anderson bak

Christmas is really really here. There’s no way to avoid it, no corner is left without tinsel, no shop without the accompanying Christmas songs and colourful lights adorn every street and home.

Ok yes I do sound a little grumpy and perhaps a tad similar to Scrooge prior to his positive thinking. But I work in marketing, and I’m allowed to see through the tired techniques used to get me to buy stuff I don’t need or want. Of course, my children fall for every advert, glossy and ’special offer’, which is not surprising. Do shops really think if the write ‘Sale’ on every item, or ‘Was x Now X’ will inspire a change in the fortunes of retail.

All this unsophisticated Christmas marketing makes me wonder how much more sophisticated are we all the rest of the year. Do we try to ask for a sale by instantly offering a sale price? Do we encourage the customer to believe the price will be increasing soon, so buy whilst it is low. Do we switch on pretty lights and dress as a fat man on the verge of a coronary from too much party food. Never forget there is no such thing as a sale. People buy when they feel they have good value. Good value doesn’t always mean a low price, it more often than not means the contents are good. That the benefit of the purchase is obvious and is proportionate to the cost. If you just make the price lower then you devalue the service or product, far better to make it explicit what they’re getting for their money.

If you want to win lots of business, increase the size of your client base, and make a profit that is meaningful make sure you’re not just giving it away. If what you do, make or provide is any good then you need to charge for it in a competitive way that makes sense to you and your customers.

Selling is paradoxically about the theory of buying.

Happy Christmas from all at Talking Solutions.

Paul and The Team

I’m feeling brave, and despite the fact it’s Friday, I’m tired and clearly in need of a Sherry or two, I’m interested in sharing the idea of form and it’s relationship to marketing.

It started with the idea that how can humans live a fulfilling, happy life in a contingent, changing world where every thing they attach themselves to can be taken away? The world we perceive through the senses seems to be always changing. The world that we perceive through the mind, as ‘concepts’, seems to be permanent and unchanging. Plato splits up existence into two realms: the material realm and the realm of forms.

I suppose the true form of a chair is something we all know, despite the variety of designs, textures, colours and shapes. And if you ask a child to draw a chair, they tend to draw the true form.

With marketing, and certainly direct marketing, you need to address the true form of what it is your are selling and communicating. This might be simply seen as stating the bleeding obvious, but not necessarily so.

I am the commercial director of a direct marketing business. I co-ordinate telemarketing, I consult with fledgling businesses, I advise on not the theory of selling, but on the theory of buying. And the key starting point is that a customer can only stand a limited amount of surprise or variance away fro the true form of what you do, or what is expected under the umbrella of your brand. British Gas Business tried to sell insurance and didn’t have a great response. When they added Boiler care to their business package, they were greeted with quite a different response.

If Tesco started a car repair service as part of their shopping experience I doubt it would get very far. It’s to far away from the true form of a large retail outlet. However, there’s plenty they can add into the true form of what they do.  Maybe foot massage for tired shoppers!! But a car repair service is not part of what is credible within the context of a retail experience.

I love what I do, and I’ve learnt the hard way to do what makes sense, and of course what you’re good at. But think about how people buy. Try looking for a butchers shop  that is bright pink in design. So what is it your business does? What would a child’s picture look like of your service? Make damn sure that everyone knows what you do, and then communicate it as effectively as possible.  Establishing your brand and what you’re known for is vital when it comes to how people buy. 

I can offer marketing advice, and direct marketing solutions, (and a few more solutions besides), but I offer what I know is part of the true form within the sector I operate from.  And I’m also terrible at car repairs!

The last week has seen another fantastic person join Talking Solutions. I’m reluctant to grow too fast, and am careful not to take unnecessary risks, but I just couldn’t say no to such a fabulous future member of the team.

In a previous life, I was a someone who was perhaps guilty of only seeing the good in people, and in business, this is a tough lesson to learn. You simply can’t trust everyone. Not everyone’s agenda is obvious, or as genuine as yours. I learnt the hard way and feelings of friendship had to be put aside as those previously unseen agendas came out.

