I felt like I was a comedy guest on an evening talk show. Just as I was taking a sip of my coffee, the caller asked me the stupidest question…one I found so hilarious I couldn’t help but spray a mouthful of Folgers across the room. Luckily I wasn’t facing my computer. She stopped her spiel when she heard me drop the phone and it took me a moment to grasp the receiver again and regain my composure. “Did you just seriously ask me if I was the party to which you were speaking?” Her recognition of this fact resulted in an awkward silence followed by the clicking noise of her hanging up. I am sure that the intention was to confirm that she was speaking to the person whose name was on her list, but she would have made Lilly Tomlin proud with her monotone inquiry. I wondered how much someone was paying to have her bumble through call after call.
Hey! Here’s a strike-anywhere match. Why don’t you just pull some bills out of your wallet and set them on fire. That’s pretty much what you’re doing with your marketing budget if you’re not following some basic lead generation telemarketing best practices.
It’s bad enough that the public perception is telemarketers are more often scams artists than not. First the script or call guide needs to qualm those fears and misconceptions. If you aren’t sure how to do that, it’s worth the investment to hire someone who does. Beware of the cheap pitch for buying lists from an unreliable source. That can really create some time wasting headaches and we all know…time is money.
Here are the four most common budget-wasting mistakes made in lead generation telemarketing.
The Four Big Budget Burners of Lead Generation Telemarketing
Obsolete or Poorly Targeted Lists
- Wasted time spent calling numbers that are obsolete.
- Wasted time spent calling prospects that are not pre-qualified for basic demographics.
- Wasted time calling the wrong contact within a company and no strategy for obtaining the correct contact during the call.
Poorly Written Call Scripts
- Script that does not qualify prospect early in the call, thus caller wastes time talking to someone they are not likely to close.
- Script that does not address public perception of fraud, so the recipient of the call never overcomes the doubt of the validity of the caller.
Inadequate Training
- No training of callers or poor training of callers resulting in lost time and lost potential closes by poor execution of calls.
- Lack of supervision by experienced manager who can assist in improving results by correcting and coaching callers during live calls.
Missing or Un-communicated Strategic Plan
- No Plan or Strategy at all, or a poor plan or strategy resulting in wasted time because callers are calling at the wrong time of day, the wrong day of week, getting poor results and not knowing why.
- Callers don’t have the number of daily original calls to be made specified, the number is just impractical, or the number of follow-up calls vs. original calls is not specified or is impractical.
- Poorly defined or impractical call objective, and unclear definition of what constitutes a qualified lead.
Lead generation telemarketing can provide good results if managed properly. It is important that the message used by callers is consistent with an overall marketing content strategy and that the lead nurturing process following the generation of a qualified lead follows this same marketing content strategy. If you are not sure how to develop such a strategic plan, it is well worth the investment in professional services to put these practices in place, otherwise you may as well invest in that box of matches.
Learn more about effective lead generation telemarketing. Subscribe to our blog for regular ideas and tips. Or contact us for a no-obligation consultation and analysis of your sales lead pipeline.
