Why the telephone is your best marketing tool. All of us running small businesses know we have great products and services but the key is how to get your message out there so that it attracts the attention of potential new customers.
You have so many options. But which one or ones do you choose? What mix will you have? The marketing mix is an acknowledged ‘thing.’ It’s about what is the right blend for you, your business and your market place.
Social media
We are surrounded by social media all the time. Your phone will probably be the way that most of your marketing messages hit your eyeballs. And theoretically much of it is free. So it’s tempting to join in, to jump on the bandwagon, to do it because everyone else is doing it. Just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t necessarily mean it will give you most impact for your marketing budget. The irony is of course that organisations now employ people to oversee their digital marketing and social media.
Using the telephone – where does that fit in?
The telephone still has a place in the marketing mix for many B2B organisations. It may not be fashionable at the moment but how about calling potential customers to engage them in conversation? Talk to them about their business and understand what is important to them when choosing a supplier in your sector.
Then there are campaigns to re-engage with lapsed customers. I’d suggest that any ex-customer who hasn’t bought from you in the last 12 months is worth a call. If the campaign is to lapsed customers, you have little or nothing to lose.
Outbound calling is getting harder. Since CoVid in particular, I’ve noticed that more people are hybrid working so they’re not always in the office. Alternatively, the first point of contact answers the phone at home and can’t transfer you. Many company systems seem to be less integrated since 2020.
However over the course of a day you will get through to some decision-makers who may want to buy your products. What other form of marketing guarantees you some one-to-one conversations with prospects and customers. Apart from (hopefully) generating new prospects, you increase brand awareness and you gather some marketplace feedback. Imagine how useful it would over the course of one month to chat to 100 prospects. What other form of marketing will generate this level of engagement?
The cost of the calls too is negligible. The most significant cost is of course labour. If you’re paying someone else to do it, the remuneration at least must be sufficient to keep them interested. You want the person or people to feel motivated while promoting your products and services. If it’s you making the calls, then you also want to feel reasonably rewarded for the effort you’re putting in.
How to set it up
Like anything you want to spend a bit of time thinking it through. Setting it up properly and planning will bring lots of dividends. My book Using the phone to sell – how to sell more to more people more often covers much of this. It’s only £12.99 and might just save you a lot of time and heartache.
I talk about how important some things are, such as ensuring that the quality of your call list is right. How that is even more important than the sales skills of your team members.
If you want to talk about setting up or improving the effectiveness of your telephone lead generation or telesales team, let’s talk. Simply drop us some details on our contact page.
Happy hunting!