Initially I reacted by saying that ‘trusting anyone is a mistake’. I’ve slightly revised this now to ‘trusting everyone is a mistake’. Fortunately, I have some very strong support these days, and my business benefits from my experiences, even if they were largely unpleasant.

My business is growing through clients and staff that are dependable. But I’m not a fool and am careful to believe what I see, not what I hear.

Why do we market our businesses? What’s the point?

Why don’t we all just sit and wait for our new customers to ring us or drop by our offices?

It’s a scary world for those that wait. It might be that you’re very busy during the summer but desperate for business the rest of the year. This is known as ‘feast and famine’

The simple truth of marketing is that it can seriously reduce the famine months, and generate a steady reliable stream of business. Direct marketing, such as telemarketing, maintains and creates a momentum of interested parties, and can introduce a steady number of clients to you every month. It can also be used to maintain contact with existing clients, which might be the difference between them staying with you or shopping around.

If you could introduce 4 new clients a month, every month, what would that mean? Well, the maths is easy, after 5 months you’d have 20 new clients. Ok, very interesting you say, but why not now apply the average spend of your clients. Not just the once, but as an annual spend. What is the value of 20 new clients to your business?

There’s the old joke that 50% of marketing works. They’re just trying to find out which 50%.

Well, I can certainly state after 20 years in marketing that telemarketing works, and if done well can help take a business that’s gently moving forward into a very successful business with an increased profit level.

If you’re thinking about how to market your business and want a truly effective way of approaching your marketing message, then why not try giving your customers what they want, not what you think they need?

The simple way to start this process is to ask them. Either yourself or an independent company, ring and have a meaningful conversation with your clients and ask them half a dozen questions about your service and how they’ve experienced what you do. Such as “if there was one thing we could add into our service what would it be?” or “did our service match your expectations?” or even, “which part of our service would you describe as the weak link in the chain”

What could it mean to your business to find out your sales team over promise or your accounts are not very efficient or that your clients all think you’re too expensive? You could change your service, improve your delivery, caution your sales team or even have a party because all your clients love you. Knowing your clients is a key to developing your business and how you grow. It’s also a great marketing exercise, and tells you the sort of work you could happily get more of and do a good job.

I was unfortunate enough to work for a large energy company. It was quite common to hear the phrase “under promise, over deliver”. Not a culture I could ever be part of, or one in which any one of us would want to be part of. In business to simply do what you say distinguishes us from the crowd enough to be noticed. 

With new clients approaching me to help with their marketing, with lots of appointments being made, it doesn’t really feel there’s much of a credit crunch in my office. Admittedly, we have a recruitment business, a property business, data business and the telemarketing company all in the same building. But we don’t sit waiting for the world too beat a path to our door.

We divide our time into activities, making sure we don’t neglect any areas for too long. It makes for a busy office, at times it makes for a ‘heads down and keep going’ attitude. We all enjoy our days at work  and we are never bored.  There’s a shared spirit and belief that is better than ‘can do’.

I know many companies are worried about the credit crunch, and there’s no point in putting your head in the sand, but it makes no sense to sit waiting for the world to end if you can affect your own future.  Last year was a tough one for me, and yet, I survived.   And I will continue to thrive with the help of the good people I work with and my unrelenting positive  self belief.

This is the most common question I get asked by anyone who’s ever tried to make telemarketing calls. The answer is not that surprising.

Firstly, there are some ‘gatekeepers’ who’s job description includes ‘filter out sales calls’, and they can be a real challenge. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It just requires patience and understanding. A sales call is seen as unexpected or uninvited.  You might try to send a prospective email or/letter before trying again. So the next time you ring, there is a possibility that your call might be welcome. Also, if you’re any good at writing letters they may ring you instead! You could also try maintaining a determined sneakiness, and try ringing during traditional lunch times when your skilled gatekeeper is on her lunch, and is temporarily replaced by someone not so good at keeping you out.

