Telemarketing Lead Generation Blog

How to Ensure a Respectful Teleprospecting Initiative

Posted on Apr 12, 2011 by Kathy Rizzo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Even in the B2B world, cold calling and teleprospecting can be viewed as intrusive and self-serving. However, for those marketing and sales professionals who take the time to deliver a respectful & thoughtful approach, teleprospecting will initiate meaningful conversations with decision-makers, which will eventually impact your bottom-line.

So what steps will ensure an approach, which is both respectful and successful?

Here are some of our best practices to accomplish this -

1. Talk less, listen more. The best cold callers are not necessarily the best talkers—they are the best listeners. By asking open-ended questions such as: “How is that working for you?” or “Can you tell me more?” sets the stage for the prospect to open up. Additionally, making simple statements such as “that’s interesting” or even just stating a single word such as “fascinating” followed by a pause, encourages the prospect to continue talking and sharing information. Overall, a good talk/listen ratio is 30/70.
2. Set an agenda to guide your conversation. Verbatim scripts cannot start a real conversation. However, jumping into a call without clear direction will also fail. Thus, it’s important to create a conversation guide including key messages to convey, as well as pertinent open-ended questions to engage the prospect in a back and forth discussion. Additionally, the guide should list which pieces of information are critical to learn from the conversation.
3. Be relevant to the prospect. Teleprospecting should not be a “shotgun” approach; rather it should be tailored to a specific audience. As you prepare your conversation guide, ask yourself two questions: “What is the reason for this call?” and “Is it relevant to your target prospect?” To ensure relevance, consider the following exercise:
   Identify – Identify a list of the business issues, pains and challenges your solution addresses for specific vertical markets, types of organizations and/or job functions.
   Refine – Of those, select the top two that will resonate the most with your target audience.
   Specify – Prepare messages to articulate how your solution can address the business issues and challenges that you’ve identified. Be as specific as possible in illustrating your value and relevancy. For instance, have a list of similar reference customers and/or be prepared to provide an example of quantifiable results you’ve achieved.

For more of TeleNet’s best practices, read – Nine Tips for a Respectful & Successful Teleprospecting Approach

Tagged: lead generation, telemarketing lead generation, teleprospecting, targeted lead generation, telemarketing sales leads

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