Over the years, the dynamic telemarketing domain has evolved significantly. Today, it is an overarching concept that encompasses all activities that utilize the telephone to connect with potential clients. This includes product or service awareness, lead generation, market research, canvassing established clients and sale of products existing or new clients.
The importance of call centers necessitates many businesses to employ and outsourced partners as part of their marketing strategy. When done correctly telemarketing outsourcing often achieves greater results compared to in-house operations.
Here is a comprehensive guide to subcontracting your telephone campaigns.
1. DETERMINE WHETHER IT IS RIGHT FOR YOU
Telephone marketing is certainly not right for every business. You have to spend some time to work put if it is the appropriate approach for your specific market, the products, and services you offer or for the structure of your organization.
A good practice is to ask the company you seek to partner up with about their take on this. You will learn a lot about the company itself in the process.
2. INTEGRATION INTO YOUR SALES PROCESS
As per the website Outsourcing Insight, Telemarketing produces the highest result when you use it in conjunction with other marketing strategies you employ. The key to succeeding in this regard is utilizing your business intelligence.
You can use the information acquired from telemarketing to segment and target your other direct marketing strategies. The resultant responses can be useful in the reformation of your overall marketing program.
3. PLAN YOUR TELEMARKETING CAMPAIGN
The importance of clearly defined objectives cannot be overstated. There is a direct correlation between the quality of your preparation and the effectiveness of an outsource telemarketing campaign. This step has several phases.
The first phase is determining the in-house members that will be involved in planning and vendor selection. One of the main reasons why telephone marketing campaigns fail is lack of internal support from the client end. You have a higher likelihood of success if your business ensures engagement between the concerned parties at an early stage.
The next phase involves determining the specifics of the project you wish to outsource. This will aid in the initial
project briefing for both external and internal use. This step is referred to
as “process definition.” It will decide on some important factors
such as:
- An overview of the project
- The aims and objectives of the campaign
- The timelines and timescales involved
- The volumes (number of calls, sales,
personnel required or outcomes) - The key performance indicators needed
- You will determine the length of the
process definition phase. It is recommendable not to drag it out for too long.
4. SELECTING A TELEMARKETING PARTNER
Vendor selection can make or break your marketing campaign. As such, this process should be very thorough. The first step is determining the number of qualities of your ideal vendor for telephone marketing.
There are certain questions that you should ask. Should the subcontract be onshore or offshore? What size of the business is most appropriate? Do you need any specific accreditation? What specific skills, technology or experience does you campaign require?
A competent outsourced contact center service provider must have systems and networks will certain characteristics.
These include:
·Availability- must ensure that services and applications are accessible round the clock to accommodate multiple clients.
·Manageability- must be able to reconfigure and troubleshoot systems as well as customize applications. They should be able to establish new services, and call flows easily.
·Quality of Service– this will be specified in service level agreements. It is a measure of the reliability and quality of voice and data services.
·Redundancy- involves protection from system failures and data loss. The vendor should be able to run without service interruptions and operate well in disaster recovery situations.
·Scalability – the vendor must possess the ability to increase capabilities through modular increments as opposed to forklift upgrades.
·Security– should have policies and systems in place to prevent compromise of client data and privacy violations.
Lastly, you have to be confident that the vendor comprehends your products or services, sales objectives, operations
and overall goals.
5. EFFECTIVE BRIEFING
This final step is very important. During the briefing meeting with your telemarketing vendor, ensure that all the details of your project are clarified. These details include initial target market, leads criteria, targets, updating, and reporting.
It is at this point that you decide on a feedback mechanism. This will ensure that your business receives detailed
reports and notes on progress. Both positive and negative feedback will be useful in informing your marketing program.
CONCLUSION
Overall, externalizing your telephone marketing operations can benefit your organization with the right checks and balances in place. These benefits include reduced costs, flexibility and scalability, access to specialized knowledge, dedicated call managers, big data collection and analysis and access to latest technologies.