Probe With Open-Ended Questions, Or Don’t Probe At All

Professional telemarketers uncover information from prospective clients that may lead into business opportunities.

They also have to maintain an atmosphere of confidence and trust, which goes outside the usual, transactional survey-ish style of telemarketing.

Leading them into a cyclone of inquiries and not letting them talk much may have them lose attention and eventually lose interest with the call.

While opening spiels are usually harmless, what could be detrimental to the success of the telemarketing call are the questions that follow. Asking wrong or too many questions may force clients to end the conversation. If they do decide not to end it, oftentimes they’d just refuse to give out anything.

And surveys usually sound like a bombardment of yes-or-no questions.

Business-to-business (B2B) telemarketing requires skills in extracting information, or probing. The way to make them perceive the call as a normal conversation is to engage them to do the talking. Obviously, close-ended questions would not allow them to expound on specific aspects of the answer they would have. Making them respond predictably eliminates the “personal” touch of the conversation and kills the momentum that’s needed to sustain the life of the call.

Related: The Triple A of Telemarketing, Article 1: Attitude

Open-ended questions are more elaborative, like “How does your current operation work?” or “What services do you need in your next campaign?” Sometimes, even non-questions could work, as long as they allow the prospect to elaborate certain details, like “Tell me about the adversities you’ve had in your department.”

The benefits of using open-ended questions in probing:

• Facilitates enhanced cooperation and understanding
  

  
  

• Provides the opportunity for others to express themselves more openly and honestly
  

  
  

• Encourages prospects to provide information including their ideas, concerns & feelings
  

  
  

• Encourages  a positive learning and sharing experience
  

  
  

• Encourages others to flow with their thoughts and feelings & allows you to support this flow
  

  
  

• Lays bare your willingness to invest time with others
  

   

Telemarketers do need to obtain specific information from prospects, such as statistics, dates, and technical details; however, engaging them in a meaningful exchange of words is still worth the distance and can benefit on the bigger picture.

That way, prospects would feel comfortable and at ease. Letting them express their grievances can make them feel appreciated and important. By earning their trust, they will often offer the information that was targeted in the first place, and it will have been done without sounding like a grilling android.

7 Worthy Ambitions Every Content Marketer Should Live By

Content marketing has provided a paradigm shift for traditional marketers.

Gone are the days when all they do is stuff keywords and optimize their sites for search – now, they focus on content as the major driving force in attracting and maintaining a following.

But it’s more than just writing how-to articles or adding infographics on conventional blog posts. Content marketing must be executed with a much deeper goal than content itself, to separate those who genuinely using content from those who think they are.

A true content marketer aspires to achieve most, if not all, of the following ambitions:

1. Put the customers on a pedestal.

It’s high time that marketing content would focus on the customers more than the product – explore their pains, acknowledge their needs, and see things in their points of view.

2. Make customers smart.

Companies in industries such as telecommunications and computer hardware aim first to educate their customers on how to make their user experience become more productive. Through content, you can help overcome objections and complaints, as well as illustrate the benefits of using a product or service.

3. Bridge the gap between buyers and sellers.

It is one of the tasks of content marketers to find a common ground between companies and consumers to help them better understand each other and work out a healthy, giving relationship.

4. Attract new people.

Aside from catering the existing customers, it is also an objective to bring more people in the loop.

Prospective customers sometimes do research before deciding to buy something, and through blog /articles they can be provided with an easier path in decision making.

5. Developing new ideas.

If you’re contemplating on new business propositions or re-positioning your key products, you can use content to see how people would react to them.  

Content is a breeding ground for innovation and reaction analysis, giving you a low-risk avenue to “test the waters”.

6. Build reputation in search engines

The right way. Google no longer rewards sites that use traditional SEO tactics to gain high rankings.

They now focus on originality, relevance, and credibility. This leaves marketers with no choice but to use high quality content to build a search reputation.

7. Tell the right story.

The effectiveness of a story relies mainly on the type of audience, the timing of the post, and the approach used in conveying the message.

Whichever way a content marketer chooses to walk on, the story must be able to sell the idea. To do this, paint a picture of their lives would change by using your product or service.

They should be able to “mentally try your product on for size” to facilitate them in their buying process. Harness the power of storytelling and use it effectively.

The Five-Step Plan For Better B2B Lead Generation Teams

 

 

Here is the deal: B2B lead generation campaigns can be a real headache if you do not know how to manage them. Just imagine how worse it can be if things do not pan out according to your plans. 

