Telemarketing’s Place in the New World Order

While there is no underestimating the power of web marketing, any sensible marketing approach will still consider telemarketing as a proven method of generating immediate feedback and immediate leads, particularly in a B-2-B market.

Over the years the telemarketing profession has taken it’s share of hits and in many circles the telemarketer is regarded with the same disdain as, well, other professions that not well regarded. Yet the secret is that successful companies large and small continue to invest their marketing and sales dollars into telemarketing programs for one good reason – they bring results when executed intelligently and with respect for the customer.

I’m prompted to write this blog after seeing a friend fail miserably with a telemarketing campaign. A small business owner, he hired a local call-from-home ‘telemarketer’ to try to sell his service to local dentists. The methodology was for the telemarketer, who had no particular experience with dentists, call a list of dentist offices to offer to sell the service. The script was a basic hello, this is who I am, do you want to buy my service, offer. As one might predict, the telemarketer spoke mainly to office assistants who had neither authority to buy nor understanding of the need for the service to the dentist office. Since the telemarketer had little to send for supporting collateral, the calls were often short with little value added to either the dentist or the telemarketer. After a short week or two, the program was ended with the saying, “Telemarketing doesn’t work!”

But telemarketing does work. Two examples of using the telephone for sensible marketing and business building are shown below.

Bill Gluth has operated Creating Words that Sell and related businesses successfully for a number of years. Always an innovator, Bill is current on the latest in web and social media marketing as well as old world strategies of print and telemarketing. Just over a year ago, Bill implemented a very simple telemarketing program to generate attendees to his business seminars in the local Phoenix area. Using a simple script and a free white paper that would help a small business owner build sales, he was able to hire a telemarketer to call small business owners and offer the free white paper. While on the call, if the telemarketer detected a need, there was an offer for a follow through appointment to discuss any potential for a further relationship. By keeping the offer simple and free, small business owners with a need responded immediately. For those business owners who only accepted the white paper, Bill’s brand was built and seeds were sown for later business. For those business owners who were open to a follow through call, Bill was able to add them to his pipeline of qualified leads. With only one telemarketer working, there was no need for expensive and time-consuming CRM systems, just something simple such as FreeCRM. Through telemarketing, Bill was able to garner immediate feedback on the calling list, the response of the target, and pick up other market information that would have been difficult to learn through web or direct mail methods. Further, ROI on the investment was clear, as measured in terms of businesses contacted, appointments set, and business booked.

On the other end of the spectrum of business size, Televerde is one of the nation’s premier providers of phone based market intelligence and customer acquisition solutions. Using the latest backend technology for CRM, quality control and other data management, Televerde continues to build an ever expanding base of Fortune 100 clients precisely because it provides that same result that Bill Gluth’s simple method provides, ROI. Televerde has the resources and know-how to strategically blanket a given market in several continents, provide instant feedback from the field, and adapt to changes relatively quickly. Yes, it’s prospect interaction relies on integrated electronic marketing including websites, online demos and email. But the power of the business is based in its proven use of the telephone for B-2-B marketing. It the business is thriving because Fortune 100 businesses realize a clear ROI.

Two extremes of B-2-B marketing, very small local businesses and international Fortune 100 companies, yet both see results with telemarketing when used sensibly.

Making Sense of Sensible Marketing Firms

When I began Sensible Marketing, LLC back in 2002 the name, “Sensible Marketing”, seemed strong enough, not too trendy, and yet representative of the business I was to build. Fortunately I licensed the business name in Arizona, my primary state of business. I say fortunately because the name “Sensible Marketing” appears to be gaining popularity across the country (see below).
Sensible Marketing operates as an outsourced Director of Marketing, covering a broad array of marketing programs and methods including traditional marketing and web, social media and direct marketing. In particular, Sensible Marketing has strong experience with technology-related B-to-B markets and with marketing to support sales teams.

About a year ago, another Sensible Marketing firm, (Sensible Marketing Inc. for Startups and Small Businesses) showed up on Google searches. This one is based out of LA and is run by another guy named Michael. Over the past year Michael Williams has done a very respectable job of building his web presence using social media, primary as a web-based and electronic expert. And it seems that Michael Williams has a full time job in addition to his marketing company, a situation similar to mine at this point.

