Telemarketing training
Hiring good telemarketers and in-house training

Telemarketing — hiring & training your telemarketers

The hiring and training of telemarketers are crucial elements in establishing a successful and productive B2B telemarketing activity.

In the final analysis, you can have the best approach and most ingenious telemarketing script, and yet fail if you don't manage to acquire the right person or persons as telemarketers.

And it doesn't end with hiring the right people.

You can recruit the best people with a natural knack for telemarketing and yet having to witness your telemarketers leaving employment, putting you back to square one again with your B2B telemarketing project.

Contrary to the common belief, telemarketers will NOT thrive without some form of continuous in-house training.

With "continuous" I mean an hour or two each week, divided into 2-3 relatively short training sessions.

Without training the inevitable will occur with most telemarketers: They lose their way, become uncertain and confused... their production starts declining both in terms of quality and quantity... and they leave.

Yet it's quite simple to set up an in-house telemarketing training facility. It can be done without great cost or effort, yet its results will be quite remarkable.

But let's first look at hiring telemarketers.

Hiring telemarketers for your B2B telemarketing activity

Thinking logically, one would presume that the most important quality of a good telemarketer is talkativeness. After all, he or she needs to do a lot of talking on the telephone so it would seem that the sign of an ideal telemarketer would be verbal expression.

Yet that's not always the case. Granted, you cannot train anyone into telemarketing if they're tongue tied and extremely shy by nature as such a person is not likely to have any knack for LEADING the conversation to the direction required by the telemarketing script.

But for the same reason, a telemarketer talking obsessively is also not good. He or she would simply never let the prospective client get a word in edgewise... and the whole IDEA of modern telemarketing is to get your PROSPECT TALKING.

Thus, the ideal telemarketer is really somewhere in-between these two extremes.

Of course, it all depends on how you've set up your telemarketing activity in the first place.

If you have a skilfully planned telemarketing script which concentrates on making the prospect talk and focusses his attention on the researched go-buttons of your target group so HE forms the positive thoughts about your services (instead of the telemarketer trying to convince him of those claims)... then you need telemarketers who can FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND SHUT UP WHEN NEEDED.

It's actually quite amazing to see this kind of telemarketing in action. Equally astonishing is how telemarketers have little or no actual insight into their own abilities at telemarketing.

The obsessively chattering never-lets-anyone-talk guy really fancies himself as an exceptionally competent telemarketer when in reality he is anything BUT.

And the unassuming personality who easily follows instructions and talks only when needed to get the prospect talking (or to steer him into the right direction) often has NO concept of his or her own true value as a potentially superb telemarketer.

So when interviewing telemarketer applicants YOU need to know what you're looking for and not let the applicants' opinions of their own abilities confuse you. The best telemarketers usually have NO CLUE about their true abilities and worth.

Perhaps the most important tip of all in employing a telemarketer involves understanding the one ability every talkative person has... which is "selling themselves."

It's worthwhile to realise that selling oneself is NOT the same thing as selling someone else's products and/or services. Granted, those who can sell ANYTHING will also be able to create a good impression of themselves in a job interview... but amazingly these are quite few.

I've hired so many telemarketers that I can't even remember... and I've been bitten badly by these talkative people who are so good at selling themselves BUT who then cannot turn off that obsessive talking and self-promotion.

This kind of a guy will give you headaches. He simply cannot stick to the script but ad libs continually, exercising his creativity in changing the script constantly... and generally making a mess out of your attempts to standardise and stabilise the telemarketing function.

They talk incessantly, thus keeping their prospects quiet by hocking all the "air time." They bring you all kind of exotic ideas and anything BUT what you want. And they simply cannot understand what's wrong with what they do...

Personally I much rather employ someone who is a good LISTENER. Good listeners aren't often thought as good talkers but the fact is you cannot BE a good listener unless you're also a fairly good talker.

Only a truly good talker has the ABILITY TO GET OTHERS TALKING rather than unendingly filling a void with their own (often incoherent) babbling.

Don't confuse a sales person with a telemarketer.

These are quite different tasks, each requiring quite distinctive skills / abilities / characteristics which can be surprisingly DISSIMILAR.

You'd THINK that a salesperson and a telemarketer are more or less the same... but not so.

You must NOT sell during telemarketing — prospecting or presentation — because you will LOSE the prospect. It's just too early on that chain. That's why sales is called sales and that's why it occurs AFTER prospecting and presentation.

Hiring a gabbing salesman for your telemarketing is an invitation to disaster. There'll be a lot of unnecessary work and hassle with "great (imaginary) future prospects" and very little results — apart from the run-around this guy is giving to everyone concerned.

Another point involves the looks of the telemarketer.

Blatantly obvious as it may be, it's important to remember that telemarketers aren't SEEN by those whom they call.

