The need and desire for a personal touch means that teleprospecting will never become obsolete.  While its role in marketing strategies has changed, there is tremendous value in regards to lead qualification, appointment setting, gathering business intelligence and event promotion.  Here we outline how to get the most out of your teleprospecting efforts.

Do Your Research

Don’t make a first call without a plan. You want to research details about the company you are going to call such as the target market, offerings, target revenue or even the level of the decision maker that you hope to reach. There should also be a set of expectations that will measure the success of a teleprospecting campaign.

Role Play

Role Playing allows you to practice your presentation and gives you a chance to review the anatomy of a call and get comfortable with the talking points. There will be common objections that will arise during your calls so if you already know what to expect, this will make you feel more confident and help you maintain a strategic conversation.

Prepare For Each Call

Before dialing the phone, you want to make sure that you have everything in place. You want to have your blueprint, call list, objection handling and follow-up conversations within reach so in the event they are needed, you will have them handy and not stumble while making your pitch. There should also be a strategic purpose for the call. For example, are we calling to set up a meeting or have the company sign up for a specific program?

Understand The Call Anatomy

There is a structure when it comes to an effective teleprospecting call. The first part is being able to get past the gatekeepers. Their primary duty is to filter the information to the decision makers. Being able to transfer through different departments and ask for the direct line to the decision maker is always a good start. Once you have the decision maker’s line, you want to start mapping how the conversation will go with them before placing the call.

Dealing With Gatekeepers

Callers must find a way to get past the non-decision makers and gatekeepers. You can read how someone is feeling simply by listening to his or her tone. If you come across a new and young gatekeeper, be enthusiastic and friendly and they will likely just transfer you to who you need to speak with. A more experienced gatekeeper that has been with the company for quite some time will be more cautious or simply hang up so you need to have a more gentle tone. It takes time to allow people to trust you especially over the phone so you need to be able to adapt to whom you will be speaking with.

Open-Ended Questions

It’s important to not ask questions that allow the prospect to only answer with yes or no since that could lead to awkward silence or lead them to hang up on you. When asking specific questions, you allow the prospect to engage in the conversation. This approach will increase the chances of getting them to agree to your suggested next steps.

Persistence Pays Off

With any new task, consistency and persistence are essential. If gatekeepers are a problem, you could try calling when a decision maker is more likely to be in the office or when the gatekeeper is away: early morning or late evening. You could even try to get an email address in order to directly email the appropriate person.

Confirm Appointments

This is an important tip, as you need to see if you caught the prospect’s full commitment. As you wrap up the call repeat the details, confirm next steps and verify you have the correct date and time for the appointment.

Integrate Digital Components

Teleprospecting has the goal of getting the prospect to open up whether it be sending an email, answering the phone, returning a phone call or initiating a conversation around their situation. This allows the caller to identify key pain points and learn where to steer the conversation.

Define A Qualified Lead

There should be a clear definition around which leads are for teleprospecting. They should be evaluated and adjusted based on the programs and the capacity of the team. Leads generated from inbound marketing and email campaigns are best served by qualifying them with teleprospecting efforts prior to passing them along to sales.