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This is the area
where most businesses need the most help and don't know it. In many
cases all of your marketing efforts are only as good as the person
answering the telephone. If your business is mail order without call
ins or if customers just walk into your business, this of course
doesn't apply to you.
If you turn the
people off on the initial phone call, you've turned them off. The
initial call is where the first impression of the business is made.
On numerous occasions I have had clients who had spent fortunes on
advertising only to have the phone answered by untrained,
disinterested employees. In many instances I suspected that the
person answering the phone actually was not interested in the
business acquiring any new customers. Think about it. More customers
means more work and no more pay. Read the chapter on employee
compensation. The person answering the phone must have a vested
interest in seeing the business prosper. This person must also be
rated in terms of how they perform on the phone. If your office only
functions on a technical level, you are not running a marketing
efficient business.
First, let's look
at who should answer the telephone. Normally, everyone answers the
phone. I usually change that fast. All advertising should use certain
designated lines. These lines should be separate for different ads.
The business cards, forms and stationery should never use these
lines. If you do this, you will find that very few customers will
continue to call on the advertising lines. The advertising lines are
only to be answered by trained people. People on your staff that are
responsible for other functions should not be given this
responsibility. They have enough to be concerned with already. The
person answering the advertising lines needs to track the source of
the calls (newspaper, radio, television, etc.). They also need to do
studies as to how many of these people made appointments, showed up
for their appointments and became customers along with the
profitability of these sales. You'll need to train a backup person to
cover for busy periods, breaks, vacations, and days off. Most of your
competition will probably not handle incoming calls correctly. No one
ever explained it to them. Advertising agencies, publicity agencies,
and marketing consultants don't normally get into incoming
telemarketing with their clients.
Second, let's look
at some specific tactics. Don't leave callers on hold more than 30
sec. Get more coverage. Take numbers and call back. Don't leave them
dangling or they'll hang up.
The telemarketer
should introduce themselves by their first name and ask for the
caller's name. You will always get control of the caller quickly, if
you can address the caller by name. You need to take control of the
call. If you can't control the customer on the phone, it will be
difficult to control the customer in person. People you can't control
can be a waste of time. Occasionally, a person will be uncontrollable
with your staff only to show up and be meek as a lamb with you. The
problem is this is the exception, not the rule. Uncontrollable
callers usually are uncontrollable in person. When people waste your
time they are sticking their hand in your pocket. This applies to
telephone time as well. You want your staff spending their time with
compliant people. Asking for the name of the caller will usually
begin to reveal the problem caller. If they refuse to give a name,
get a fresh one.
Next, the
telemarketer should gently begin inquiring as how the caller heard
about you. Sometimes people don't like to say they were referred to
you by an ad. They will stumble and stagger around when confronted
with this question. The telemarketer should then softly ask if they
are responding to an advertisement. They should try not to suggest
where the advertisement ran. You can't interrogate the caller on this
point. Frequently, people will remember seeing or hearing the ad on
the radio or television, but not be able to remember which station or
show. This is a reality we all have to live with. Sometimes asking
them if they saw the ad during the day or at night can help. What
time of day or night? Do you remember what day of the week it was? If
you do a lot of advertising and PR, the caller may have seen you
several times and really not be able to tell you anything for sure.
Now, the
telemarketer should ask the caller if they want to make an
appointment to come in or to have someone call on them. For some of
you this won't apply. Always ask for the appointment first. This is
the goal of the call as far as you are concerned. Many of the callers
will be very happy to simply make an appointment. Some may ask what
the charges are for the consultation or first visit. I usually
suggest talking to people for free if it is an expensive service you
are offering. In any event the telemarketer must accurately convey
the charges to the caller along with payment information. If you want
to be paid at the time of the visit, say so. If you accept checks and
credit cards, say so. If the caller doesn't wish to make an
appointment, they will normally tell you why they called. It is very
important to listen carefully to what the caller is saying. They may
have some questions they want to ask before seeing you. Your
telemarketer should be able to answer basic questions regarding the
services or goods you provide. After these questions are addressed,
the telemarketer should ask the person again if they wish to make an
appointment. Don't wait for them to ask for the appointment. If they
declined before, they may be embarrassed to bring it up again. If
they say they don't wish to make an appointment, then the brochure
can be offered. Normally, you don't want to introduce the brochure
into the process until they have declined to make an appointment. The
brochure will at least keep the selling process from ending with the
caller hanging up.
Appointment making
needs to be addressed. When the person says, they want to come in ask
them when. Never make appointment more than three weeks out. The
further out you set appointments, the higher your no-show rate will
be. When a person wishes to set an appointment more than three weeks
out, refuse to do so. Explain that appointment time is a precious
commodity and that people are highly unlikely to keep appointments so
far in advance. Offer to call them in three weeks to set up the
appointment as a last resort. Your lowest no-show or cancellation
rate will be when you set the appointment within 72 hours of the
call. This is the goal you should strive for. Same day appointments
are great if you can schedule them. It's best to ask the person if
they want a morning, afternoon, or evening appointment. If you work
weekends, you can also suggest a weekend appointment. If you are
busy, here is a plan for scheduling appointments. Each week set aside
one morning, one afternoon, and one evening. These should be on
different days. This will allow you to cater to the scheduling
demands of your callers nicely, without wasting a lot of your time.
Monday morning and late Friday afternoon appointments will generate
higher no-show rates.
All appointments
must be confirmed. This is an iron clad rule. Your no-show rate will
be far too high if you don't confirm. Whenever an appointment is set,
the telemarketer must get two phone numbers, work and home. If the
caller won't give a phone number either refuse the appointment or
double book it. I would suggest refusing the appointment unless there
was a good story about why they couldn't give you the number. The
telemarketer can say that they won't tell anyone else who they are.
Never leave confirming messages on answering machines if your
services can be of a confidential nature. The day before the
appointment it should be confirmed. The person doing the confirmation
calls should so initial the appointment in the appointment book to
show that the call was confirmed. There are no acceptable excuses for
not making the confirming calls. You will nip a lot of no-shows in
the bud this way. You will also get a chance to reset a lot of would
be no-shows.
Incoming telephone
calls should last no more than three minutes. If they are running
over, there is something wrong that is usually going to be beyond the
ability of the telemarketer to deal with. A really good telemarketer
that understands the technical side of what you do, can handle such
people but they are hard to find. You might want to consider calling
people back. I don't mean the cantankerous ones. I mean the ones with
numerous questions. It might take you 10 minutes to comfort them
enough for them to proceed with the buying process, but that is
usually time well spent. The other thing to consider is that your
competition usually won't have the proper person spend time with
these people.
Remember, you only
sell for the appointment on the telephone unless it is a mail order
type business. When you see them, is when you sell them. All the
large successful businesses train their telephone people in incoming
telemarketing techniques. Don't think that you can wage a successful
marketing campaign without training your telemarketers.
I have been
exposed to some outgoing telemarketing strategies over the years.
Most normal businesses fail in their outgoing telemarketing efforts.
Outgoing telemarketing is practically an art form in itself and
beyond the scope of a normal businessman. The experienced
telemarketers only work with products that lend themselves to telemarketing. |
