We’ve all had experiences with bad telemarketers before – with intrusive calls, aggressive selling tactics and false promises that make us all immediately want to put down the phone.
This type of poor telemarketing has always led to ineffective campaigns with lacklustre results, especially in the B2B environment. To actually lead a successful campaign there are certain skills and attributes a telemarketer must have to help them correctly approach and handle conversations with various types of decision-makers.
Many people apply for telemarketing job roles believing it’s the perfect job for them, thinking “I love speaking over the phone, I’m really social!” and while this confidence is a vital skill for a telemarketer to have, there is much more to telemarketing than simply picking up the phone and having a chat.
In this article, we are going to be delving into what exactly makes a good B2B telemarketer, looking closer at the skills and attributes required to be successful in the role.
Understanding Psychological Cues Over the Phone
Unlike face-to-face conversations, over the phone it's impossible to pick up on body language and many social cues like facial expressions and hand gestures, making it a challenge to understand the behaviour and personality of a prospect.
Telemarketers need to have the ability to still pick up on cues from just a prospects voice, listening closely to speech patterns and tone of voice to determine the prospect’s decision-making behaviours.
Listening to subtle cues in the prospect’s tone, choice of words, and volume can give the telemarketer a good idea of what the prospect might be feeling about the conversation they are having. This is something that telemarketing has over other online marketing strategies like email marketing or social media.
Having a one-on-one conversation with a prospect gives telemarketers the best chances of understanding the prospect and noticing patterns in their behaviours, enabling you to get a clearer sense of how your prospect thinks and acts.
By further understanding how a prospect works and feels through psychological cues, telemarketers can devise a more tailored approach that makes it easier for the prospect to trust and connect with the business.
Using the Appropriate Tone of Voice
Using the appropriate tone of voice can greatly influence the direction of a conversation that telemarketers have with a prospect.
This doesn’t mean adjusting the tone of voice to become over-enthusiastic and happy all the time to encourage a prospect to make a purchase; a telemarketer should enter the call with a respectful and polite voice, listening to the prospect’s speech patterns and tone, then adjusting their voice to mirror the prospect.
When speaking face-to-face, it’s far easier to mirror a prospects energy as you can pick up on facial expressions, hand gestures and posture. Yet when speaking over the phone, all you have is tone of voice, volume and some slight mirroring of vocabulary.
Without having the advantage of using facial expressions and hand gestures, it can be harder to get your message across and make an impact on the prospect. All you have is your tone of voice to accompany your message and make a positive impact on the consumer.
Some telemarketers may think that tone of voice isn’t that important and not worth looking too much into but overlooking your tone can be the downfall of many campaigns. In fact, over the telephone, 84% of communication is the sound of your voice and only 16% the actual words you use.
When a telemarketer subtly mirrors the prospect's tone of voice and language patterns, it can be an effective way of building a connection and significant rapport with that prospect!
The Ability to Alter Their Approach Depending on the Industry They’re Targeting
An experienced and successful telemarketer will be speaking with hundreds of businesses a day.
Over time, these telemarketers will have gained knowledge of various industries and organisations through all of the different conversations they’ve been a part of. This means they know which tone to use, which vocabulary is engaging, and how to best interact with various types of decision-makers!
A telemarketer who has been in the game for long enough will know exactly how to use this knowledge and switch their approach for each conversation they have with a business from a different sector.
They have the ability to go from speaking with a business from the care industry, with a caring and well-mannered attitude to speaking with someone in the construction industry with a more relaxed and informal style in a matter of one conversation.
Having this ability to immediately switch their style to suit each business, gives telemarketers more chances to relate with the prospect by understanding all the terminology and wants/needs that each type of industry has.
Understanding Their Relationship with The Prospect
In some B2B markets, your sales cycles and the prospect’s decision-making processes can be complex and extensive.
Your offering may have to go through various stages of approval before a business makes its final purchasing decision.
Because of this, every interaction with a prospect needs to go smoothly, help to build trust and rapport, and continue to nurture opportunities towards conversion.
Achieving this strong business relationship often needs a human interaction to create a more personal and emotional connection with each prospect. Telemarketing allows for this human touch and is a highly suitable tool for establishing a solid connection.
It’s a telemarketer’s job to ensure that they have a full understanding of where their prospect stands and what stage they are at in their business relationship. Once you’ve got a clear sense of how your prospect feels, you can take the appropriate next steps that are required to move forward in your business relationship.
A good telemarketer will use programs like a CRM system to keep track of the progress they’re making with each prospect, to ensure they can accurately lead the prospect down the path towards a conversion.
To Wrap Up…
So, to sum up, there is more to being a telemarketer than some may believe. It takes a great deal of expertise and experience to become successful at the role and it isn’t always for everyone.
If you are interested in using telemarketing for your business yet lack the right team in-house with the experience and knowledge required, then outsourcing might be an option for you!
At River, our team of telemarketing experts have over 30 years of collective experience, with knowledge from a range of industries to help you generate the quality opportunities you need!
Learn more about how we can help with outsourcing your telemarketing, by visiting the ‘Our Services’ page to give you an idea of the type of services we provide and what we can do to help!
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