Almost everyone associates the telemarketing industry with outbound call centers. You know, the gigantic room full of people with headsets on, “cold calling” customers to make sales, generate leads, or collect information for surveys. There’s another kind of telemarketing, though- think customer service 1-800 numbers, customer help desks, or order processing over the phone. Inbound telemarketing is becoming a popular way to outsource processes that businesses might not have the staff capacity to handle. Here are a few ways you can use inbound telemarketing to benefit your business:
Order Processing
Inbound call centers can take customer orders over the phone and even process sales when customers pay with credit cards. Any business with time restrictions, such as those whose employees only work during business hours, can take advantage of this extended availability- the more you’re available to customers, the more sales you’ll make. You can also use inbound call centers for order processing for their language capabilities. While you might not have the resources to hire sales representatives that speak Spanish, Japanese, or Tagalog, an inbound call center does- this allows you to reach and communicate with more potential customers in a language they’re comfortable speaking.
24/7 Customer Service
If your employees can’t be available for customers at all hours of the day, inbound telemarketing offers a solution. Many businesses assign a 1-800 number to a telemarketing firm for in order to give customers around the clock access. Businesses like banks, hotels, and insurance companies that need to provide constant access use inbound telemarketing companies to fill the gaps when their own employees aren’t available to answer questions, fix billing errors, or file claim reports. If your company could benefit from offering 24/7 support to customers, telemarketing is an option you should consider.
Helpdesk and Customer Support
If you sell a technical product, such as software, it can be a good idea to use dedicated telephone service representatives- telemarketing company employees trained by your business that only answer calls on behalf of your company- rather than employing a full-time helpdesk employee as a member of your own staff. You can also reach more customers- telemarketing companies keep longer hours, employ representatives with different language capabilities, and are able to stay open to customers in different time zones more easily.
Lead Generation and Appointment Setting
Inbound telemarketing is often used for lead generation and appointment setting. You can direct sales leads to call the telemarketing company directly to set up a sales appointment, or gather sales lead information when customers place calls for more information about your products or services.
Inbound call centers can be used for several purposes in addition to those mentioned above. Inbound call centers can assist with promotional contests (such as radio call-ins) can help collect survey or donation information, or for any other service you can think of that might benefit your business. It’s always a good idea to speak with at least a few different companies before making a decision about which company to choose.
Category: Sales & Marketing
Have you ever known someone who could immediately make friends with anyone? You know they type. They can build instant rapport and it doesn’t matter about race, age, or gender. They can walk into a room and befriend everyone from a priest, a mechanic, and the CEO. Afterward you are scratching your head wondering…how did they do it?
In most cases it is because they have mastered several key skills. Sometimes it is something they learn naturally. For most people they have just spent the time improving their skills.
There are four basic personality styles that vary based on the type and amount of information needed to make a decision. Pragmatics and analyticals base decisions on facts and data while amiables and extroverts make decisions based on emotion and feelings. Pragmatics and Extroverts need just enough information to make a decision (and no more!) while analyticals and amiables just can’t get enough.
You can learn more about personality styles in my article Mastering the four personality styles.
Brandt Smith is a sales, marketing, public speaking, and professional development expert. Learn about achieving wealth and life balance through entrepreneurship at Wealth and Wisdom, where he is cofounder and senior editor. Their advice on wealth building, personal development, and life balance can help take you to the next level. You can also read more of his thoughts on his blog.
There are thousands of forums on the web ranging from any subject imaginable. Forums are a collection of people interested in specific subject collaboration with one another. Forums even have top experts in those fields answering questions and offering advice at no cost. Forums allow for user interaction through question and answer boards. These boards have moderators to prevent spammers from ruining the forums goals.
Forums are becoming more popular every day as people want to communicate with one another via the web. Forums are a great place to find an answer to technical questions or get some expert advice. Larger forums receive thousands of visitors a day, bringing together a community of experts in a specific field or industry. Besides helping you find answers, forums can be a valuable tool for site promotion (search engine optimization), increasing traffic (search engine marketing), and proving that you really are an expert in a specific field (building credibility).