It's vital to remember this when interviewing applicants since sight is a dominant sense in human interaction and one can easily allow the good looks of a person influence one's judgment of their potentiality in telemarketing.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't employ good-looking people as telemarketers, of course. But I am saying that those with looks are sometimes relying on the positive effect their appearance creates on others... and obviously that won't help in telemarketing.

Another issue to evaluate is whether someone with good looks has the ability to give all their attention to someone else... or whether those good looks have accustomed them to being the centre of everyone else's attention.

In fact, a good telephone voice is what's important in a telemarketer as that's the only thing the recipient of his/her calls "sees." That's what forms the IMAGE of the person to the target person, not the actual physical appearance of the telemarketer.

Of course, with all that said it still remains that we're all drawn quite instinctively to the flamboyant, extroverted person with strikingly good looks.

Yet these are not necessarily the best abilities for a good telemarketer.

The ideal characteristics of a superb telemarketing professional are the ability to give all their attention to someone else, the capability to get the other guy TALKING... and, above all, the facility to LISTEN.

And these top qualifications of a good telemarketer are often the biggest weaknesses in an outgoing personality...

It is the ability to listen that's the king-making characteristic of an ideal telemarketer.

Refining your telemarketer's ability to listen — telemarketing training

A good telemarketer is a good listener but also someone who can make others CONFIDE in him or her to a degree from the onset.

That's because the telemarketer must get his/her prospect TALKING. And that's not possible unless the telemarketer's manner evokes some TRUST in the other person.

This is a vitally important make-or-break point of telemarketing.

Now, this has two ramifications.

One involves the approach of your telemarketing — the angle and viewpoint from which you approach the subject, the planning (and research) that has gone into devising a superb telemarketing script and so on.

The other concerns the TRAINING of your telemarketers.

In this world we always assume there are "ready-made" people out there for us to employ. We expect to find capable persons who would take to the job immediately and have what it takes to make it go right.

Alas, unfortunately that's not how it is in the real life.

Realistically, you would have to TRAIN every telemarketer into doing your specific telemarketing actions the way your system requires.

But IF you have a carefully planned system for your telemarketing, along with research-based approach and script, the training is relatively easy.

Essentially, the training would concentrate on PRACTISING certain actions over again.

The important things to practise in telemarketing — in obtaining prospective clients from the B2B market and presenting your services and/or products — are...

-skills of persuasion so the telemarketer can coax undecided
prospects into participating in the telemarketing interview

-ability to get someone to answer questions asked and do so
in a positive manner

-competence in creating interest for the next action (be it another
interview or a sales meeting) with those whom the telemarketer
has taken through the telemarketing script

-talent for calm but smooth speech and awareness of the other
person's views and communication

-reaching certainty on how to deliver any lines or questions which
that telemarketer considers difficult, embarrassing or untoward
for whatever reason...

...and things like that.

Certain aspects of telemarketing training are quite standard. Others would depend wholly on your particular industry as well as your company policies and/or your own preferences on how you want your business to be presented in telemarketing.

One thing is for certain:

Such training will constantly improve the results of your telemarketing activity while also maximising the retention of good telemarketers.

While this may all sound complex and difficult, it actually isn't. Telemarketer training is quite simple, inexpensive and expedient.

One can create a training manual that has the specific practises in it as they pertain to your telemarketing activity and the service and/or products which the telemarketers promote in their work.

After that it's quite straightforward, really.

A telemarketer training programme is the only way I know of that ensures continual quality improvement for your telemarketing activity (and its results) and influences the retainment of telemarketers very positively.

How does it all bind together for your B2B telemarketing activity?

So, how does one create the perfect B2B telemarketing system with the best approach, telemarketing script, telemarketers' training system and all that go with it?

Well, there are many ways to reach this goal. We offer a range of products and services to help you either establish or improve your own telemarketing activity.

The easiest way is our turnkey service that creates all you need to launch your own B2B telemarketing activity or radically improve the results of an existing one. HDK Custom-Made Telemarketing Systems are built for your company individually with many options to choose from to tailor it exactly to you needs and budget.

An inexpensive starter for those who have no telemarketing activity currently but think of starting on is our Professional B2B-sector Telemarketing Guide.

If you have a telemarketing activity but are undecided what should be done about it or how to improve its results, why not consider the Telemarketing Result-Optimization Analysis which will give you a lot more data and certainty to work with?

Yet another service available is a one-day theme seminar called the Principles of Successful Telemarketing which is just one of our theme seminars that can give crucial information on this important subject.

Whatever you want to do, suffice to say that an investment in the hiring and training of telemarketers will always produce ample dividends, so it's well worth considering.

Best wishes,

Harry Kafka
HDK Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex, United Kingdom
Tel. 01342-328 116
From U.S: 011-44-1342-328-116
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