With the economy still struggling to recover and slow to mend, it’s more important than ever to use sales leads to get aggressive when marketing your business. Using leads to direct mail or telemarketing should be a major component to any businesses overall marketing strategy. Naturally, you’ll want to network in your community, use social media, create and engage in content marketing, and more. But, telemarketing and direct mail is not dead and can still be one of the most effective and economical tactics employed, if done correctly.
Cold calling on a list of consumer leads, for example, continues to be an effective strategy. There are some steps to take, however, to ensure that you’re making the most of your efforts.
First you must identify your target marketing by establishing your demographic and geographic criteria and create your database of targeted prospects and sales leads. This is not only the first step, but one of the most critical, as it lays the foundation for your ongoing success.
Second, you’ll want to fully vet out your sales pitch and what you want to discuss with your prospect. You have less than fifteen seconds to catch their attention and get this interest. Figure out how you’re going to most effectively do this by establishing your offer and presenting the benefits of your product or service.
Next, be prepared for objections. Brainstorm with your employees to throw out all possible objections, concerns, stalls, etc., you might hear from a prospective customer. Once you have a handle on all this and you put it into play on actual calls, you’ll want to set up a meeting, if physically possible. In many cases, a face-to-face meeting is the best possible way to tell your story and sell your product or service.
Lastly, always remember that your pipeline of sales leads and opportunities should always be full. This ensures continued success for any organization or company. Cold calling whether it be business-to-business or business-to-consumer, even with all of today’s technology, continues to be one of the most successful means by which to create a pipeline of opportunities and gain greater marketing share. This, in turn, leads to more revenue for your business.
Remember, when calling consumers, you must scrub your list against the Do Not Call database.