Getting Where You Need to Go: The Path to the Decision Maker
If you have ever worked in an office, you know that answering calls is an essential part of the job. The bosses are always busy and only important messages should be sent their way. In most cases, dodging telemarketers comes with the territory. If you find yourself on the other end of that call, however, you need to make sure you’re not lumped together with all the spam email and robo-calls that business owners never think twice about. Lead generation and making first contact go hand in hand. Phone calls will give that personal touch you can only get with genuine conversation, but it is not without its drawbacks. You may have to go through several layers of gatekeepers before you reach your final destination. With B2B telemarketing, you need to make sure your call is important enough to get through to the next person. Take a look at how you can improve your conversations in order to get to the decision maker.
Engage With Everyone
It is natural to assume that the gatekeeper is someone you just need to get past. To you they look like level one and you’re aiming for the leader of the game. While you may be tempted to run right past them, try taking your time. Be polite and courteous to the receptionist. They will be more likely to help someone who is nice to them as opposed to someone who seems disrespectful. Introduce yourself, ask how the business is doing, and always be friendly. When you end up getting the ear of the person who could buy your product, the extra effort will be worth it.
Gather Information
Don’t expect to get through to the buyer right away. Oftentimes, it takes multiple conversations on every level before you can make a sale. During these initial phone calls get as many details about the company as you can. Try to find out the name of the boss, ask about the size of the business, and write down anything you feel is relevant to your product. When you finally do reach the person you’re looking for, you will have a greater knowledge of their company and a tighter grasp on how your services fit their needs.
Go Off Book
A script is standard practice for many B2B telemarketing operations. While it does have its benefits, you also need to make sure you can adjust the conversation to people’s specific questions and concerns. The main reason you would want to read from a script is to get your point across in a clear and focused way. If you try to use loose guidelines instead, you can still discuss important details and you won’t sound so rigid. If you seem like a salesman, you will be treated as such. If you come across as someone who can genuinely help their business, you should be able to make it to the inner circle.
Give Away Some Control
Calling the same company over and over again probably sounds tedious. It’s true that cold calling a new business involves some extra effort, but when you make a sale and keep your new customer happy, you will see amazing results. In order to put your clients at ease, take the time to listen to what they need. Their boss may be on vacation for a week, or they could be moving offices and won’t be ready to make any purchases for a little while. When someone gives you a time frame as to when they will be available, pay attention to that. Tell them you’ll be giving them a call when they are ready and make sure to follow up. When you take what they say into consideration and let them set the tone for calls going forward you can go from a pushy salesperson to someone they would be happy to do business with.
B2B telemarketing has proven time and time again to be a classic and effective way to market a product or service. Cold calling another company can be intimidating at first, but if you stay the course you will eventually get to where you need to go. The person making purchases for a business has a schedule just as busy as yours, it makes sense that they would screen their calls and only take the ones that they deem important. Get your name on the list of people they want to speak with by being friendly and attentive to everyone. Listen to what people say and make sure you’re flexible. Adapting to a situation will get you further than reading a script word for word ever could. Everyone has an important part to play when they are part of a business, keep an open line of communication with all of them and you will get exactly where you need to be.