4 Common Mistakes Telemarketers Commit and Are Unaware Of

4 Common Mistakes that Telemarketers Commit and are Unaware Of

November 14, 2015 • Jimmy Rodela • Call Center Agent Training

If you aren’t familiar with the tricks of the trade of the telemarketing industry, the chances are good that you’ll find it to be quite a challenging task.

Even the first 20 seconds of the call is crucial as it can determine the entire course of the call. The first few seconds of the phone call can be a make-or-break deal for most telemarketers.

Just to make sure that you avoid the common pitfalls that most telemarketers make (but aren’t aware of), I’d like to share with you these mistakes:

1. Product-centric and not customer-centric

Understanding that your services should be centered around your customers and not on your products is the first step that will bind all things together in perfect harmony.

Most frontliners forget that aside from successfully closing the sales, what matters more is addressing what the CUSTOMER NEEDS.

According to a study conducted by Deloitte and Touche, they proposed that companies that are customer-centric are ahead by 60% in terms of profit as compared to those that are not.

Tip: Telemarketing is most effective when it is viewed as an opportunity to provide information and to address customer needs. Try seeing it in this light instead of seeing it as a sales call. What your customer needs should determine the action you are to take or propose.

2. You know nothing about your customer

There’s nothing wrong with gathering information prior to performing a sales call. This will even help you in analyzing what products would best fit the interests of your prospects.

To support this idea, 45% of online shoppers would revisit sites that recommend products according to their preferences. This goes to show that these websites used customer-related information to their advantage.

Tip: Your call should be highly personalized and crafted in a way that will meet your customer’s needs. You should obtain demographics, preferences, needs and other things to make your product relevant. Relate your services by drawing hints on what they might be looking for.

3. Unprecedented information

Usual scenario:
1. call up prospects
2. introduce once they pick up
3. get right down to business

A monologue that takes on this structure just makes the nature of the call intrusive and annoying, already taking into account that outbound calls are unsolicited. And in this case, first impression literally means everything.

Tip: Before you start offering information about the purpose of your call, it’s good to start off with statements that relate to your customers’ needs—which is exactly why you need to gather information about your prospect.

After which, you can ease through the conversation by presenting the value of the product/services you can provide.

4. Being passive

Most telemarketers would start feeling discouraged whenever a customer hints disinterest or is simply unavailable to take the call. The key here is to stay active by choosing to influence the situation. Being rejected is part of the equation but it will also challenge you to shift your mindset.

Tip: When customers are unavailable, never forget to offer a callback. Ask them what time would be most favorable for them. Assume that they would agree to your proposition.

What’s next?

Are there questions or suggestion that you’d like to share? If you answered that question with a “yes”, then please share your ideas in the comments section below.

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