How to Make Sure Your Telemarketing Efforts are Successful

Ask any business owner who has used telemarketing for anything from direct mail follow-up to sales to lead generation and he or she will almost certainly tell you that nothing compares to it. After all, no matter what else a telemarketing campaign accomplishes, connecting with a customer or a prospect through a live conversation cannot be beat.

Regardless of how much telemarketing can do for your business, it is still like everything else in business and in life. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Therefore, if you want telemarketing to do great things for your business, you need to make sure you put in the necessary effort. Here’s what that effort involves:

1. A plan: What are your telemarketing goals? More sales? Lead generation? Data acquisition? You need to know what you want and be willing to make the type of investment—time, talent, hardware, etc.—that will get you what you want. You also will have to decide whether or not you are able to handle your telemarketing efforts in-house or would be better off outsourcing.

2. The right data: Without accurate data, most telemarketing efforts will fail. It is essential that before you embark on any telemarketing campaign you know who you need to target and how to reach them.

3. A good script. The best telemarketing scripts are ones that act as a guide and allow a professional telemarketer to guide t he conversation in the right direction. It must grab the attention of its target audience and encourage interaction. Further, a script must be continually evaluated and, when necessary, refined.

4. A great team. In the end, the right team of professional telemarketers is the best way to ensure your telemarketing success. You can have a well thought out plan, precise data and the perfect script but if your telemarketers aren’t qualified to do the job, none of these things will matter. Your telemarketing team must be knowledgeable about your product or service and be able to talk intelligently about it. These professionals also must be persuasive, tenacious and always be able to keep calls on track.

When done right, telemarketing can yield outstanding results. The key is to make sure you are willing to make the necessary investment so that it is done right every single time.