How To Use The Telephone To Recruit Prospects And Customers.

Many telemarketers experience frustration at their failure to successfully recruit prospects and customers in their marketing efforts. This is because of their failure to use an approach which includes attraction marketing principles.

The failure and frustration experienced by many telemarketers in their efforts are due principally to their not using the telephone as part of a larger attraction marketing strategy of establishing trust with prospects. This trust is established by first giving prospects what they want in the form of value. We must first provide valuable content to our target market so that prospects come to us first and initiate the business relationship. This is the first step. An example of this would be when a sales consultant holds a free or low cost seminar with tips about “how to optimize the sales of your product in a recession”, he would use advertising of this seminar through regular methods - newspaper, mailers, television, etc., and get a response from persons interested in sales who he can then provide these valuable tips to.



The same sales consultant can with the use of the internet offer a series of video tutorials or emails on the same topic and can create a lead capture page that takes his prospects to these tutorials while at the same time building an email and/or telephone list. He can then call or even have them call him for further consultations. The point is he can now establish a business relationship after providing value where he can offer his consultancy services. Another example offline is when an affiliate marketer is seeking business partners to build his organization. He can offer an offline workshop entitled “How to Generate a New Revenue Stream to Cushion this Tough Economy”. He can use this approach rather than promote his offering upfront by building a relationship based on his knowledge of successful affiliate marketing. At the seminar he can offer free consultations to prospective affiliate marketers and at the same time gathering valuable lead information.

In all these examples and there are many more that can be listed, one is always providing value upfront and be willing to provide more value in future interactions. One can use any media to initially and subsequently provide the value, whether it is email marketing, video tutorials, a blog, or Web 2.0 social marketing methods. All these methods are excellent and very inexpensive to use. There are also no limit to the type of niche market you are involved in whether it is network marketing, SEO, travel industry, weight loss, wellness and nutrition, or other.

Only when you have established the relationship based on trust and expertise should you then use the telephone to further your marketing program with your prospects. When you begin this, be prepared to offer more value over the telephone. Traditionally telemarketing relied on initial conversations around family, occupation, recreation and money (F.O.R.M), but this is now obsolete and ineffective. Instead we now need to put the emphasis on providing the value that they want currently rather than on what your offering is. This should be the strategy because
a) They don’t know that they want your offering as yet, and
b) They don’t know that they want to buy from you as yet and this should never be assumed.

The value that you can offer over the phone should be similar to the value provided in the initial interactions. For instance if the prospect was from a network or affiliate marketing stream continue to offer and speak on this subject in general terms depending on frame of mind of the prospect –
1) Do they know about blogs and their benefits in network or affiliate marketing?
2) Do they know about Web 2.0 social marketing methods and the benefits to be had?
3) Do they know about lead capture pages and their ability to enhance substantially your lead generation capabilities?

During the first telephone consultation (which should be no more than twenty minutes) find out about the type of business they are in, what are their goals, how long they have been involved in it and their level of success. At the end of the conversation you can recommend a book or an ebook to read. Ask them if they will be willing to have a second conversation to discuss the contents of the book recommended or to have further discussions on their business.

If they agree to a second call at a agreed date, prepare for this call using the following approach :-

1) Decide on the objective of this second call before hand. You can do this by answering the following questions yourself:-
Why should the prospect talk to you? Define the real purpose of the call from the prospects point of view, whether it is affiliate or network marketing knowledge or any other system they may be interested in. How will your offer benefit their business? What can be accomplished by they using your offer? What information is needed to be at hand for the call? If the prospect at the end of this second call agree to continue the consultation or purchase the offer, what are their responsibilities? These are the preparations needed for this second call.

 To summarize - the objective of your second call is gain a concept of what your prospect’s view is of what you have to offer. Listen attentively to what they are saying and clarify with them any misunderstandings that they might have. Describe your offering only in terms as it relates to their specific needs. If they agree to further consultations get a commitment from them that they read or familiarize themselves with information on your offering that you will provide either by email or fax.

After the call, you should carry out an assessment of the call (this will help you improve for future calls). The questions that you should ask yourself are - What information did you receive? Did you rush the process? Did you make your points clear enough? What level of commitment were you able to get and if not why? Are there unspoken issues with this prospect such as personal problems or lack of trust? If so , what can I do about this?

Your third call should focus on closing the sale without pushing. With this call you should define the problem for your prospect, you should then list the options possible for a solution and you should recommend the best solution as you see it. Your solution should be a win-win solution for both yourself and the prospect in that neither party loses out in the transaction.