Lingo Blog

Lingo Shows Commitment

Friday 23rd of December 2011 11:58:50 AM

Everyone knows that a good business partnership requires input from both sides.

We like working with companies who understand and appreciate how we work. Who start calling us 'a capability' or 'an integral part of our team' rather than an arms length 'supplier'. In turn, we go in further out of our way for those clients who like working with us and love the results we produce.

Over the years we have developed some fantastic business relationships but not always got it right. Sometimes issues arise when a client underestimates the market or their input to make things work. Sometimes the project just isn't right for us. Certainly we've shared our fun list of 'How Not to Do Telemarketing' at presentations and client set-up meetings!

A  little while ago we all got together to consider what works and what doesn't when preparing a successful telemarketing campaign. We came up with our, rather dryly named, 'Commitment Document'. (If you think of a better name, let us know!)

Here it is. It sets down our commitment to clients and what we hope our clients will commit to us. It's written from the view of a telemarketing company, but many of the points probably hold true for any company / suppplier relationship.

 

Tags: supplier relations, commitment document, agency brief

Lingo is running a Free Seminar on ‘How to Source B2B Telemarketing Data’ on 18th January 2012

Tuesday 13th of December 2011 11:23:00 AM

How often do you find yourself buying data only to find it is inaccurate, out of date or doesn’t have the details you need? How do you avoid costly mistakes at the start of your lead generation campaign and get it right first time?

Lingo is not tied to any single data provider and have become expert in helping clients source, negotiate and manage data lists.

Our second seminar will provide hints and tips on:

• The data list sourcing – getting the brief right
• Negotiation
• Key database activities before starting a lead generation campaign

Afterwards you will have an opportunity to meet and quiz some of our experienced team.

The following will find our seminar useful:

• Managing Directors, Sales Directors, Finance Directors, Brand Managers, Procurement Managers and Marketing Directors looking for help with
  • national or local B2B database sourcing
  • national or local B2B lead generation

• Call Centre and Telemarketing Managers running in-house B2B  telemarketing campaigns

For a snapshot of our previous seminar visit : http://www.youtube.com/user/LingoTelemarketing

Booking Details

Date: Wednesday 18^th January 2012

Time: 7.45am for 8.00am start (finishing 9.00am)

Venue: Eynsham Hall, OX29 www.eynshamhall.com/contact

Refreshments: Continental breakfast, tea/coffee will be provided

Places are limited and booking is essential. If you are interested in attending, please contact us in any of the ways below:

1. Send an email to contactme@lingotelemarketing.com with ‘DATA SEMINAR’ in the subject line.
2. Call us on 01865 477 013

P.S. If you have any specific questions regarding data, send them with your request and we’ll do our best to address them on the day.

Rejection and how to deal with it

Friday 21st of October 2011 12:18:00 PM

Bill has written another blog - we think he's got the blog bug!

Anyone who has been involved in looking for new business for their company will have experienced this. You can be rejected politely or it can be harsh. Whichever way it comes, it can be deeply dispiriting when you’ve spent a morning on the ‘phone and got nowhere. Why do all these potential customers not want to know you? It can seem so personal.

The first thing to remember is that it is not personal. They are not rejecting you – unless you’re being particularly obnoxious in your approach, and let’s assume you’re not!

Think of all the reasons why they might say no before you call. Do a little research beforehand – the web makes this so easy. Do they use what you are offering and what might they use it for? How key is it to their business? Are you going to talk to the right person? Do you even have a name? Think about what you can offer that differentiates you from your competitors. Plan what you are going to say and write it down (I don’t mean in a rigid script but as key points) – it’s easy to dry up and a couple of seconds pause can make anyone sound uncertain of what they are talking about.

Once you’ve done this, start calling. Check that you are talking to the right person and ask if it is a convenient time to talk. If it isn’t, don’t persist but agree a time when they can talk – and make sure you call at the agreed time.

If they tell you they’ve just signed a two year contract, don’t expect them to break it just for you. Agree a time to call back when they will be considering their next contract and maybe find out what they were looking for this time.

If they so 'no' outright, probe gently as to why, it may help on the next call to another prospect.

Finally, there is the ‘never- available’ person or the one who lives behind voicemail. Try them at different times of the day, before 9am or after 5pm. Ask for help from the receptionist and their colleagues.