 

Yes, you want to generate more B2B leads, but you must understand how to best do that – it depends on the strength of your B2B appointment setting team. 

 

If you have an excellent marketing team to do the job, then it would not be a problem for you to begin generating sales and business for you. And in the event that your team is on the rocks at the moment, then you should also know how to bring them back on track. 

 

And here is how to do it:

  

1. Know the problem
   
   A poor-performing team can be caused by a myriad of factors.
   
   Identifying and isolating that factor is the important first step in the solutions process. Basically, you have to get right into the root of the problem and then identify what are the proposed solutions for it. Mind you, there are practically a lot of those.
   
   
2. Know your team
   
   This will call for a little self-examination on your part.
   
   If you can identify what kind of team you should be organizing (cooperative, competitive, solo, or ad hoc) then you can devise an effective management and marketing process that will help you reach the business goals you have set out. This must be the kind of team that will best represent the kind of business that you have.
   
   
3. Know what is missing
   
   In this regard, what is it in your marketing team that makes it so hard for you to generate good sales leads?
   
   Is there a missing piece that you should be adding? How sure are you that your team is well-rounded enough for the job? These are some questions that you have to answer if you want to truly understand what is missing.
   
   
4. Know their opinions
   
   All right, once you have devised a business plan that your B2B telemarketing team can use, then that is the time to have a meeting with them.
   
   You need to be sure that everyone is on the same page as you. In the event of disagreements or varied opinions, then you should take these into consideration and make the necessary changes to make your plans work.
   
   Related: How To Make Productive Lead Generation Meetings
   
   
5. Know your milestones
   
   Since you have probably invested a lot in your business plans, you have to make sure that you are doing it properly.
   
   And what better way to do that than by setting up specific milestones that marks the reaching of your goals. This will help divide your work down in stages, as well as ensure that you are on track with your business targets.

Really, it is not that hard to follow these plans. 

 

As long as you keep these five steps, then you will be able to change your B2B lead generation team for the better. There is always room for improvement.

It is up to you to create that space.

6 Ways To Come Up With Blogging Ideas When Your Brain Offers None

Some call it creativity gap. Others call it intellectual drought. But most people know it as writer’s block.

Whatever you call it, it’s not just a perceived mental state – it actually happens among writers from time to time, and despite its pervasiveness, many of them still are unable to come up with a resistance plan against it. For business bloggers, this barrier can significantly impact a marketing campaign, especially one that relies heavily on content.

The trick that most experts use to fight against writer’s block is to not force your brain to brew any ideas when it clearly doesn’t want to. 

Rather than settling with a substandard content born out of mind pressure, consider other methods that you can use to naturally cultivate an idea:

1. Curate
   
   When you’re broke, you’d borrow money, and then pay it back. Same thing with blogging; sometimes you have to borrow ideas which you think can be useful. And you can always return the favor by giving credit to your sources.
   
   Related: Creating vs. Curating Social Media Content For Your Business
2. Answer Questions
   
   As a blogger, you’ve probably received questions via email or the comments section of your blog. If you don’t have anything to write about, it’s about time you respond to those questions. It serves both of you; you now have a topic you can write about, and your reader would be pleased that his/her question was answered.
3. Do Interviews
   
   The thing about interviews is that it talks about people first rather than concepts. Articles based on interviews can give insight from people who matter in the industry, or those who know exactly what they’re doing.  Plus, interview sessions can also open doors to a lot of other topics you can write about in the future.
4. React to Current Events
   
   Writing about industry news and events makes your blog more pertinent and credible. It shows that you’re aware of what’s going on and you’re not timid to share what you have to say. Just make sure you know the distinction between a professional opinion and a personal rant.
5. Blow Up Comments
   
   Sometimes a person could post a comment that is by itself a bloggable topic. It wouldn’t hurt to go over the comments section of your blog and of others just to see if you can pick up nuggets that you can draw inspiration on.
   Related: Utilize Your Comment Box Wisely!
6. Agree Or Contradict
   
   Although agreeing is more commonly used by bloggers, contradicting someone’s opinion easily attracts more readers. Why? People like to see both sides of each story so they can satisfy their brains in choosing a side to believe in. But remember, telling people how you disagree with someone can sometimes be construed as a personal attack. Emphasize that the idea, not the person, is the one you’re opposing.