard Call Centre Telemerketing. In essence, the higher the value of the sale, the greater the chance that the Buyer will hold a more senior position within the organisations that you are trying to sell to. That means the telemarketing person must be of a high enough calibre to communicate with such people at their level. Moreover, a relationship (both rapid and long-term) must be built up with the Buyer. The vast majority of call centres simply don’t have that ability on a consistent basis.

So the Consultative Telemarketing approach is right for you so far. Now comes the part about finding about more about your business. For the non-sales person, it can often seem difficult to grasp the concept, that an outsider can often sell your business better than anyone in your team. But if you think about this logically - it applies to all professions. After all - if you could look after your accounts better than a skilled accountant - why outsource this task to an accountant? In a legal case, you know far more about the problem - so why outsource this to a solicitor? The answer to these questions is obvious - you may know more about your business than an accountant, a solicitor or a consulatative telemarketing person - but you are not an expert in applying that knowledge to gain the outcome that you desire. Just as an accountant or solicitor would take the time to understand the salient points necessary, that is exactly the process followed by a skilled Consultative Telemarketing expert.

At SL-Freelance, we would spend an appropriate amount of time right at the start, in understanding all the key points of your business. We don’t need to be you or have all the knowledge in your head - we just need the salient points that will gain the outcome you desire. We will talk to you about the geographical area your company works in, build a profile of your ideal customer, and so on. In essence, we will hone in on who you are trying to sell to and why they should be buying from you.

The final stage is to set up and implement the telemarketing campaign. Consultative Telemarketing generally follows what is known as a ‘Call - Email - Call’ scenario. Of course a good telemarketing person will always be looking for any early or easy wins. However, the vast majority of prospective customers will need to be ‘courted’. They are possibly about to spend a lot of money with you, so they want to feel comforable that they are making the right decision.

Firstly your prospects will want a proper introduction by telephone - a brief discussion of the benefits of doing business with you. Then a little more flesh is put on the bone with an email and maybe an electronic brochure. Finally, another call at the right time, puts them in a position where they want to meet up with you Face2Face to talk terms and prices. That’s what we call, a ‘Call-Email-Call‘ scenario.

So let’s recap - first check that the Return On Investment looks promising. Then a Consultative Telemarketing person focuses on the key aspects of your business - to find the right prospective customers for you. Finally, a succesful formulae of call-email-call starts bringing in the business. Now I know I’ve tried to simplify this for you. So I will be discussing more ideas in detail on this blog. If you want to know more right now - call SL-Freelance today on 0870 042 1263, go to www.sl-freelance.co.uk or email me - stephen@sl-freelance.co.uk .

Posted in Freelance Telemarketing, Telemarketing | No Comments »