I was asked at a seminar recently “What is the difference between Telesales and Telemarketing” and the answer I gave seemed so long-winded that even I got bored! But seriously, I thought it might be a good idea to write a blog about it so that the next time someone asks me I can direct them to our website for the answer! Simple eh?

Not as simple as I would like but the truth is, although both involve using the telephone as a tool, they are quite different services.

The general description of each is as follows:

Telemarketing: A service that creates interest, generates opportunities, offers information, makes appointments, avails customer feedback and produces leads over the telephone.

Telesales: A service that directly sells a service/products to a prospective customer over the telephone.

In a nutshell, you would need telemarketing if your business is good at speaking to customers about your products/services, but lacks contact with customers. You could use telemarketing services to establish a need with contacts who are looking for what you offer and from that get strong appointment settings. This kind of service would probably be an ongoing one with set campaigns that ultimately increase your database and forge stronger links with your customers.

Telemarketing can help you:

• Find new customers
• Generate interest in your product, service or brand
• Identify prospective leads for your telesales team to close
• Eliminate the need for cold calling by your sales team
• Minimize training costs
• Professionally present your features, benefits and unique selling points.
• Contact current customers : better customer satisfaction
• Customer care calls which establish opportunities that can be converted into leads

You would need telesales if you are great at attracting prospective customers, but find it hard to convert that potential into hard sales. This service is perfect if you are already in possession of a good sized database of customers and just need to promote a particular sales drive or create a new sales campaign.

Telesales can help you:

• Persistently and persuasively convert leads into sales
• Increase your conversion rate while decreasing your costs per sale
• Convert difficult leads into sales
• Conducting resourceful campaigns and tailoring it according to your budget
• Leave prospective and current customers with a professional impression of your business

You can, of course, combine telemarketing and telesales.  One will generate a pool of potential leads, while the other will turn those leads into sales. While the telemarketers set up the appointments, the telesales team will close the deal. 

I hope that clarifies the differences and if you need any further clarification then please do not hesitate to contact us on 01424 576658

 

Putting bums on seats - how hard can that be?

Hosting an event can be scary. What if nobody comes? Or worse… what if only four or five people come? Empty rooms are horrid. Nearly empty rooms are worse because that just amplifies how useless your marketing has been, and now there are ‘some’ people who know that…at least with an empty room there’s nobody to see your failure.

Putting on an event that fails can affect many things like your self confidence, your reputation within your business community and even your pocket; not only will you have paid for the room hire and amenities but you will have put many hours into preparation and planning, hours that you can never get back.

So just how do you get those magical numbers to attend your event?

You do it by calling all of your invitees and telling them how wonderful the event is going to be, about the benefits they will get from attending and how great the networking is going to be for them.

And if you’re not confident about picking up the telephone and actually speaking to these people, look at these five tips below:

1.   Make sure the people you call have already opted in to your mailing list so you are covered with the legalities for calling them.

2.   Smile before you dial, always have a positive mental attitude

3.   Know your facts, plan your call – prepare a script and practise it

4.   Make sure you are speaking to the decision maker and not the monkey.  

5.   Remember to explain to the invitee exactly why they will benefit being at your event.

(We strongly recommend that you verify your data through TPS – Telephone Preference Service)