The more exposure you and your business receives, the better off your company will be in the long run. As more and more web users see your company they will be inclined to view your website and learn what you have to offer. This can ultimately lead to increased sales for your business and higher search engine rankings. You must remember that every customer has the potential to negatively impact your business with a negative rating or feedback, so be sure to treat each customer with the upmost respect and courtesy so they will recommend you to others.
Search Engine Optimization Benefits
Forums are a great way to get a new site indexed by the major search engines. Since the search engines require a listing fee and have extremely long waiting periods to be indexed in their results, forums make a great alternative. Forums can get a new site indexed in the search engines at no cost and in as little as 3 days. All you need to do is find a high traffic forum that is indexed frequently and place a link of your new site in a post or signature. Signatures are a place at the bottom of every post you make that is reserved for customized note, saying, or link. If you want to utilize the signature for Search Engine Optimization purposes then you want to find forums that do not have the No Follow tag and place a link to your website in the signature. You will get a one-way link to your site, which is very good. To make the link even more valuable, make sure you are posting in a forum related to your website and you have keyword rich anchor text in your signature.
I have compiled a list of some of the top forums that currently do not use the No Follow Tag. Posting in these forums will get you a back link to your website, which is very helpful for search engine optimization.
techsupportforum.com/
v7n.com/forums
webproworld.com/
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
webhostingtalk.com
forum.mambo-foundation.org
simplemachines.org
Search Engine Marketing Benefits
Forums benefit Search Engine Marketing plans as you can easily market your company and build up positive feedback for yourself. There are hundreds of forums you can post in. You want to look for forums that are relevant to your industry. Do not sign up for comic book forums, when your company is selling medical equipment. Sign up for the comic book forum on your own time with another user name. You want to build up your company’s reputation through forums that are related to your line of business.
When you post frequently in forums you begin to build up a reputation for yourself. Building up a positive relationship with your fellow forums members can establish a positive feedback towards you and your business. As we all know in this Web 2.0 world where users can interact with one another it is imperative to have positive feedback. Even one bad complaint can have irreversible negative ramifications upon your business. To avoid this be respectful to each customer and treat them as you would expect to be treated.
Posting new threads and responding to questions posted by members can build up your reputation and make you an authoritative figure, assisting with your search engine marketing. Make sure your posts are relevant to the thread. Do not spam every thread trying to build up your reputation.
Forums display the number of posts a member made next to the user name and avatar. The more posts shown by you, the more respected you become. Members with certain amounts of posts receive badges given out by the forums. Basically, the more you post in the forum the higher badge, deemed as credibility, you will be awarded.
In essence, forums are a strong marketing place. Not only do forums benefit search engine optimization, but they also help with search engine marketing. Any webmaster should take place in some sort of forum posting, whether it be for building links or obtaining a positive reputation for your company, forums are imperative to a websites success.
About the Author:
Brandon Leibowitz is an expert search engine optimization and marketing consultant. For a complete list of do follow forums visit his website at http://www.SeoOptimizers.com. Read his SEO and SEM Blog at http://blog.seooptimizers.com
Get BACK IN BLACK (BI-B) and back in business by gathering- and using knowledge of your lost business – lost trades. The 5 step program for sales managers and directors shows you exactly how. And you’ll see what a difference it could make to your profits if you start to convert lost trades to future actual trades. For more information on Business Intelligence Systems handling lost business visit: http://www.lost-trade-systems.com or you might want to read a newly published book: The Lost-Trade System.
Step 1 – Decide on strategic use of using knowledge of lost trades to improve future performance. Making a smart strategic decision to change your workflow and your daily sales work starting by converting your lost trades to future won trades is now critical to the success of an organization; however the management of sales leads is often very haphazard. If you’re spending a great deal of time and money acquiring sales leads only to fail to maximize on their potential. If you are losing countless deals and money you need to make a strategic decision and act now. And some of the most successful sales organizations in the financial sector have been doing exactly this for years.