All this planning can reduce rejection. However, you will never remove it entirely so keep telling yourself that it’s not you they’re rejecting. If you have called three times a day for a period of time when you know the person is there, give it a rest for a while and then try again.

And remember, rejection isn’t forever and that needs and people will change in their businesses just as much as they do in your own, thereby creating opportunities for you. Be persistent, and always be pleasant.

Tags: sales rejection, voicemail, gatekeeper

Telemarketing - The Only Way is Ethics

Thursday 6th of October 2011 03:41:11 PM

To those of us who receive pushy sales calls whilst we are sitting down at home in the evening, the subject of ethics would not seem to apply to telemarketing. Even those of us in the marketing world decry these calls by so called “telemarketers”., and I would be amongst the first to agree – and I work in telemarketing. So how do I square this dichotomy?

To start with, it would be easy to take the snooty view and dismiss this as the sordid end of the Business to Consumer sector – double glazing, energy suppliers, credit agencies and the like – but that would be to ignore the calls we get at the office from someone offering the “the biggest database of companies ever” or offering us space in some directory that we’ve never heard of?

So, ethics then? If you are to have a sustainable business relationship with your customers and potential customers, you should not be seen as the enemy to be kept at bay under any circumstances, but as a business that is interested in what they do, wants to forge a business relationship with them for the long haul and is not merely trying to sell something of nebulous value. How do you do this?

You put yourself in their place. Being able to empathise with a customer is not “going native”, it is researching before the call, listening when on the call and responding to what the customer says. Good manners dictate that this is what we do in our social life so why should business be any different? Sure, you need to keep control of the call to ensure your points are getting across but, when a customer talks, he or she is telling you why they will buy (or even why you’re wasting your time talking to them). If you ask, they will also tell you if the time is not right and when it might be a better time to talk. Not to listen to this is, at best, foolish and, at worst, suicidal.

If you behave over the phone in an ethical and polite manner, people tend to respond positively. If not, then any further marketing you do, be it social media, ads in trade mags, exhibitions or commercials, all they will remember is the ‘pushy sales call’.

I had a call from a well-known double glazing firm one Saturday lunchtime. I pointed out that I had just had my windows changed and tried to end the call. The person at the other end told me they were not trying to sell (no, of course not - that was why they were calling on a Saturday lunchtime!) but were calling from the marketing department and wanted to do some research. Despite my better judgement, I relented. The question was “If you had all the money in the world, which window in your house would you change?” I restated the fact that all were changed very recently and I had exactly what I wanted. She persisted with the question and I gave the same answer again. She then seemed to get annoyed that I wasn’t going to play and said “Look, money is no object. Pick a window” but I stuck to my guns. She then said “You just haven’t got any imagination, have you?” I hung up. I still remember the name of the company. The only way is ethics? You bet it is.

Written by Bill, one of our telemarketers

Tags: telemarketing ethics

You are not alone in thinking telemarketing is intrusive

Friday 16th of September 2011 04:14:47 PM

Yesterday morning, well before the moon had set and the morning frosts had lifted over the beautiful Eynsham Hall, we were gathered in a packed seminar room listening to prospective clients’ thoughts on telemarketing. Comments like ‘Don’t listen’, ‘talk too much’ and ‘car salesmen’ from the Insurance and Events guys drew murmurs of agreement from the others who were too busy munching on their croissants to join in at this point. Goodness.

Luckily, they were all there for our very first seminar, ‘How to Set Up a Successful Telemarketing Campaign’. Several of today’s breakfast gang are using in-house resource for their telemarketing and others have chosen to outsource this activity. But, however you are doing it, to ‘telemarket’ successfully you simply have to agree on your targets (what do you want to achieve through your telemarketing?), agree on your messaging (what’s different about your business?), really look at the people you are using for your telemarketing (are they happy/confident/relaxed on the telephone?), invest in good data (is it current?), and manage your calls (call back when you have arranged to do so). And just keep doing it.

Our aim was to exorcise some of the myths around telemarketing and to share some of the uniqueness of Lingo’s approach to it, and it looks like it worked, which is great. We’ve been inundated with positive feedback including, “Thank you for the presentation. It was really very useful and definitely an approach we’d consider for a marketing ‘push’ in the future.” from one delegate. Thank you again to everybody who made it.

