Author: Mike Dunn
9 Times out of 10, when you hear the word "telemarketing", you think of phone calls at home whilst you’re watching Corrie, or scripted calls where you almost listen to a robot. I’m not daft, I’ve worked in sales and telemarketing pretty much since I left school, and I’ve worked for a mixture of companies before setting up Excel. Some were great and some were NOT, some were B2B and some B2C.
The one thing I have learnt from each of them was that regardless of the industry, telemarketing, cold calling, lead generation, business development – whatever you want to call it, it is usually frowned upon.
The truth is, apart from retention, generating new business is the cog that kickstarts the entire machine; it’s one of the key ingredients that make your targets for the year a reality.
Okay, that might sound slightly dramatic, but you have to admit it sounded good!
Well, it's approaching 2 and half years since Excel TM Group was launched and still now we get asked "what does the TM stand for?"
Due to our level of consultancy and work ethic, a few of our clients have mentioned changing our name or even rebranding and I must admit, the thought has crossed my mind and a few names have even been thrown out but… why change something that not only works but also something that describes what you do so well! The whole purpose of Excel TM Group was to challenge the status quo of telemarketing and challenge the general overview of how it is perceived, we have often been viewed as market disruptors and to some, a general pain in the arse.
The reality is, in some ways, Excel are still the new kid on the block! No cash injection, no investment, no loan, nothing! Everything we do is from the ground up and that is why we love the TM being in our name. It’s what we do, it's our job, and above all, it's our passion.
Our range and depth of experience allow us to tailor our approach and deliver results which provide ROI to our clients, however, telemarketing isn’t a quick turnaround. If you want to be the difference in what you do and create a name for yourself then you have to accept that ultimately from time to time “sh*t will hit the fan” and mistakes will be made, there is no point in sugar-coating it or trying to escape it!
Telemarketing is probably the one industry in which you are guaranteed to piss someone off, one way or another, you will. It’s the one industry where having skin like a rhino is a must, accepting rejection is part of the role and not taking things personally is key. Like I said at the start, how many times do you get a call at home and either put the phone down or “politely” tell someone you are not interested?
Another key element is also accepting that it's not always going to work.
Not all telemarketing campaigns will be as successful as the others. Anyone who provides this service will hopefully say the same -sometimes it simply doesn’t go to plan and like everything I covered earlier – you have to accept it and move on.
I am more than happy to admit that I have probably lost out on more proposals than I have won, but it doesn’t keep me up at night and I refuse to let it affect my personal life – It is what it is!
That’s telemarketing in a nutshell, you win some, you lose some, and some of the best salespeople I have worked with weren’t phased by losing out on a deal which had lots of zeroes at the end because they were too busy making the calls which would rectify and cover that loss. That’s because they understood the whole thing is a numbers game, its pipeline building and above all its resilience to keep going and that is key!
I’m going to say something that might raise a few eyebrows, but... call stats really don’t interest me!
Targeting people on how many calls they make in a day is not something I look for, it's self-explanatory. If you aren’t doing the basics which starts with calling, then you will not generate leads if you don’t generate leads you will not deliver results.
Telemarketing as a whole is almost an art, sometimes people don’t realise just how frustrating it can be. Spending hours calling leads, dealing with rejection, getting let down by prospects and sometimes missing out on commission because a meeting needs to be rearranged.
It would be easy to simply call the low-hanging fruit every day, but our job is to build pipelines and create relationships for our clients. This comes from understanding the brief and being completely honest with clients, it’s not always going to be a quick fix!
If you want to have a quality and efficient pipeline then be patient, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
All in all, I’m proud of what we do; we take the grunt work of sales and implement everything above to make sure you receive ROI, it’s just a case of being honest and transparent.
Contact us today and find out how we have been recognised and, more importantly, nominated as one of the best in construction-specific telemarketing.