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When you run a B2B business, your telemarketing can (and should) look different from other run-of-the-mill telemarketing operations.
You need every call to drive a deeper relationship with your prospects. You need your leads to not just agree to set a sales appointment – but you need them to WANT to set up a sales appointment.
Sales appointment setting through telemarketing can be a daunting task, so we’ve compiled a how-to guide to help you get started!
Let’s dive in-
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The first 15 seconds of a phone call can make or break how successful it is. This time period is your only opportunity to grab their attention, making it even more daunting.
Since their time is valuable, represent yourself and the company in a concise, yet unique, manner. Differentiate your company in order to create a lasting first impression through an intriguing conversation. Be sure you are interesting to talk with by using vocal variety in your tone.
Follow these tips to help capture your prospect’s attention on a cold introductory call, and secure more time with decision-makers!
Have you ever made it far along in the sales cycle with a prospect and then, just when you are about to close the deal, all communication stops? When a prospect ghosts you, it can be frustrating, leaving you wondering what you did wrong and what you could’ve done differently. However, just because communication has stopped doesn’t mean that you won’t ever hear from them again – there can be many reasons for the “ghosting,” and if you had a good feeling about an ultimate sale, the ghosting could simply be due to bad timing. Consider these suggestions for what to do when a prospect ghosts you:
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The last few years haven’t been easy for those working in the B2B sales industry due to many barriers, including working from home, the difficulty of meeting in person, and the obvious non-sales related priorities that have taken over the psyche of buyers. At the beginning of the year, like any year, we were all optimistic about what 2021 would bring, but now we must figure out how to pick up the pieces that the pandemic has left behind. (more…)
One of the most important topics you can cover with your sales reps: the effect that a successful qualification call can have on the sales process. The impact is inimitable. Proper qualification saves the sales team time, so that labor that can be properly allocated to pursuable opportunities. This process prevents pipelines from getting filled with an abundance of unqualified, or more so underqualified, prospects that drain your sales rep’s time and energy. Imagine dialing in multiple times over to the same prospect that is estimated to have 120 employees, only to reach them and find out they actually have 22 on-site! Or making 6 calls over 3 months to Suzie, who turns out to be a “coordinator” – hardly a decision-maker.
Although certain criteria requirements vary from Operator to Operator, the importance of an effective qualification call remains constant.
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—Reprinted with permission from Professional Insurance Agent Management Services Inc.—
In addition to a reliable prospect list, your agency’s value proposition is arguably the most vital element of your overall marketing messaging. A value proposition explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situations. Let’s face it, it’s not always easy to differentiate in the insurance industry. From our work helping insurance agencies get sales appointments with their prospects, differentiating (on paper) has proven to be the most challenging piece of the sales process—but it is the most important first step toward an effective sales strategy.
It’s easy for an insurance agent to be a quote shop, but in an effort to not become commodity-based, let’s explore how to uncover the value proposition to get the insurance buyer’s mind away from just thinking about the price of a policy. That is not to say that the cost shouldn’t be part of the prospects’ mindset, as saving money often is the first consideration. However, how you save them money is part of your value proposition. A solid value proposition demonstrates credibility and expertise while developing trust.
Back in the beginning of the summer, we provided tips to keep your sales pipeline flowing through the summer months. Now let’s keep the momentum going as the decision makers return from their summer vacations, eager to finish out the last quarter strong.
Identify the prospects you contacted these last few months via phone or email, and ask yourself the following questions: Aside from traditional forms of outreach, did you utilize any direct mail campaigns or email newsletters and track clicks? Did you host or attend any summer networking events or conferences? Did you enter new business cards and contact information into your CRM? Did you get your foot in the door when business was slower in the summer? If you engaged in any of the above, hopefully you were recognized for your efforts to distinguish your company among the competition. Your summer efforts can push you forward in the line of competitors vying for the same business now that fall is around the corner.
There is no time like the present to follow up. Find out if there were any holes in your lines of communication. Who did you meet with this summer that should hear from you again? Identify these opportunities and strategize by assigning priorities to each task. (more…)
It is easy to fall into the trap of “I’m calling to give you a quote” rather than engaging in a meaningful dialogue. Asking good questions is the best way to learn more about your prospect’s needs and desires while, at the same time, building rapport. Rather than being viewed as “another Insurance agent”, you will become a valued advisor. This technique is referred to as consultative selling.
It would be easy if there was one right set of questions to ask that would always guarantee responses that we want. The best approach is to create a mix of open-ended questions that get your prospect talking, along with questions that easily yield a “yes” response or get the prospect thinking of what their current broker is NOT doing for them. (more…)
Harvard Business Review article by Adam Waytz on June 05, 2019
Everywhere you look these days it seems that modern commerce has been designed to separate humans from each other. Smartphones keep our attention locked in a virtual realm, online retail allows us to browse and shop without leaving our home, and automated tellers and cashiers seem designed to remove human interaction entirely.
My research and that of others shows that when people think of what it means to be human, they typically consider two fundamental capacities: conscious experience (i.e., the capacity to feel) and agency (i.e., having thoughts and intentions). Human-to-human interaction is central to this conception. As a result, businesses that try to distance its customers from other humans are missing a critical tactic — refocusing their products on services around the power of human interaction provides an opportunity to create enormous social and economic value.
Human contact has an almost magical power: For example, research shows that holding a spouse’s hand or in some cases even holding a stranger’s hand reduces the aversiveness of painful stimuli (e.g., excessive heat, electric shocks).
A human touch also imbues experiences and products with special significance and so increases people’s perception of the value of those (more…)
Summertime is here: the weather’s hot – but don’t let the summer heat wilt your business. In fact, summer is a great time to market – no matter what type of business you have.
Sure, it’s true, more people go on vacation during the summer, but that doesn’t mean that companies shut their doors and head to the beach for the entire three months of summer. The average worker gets two or three weeks off, and the rest of the time it’s business as usual.