Technological innovation has made B2C telemarketing increasingly difficult. Business to business telemarketing continues to thrive as an integral component to marketing campaigns as businesses like nothing more than the sound of their phone ringing. However, consumers with caller ID and smart phones are generally less inclined to answer unfamiliar phone numbers than their business counterparts. Calling residences can be challenging as calls often take place during time periods when the prospect isn’t expecting a call. Still, all is not lost. There are two major components to B2C telemarketing success:
Quality Lead Generation
To succeed with business to consumer telemarketing, it is essential that you generate fresh, quality leads. After all, calling the home where your prospect used to reside will get you nowhere fast. Whether you are launching a new b2c telemarketing campaign, or extending an existing one, you should continually seek out fresh leads, either through internal mechanisms, or by purchasing leads from a list broker.
A quality lead will have updated consumer contact information, accurate telephone, email, and physical address data. This will save your telemarketer the time it takes to gather this info, and help prevent any errors that may occur while recording the details. Either the lead provider or telemarketing company should scrub the list for Do-Not-Call (DNC) information.
Qualified Telemarketers
B2C telemarketers must be patient and steady, and have the ability to withstand angry consumers on the other end of the line. Certainly, numerous customers welcome calls from companies offering a product or solution they desire. However, there is a significant population of individuals out there who feel no shame in putting down and antagonizing someone they know they will never meet personally. If not totally discouraging an untrained agent, this type of hostility can slow her down and, in effect, lessen the total number of outbound calls made on any given day.
In general, a B2C telemarketing conversation calls for two people; the telemarketer and the consumer. An effective telemarketer will closely follow the script you provide and not try to get creative and ad lib the sales call. This only leads to trouble and can drive the conversation down an unexpected path. Experienced agents are dedicated and disciplined enough to follow the rules of proven success.
Additionally, exceptional agents tend to be exceptional listeners. Taking the time to listen to what the consumer actually has to say can go a long ways towards boosting conversion rates and efficiently calling leads. If a consumer signals that he or she is not interested, the agent should thank the prospect for accepting the call, and move on to the next lead.
Despite changes in the environment, businesses can successfully execute telemarketing campaigns geared towards consumers by securing quality leads and quality telemarketers.