Telemarketing for SME’s – Your lifeline in a tough economy.

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Member of the Federation of Small Businesses

Many business owners I speak with often tell me that they would like to be making more sales calls to generate more sales appointments, sales leads and to strengthen their sales pipeline but feel uncomfortable with aspects of the process. Often this is because they view the activity as being one likely to lead to rejection. The result is that they simply don’t make the calls and are therefore missing out on the power of one of the most cost effective methods of generating new business. It is always important to keep a tight rein on marketing budgets but in a tough economy it is vital especially for small businesses that they keep their costs to a minimum and make sure that any marketing they carry out is low cost, totally measurable in terms of results achieved, tried and tested, and gives maximum effectiveness per pound spent. Telemarketing therefore ticks all of those boxes. The cost of telephone calls even at peak times has plummeted especially when you factor in the availability offered by the VOIP providers (making calls over the internet) and decent quality handsets are inexpensive. It is easy to track the outcomes of your activity in terms of how many calls resulted in how many decision maker conversations which in turn lead to how many sales appointments being set or qualified sales leads being generated- so totally measurable. Telemarketing is most definitely a tried and tested method of new business development. If it didn’t work why every day would thousands of Companies worldwide including the major blue chip organisations implement a structured telemarketing approach as part of their overall marketing plan? As a small business owner you may not have the financial backing of a larger organisation enabling you to employ a telemarketing team to make the calls for you but you can with the right mindset make telemarketing work for you by scheduling it as a regular part of your day. Decide who your ideal prospects are, obtain a list from an approved data provider to ensure that you meet all legislative requirements in relation to the Corporate Telephone Preference Register, and then start by just calling 10 companies a day. I mentioned earlier a fear of rejection as being a reason small business owners don’t make more telephone calls to prospects. Don’t look at the call as a sales call where if the person you’re calling says no you feel like you have been rejected or even worse feel like you’ve failed- You haven’t! Adopt the mindset that you are calling simply to find out whether what you have to offer is on your prospects radar and if it is whether they are happy to discuss further. If not, no problem. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you take the pressure off yourself (and the person you’re speaking with)You’ll have productive conversations that lead to sales appointments, sales leads and in turn you will be building a strong sales pipeline for the future. So, in summary, telemarketing can be an incredibly effective low cost marketing strategy in a tough economy for all businesses but in particular small businesses where even more so every penny counts. Give it a go, pick up the phone and start dialling.

Robbie Stepney
Calls That Count www.callsthatcount.co.uk

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