Recently a third Sensible Marketing firm has appeared on scene. Sensible Marketing Services out of Knoxville, TN touts itself as more of a full service marketing agency though most of its case studies reflect website and graphic work. Like Sensible Marketing Inc, the owner, Jesse Olive, has invested a significant amount of time in building out his website and blog. Nice job.

One of the first Market Like a Millionaire lessons I learned was from a military commander on the simulated battlefields of the cold war in Germany. He said, “When you see a good idea, steal it.” Of course, done within the boundaries of ethics and law, this is good advice. So long live the Sensible Marketing name, may it build a strong reputation among marketing professionals across the nation, and the world.

Recap:

Sensible Marketing, LLC – the first, based in Arizona
Website: www.sensiblemarketing.net
Blog: Sensible Marketing Blog

Sensible Marketing for Startups – based in Los Angeles
Blog: http://blog.sensiblemarketing.biz/

Sensible Marketing Services – based Knoxville, TN
Website: www.sensiblemarketingservices.com

Vehicle Wrap – An Investment With Clear ROI or Just a Write Off?

How do you increase the ROI on a vehicle wrap? As in the design of any other communication, using sensible marketing basics can make a car wrap more effective with no additional expenditures. How can that be? Read on.

The motivated owner of a national insurance franchise, we’ll call him Steve, agreed to purchase a vehicle wrap from one of his customers. The decision made sense for several reasons. First, Steve markets heavily in the local area, including attending many networking events. Having a wrap could increase awareness and build his brand with that audience. Second, the vehicle wrap vendor was the source of several profitable leads to Steve, helping justify the purchase.

For the design of the wrap, the vendor talked to Steve, found a design that Steve liked, and proceeded to put in several hours finalizing the design of the wrap. As happens too often, the design was created based on the best guess of the designer and the preferences of the business owner. No real thought was given to the best messaging for the target market, and no input was solicited from them.

Steve ran the design by me to see what I thought of it.

My first question was, who is the target audience? Does it include a relatively conservative baby boomer like me, or are you targeting a 20-28 year old Gen Y audience with a penchant for high risk?

When it became clear that I wasn’t the target audience, I suggested that Steve show the design to some of his best customers in his target to get input. Not only would he get valuable insight into the effectiveness of the design, it is safe to assume that Steve’s customers would appreciate being asked for their opinion, further build up their relationship with Steve.

Steve was initially concerned that if he showed it to others, he might have to change it, racking up a few additional hours of design time. Yet by neglecting the input of the target audience, Steve was risking wasting his whole investment, or worse. It is possible that the image of the wrap would go counter to the desired brand he wanted to convey, alienating customers and prospects instead of attracting them.

So will Steve now invest in a few more hours of design time to insure that the wrap resonates with his target? Or will he scrimp and risk having his vehicle wrap be an expensive paint job and a tax write-off?

Stay tuned.

Three New Free Tools to Help You Market

One of the keys to market like a millionaire is knowing the best tools to use, for free. Here are three quality web-based tools that marketing pros can leverage for different aspects of their marketing.

FlyPaper, a Phoenix-based startup, has proven itself to be a reliable and easy to use program for creating flash web content in a short time. A wide variety of templates allow anyone who can fumble through a PowerPoint presentation to produce a professional piece for use a social network site or website. Just today they announced their Pro version that allows tracking of viewer stats. But try the free version first! See the quick tour here.

Jott gives you the services of a personal assistant for taking your notes and organizing them, then sending them to your online mailbox or someone else’s as you command. Saves trying to write notes when driving. Saves trying to text when your fingers can’t seem to hit the right key! It’s not exactly a marketing tool at the moment, but who couldn’t use a tool to manager their time better?

TubeMogul helps you syndicate your video content to multiple markets. Through it you have a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. This is a must for anyone using video content to market.

Who Needs a Salesperson?

Two schools of thought:
1. Business doesn’t happen without a salesperson to make the transaction happen.
2. Give the right people the right information and they will buy what they need.