Here at Lingo it is certainly much easier to telemarket successfully. We are not fitting the calls in around the day job for a start. It is our core business, it is our area of expertise, and we enjoy doing it which definitely makes it so much easier to get through those gatekeepers that you all love to hate, so it makes perfect sense to talk to us about your telemarketing activity today.

Based on the fantastic feedback we’ve had about this inaugural breakfast seminar, we are planning to run regular seminars on specific telemarketing-related themes. The next one, ‘Data – What to Consider and How to Source It’ is on Wednesday 18th January 2012. Let us know if you’d like to be invited and we’ll make sure there are enough croissants to go round.

Tags: telemarketing seminar, database sourcing

Lingo - It's down to the people silly!

Monday 15th of August 2011 01:17:42 PM

One of my team has just had a conversation with someone who was affronted that we didn’t know everything about his industry before we called. My colleague explained that he has worked in the sector and simply wanted to know whether we, as an outsource company, could add any value but the guy simply wasn’t listening.

The point is that the sector is immaterial – people buy from people and the same principles of selling apply no matter what industry you are in, because you are always dealing with people. It’s just that many individuals don’t like or can’t do the selling bit!

The questions the guy should have asked himself are:

1. Do I need more business leads?
2. Do I have a large enough potential customer base? (No point outsourcing if my entire market consists of 10 companies)

If the answers are ‘yes’ - the rest can be learnt and managed as long as you have the right skilled people. So, do you have the enough of the right sort of people to bring in the leads?

Tags: good sales people, people buy from people, sales skills

Lingo Tip - Fridays are good!

Friday 29th of July 2011 01:54:31 PM

It's Friday and we're having a great time. All of the projects we're working on are getting great results.

So many people tell us that they want to avoid Fridays and holiday times as they reckon they are poor times to call. Don't you believe it!

True you'll end up possibly making more calls, but the quality of those calls when you get through will be higher as it's usually easier to speak directly with a decision maker. Think about it, don't you often feel more relaxed and chatty when everyone is in 'weekend'/'holiday' mode?

Tags: calling times

Lingo Tip - Are your systems letting you down?

Thursday 21st of July 2011 01:24:55 PM

A key route to telemarketing success is consistency. A key route to consistency is having robust processes and systems in place – otherwise you can quickly get tangled up. It’s not a ‘nice to have’, it’s essential.

Tags: CRM, call planning, organisation, sales planning, consistency

Lingo Tip - Be polite

Monday 11th of July 2011 03:19:00 PM

When you call for the first time - no one is expecting a call. Be polite, be clear and ask them if now is a good time to talk?

If it's not a good time, schedule a good time and rejoice in how much time you've saved.

Tags: telemarketing tip, cold calling, telesales tip, business development tip

Welcome to our new website

Tuesday 5th of July 2011 03:18:00 PM

We know that people liked our old site but we needed an upgrade!

Did we do the right thing in upgrading?! Let us know - comments on our new website

Tags: new website, lingo, telemarketing, new blog, upgrade

Data Seminar - a few places left

Thursday 1st of January 1970 12:00:00 AM

Bookings are going well for our free database seminar on 18th January.

Seems there are quite a few people out there confused about how to find and purchase good quality B2B data and recognising how important this is to lead generation.

We've also had good feedback that people appreciate a targetted, information-rich meeting in the morning which has little impact on the rest of their working day.

There are a few places left before the booking deadline of 12th January, so let us know if you'd like to attend - details and booking information is here

Hope to see you there.

Tags: how to source data, purchase data, datalists for lead generation,

Telemarketing team dares to publish biogs!

Thursday 1st of January 1970 12:00:00 AM

People are often telling us how impressed they are by the quality of people who work here - and they really like the fact that they get to work with dedicated telemarketers.

Simple things like knowing the name and background of the person(s) working on their campaign can make a big difference.

We didn't realise that was such a big deal until someone recently pointed it out to us!

So we're decided to add a 'biography' page to our website - to give a taster of the calibre of the team - you can find it here. 

 

 

Tags: telemarketing team biographies, telesales biogs