It’s a joke everyone knows: people hate telemarketers. But when telemarketing is part of your business plan, you need to know how to do it. The last thing your business needs are annoyed customers. Use the tips below to help your customers appreciate your calls.
1. Set expectations
Obviously, warm calling is easier than cold calling because you already have an established relationship, but your existing customers may be caught off guard by your calls. One way to overcome this is to let them know what to expect when you ask for their phone numbers. For example, if you regularly call customers a few days before you have technicians visiting their neighborhoods, let them know you’d like to call them when you’ll be in the area as a courtesy. If you can frame it as a benefit, even better. Likewise, when collecting information from prospects, set expectations such as “a representative will call within one business day with a quote.”
2. Verify phone numbers
Use a phone validation service to ensure that you have the correct phone number for your customers and prospects. Even if you’ve just recently collected the phone number, validation is important to weed out bogus entries, inadvertent typos, and out-of-service numbers. If you’re working off of a list where you have not obtained written permission to call the consumer — a must when calling mobile phones, phone verification can identify whether the phone number is wireless or not. Verifying phone numbers helps you to avoid calling the wrong people, wasting time, and giving consumers yet another reason to hate telemarketers.
3. Provide value when you call
You know what’s in it for your business when you launch a telemarketing campaign, but what’s in it for your customers? Are you just playing a numbers game or is there real value in your outreach? What can your customers get from being on your telemarketing list that they can’t get elsewhere? How can you make them look forward to your next phone call? This goes back to point number one, setting expectations. Remind them why you’re calling (for example, “I’m calling because you asked us to call to offer early access and exclusive discounts to our clearance sale”).
Setting expectations, verifying phone numbers and providing value when you call are three essential steps you can take to stop the hate.
