“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” gained popularity as an expression in the 1970s when newbie computer users wanted their software to remain the same when it began to make sense to them. A southernism that many remember from an earlier time, it shows that people like for things to remain the same. Telemarketing services has a reputation that claims that people do not like it, but statistics show that businesses want it to remain the same as they prove with their response to it. Zoom Info cites data indicating that most decision makers accepted an appointment from a cold call or went to an event because of it. Even though the cold call system does still work in our high-tech contemporary society, some statistics can help you improve your success rate even when it does not need fixing.
Understanding the Challenge
Research statistics at Zoom Info show that most salespeople (63 percent) say that they dislike cold calling the most about their job. You can understand the reason for their opinion when you consider that it produces no good result for 90.9 percent of the time. The challenge increases with the statistic that not even 2 percent of cold calls result in a meeting. In the face of what appears as an uphill battle, you may wonder how to improve your odds of success in a difficult business.
Measuring the Quality of Data
When accuracy matters as much as it does in cold calling, the quality of the marketing data that you use can make a significant difference in performance. Red Base Interactive cites statistics on B2B contact data that reflect a degrading of quality at 2.1 percent per month. The result for the year produces an inaccuracy of data rate of 25-30 percent. Errors can occur from including outdated information, duplicates, data entry mistakes and missing items. The problem reaches damaging proportions when ineffective sales leads result from the estimated 40 percent of B2B that contain bad data.
The unreliable information that you count on can prevent you from reaching your targeted buyer or cause you to call the wrong person. In either case, it can make you feel unprepared for your calls. Aiming too high or at the wrong person can make you miss your target. C-suite executives notoriously do not respond to cold calls, and almost as many buyers prefer to avoid them as well. The picture of how to improve your success rate with better data becomes quite clear when you examine the facts.
Finding a Home for Data Maintenance
A potential reason for the lack of data quality may lie in the absence of anyone taking care of it. In many organisations, the job belongs to no one. Everyone has something to do that seems more important, with marketing’s focus on lead development and sales’ preference for contract closings. The inattention that quality receives allows inaccurate data, fraudulent names or unqualified leads to make telemarketing services less effective. Studies show that data disintegrates as changes occur.
Instead of finger-pointing and trying to find who needs to take the blame for poor data quality that affects cold calls severely, companies can automate the process. Software products on the market can verify contact addresses with phone and other data, providing a quality rating based on various data points. Some can produce 75 percent accuracy from finding corresponding phone numbers for your contact data and verifying it against a database of hundreds of millions of business and other types of listings. You can find software that verifies your phone contact records and improves the accuracy of your leads even including wireless numbers that may have changed since you last used them.
The return on investment that your company can get from automating the process may improve the effectiveness of your sales and marketing efforts as prospects become customers. Data quality tools can handle a job that seems to belong to no one and turn it into revenue-building opportunities.
Learning from Experts
Charlie Cook, the noted leader in marketing and management, offers suggestions that can improve telemarketing services. He acknowledges the bias that many people have against what they consider as the obtrusiveness of cold calls and that few telemarketers have a natural ability to do it well. He even adds a few more facts that deserve consideration. You can expect a conversion rate of about 2 percent for cold calls as opposed to about 20 percent for a solid lead or up to 50 percent for a referral. Even so, he suggests some practical ways that you can prepare for success in your calls.
Using Proper Technique
Cook maintains that improper technique causes most cold calls to fail. A big believer in picking up the phone to speak personally to a prospect, he recommends principles that he considers fundamental. The marketing expert appreciates the value of email, websites, sales letters and advertising, but none of them appeal to him as much as a phone call to get immediate results. In his approach, he recommends making a call an opportunity to view your prospect as a partner.
- Showing Respect
As you approach a business partner with respect for time and access, you can employ a similar method with someone on the phone. After you state your name, you need to ask if the prospect has a moment to talk to you. In this way, you have permission to engage in a conversation. A part of sincere respect requires acceptance of refusal if someone must pay attention to other priorities at the time of your call. If they have too many things going on, you can schedule a time to make a return call with their permission. The technique entitles you to continue a conversation another time.
- Offering a Reason to Listen
If you can mentally change places with your prospect, you can understand their concerns about time. You can allay some of their resistance by saying that you need just a few moments of their time, and then you must state concisely the reason for your call. The best approach requires you to describe your firm’s product or services in terms that matter to them. The technique requires you to research the prospect’s company so that you can make a meaningful connection for them. If you have not yet developed an elevator speech, one that requires less than 30 seconds to deliver, you need to do it now. With the practice that can make the presentation of it perfect, you can adapt it to fit any prospect’s company.
- Asking Questions
Many experts in the field of telemarketing services recommend asking questions and interspersing them throughout a conversation instead of making many at the beginning. When you get back in touch and you have accurate and up-to-date data, you can request permission to proceed with the conversation. With confidence in the knowledge that you have gained from researching the company and its potential need for your product or services, you have a basis for asking what works well currently for them and what solutions they think that they need.
- Scheduling the Next Step
Make sure to summarise your understanding of the points they expressed about their needs. If you think that your company can provide a solution, ask if they think a meeting or a follow-up call may prove worthwhile to them.