Step 2 – Capture your lost trades (leads) effectively. Registering lost trades should be as natural as capturing an actual customer trade. Start capturing your lost trades in an Excel spreadsheet posted on the company intranet or by using a relational database and a web interface. About 75% of sales managers are using Excel spreadsheets – So Excel could be a core base for lost trades or enquiries that did not result in margin and revenue. Although using Excel spreadsheets should be a popular method for handling lost enquiries and storing this information, 68% of those who use it on a daily basis are unhappy with its performance. In order to move business forward, sales organizations should – on sight – find a solution to modernize and streamline their daily processes in a way. Believe me; the value of this lost trade database will only grow over time.
Step 3 – Start benchmarking your looses versus your actual trades. To drive business forward, retain customers and create sales, it is essential to understand what business you did not have – your lost trades – and compare it the business you did had, and visualizing long run loosing trends, using appropriate metrics. Using this ‘two ledger’ approach will give sales reports detailed analysis of what needs to be done, this will allow you a detailed insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your teams performance, and to make informed business decisions. Ex: You will spot leaving customers before it happens
Step 4 – Create knowledge of lost business data to create new business. Use the information supplied by the graphs of long run losing trends to create knowledge about which of your customers are about to leave, which product are underperforming and which competitors are stealing your business to identify future areas to improve upon. Use this knowledge to take action to get back in black in step 5.
Step 5 – Take action daily based on your new knowledge to maximize your sales revenue and even reach for higher sales targets. It’s easier to maximize existing opportunities if you have an accurate record of all enquiries from customers – Both your actual trades and your lost trades – You will in light the ‘dark side of the sales moon ‘and use these as sales leads that have reached a positive conclusion, retaining customers and cross-selling or up-selling. Manage these opportunities effectively using the right methodology and technology in your daily work in sales, and you’ll see what a difference it could make to your profits.
About the Author:
Jesper Thorlund is an economist, BI advisor and systems developer. He has been working with business intelligence and data warehouse solutions for more than 12 years as a consultant in major financial and govermental institutions. He publishes and lectures on the strategic use of business intelligence and founded Lost Trade Systems – A BI Research Company, which specializes in bringing new insights and value to businesses by working methodically with lost trades. He co-authored the bestselling book Business Intelligence, From Strategy to Data Sources (2008), available as Business Analytics in English in the SAS Press Business Series, August 2009.
Every time I turn on the news I feel like screaming. I am sick and tired of hearing about how bad the economy is. Unemployment is up and is only going to get worse. Banks are in trouble and going under. Real estate is a mess and there is no end in sight. Major corporations are going bankrupt – heck, even the big three automakers may go under.
I hear about how this is the next great depression. I hear about the collapse of the dollar, the collapse of the western world, and the end of society as we know it.
It Isn’t As Bad As It Sounds
The sad part is that it isn’t all that bad. Yes the economy stinks, but this is only when compared to the amazing boom we experienced in the last decade. Companies have been able to go after the low hanging fruit-heck, there was more lying on the ground than you could pick up!
Just because the ground isn’t littered with business anymore doesn’t mean that there isn’t business out there. You just have to work for it. And the past decade of easy business means that most companies have not made the connections and built relationships. Now they pay the price.
And at the end of the day, now is the time where entrepreneurs can really shine.
No, I’m not crazy. Think about what a true entrepreneur does.
- He connects with his customer
- identifies his needs and problems
- then creates products and services to fill those needs or problems
In other words, he gets paid to solve problems
Now more than ever companies are in trouble. Your customer desperately needs you. No, he isn’t spending indiscriminately. But if you solve his problem and help him survive (or thrive) in this downturn he will be your customer for life. And you solve your “slow business” problem at the same time. Only an entrepreneur can do this, and you finally have an advantage over larger companies.
Simple, but Hard to Do
This is a simple concept that is hard to do. I’ve written several articles that are aimed at this:
- Recessionproof your sales
- How to Thrive in a Recession
- How to Thrive in a Recession – Ignore the News
- How to Thrive in a Recession – It’s All About the Customer
- How to Thrive in a Recession – Working for Someone Else
Brandt Smith is a sales, marketing, public speaking, and professional development expert. Learn about achieving wealth and life balance through entrepreneurship at Wealth and Wisdom, where he is cofounder and senior editor. Their advice on wealth building, personal development, and life balance can help take you to the next level. You can also read more of his thoughts on his blog.