| The collection of MaSM white papers that follows should serve as a reference guide to running successful sales campaigns. Please refer to it often as the content is always changing and use the content freely as long as you give us proper attribution. |
Ignite Telemarketing with Direct Mail
Brian Grinonneau
VP Sales and Development
Funny isn’t it? Two marketing forms, direct mail and telemarketing, that fell out of favor with ad gurus years ago, is back on top. Everything old is new again. And while the debate rages on between brand builders and direct marketers, the DM practitioners seem to cut a much wider swath through the commercial clutter.
Now, telemarketing appointment setting firms like MaSM are joining forces with their direct mail brethren and the result is enough to make you take notice.
A daily newspaper in the Midwest published a special section recently showcasing businesses in the community. These special sections are a fine way of pumping up a sagging bottom line in the newspaper business not to mention building reader interest. A multi-channel ad campaign was launched and we were hired to schedule qualified sales appointments for the paper’s ad reps.
Before the first phase of the sales appointment setting calls, the newspaper sales department sent direct mail pieces to a select number of prospects. Calls were placed and MaSM hit a home run. Those prospects that received the direct mail piece knew about the special section and were receptive to scheduling an appointment with an account executive. It was the closest thing to sales heaven some of the veterans had seen.
The second and third phases of the calling campaign had no direct mail component and the appointments were tougher to schedule. The awareness factor was missing. More education was needed.
When the numbers were tallied and crunched, appointments were set at a better than 2 to 1 margin with those prospects who got a direct mail ad first.
Telemarketing and direct mail work well independently, but when you put them together you’ll really stoke your sales fire.
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What A Difference a List Makes
Brian Grinonneau
VP Sales and Development
The telemarketing list of potential prospects on whom to call must be perfect, or very close to it to achieve optimal results. And if there are any questions about how good the list is, your appointment-setting partner will tell you. We know what works and how to fix it when it doesn’t.
Companies that employ MaSM fall in to two categories. The first has an extensive list of prospects to call; the result of extensive in-house data mining. The second doesn’t have a list but has a pretty good idea of what businesses to call. Sales managers, in this category, rely on purchased lists or data mining services we offer. In both cases, a well-educated guess is made on reaching the best prospects. Sometimes it hits the bull’s eye, sometimes not. When the latter is true, we come to the rescue-fast.
An extensive campaign undertaken recently for a large U.S. newspaper chain went very well in several markets with lots of sales appointments being made for reps selling both print and interactive ads. One market, however fell flat. Prospects on the list were hanging up expressing no interest in the offering. During a specified calling period, less than ten sales appointments were made. MaSM operations managers immediately launched a teleconference with our newspaper client to fix the problem.
The newspaper had done its due diligence in selecting the right category of potential advertisers, but because of perhaps regional differences, or any one of dozens of factors, it didn’t work. We suggested a different tack, with a different set of prospects. Discussion and agreement followed. The next calling period resulted in a 500% increase in the number of qualified sales appointments and the campaign for this market was one of the strongest ever.
Educated assumptions are made every day in determining sales strategy. Much of it centers on the correct market to penetrate. The assumptions are rarely 100% correct or 100% incorrect but somewhere in the middle. As names are added to a prospect list, it is a careful process aimed at the best possible result. A nearly perfect telemarketing list is critical—the ability to fix an imperfect list, more so.
Disqualifying prospects appears to run counter to everything a sales organization is trying to do. Why would you shut the door and snuff out a possible sale? The short answer is to make a lot more money.
When a telemarketing sales appointment company works for you they must deliver the most qualified prospects for you to meet and sell. The wishy-washy, tire-kickers might help you hone your sales skill but won’t put any money in your pocket. They’ll string you along forever incapable of making a firm decision no matter what. Their name on today’s call calendar will still be there 3 months from now. You don’t have the time. You can’t afford the aggravation.
A superior sales appointment setter will ask the right questions to get a firm yes or a firm no. Anything in the middle isn’t acceptable. A prospect, with the authority to buy from you, who gives an emphatic yes to an appointment has a high probability of becoming a customer. Those who say no have given you the second best answer. The prospects that aren’t sure and are very vague about everything may never do business with you, or if they do will cost you more than they are worth.