Most gatekeepers are normally PAs, receptionists or admin staff. A little appreciation goes a long way. A brief explanation of why you’re calling and often you’ll be put through. You might also want to consider that they are not your enemy, but someone else who’s snowed under with too much to do before ‘the whistle blows’. They don’t really want to be answering the phone on top of their already enormous workload. So make it easy for them, don’t be too formal and try to treat them with a bit of respect. They probably receive millions of terrible sales calls from the energy market all day, so your call will come as a refreshing change.  I’ve had amazing results with just being human, perhaps even humorous.

In the last two weeks I’ve made appointments with National Theatres, Health care PLCs, Corporations where there were at least 4 gatekeepers to speak to before my target contact, and I’ve not had any problems. Of course I’ve worked in telemarketing for over 20 years, trained hundreds of telemarketers and made appointments for just about every service and product there is. And of course, I have a strong structure to my approach (not script) which virtually guarantees I’ll be put through.

Within my telemarketing company in Leicester we make all sorts of appointments, but we’re best at the ones where the company is big and the gatekeepers are scary. 

How many telemarketers does it take to change a light bulb?

10. 1 to change the light bulb and 9 to say I’d have done it differently.

It’s an old joke, but pertinent to a telemarketing job. Why? Well there are as many methods as there are people.

There’s no one fixed method that works every time without fail. In fact the one thing you can say about really good telemarketing is that it recognizes that every call is different, every conversation is unique, and as it’s human beings we’re dealing with, tightly scripted approaches tend not to work as well.

if you’re a business owner at the start of your week wondering how your going to manage saying the same thing hundreds of times, then it’s really time to stop saying the same thing hundreds of times, and start holding real conversations!

I’ve worked in telemarketing in Leicester for many years, and the bigger the company, the more rigidly they stick to scripts. Again, ask why? It’s not because it works, it’s because it’s easier to manage. These staff heavy call centres impose production line values, with the view that the people are the product.

If you receive calls from call centres or have to phone your bank and get put through to one of these call centres, and think it’s a brilliant experience then feel free to email me and tell me why.

Having now supplied telemarketing appointments for clients across Leicester, it’s great to see so many local businesses flourishing rather than failing. Sure there are always going to be businesses that go under during these tougher economic times, but that was possibly always going to happen. The economic downturn has just sped up the process. But for businesses who are marketing themselves, and have been thinking intelligently about how to build a brand and retain clients, then like many of my clients, times are quite good.

Telemarketing is a great tool that directly markets companies. It can also, if done badly, be extremely detrimental to the business. What’s the difference? Well it’s fairly obvious when it comes to writing a letter to a potential client. You get the details right, spell the name correctly, have a good offer, make sure it’s easy to read without being patronising, and of course, think about how the letter will be perceived - put yourself in the customers shoes.

Well, this is the basis for good telemarketing. Think about the impact your words have. Think about how you will be percived. Have you got your facts right? Is there a reason to listen to you, an offer that makes business sense?  Is the call easy to listen to?  Are you sticking rigidly to a script or are you following the sense of the call?

It’s not rocket science, but that’s often why marketing goes wrong for many companies, they try to over-complicate it, and rather than communicate a strong message to a client, it confuses or misleads them.

Whether you’re the customer or the telemarketer, anger is an inherent part of telemarketing. I was lucky enough to be interviewed for BBC Radio as part of their series on “What makes us angry”

Customers ‘ringing-in’ want to be heard, to be treated with respect and maybe, responded to as a human being by a human being. They’ve already been on hold for twenty minutes being told by a robot that their call is important. They’ve now the chance to communicate with the company who receives their money, and at the very least deserve to be listened to.

Telemarketers have targets thought up by an accountant, that make the companies books balance. They do not take into account real conversations held by real people. This is why the script has become so important over the last 20 years. A script can be time, can be quantified and can be part delivered by a recorded message. A script can be consistent, a script can be compliant. A script might make your accountant happy but mostly, it’s an enormously frustrating experience for both the customer and telemarketer. If you don’t know enough about the business to talk freely and fluently on the phone then you shouldn’t be on the phone. The customers hate being read to, they hate to feel like they are number or a process.

If you hate being called then the best advice is to register your telephone number with the Telephone Preference Service. If you work in a company that means you have to make outbound telephone calls or receive customer calls, then remember your first obligation is always to the customer.