It’s funny how the value of sales skill is underrated by the person who isn’t doing the selling. Yet show me an organization with no sales skills and I’ll show you a company focused on surviving, not thriving. Sales philosophy must infiltrate an organization from securing funding, arranging strategic partnerships, and closing profitable customers to bringing on the right talent and keeping them on your team.

The strength of a sales person is ability to take the tools at hand and make the deal work now, for the best results for all parties. The sensible marketing person will have positioned and messaged and strategized, the finance person will have analyzed and forecasted, the technology person will have Visio’d out the networks. But it takes a sales person – perhaps in the form of a VP of Sales or as a CEO, President or Department Manager with a name other than ‘Sales – to make business come together.

Don’t neglect your sales skills. Until you are maxing your quotas with ease, don’t assume that you can’t improve. And hug a sales person today!

International Sales Pros Association

World Webinar Network – On Target for Business

The hottest show in Phoenix at the moment is the World Webinar Network. This diverse group of pros puts on a smoking event that gives legs to social media.

Social media events will be the rage in the next year, if they aren’t already. What makes a good event is the not social media hype but social media application. The World Webinar Network team brings a unique and powerful mix of social media web experts and traditional business professionals with concerns like time, expense and results. Results with social media technology still depend on business basics like having a coherent message and knowing your target market. The mix offered here bodes well for the growth of this group as their event offers value to the neophyte as well as the seasoned social media junkies.

Check out the slides at here: World Webinar Network Slides

It is better to give… if you have accountability

If you’ve done direct sales successfully, you know the value of strategic gift giving. A small gift, properly presented, shows concern and attention that is often rare in the world of email communication. While a personal note is invaluable in building or strengthening a relationship, a personal gift can go even further. However, as with any sensible marketing initiative, gift giving should have some metrics associated with it. While the ROI of a relationship may be difficult to establish, there are ways to measure the effectiveness of a gift and incentive program.

One company that has a grasp on gift and incentive metrics is Corporate Touch, a company with national scope based in Phoenix. This company offers a unique product line that facilitates gift giving and provides metrics on the success of the program.

One current Corporate Touch customer puts it this way, “I was spending $50 per gift as a thank you to our successful sales people. Typically I’d buy gift cards to restaurants, movie theaters or coffee shops. But I had no way of knowing if the gift cards I mailed had been received, appreciated or redeemed. We knew we needed to have a gift program but we were operating in the dark as far as understanding it’s effectiveness.”

Enter Susanne Garland, owner of Corporate Touch. Susanne introduced a gift and incentive solution that allowed Lisa to cut costs, get metrics on the effectiveness of her program, and then improve those metrics in several ways.

Here’s how the Corporate Touch program works. First the giver determines the value of the gift to be given, let’s say $50. The giver then selects a gift album from the Corporate Touch selection that is appropriate for the recipient. In the $50 range, there are several selections including gourmet foods, teens, general variety and bridal/wedding albums. For this example the variety album is the best solution, and the giver purchases 30 albums to cover expected giving for the month. Each album is accompanied by a gift card that has a unique identification number that allows tracking of the gift.

Next the giver gives that album with card to the recipient. Because the albums are thin, they can be mailed for a reasonable price, or hand delivered. The recipient opens the gift to see the album of 40 or more preselected gifts that are available. Using the enclosed gift card, the recipient goes to website to select the gift, enter his shipping address and the unique identification number. The gift is shipped, postage paid to the recipient, with a 6 month no-questions asked exchange policy. So the recipient gets a gift that he selected.

Now back to the giver. After the gifts are awarded, the giver can review the status of redemption through an online portal. This allows the giver to track the redemption rate of the gifts. If a particular recipient hasn’t redeemed the gift on a timely basis, the giver can send a reminder via email to ensure the gift has been received. If the gift is lost, the giver can send the recipient the unique number and the website for redemption, allowing the recipient another opportunity to order his gift.

If the gift hasn’t been redeemed and the recipient can’t be reached, the giver can reassign the unique number to another recipient, thereby effectively using her budget.

The Corporate Touch system allows accountability in your gift giving, similar to the way that a good email program, such as Constant Contact, allows insight into open rates for your email.