Prospects who have trouble seeing your value, will have even more trouble paying for it. If, after months of trying to convince them of your worth, they finally agree to give you a “try out”, it will always be for the lowest price and service level. Problem is they’ll want to turn the ignition key in a Cadillac while paying for a Chevrolet. It isn’t a damnation of the client, it’s a finger pointed at the sales organization that won’t decide up-front that this isn’t a business relationship to pursue.
An appointment setting firm’s suggestion to dismiss a prospect early in the process sounds harsh but business is made up of a lot of harsh realities and most of them involve cash flow and sales. Decide now that in your pursuit of new, profitable business, you will rely on a company that will disqualify weak prospects in favor of those that will form long-term, profitable relationships.
Sales Appointment Setting: Doing Too Much with Too Little
Elizabeth Duggan,
COO, MaSM
Most businesses involved in selling a product or service have used a sales appointment setting service. It makes sense. These professionals are better at calling and setting qualified sales appointments than you and they help your staff double its productivity and make a lot more money. The Roi is easy to track and you glean valuable information about your product or service. Sales appointment setting should be the cornerstone of your direct marketing strategy but the devil is in the details.
At first glance, sales appointment setting seems like a simple telemarketing hybrid. Get a decent list of prospects and start calling in random fashion. Nothing could be further from the truth. An effective appointment setting campaign has a detailed game plan that includes realistic allocation of resources.
In a 40-hour calling period, a sales appointment setting professional can expect to make 1,200-1,500 dials and set enough appointments to provide a healthy return on investment. It is important however that the appointment setter work for 1-3 sales reps and has a very defined scope of responsibility. Too many times a client wishes to have the appointment setters work on two or three campaigns in two or three markets within a one 40-hour calling block. It severely handicaps the effort.
Let’s say ABC Company wants to schedule appointments for sales reps that are selling widgets A, B and C in Peoria, Skokie and Wadsworth. Company sales execs want one appointment setter to schedule for (3) three sales reps in (3) three cities, selling two different products. It doesn’t work. The appointment block of 40 hours, the time needed for optimal results, has now been diminished to a few scant hours for each rep and product line. To be sure, some appointments will be scheduled, but the return falls way off.
When undertaking a campaign with multiple offerings in multiple locations, invest in a block of calling time for each geographic area and product. The upfront investment is higher but the sales results will amaze you. Do it any other way and you’ll come to appreciate the meaning of doing too much with too little.
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Attributes of Top Telemarketers
Brian Grinonneau
VP Sales and Development
There are specific attributes the top telemarketing sales appointment setter’s posses. Without these traits, they fall into the “also ran” pack of telephone callers who will help your business to the extent a blind squirrel finds an acorn.
Using a phone to convey value and set an appointment with a qualified decision maker is a skill that is inherent. Learning it is hard, at best. That’s why enlightened sales management separates appointment setting from selling. The skill sets are very different.
Whether you run an in-house call center or outsource appointment setting here are the traits your telemarketer must have:
1. Intelligent. Not MENSA Society smarts, but knowing the regional difference between Kankakee and Poughkeepsie is nice.
2. Conversationalist. The ability to engage in intelligent discourse about the prospects’ business, hobbies, family or pets.
3. Quick thinker. Must be able to react quickly to the hundreds of verbal curve balls that are pitched every day. The answers are not on the script.
4. Driven. The desire to dial and dial again when most prospects tell you no. Substitute the description Fearless in this category.
5. Meticulous. A carefully constructed note about conversations and follow-up activities is the difference between success and abject failure.
6. Punctual. Time waits for no man. Calls to prospects are carefully planned and coordinated and must be made during assigned periods.
7. Proud. The deep-seated conviction that an entire deal is built on the foundation of the first telemarketing call.
8. Competitive. An innate need to win—to set more appointments and make more money for the company.
Finding top sales appointment setters isn’t easy work. They come in many shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. Use the list above to qualify and put the right telemarketers to work for you. It’ll mean the difference between beating sales projections and struggling to make budget.